Protect Curiak Island As Bekantan Habitat

Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan (AntaranewsKalsel) - Environmentalist organization Sahabat Bekantan Indonesia (SBI) expects real action to protect the Curiak Island, as proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) habitat in Barito Kuala.


SBI Chairman Amalia Rezeki in Banjarmasin on Tuesday said Curiak is an island formed from Barito River delta, and is administratively a nameless island.

Curiak name was chosen because prenjak bird (Prinia familiaris) of the Cisticolidae family found here, the local communities called it Curiak.

Biodiversity Indonesia team of Lambung Mangkurat University Banjarmasin at the end of 2014 was a group of researchers that embed the name.

The island was first seen in 1980 began to be sandbank with mangroves as a pioneer.

The real form of an island began to be seen in the 1990s, and in 1994 the island has become a natural habitat of proboscis monkeys (bekantan) which at that time only three.

SBI observations in 2015 showed the number of bekantan occupied Curiak Island increased to eight, so as to 11 who were members of the Alfa group.

In 2016, Zainudin and Rezeki said in the island there are 14 proboscis monkeys were divided into nine individual in the group Alfa and five individuals in the group Alfa Sub-1.

However, despite the growing number of individuals in recent years, the population of proboscis monkeys on the Curiak Island is still part of the criteria of population decline.

This is indicated by the number of adult individuals is greater than the number of young individuals. Habitat limitations both in terms of the extent of its resources to alleged major effect on the population of proboscis here.

"At least in a day proboscis can cover ranges as far as 1.5 to 2 km and take advantage of the habitat area of 50-270 hectares. Compare with extensive Curiak of only 2.72 hectares, proboscis monkeys pressed on a very narrow habitat plus the threat of economic development and development in the region of the Barito River," said Amalia Rezeki, researcher Curiak Island.

Curiak Island is the only habitat that can be used by proboscis at that location. Habitats around mostly have been turned into agricultural land, plantation and industrial.

Extra habitat is possible with the planting of pioneer plants and naturally. But again Curiak which is in traffic lanes of Barito waters not infrequently used as a mooring barges and timber, which causes pioneer plants die due to run over.

"Conservation and protection of the area would really need to do given the population of proboscis in Curiak not included into the bekantan distribution map according to Meijaard & Nijman (2000), where at that time there were 153 points in Kalimantan which are natural habitat for proboscis monkeys," she said.

She said it shows that the population of proboscis in Curiak very likely to increase the number of population of proboscis monkeys in Kalimantan, Indonesia and even the world," she explained.