Surrogate ‘Parent’ of the Maleo

KOMPAS/IWAN SETIYAWAN

Mobius Tanari

Mobius Tanari’s encounter with the maleo bird 18 years ago led him to on the path to his life’s main mission. Mobius, 52, is determined to rescue the endemic Sulawesian species from under the shadow of extinction.

The morning rain continued to fall into the afternoon of Wednesday (26/6/2019), when Kompas spoke with Mobius at the Maleo Center in Banggai regency, Central Sulawesi. The maleo conservation facility, which belongs to PT Donggi-Senoro LNG (DSLNG), is located on the outskirts of Uso village, Batui district, about an hour’s drive southwest from Luwuk, the capital of Banggai regency.

Mobius is an expert who has been engaged at the request of PT DSLNG to manage the 2,000-square-meter ex situ (outside the natural habitat) conservation facility. Mobius\'s has been an active member of the facility since it was established in 2013.

In 2001, the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries lecturer at Tadulako University in Palu studied the maleo (Macrocephalon maleo) for his doctoral research at the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB). The maleo was the subject of his 2007 dissertation, "Maleo Habitat, Morphology and Genetics, and the Development of Ex Situ Hatchery Technology".

The maleo is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of endangered animals, just two levels under total extinction. If this bird species goes extinct, it is not just Indonesia that loses, but also the entire world, because these amazing animals are only found in Sulawesi.

The maleo lays its eggs in sandy coastal areas or in forests that have sources of geothermal energy.

Birdlife International’s 2016 survey estimates that only around 8,000-14,000 maleo are left in the wild. The maleo’s lives throughout Sulawesi, except South Sulawesi.

A key point of Mobius’s dissertation is the concept of ex situ maleo conservation that utilizes information technology for egg hatching. Mobius discovered through his two-year research that the maleo has a very small success rate of 20-37 percent in egg hatching in its natural habitat because of high threats. "Nature’s pressure on the maleo is very high," he said.

The maleo lays its eggs in sandy coastal areas or in forests that have sources of geothermal energy. The female maleo digs a hole to a depth of about 70 centimeters, lays her eggs and then buries them. The incubation of the eggs until they hatch is left entirely to nature. Maleo hatchlings are independent from the time they emerge from their eggs.

This nesting habit poses a great risk. One threat to the eggs is hunting, both by humans and natural predators, especially lizards. There is also the added threat of uncertain weather conditions.

Maleo eggs require a specific temperature and humidity for them to hatch. If the weather is too hot, the eggs will not hatch. The reverse is also true during the rainy season, when soil temperatures drop lower than the minimum required for hatching. "This condition means that the process of maleo regeneration is slow," said Mobius.

There are still many unsolved mysteries of the maleo. There is still much that needs studying.

His research also found that the ideal egg hatching condition was 32-36 degrees Celsius and 70 percent relative humidity. This condition could be achieved with an incubator.

Mobius’s initiative of using an incubator in ex situ conservation was adopted by PT DSLNG’s Maleo Center. Mobius believed that ex situ conservation was the most appropriate conservation model for the maleo. He said that using an incubator increased the hatching success rate to 90 percent. The eggs were confiscated from poachers.

The maleo hatchlings are then released into the Bakiriang Wildlife Sanctuary, one of the maleo’s natural habitats in Banggai. To date, the Maleo Center has released 85 maleo hatchlings at an average age of one month.

The Maleo Center is currently managing 16 maleos that hatched in an incubator – 5 females and 11 males – for breeding purposes. Hatching the eggs by using an incubator has another advantage, in that it only takes 60 days. Maleo eggs take 70-90 days to hatch in nature.

In addition to managing the incubation process, Mobius continues to study the intricacies of the maleo, such as their morphometry and development, morphological identification of the sex of the maleo, determining the age at which ex situ maleo reach puberty, as well as hormonal development and behavior.

He said if the maleo population could increase significantly for its endangered and protected status to be removed, it was likely that the maleo could be domesticated like other bird species. "There are still many unsolved mysteries of the maleo. There is still much that needs studying," he said.

KOMPAS/IWAN SETIYAWAN

Mobius Tanari

Mobius Tanari

Born: Rantai Damai, Luwu, 19 Feb. 1967

Education:

Doctorate in Animal Husbandry, Bogor Agricultural University (2007); Master in Animal Husbandry, Gadjah Mada University (2000); Bachelor in Animal Husbandry, University of Tadulako (1985)

Wife: Titin Budi Wahyuti (dec.)

Children: 3