AROUND 25,000 PEOPLE FLOCK TO SURABAYA ZOO

Surabaya, Oct 2 (ANTARA) - Around 25,000 people from every corner of East Java flocked to the Zoo in Surabaya (KBS) on the second Islamic Idul Fitri holiday on Thursday.

"At least 8,000 people thronged the zoo on the first day of Idul Fitri on Wednesday, and according to our experience in past years the number of visitors will be even bigger on the second day. Therefore, we predict that more than 25,000 people will come to the zoo on the second day, today," KBS management spokesman Agus Supangkat said on Thursday.

He said the number of visitors since the first day of Idul Fitri until ten days after the holiday was predicted to reach 164,000 people or rise by about 10 percent from the figure last year.

"Our prediction of the rise in number is based on fact that the number of visitors this year is much bigger than that in the past years," he said, adding that on Sundays 10,000 people in average came to the zoo.

According to Agus Supangkat, the Zoo in Surabaya is the biggest in Indonesia and in Asia with no less that 3.500 animals from 400 species of mammals, birds and reptiles.

The zoo was formally opened on August 31, 1916 when a group of animal lovers came together and decided to open a zoological garden on an area of approximately 16 ha downtown.

Later it was moved to the present site uptown. The Surabaya Zoo's collection of animals includes species from Indonesia as well as from many parts of the world such as Africa, Europe, and South America.

Agus said the zoo also had an aquarium and a hall with stuffed animals.

Annually the number of visitors to the Zoo reaches approximately 2.5 million.

Among the foreign visitors were tourists from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, The Netherlands and Germany.