Orangutans eating rubbish in Surbaya Zoo

Despite revelations by Fairfax Media earlier in the year, the animals of Surbaya Zoo still suffer.

A young orang-utan died prematurely on Saturday after a short life spent in the squalid environment of Indonesia's Surabaya zoo. Her death will put more pressure on the City of Surabaya, which now manages the notorious zoo, to upgrade facilities which international NGOs have identified as archaic and cruel.

But zoo workers and expert Tony Sumampauw say that, instead of accelerating improvements to animal welfare at the zoo, the city government-appointed managers have halted them and concentrated instead on painting cages and tending the gardens.

An autopsy report shows orang-utan Nanik died last Saturday afternoon with liver problems, intestinal tumours, hepatitis and pneumonia at just 10 years old, a fraction of the 50-year lifespan expected of an animal in captivity in a decent zoo.

Sumatran tiger Melani is now being cared for in a Bogor safari park.

Sumatran tiger Melani is now being cared for in a Bogor safari park. Photo: Michael Bachelard

She had grown sick after years of being kept in dark and humid colonial-era enclosures where the zoo's orang-utans are still forced to spend the night.

There are no current plans to upgrade those enclosures.

Nanik died just a week after the city's mayor, Tri Rismaharini, known as Risma, told Fairfax Media there would be no more deaths under her management.

Nanik before she died.

Nanik before she died. Photo: Michael Bachelard

The historic zoo in Indonesia's second largest city has become a byword for the poor treatment of captive animals in Indonesia. After a Fairfax Media story in May highlighted the sad plight of Sumatran tiger Melani, a petition signed by more than 100,000 people globally called for the ''cruelty of Surabaya zoo'' to stop.

But political infighting over the zoo's management continued and in July the city government of Surabaya seized control, ousting temporary managers who had included Mr Sumampauw, the highly regarded head of the Indonesian Zoological Parks Association, as a consultant.

Since then, a push to reduce overcrowding and update cages has stalled. Offers of help from international NGOs have also been stonewalled by the new management team.

Sumatran elephant in small enclosure at Surabaya Zoo.

A confined Sumatran elephant at Surabaya Zoo. Photo: Michael Bachelard

Ms Risma says animal welfare is a high priority and the city had commissioned a university-run audit of the zoo, which has not yet reported.

But Sybelle Foxcroft, from Australian NGO Cee4life, has visited the zoo and tried to get an audience with the mayor, adding that, if Surabaya allowed international experts in, ''help would be pouring in from all over the world''. Those offers have so far been rejected.

In an interview with Fairfax Media, Ms Risma defended the city's takeover of the zoo, saying ''the temporary management was worse'' and that, ''people can see for themselves that the zoo is getting better''. ''The test is that the dead and lost animals only happened under the temporary management. I can guarantee there will be no dead or lost animals under this management,'' she said.

Her assurances did not save Nanik. Just 10 days before her death, Fairfax Media had filmed the orang-utan chewing on some of the garbage that still litters the zoo's grounds. An autopsy report shows the animal's liver was yellow with white spots, her kidney also had yellow spots and she had gastric tumours which blocked her intestinal tract.

Mr Sumampauw said the orang-utan enclosure where the animals were kept at night was damp and had been dark until his temporary management had installed skylights. At one stage in the past, a keeper with tuberculosis had also slept in the enclosure.

A staff member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the animals were still put there and Ms Risma did not want to fix the Dutch-era enclosure ''because it's of cultural heritage value''.

''We'd like to maintain the old cages and we are evaluating which animals are suitable to put in them,'' Ms Risma said.

On a recent visit it was clear to Fairfax Media that, under the new management, a number of enclosures had been freshly painted, the amount of rubbish greatly reduced and the gardens were well tended.

A giraffe, Moritz, which was donated under the temporary management from Berlin Zoo, is living apparently happily in an enclosure built especially for him.

The zoo achieved international notoriety in 2012 when its previous giraffe died with a 30-kilogram ball of plastic bags in its stomach.

But a number of projects to renovate enclosures, including those containing the Barbary sheep and the elephants, have stalled.

Ms Risma has also vetoed the temporary management's policy of trading overcrowded animals out of the zoo. ''It is not overcrowded,'' Ms Risma said, adding that there was vacant space around the zoo which could be used to expand.

She has also denied the zoo needs the 100 billion rupiah ($A10 million) funding injection recommended by Mr Sumampauw, saying the funds in the city budget are adequate.

Melani, an emaciated Sumatran tiger whose digestive system was wrecked by a life eating formalin-contaminated meat at the zoo, is now being cared for at Mr Sumampauw's state-of-the-art Taman Safari park in Bogor.