John Faherty

jfaherty@enquirer.com

Even in death, Ipuh the Sumatran rhinoceros inspires people. He also fills them with an overwhelming, almost terrifying, sense of responsibility.

Ipuh spent 22 years at the Cincinnati Zoo, where he became the single greatest Sumatran rhino sire ever in captivity. This made him particularly important because the Sumatran rhino may be the most endangered species on the planet.

Ipuh (pronounced Ee-pu) came to the zoo in 1991 and died in February of 2013. Friday, he will be unveiled again, stuffed and mounted, at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

In death he is striking, his head turned slightly to the right. He is in mid-stride and looks utterly real, if perhaps a bit younger than his 33 years. Ipuh will not, however, be just another exhibit to wonder at for visitors. His DNA is already being sequenced, which will provide significant information about the species.

It would be impossible to overstate Ipuh's significance for the species. His first calf, Andalas, in 2001 was the first Sumatran rhino born in captivity since the 19th century. That alone made him a star in the industry where a good stud is nearly impossible to find. He and the female rhino Emi then had Suci in 2004 and Harapan in 2007, all at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. While alive, Ipuh also taught the entire industry much about rhinoceros reproduction and care in captivity.

Any of these reasons would make Ipuh matter. Combined, his status is nearly mythical.

Each person involved in the Ipuh projects, from the conservationist to the geneticists to the taxidermists, all spoke of how honored they were to work on Ipuh, how important they feel their work is and how dearly they did not want to make a mistakes.

"We will learn from Ipuh," said Herman Mays, currently a professor of biology at Marshall University but curator of zoology at the Cincinnati Museum Center when Ipuh died. "It might not help with a conservation strategy, but we will learn much about how the rhino got (to Sumatra), where it came from, how it evolved. Why it is who it is."

The fact that nobody is overly confident that the Sumatran rhino will actually survive makes this science and preservation work even more important. "It's a huge responsibility," Mays said.

Everybody feels it. "Working with an animal like Ipuh is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Dave Might, exhibits coordinator at the Museum Center. Might was one of the two men who created the "new" Ipuh. "There were a lot of sleepless nights," he said.

Dave Noem is the other man. His shop, Noem's Wildlife Artistry, is renowned among hunters and exhibitors for the quality of its work. He can work on bushbucks and bonteboks, but he had never worked on a rhino at his shop in Union.

"You don't want to be known as the guy who screwed up the Sumatran rhino," Noem said. "There are only like 100 of these animals. It has to be perfect, it has to look nice."

The process of mounting of a rhino is as complicated and difficult as you might expect. Maybe more so.

After Ipuh died last year, he was autopsied. Then Mays called Noem and Might and asked if they could mount and stuff a rhinoceros. Yes, they said.

The next morning, a dump truck brought Ipuh to Noem's driveway. "We let it slide off real slow," Noem said. And then the work began.

First, Ipuh was skinned and the skin was soaked and tanned so it would be more pliable. He was propped up with a wooden frame and positioned so he would look more natural. Then Noem and Might set to covering him with fiberglass so they could make a mold. But it was so cold in the workshop last October, the hardening catalyst would not kick in. Some heaters were brought in, and eventually the fiberglass set.

Then the fiberglass was cut off and reassembled and held together with two-by-fours and plaster and steel rods and stuffed with expanding foam. All of this was harder than it sounds. Then the rhinoceros skin was stretched back over the form. The ears were perfect, the eyes were purchased, the legs were stretched on and the folds were re-introduced. "The folds were the hardest part," Might said.

Noem first mounted a squirrel when he was 8 years old and said working with an animal this size is fairly similar. "It could have gone south a time or two," Noem said. "It was dicey. But it doesn't matter if it's a squirrel or a rhino, it's the same stuff, just more of it."

And it all worked beautifully. Terri Roth is the Cincinnati Zoo vice president of conservation and science. As director of the Carl H. Lindner Jr. Family Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife, she worked closely with Ipuh for years. As a conservationist, she tries to look at animals more analytically and less emotionally. It is what is best for the species.

Still, when Might removed the plastic from his creation this week and Roth saw him for the first time since his death, she said, simply, "Oh," and took in a quick breath. She studied him with her arms folded and then moved closer, inspecting his face and legs and horns and stomach. Touching his skin and looking at his air. She looked for seams and circled around him and said he looked younger. "You did a really great job," she said to Might.

Asked if she thought the species would survive, Roth said she didn't know. It might be too late, she said. Reproduction efforts are slowing, and everything costs money. And there are just so few.

Minutes later, she was standing in front of the large mastodon skeleton at the Museum Center. She knows the Sumatran rhino could some day soon join that animal on the extinction list. "There could come a time when this is all we have left," Roth said.

"I'm glad he is staying in Cincinnati, because of all the work we did here for the species," she said. "And I'm glad we did this right." ■

See Ipuh

Ipuh will be unveiled at 10 a.m. Friday in the rotunda at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate.

He will be part of the of the zoology collection at Museum Center. With only 100 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild, the species is on the brink of extinction.

See Ipuh

• Ipuh will be unveiled at 10 a.m. Friday in the rotunda at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate.

• He will be part of the of the zoology collection at Museum Center. With only 100 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild, the species is on the brink of extinction.