Sumatran Rhinos extinct from Malaysian jungles

Tyler Owen Contributed byon August 22, 2015 at 6:47 am

The survival of Sumatran Rhinos now depends on the few remaining individuals.







Apart from the wild populations, nine Sumatran rhinos are in captivity, with one in the Cincinnati Zoo in U.S.A (soon to be moved to Indonesia), three held at facilities in Sabah, Malaysia for attempts to produce embryos by in vitro fertilization, and five in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Sumatra, Indonesia.

However, this does not include two females that were captured in 2011 and 2014 for breeding purposes.

While the Sumatran rhino used to roam across most countries in Southeast Asia, the animal has now become limited to the wilderness of Indonesia. Now the Sumatran rhinos are faced with extinction in spite of decades of conservation efforts.

Lead researcher Rasmus Gren Havmøller of Copenhagen’s Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate said that it is important for the species’ survival that all existing Sumatran rhinoceroses are considered a metapopulation. Rasmus Gren Havmoller, the lead author of the study, said in a statement. Around 100 individual rhinos can still be found living in three separate animal populations in the region, one of which has experienced a 70 percent decline in its distribution range over the past 10 years.

The experts point to the creation of intensive management zones as a solution; areas with increased protection against poaching, where individual rhinos can be relocated to, in order to increase the number of potential and suitable mating partners.

Between 1980 and 2005, a sharp decline has come in the population of Sumatran rhino, as at that time their population dropped from around 500 to extinction level.

The rhinos are described by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) as the smallest of all rhinos - and it is the only Asian rhino with two horns.

The focus now turns to ways to protect those remaining creatures.

Sumatran rhino was declared extinct in the wild in Malaysia, as no rhino has been seen in the wild there since 2007. In detail, he suggested the establishment of protection zones, habitat management, extensive study on now known habitats, captive breeding, and mobilization of the local government units including residents of the concerned area

Wild Sumatran rhino extinct in Malaysia