Despite intensive efforts in conducting surveys of the animals, there have been no sightings of Sumatran rhinos in the Malaysian wilderness since 2007, with the exception of two female rhinoceroses that were captured for the objective of breeding in 2011 and 2014.
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The sad conclusion is documented in the conservation journal Oryx by a team of scientists led by the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate.
“It is vital for the survival for the survival of the species that all remaining Sumatran rhinos are viewed as a metapopulation, that all are managed in a single program across the national and global borders in order to maximize overall birth rate”. Visit the page of the worldwide Rhino Foundation by clicking the red button.
“We are facing the prospect of our Sumatran rhinos going extinct in our lifetime”, said Malaysia’s Environment Minister, Masidi Manjun, as quoted by Mongabay. This trend echoes how the Sumatran rhino population dropped from around 500 to extinction between 1980 and 2005 in Sumatra’s largest protected area, the enormous 1,379,100 hectare Kerinci Sebelat National Park. Individual rhinoceroses can be relocated to these zones in order to allow the animals to find suitable partners for mating.
No more than 100 of the creatures are thought to remain in the forests of Indonesia, with nine more in captivity across Indonesia, Malaysia and the U.S.
“Serious efforts by the government of Indonesia should be put to strengthen rhino protection by creating Intensive Protection Zone (IPZ), intensive survey of the current known habitats, habitat management, captive breeding and mobilizing national resources and support from related local governments and other stockholders”. But the initiative has struggled to get off the ground, and the Bornean rhinos remain separate from their Sumatran counterparts.
Rhinos are highly threatened by poachers, who seek out their horns to meet the demand of the Asian black market. “A similar high level intervention by President Joko Widodo of Indonesia could help pull the Sumatran rhinos back from the brink”.
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Only nine are held in captivity. A captive breeding program there has had some success, though unless swift action is taken to protect the existing wild population from ongoing threats, the species’ looming extinction may be impossible to stave off.
