The decline in rhino populations is not exclusive to South Africa or the other African countries. In 2015, the eastern Sumatran rhino was declared extinct in the Malaysian wild.
The late Puntung. Credit: @BORAborneorhinoalliance
Only two Sumatrans remain in captivity in Malaysia – the last wild male and female. These are the remnants of roughly 50 rhinos that the Borneo Rhinoceros Sanctuary (BRS) have cared for since 2008. Sadly the third-remaining female, featured above, had to be euthanised in June 2017 as she was suffering from an ‘untreatable’ form of cancer.
The dwindling numbers of the Sumatran rhinoceros that are scattered across Indonesia in the wild, are estimated at about 100. This is the smallest of all rhino species and the only two-horned rhino in Asia. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorises the species as ‘critically endangered’.
These rhinos once roamed freely in their natural habitat – dense and tropical rainforest – and used to reach neighbouring Asian countries and islands such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and even as far as India, Bangladesh and China.
The extinction of Sumatrans living in the wild is due mainly to the poaching of them for their horns, and loss of their natural habitat due to deforestation.
It is hoped that the last male and female, Tan and Iman, will be able to continue the existence of the species, however they are struggling to breed. In July, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) was championed as a solution to this. According to the Borneo Rhino Alliance, who is working with the Indonesian government, the latter has not been very forthcoming with regard to rolling out the IVF treatment programme that could protect and enhance the survival of the species in the region.
Carrying out IVF would still not be an easy task, however, as Iman (the last female in Malaysia) has struggled to produce healthy, viable eggs. She’s had further health complications with ruptured tumours causing excessive uterine bleeding.
According to the Borneo Rhino Alliance’s Facebook page, the late female rhino Puntung, pictured above, had a hard life and suffered from poor health due to losing a foot (from a poaching clamp, it’s suspected) and having miscarried in the jungle.
Featured image from @BORAborneorhinoalliance.
