Sumatran rhino is extinct in Malaysia as lone survivor dies

NOVEMBER 24, 2019 

The Sumatran rhinoceros has become extinct in Malaysia, after the last of the species in the country succumbed to cancer. 

The Wildlife Department in eastern Sabah state on Borneo island said the rhino, named Iman, died of natural causes Saturday due to shock in her system. She had uterine tumors since her capture in March 2014. 

Department director Augustine Tuuga said in a statement that Iman, who reportedly was 25 years old, was suffering significant pain from growing pressure of the tumors to her bladder but that her death came sooner than expected. 

It came six months after the death of the country's only male rhino in Sabah. Another female rhino also died in captivity in 2017 in the state. Efforts to breed them have been futile but Sabah authorities have harvested their cells for possible reproduction. 

"Despite us knowing that this would happen sooner rather than later, we are so very saddened by this news," said Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Christina Liew, who is also environment minister. 

Liew said that Iman had escaped death several times over the past few years due to sudden massive blood loss, but that wildlife officials managed to nurse her back to health and obtained her egg cells for a possible collaboration with Indonesia to reproduce the critically endangered species through artificial insemination. 

The Sumatran rhino, the smallest of five rhinoceros species, once roamed across Asia as far as India, but its numbers have shrunk drastically due to deforestation and poaching. The WWF conservation group estimates that there are only about 80 left, mostly living in the wild in Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia. 

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Malaysia's last male Sumatran rhino dies: officials

MAY 27, 2019

Malaysia's last surviving male Sumatran rhino died Monday, wildlife officials said, leaving behind only one female in the country and pushing the critically-endangered species closer to extinction.

Once found as far away as eastern India and throughout Malaysia, the Sumatran rhino has been almost wiped out, with fewer than 80 left, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Only a handful of the creatures remain in the wilds of Indonesia.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the Malaysian male, Tam, had lived in a nature reserve on Borneo island.

The cause of the animal's death was not immediately clear, but previous media reports have suggested it was suffering from kidney and liver problems.

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Glimmer of hope as Malaysia’s last female Sumatran rhino shows signs of recovery

by Basten Gokkon on 27 December 2017

• The worst appears to be over for Iman, Malaysia’s last female Sumatran rhino, after she suffered massive bleeding from a ruptured tumor in her uterus earlier this month.
• Veterinarians and rhino experts are hopeful but cautious about Iman’s recovery prospects, and continue to provide around-the-clock care.
• The rhino is Malaysia’s last hope for saving the nearly extinct species, which is thought to number as few as 30 individuals in the world.

JAKARTA — Malaysia’s last remaining female Sumatran rhino appears to have overcome the worst of a serious health condition, less than two weeks after it was announced that her condition had deteriorated.

Officials from the Sabah Wildlife Department reported on Dec. 17 that Iman had suffered a ruptured tumor in her uterus, causing massive bleeding. Since then, however, an intensive regimen of medical treatment and feeding has raised hopes about her prospects.

“A week ago, I was sure she would die,” John Payne, head of the wildlife conservation group Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), which is involved in the treatment of Iman, said in a text message to Mongabay. “But somehow she did not.”

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Sumatran rhinos never recovered from losses during the Pleistocene, genome evidence shows

Date:  December 14, 2017

Source:  Cell Press

Summary:

An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed the first Sumatran rhino genome from a sample belonging to a male made famous at the Cincinnati Zoo. This study shows that the trouble for Sumatran rhinoceros populations began a long time ago, around the middle of the Pleistocene, about one million years ago.

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One of Malaysia's Last Sumatran Rhinos Dies

By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | June 6, 2017 01:22pm ET


One of the last three Sumatran rhinoceroses in Malaysia has died, the Borneo Rhino Alliance has announced.

The rhino, named Puntung, was about 20 years old. Her keepers at Malaysia's Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah euthanized her on June 4, eight days after discovering that the critically endangered animal had squamous cell cancer. The cancer had spread rapidly, and intensive treatment would have bought Puntung only a few more months of life penned in an indoor enclosure, the Borneo Rhino Alliance reported on its Facebook page.

"Sumatran rhinos wallow in mud for at least six hours daily and become increasingly stressed if kept in clean, closed facilities," the post read. "A stress-free life for Puntung was simply not going to be possible. And so we made the very difficult choice of ending her suffering and giving her peace." 
 

Dwindling rhinos
Sumatran rhinoceroses (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) are the smallest of all rhino species. They're also the most endangered, according to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF). With Puntung's death, there are only two individuals left in Malaysia: Tam, a middle-age male; and Iman, a female. Both are kept at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve. The Sumatran rhino is now extinct in the wild in Malaysia. In Indonesia, fewer than 100 Sumatran rhinos survive in the wild. Poaching has sliced the population in half over the past 20 years, according to the IRF.

Puntung was likely a survivor of poaching herself. She was missing her front left foot, probably because it was caught in a poacher's snare when she was a baby. As an adult, she weighed about 1,150 lbs. (520 kilograms) and was known at the wildlife sanctuary for her gentle disposition. She was captured in the wild in 2011 and was brought to the sanctuary for her own protection and as a part of a failed attempt to establish a captive breeding program.

In early April of this year, Puntung developed an abscess on her jaw and was bleeding from her nostrils. After a crowdfunding effort, specialists were flown in from around the world, and Puntung had successful dental surgery on April 19, in which three infected and damaged molars were removed.

 

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Sumatran rhino sighted in Indonesian Borneo for first time in 40 years

WWF said there were indications that the endangered rhino was suffering from a severe infection caused by snares from an earlier poaching attempt

Press Association

Wednesday 6 April 201609.50 BSTLast modified on Wednesday 6 April 201610.12 BST

The first critically endangered Sumatran rhino to be found in an area of Borneo for 40 years has died, wildlife experts said.

The species had been thought to be extinct in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, until a few years ago when surveying found evidence through camera traps and footprints of 15 Sumatran rhinos in the area.

Last month conservationists hailed the first physical contact with a Sumatran rhino for decades when a four- or five-year-old female was safely captured in Kutai Barat, with plans to move her to a protected forest around 90 miles away.

But now wildlife charity WWF has said it is saddened by news the animal had died.

While the cause of death was still being determined, the conservation group said there were indications that the rhino was suffering from a severe infection caused by snares from an earlier poaching attempt.

Sumatran rhinos are one of two rhino species found in Indonesia, along with the critically endangered Javan rhino which survives in just one place in Java, and are threatened by poaching for their horn and habitat loss.

Carlos Drews, director of the WWF International Global Species programme, said: “WWF is saddened by the news of the death of the Sumatran rhino found in Kalimantan. The hope we felt a few days ago was in celebration of the first live sighting of a rhino that was thought to be extinct in the Indonesian part of Borneo until recent surveys revealed footprints of this unique species.

Read on ...

Live Sumatran Rhino Captured in Indonesia

by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | March 23, 2016 05:19pm ET

A live Sumatran rhinoceros has been captured in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, a region where these critically endangered animals were thought to be extinct.

A single camera-trap image and telltale footprints found in 2013 had previously revealed that Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) still survived in Kalimantan, which makes up the southern 73 percent of Borneo. But this is the first time in 40 years that humans have found a live rhino there. Conservation groups estimate that fewer than 100 Sumatran rhinos are left in the wild, most of which live on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, located west of Borneo.

"This is an exciting discovery and a major conservation success," Pak Efransjah, the CEO of the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) in Indonesia, said in a statement. "We now have proof that a species once thought extinct in Kalimantan still roams the forests, and we will now strengthen our efforts to protect this extraordinary species."

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Saving the last groups of wild Sumatran rhinoceros

Enhanced population survey techniques

Date:September 16, 2015

Source:University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Summary:Researchers carried out an island-wide survey of the last wild population of Sumatran rhinoceros, and now recommend that wildlife conservation managers consolidate the small population, provide strong protection for the animals, determine the percent of breeding females remaining and 'recognize the cost of doing nothing.'

Lead author Wulan Pusparini, a UMass Amherst environmental conservation doctoral student who also works for the WCS, says the new study provides vital data to support a final attempt to prevent the Sumatran rhino's extinction. She notes, "Sumatran rhinos can still be saved in the wild, but we must secure these protection zones, which would require significant investments in additional law enforcement personnel."

The study for the first time identifies priority forest protection zones "irreplaceable for saving the critically endangered species," the authors say, and identifies small and scattered populations that should be consolidated if they are to become viable. Details appear in the current issue of PLOS ONE.

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Sumatran rhino is extinct in the wild in Malaysia

Date: August 19, 2015

Source: Natural History Museum of Denmark

Summary: Leading scientists and experts in the field of rhino conservation state in a new paper that it is safe to consider the Sumatran rhinoceros extinct in the wild in Malaysia. The survival of the Sumatran rhino now depends on the 100 or fewer remaining individuals in the wild in Indonesia and the nine rhinos in captivity.

Despite intensive survey efforts, there have been no signs of the wild Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) in Malaysia since 2007, apart from two females that were captured for breeding purposes in 2011 and 2014. Scientists now consider the species extinct in the wild in Malaysia. The experts urge conservation efforts in Indonesia to pick up the pace.

The conclusions are published online in Oryx, the International Journal of Conservation, led by the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen. Partners include WWF, the International Rhino Foundation and IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which is in charge of the global Red List of Threatened Species.

Surviving rhinos are too far apart

"It is vital for the survival of the species that all remaining Sumatran rhinos are viewed as a metapopulation, meaning that all are managed in a single program across national and international borders in order to maximize overall birth rate. This includes the individuals currently held in captivity," says lead author and PhD student Rasmus Gren Havmøller from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate.

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.

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Sumatran rhino confirmed in Kalimantan for the first time - Video

Indonesian Borneo rhinos confirmed for the first time for decades

October 2013. Using video camera traps, a joint research team that included members from WWF-Indonesia and the district authorities of Kutai Barat, East Kalimantan, have captured video of the Sumatran rhino in East Kalimantan. The footage of the rhinos, the rare Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, is the fruit of three months of research that collected footage from 16 video camera traps. The team is delighted to have secured the first known visual evidence of the Sumatran rhino in Kalimantan.

"This physical evidence is very important, as it forms the basis to develop and implement more comprehensive conservation efforts for the Indonesian rhinoceros," said Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan upon unveiling the video at the opening of the Asian Rhino Range States Ministerial Meeting in Lampung, Sumatra. "This finding represents the hard work of many parties, and will hopefully contribute to achieving Indonesia's target of three percent per year rhino population growth." He emphasized that all parties need to immediately begin working together to develop a scientific estimate of all the remaining Sumatran rhino populations in Kalimantan, and to implement measures to conserve the species, particularly by strengthening the protection and security of the rhinos and their habitats.

Historical records

There were historical records of rhino in Kalimantan, but there have been few, if any sightings for at leat 50 years, though there have been occasional reports of footprints being seen, and a couple of reports of rhino being poached. 

Wallowing video - Possibly several rhinos

The remarkable evidence from the camera traps includes footage of a rhino wallowing in the mud to keep its body temperature cool and a rhino walking in search of food. The rhino footage, captured on June 23, June 30 and August 3, is believed to show different rhinos although confirmation of this will require further study.

Nazir Foead, Conservation Director of WWF-Indonesia, said, "To ensure the protection of the species, a joint monitoring team from the Kutai Barat administration, Rhino Protection Unit, and WWF have been conducting regular patrols around the area. WWF calls on all parties, in Indonesia and around the world, to immediately join the effort to conserve the Indonesian rhinoceros".

Commenting on the findings, the district head of West Kutai, Ismael Thomas SH. M. Si., noted "The local administration is fully supporting these conservation activities in West Kutai. We are drafting further laws to protect endangered animals --- including these rhinos." 

The Asian Rhino Range States Ministerial Meeting is taking place in Lampung 2-3 October 2013, with participation of goverment representation from Bhutan, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and Nepal.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/kalimantan-rhino013.html

Cincinnati Zoo to try incest to save Sumatran rhino

Sumatran rhino returns to the Cincinnati Zoo in the face of crisis

July 2013. "Harapan," a six-year-old male Sumatran rhino born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2007 and later moved zoos in Florida and Los Angeles Zoo, was returned to Cincinnati in July in an effort to help save his rapidly disappearing species from extinction. With no more than 100 Sumatran rhinos left on the planet and only two in the USA (Harapan and his sister, nine-year-old "Suci"), this move demonstrates just how desperate the effort to save this species has become.

Harapan is one of three Sumatran rhinos successfully born at the Cincinnati Zoo since 2001. Scientists at the Zoo's Lindner Center for Conservation & Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) are hoping they can work their magic once again with Harapan and Suci. Although the tenet at CREW is to maximize genetic diversity and avoid inbreeding, in this case scientists are forced to make an exception or watch the species disappear altogether.

"No one wants to breed siblings, it is something we strive to avoid, but when a species drops below 100 individuals, producing more offspring as quickly as possible trumps concerns about genetic diversity." said Dr. Terri Roth, Vice President of Conservation and Science and Director of CREW at the Cincinnati Zoo. "We are down to the last male and female Sumatran rhino on the continent, and I am not willing to sit idle and watch the last of a species go extinct."

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Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino rediscovered in Indonesian Borneo

WWF team find footprints of rhinos on Borneo

March 2013. A WWF team on the island of Borneo to monitor and Orang-utan population have discovered what they believe to be the footprints of a critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros, where it was believed that the rhino had been extinct for some time.

The WWF staff were monitoring a population of orang-utans in West Kutai district of East Kalimantan. Having discovered the footprints, they conducted a further survey of the area along with government forestry officials and scientists from a local university. The survey discovered further footprints, and some horn scratches at mud holes, as well as trees used as rubbing posts and bite marks on plants, raising the possibility that there may be more than one lone animal, though numbers remain unclear.

The Sumatran rhino was believed to have been extinct in Indonesian Borneo since the 1990s. and fewer than 200 animals exist anywhere in the world in the wild, still live in the wild in Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to the WWF: Current population & distribution
The Borneo Sumatran rhino is now possibly extinct in Sarawak (Malaysia) and Kalimantan (Indonesia), with perhaps fewer than 25 surviving in Sabah (Malaysia). A 2005 survey in the interior of Sabah found evidence of at least 13 rhinos, and scattered individuals are found in other parts of the state.

Read more about the Sumatran rhino on the WWF website

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/borneo-rhino.html

Rare Sumatran rhino gives birth at Indonesian sanctuary

Birth of Baby Rhino Represents Hope for Species Survival
June 2012. The International Rhino Foundation (IRF) is pleased to announce the birth of a bouncing baby male Sumatran rhino born to Ratu, a 12-year-old Sumatran rhino living at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia's Way Kambas National Park. The calf was born on June 23 at 12:46 a.m. with no complications, attended by Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary veterinarians, Ratu's keepers and advisors from the Cincinnati Zoo and Taronga Conservation Society Australia.

Fewer than 200 Sumatran rhinos 
The birth helps ensure the future of one of the world's most endangered species. There are fewer than 200 Sumatran rhinos living in Indonesia and Malaysia. This is the first birth of a Sumatran rhino in an Indonesian facility and the first birth in an Asian facility in 124 years. 

"We are overjoyed that Ratu delivered a healthy calf and are cautiously optimistic that the calf will continue to thrive," said Dr. Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation. "The little guy is absolutely adorable, and none of us has been able to stop smiling since the moment we were sure he was alive and healthy. We have been waiting for this moment since the sanctuary was built in 1998. The International Rhino Foundation is honoured to play an important role in protecting rhinos. We are hopeful the Sumatran rhino population will thrive once again." 

Third pregnancy
This was the third pregnancy for Ratu, who miscarried her first two calves. The rhino calf weighs 60-70 pounds and looks healthy and active. 

Dr. Dedi Candra, head veterinarian and animal collections manager at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, has been monitoring Ratu's pregnancy by weighing her weekly and conducting regular ultrasound exams, using methods developed by the Cincinnati Zoo, where the father, Andalas, was born in 2001. 

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/sumatran-rhino-birth.html#cr

New hope as Sumatran rhino Ratu falls pregnant again

    

PREGNANT: Ratu, the Sumatran rhino. Picture: IRF

Two previous miscarriages

February 2012: Scientists around the world are following the pregnancy of a Sumatran rhino, which offers a glimmer of hope for the endangered species. Two years ago, Wildlife Extra reported that Ratu, a Sumatran rhino in Indonesia's Kambas National Park, was pregnant, only to have to report on her miscarriage just a month later.

But now she is pregnant again, and she has just completed the 11th month of her pregnancy. The pregnancy will probably last a further four to five month.

Second pregnancy lasted less than a monthIn February 2010, Ratu's first pregnancy was diagnosed but she miscarried after two months. Her second pregnancy did not even last a month. A hormone supplement was prescribed when she became pregnant this third time. 

Ratu is one of four resident rhinos at the 250-acre Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, which was established in the late 1990s by the International Rhino Foundation, the Rhino Foundation of Indonesia and Indonesia 's Ministry of Forestry. Two other females of breeding age, Rosa and Bina, are also maintained at the sanctuary. The young male, Andalas, who bred Ratu in early March 2011 is located at the sanctuary as well. 

Hormone supplement may help Ratu go to termRatu is a wild Sumatran rhino who came into contact with villagers on the border of Way Kambas National Park and was rescued. Andalas is one of three Sumatran rhinos born and raised at the Cincinnati Zoo - the first of his species born in captivity in over a century.

In 2007, he was sent to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary with hopes that he would eventually sire calves from one or more of the females. 

The same hormone supplement Ratu is prescribed was provided to Andalas's mother when she was pregnant with him because she had also experienced early pregnancy loss. The hormone supplement is given orally every day and will be withdrawn slowly prior to the expected delivery date. 

Dr Dedi Candra, based at the Sanctuary, has been monitoring Ratu's pregnancy by weighing her weekly and conducting regular ultrasound exams. Ratu has been allowed almost constant access to her large forested enclosure where she can browse on natural plants and wallow in the mud.

No more than 200 Sumatran rhinos leftThe Sumatran rhino is one of the world's most critically endangered species, numbering no more than 200 individuals in Indonesia and Malaysia. The species is seriously threatened by the continuing loss of its tropical forest habitat and hunting pressure from poachers, who kill rhinos for their valuable horns. Pressure is so great, the species runs the risk of going extinct by the end of this century. 

‘We've got fingers crossed that everything will continue to go well and that Ratu will deliver a healthy baby sometime in late spring or early summer.

'This is truly a dedicated team effort, not just with regard to managing a critical pregnancy, but also in terms of the round-the-clock effort to protect Indonesia's last remaining wild Sumatran rhinos,' Dr Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation said.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/ratu-pregnancy2012.html

Captive rhino romance may be last hope for species

(Reuters) - Puntung is a Sumatran rhino, one of roughly two hundred left in the world

Captured in a Borneo forest on Christmas Day, she is the latest addition to Malaysia's Borneo Rhino Sanctuary -- and experts say she may also be one of the last hopes for a species on the brink of extinction.

Veterinarians want to introduce Puntung to Tam, a 20-year-old male Sumatran rhinoceros in the enclosure next door, in the hopes that they will breed -- Although this cannot take place for a number of months yet, until Puntung is deemed ready.

Estimated to be 10 to 12 years old, she was airlifted to the sanctuary in the Tabin Forest Reserve after her capture, and has since been adjusting to her new home, eating more than 60 kg (132 lb) of leaves each day.

"She doesn't look stressed, she's eating well ... but the stress (of a new environment) is enough to offset her cycle, her normal cycle," said Zainal Zahari Zainuddin, a veterinarian with the Borneo Rhino Alliance.

"So she may not have a cycle now. That's why we're monitoring her."

Captive breeding is now regarded as the only way to boost the population of the two-horned Sumatran rhino, which at 500 to 600 kg (1,100 to 1,322 lb) and 1.3 metres tall (4.3 feet) is the world's smallest rhinoceros.

Deforestation and illegal hunting have decimated the population in the wild, and habitat fragmentation has cut the surviving animals off from potential mates. The animals are ageing to the point where they are too old to breed.

But even the capture of Puntung, dubbed a "Christmas miracle" by scientists, does not mean success is assured.

Though she is the right age to breed, she may well turn out to be infertile, said John Payne, at the Borneo Rhino Alliance.

"The rhinos that were caught in Malaysia. Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sumatra in the past ... quite a few wild caught females did have reproductive tract problems. They weren't producing eggs or they had cysts or tumors in the fallopian tubes," Payne said.

"So we are not over the hurdle yet. It may prove that she's not fertile, in which case we need to go on what sort of treatments might be possible to make her fertile."

The sanctuary's only other female rhino, Gelegob, was unable to conceive even with the help of fertility treatment, since she could not produce eggs. She is now 30 years old and blind.

If Puntung shows signs of being ready after six months of observation, she'll be released into an enclosure with Tam, who walked out of a palm oil plantation in 2008 and refused to go back into the forest.

The two are now being kept in adjacent paddocks so each is aware of the other's existence. But Sumatran rhinos are solitary animals and only come together in the wild for courtship and the rearing of young.

Two breeding attempts have been made since the Malaysian captive breeding project began in 1983, but neither succeeded. The last successful attempt to breed captive rhinos took place at the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States.

Rhinoceros horns are a coveted ingredient in traditional Eastern medicine, which has led to widespread illegal hunting.

The WWF said last year that the Javan rhinoceros had been poached into oblivion in Vietnam and is now believed to be confined to one population of less than 50 individuals in an Indonesian national park.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/17/us-malaysia-environment-rhinos-idUKTRE80G08Q20120117

Hope for species as rare Sumatran rhino is captured

Capture of rare Sumatran rhino gives hope for species
Malaysian wildlife authorities said Monday the capture of a young female Borneo Sumatran rhino had given them a last chance to save the highly endangered species from extinction.

The female rhino, aged between 10 and 12 years old, was caught on December 18 and is being kept in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah on the Malaysian area of Borneo island where it is hoped it will breed with a lone captive male.

"All of us in Sabah are relieved that we have been able to capture this rhino after almost a year-and-a-half," Borneo Rhino Alliance director Junaidi Payne told AFP.

The female rhino, which has been named Puntung, was caught in a joint operation by the Borneo Rhino Alliance and the Sabah Wildlife Department.

"This is now the very last chance to save this species, one of the most ancient forms of mammal," Laurentius Ambu, director of the Sabah Wildlife Department, said in a statement.

Puntung had been specifically targeted since early 2010 as the mate for a 20-year-old, lone male rhino named Tam, who was rescued from an oil palm plantation in August 2008.

"It is an ideal age for breeding. Puntung and Tam are being kept in adjacent paddocks. They can see each other and there is some communication," Payne said.

Previous attempts in the 1980s and 1990s to breed Borneo Sumatran rhinos failed but Payne said he was "cautiously optimistic" the latest captive breeding programme would succeed.

The critically endangered Sumatran rhino is a mostly solitary animal except for courtship and rearing young.


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