New Hope for Sumatra Rhino

The Sumatran rhinoceros is a one of the most endangered animals in the world, with only about 200 remaining in the wild, 180 in Indonesia  and the rest in Malaysia.

In the last 15 years, their numbers have decreased more than 50%, mostly killed by men who hunted    for their horns believed to have medicinal ingredients.

Recently, Indonesian conservationists at the Rhino Sanctuary in Lampung, made a breakthrough in  efforts to save the rhino after an 8 years old female called Ratu became pregnant in captivity.  It happened after Ratu mate with Andalas, the first of only three Sumatran rhinos born in captivity in more than a century. Andalas was born on September 13, 2001 at a zoo in Cincinnati, USA, while Ratu was rescued in 2005 after she was chased from a forest in Sumatra by villagers.  The baby is predicted to 36 days old, and expected to be born on May 2011.

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This is a very good news for us. I hope efforst to save the endangered Sumatra Rhino would be continued so that their numbers will increase.

Photo:  Courtesy of Google/AFP.

The Sumatran Rhino

The Sumatran Rhinoceros are considered as the most endangered of the five living Rhino species in the world. Their numbers are decreasing at a rapid pace, due to poaching and cutting/burning of forest in Indonesia and Malaysia.

There are only around 200 Sumatran Rhinos in the world, most of them live in the wilderness of Sumatra, Indonesia, and Sabah, Malaysia, where they live up to the age of 40.

Nine of them live in captivity around the world, including Emi, 21 years old, who died last Saturday after living at a zoo in Cincinnati, USA, for 14 years.
With Emi's death, the zoo still has Emi's mate, Ipuh, and Suci, a calf that Emi birthed in 2004.

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I hope that there would be more serious efforts to maintain the Sumatran Rhino among others by keeping their forest habitat remain unspoiled, i.e. by strengthening the Environment Law.

Photo: Courtesy of AP