The sudden deaths of five Sumatran rhinos at a Malaysian sanctuary have dealt a heavy blow to efforts to save the fast-dwindling species from extinction.
Since Oct. 29, all five animals at peninsular Malaysia's Sungai Dusun rhinoceros center have succumbed to what is believed to be acute blood poisoning following bacterial
infection.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The deaths throw a bleak spotlight on the state of the world's most critically endangered rhino species and raise questions about Malaysia's captive breeding effort, yet to bear fruit after two decades. The country now has just two rhinos in captivity, in Sabah state on Borneo.
Habitat loss and the poaching of animals for their horns and skin, for use in sex potions of dubious benefit, have taken a terrible toll on the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Only about 300 survive in the wild in Southeast Asia.
Although Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus) are rarer, wildlife experts say their numbers have steadied at about 60 in Indonesia and a few in Vietnam.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"The populations in Java are stable, they have not lost any for quite a while," says Chris Shepherd, who tracks illegal trade in animals and plants with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
Shepherd says the rhinos' plight is shared by other species in the region.
"Things are still in serious decline. They have not solved it yet, I see the rhinos as one of many," he says, adding that the key is policing the areas endangered species still inhabit, such as peninsular Malaysia's Taman Negara national park.
"The highest priority is much stiffer enforcement around the protected areas and stiffer penalties for anyone caught poaching, trading or using rhino products."
Southeast Asia is home to two of the world's five remaining rhino species, the other main populations being in India and East and Southern Africa. This is a far cry from the vast numbers and varieties that once roamed more widely, including in North America and Europe.
Sumatran rhinos, small, hairy creatures standing about 1.5m at the shoulder, suffer for their love of solitude and dense, jungle habitat.
The larger rhinos in Africa and India generally inhabit open grassland or scrub bush, making them easier to find.
While that aids poachers it also helps park wardens and, perhaps as important, tourists.
"In Africa, you pay to go and see rhinos and you see them. That doesn't happen here," says Shepherd.
Ecotourism is increasing in Southeast Asia but has yet to provide the hard-currency lifeline thrown to African countries. That means captive breeding may be critical.
Thomas Foose, a rhino expert with The World Conservation Union, says the recent deaths should not stop breeding efforts.
"A captive propagation program is a vital component as basically an ultimate insurance policy for the species. We are certainly not going to abandon the propagation program because, with too many other species, the captive programs have worked," he said, pointing to animals such as the Californian Condor and the Arabian Oryx.
In Sungai Dusun itself, set in a patch of forest surrounded by oil palm estates 110km north of Kuala Lumpur, staff were shocked by the animals' deaths but determined to continue with the breeding program.
"We cannot give up," says Mohd Khan Momin Khan, chairman of the Malaysian Rhino Foundation.
"If we don't do anything, the Sumatran rhinos will disappear like the Javan rhinos which became extinct in Malaysia in 1932.
"This tragic event should strengthen our resolve," Mohd Khan said.
The deaths sparked questions about the center's husbandry methods, with the daily New Straits Times citing reports of poor hygiene at the facility as a possible cause of infection.
It quoted unidentified critics who said rotting food sometimes lay in the stalls to mix with animal dung and urine, a haven for microbes.
Mohd Khan rejected the suggestion, saying that all four of the world's Sumatran rhinoceros breeding programs, including one in the US, had lost stock.
He said the first of the five animals to die had just come in from a separate paddock, suggesting that the infection might have been brought in from outside the stalls.
Mohd Khan, who was on hand for Malaysia's first capture of a wild Sumatran rhino in 1984, said, "We know captive breeding is possible from the success of the Cincinnati Zoo."
The US zoo produced the world's first captive-born rhino in 2001 and the female has conceived again.
Scientists spent two decades mastering the techniques of capturing the animals and then properly timing introductions of the males and the females.
"Our problem in the beginning was that we couldn't get the animals together. You put a male and female together, they would fight and try to kill each other," says Mohd Khan.
Breakthroughs in monitoring the female hormone cycles have allowed scientists to determine the occurrence of oestrus, when a cow is receptive to mating.
Unluckily for the older captive females, by the time it took scientists to work out the basics left them prone to tumors in their sex organs from inactivity.
"If they do not reproduce, like elephants, they tend to develop all sorts of pathologies in their reproductive tracts," says Foose.
With Cincinnati's female, Emi, expecting another calf next year, Foose says a base line for Sumatran rhinos may be in sight.
"We are hopefully at a point where the recovery can commence."
May 11 to May 18 The original Taichung Railway Station was long thought to have been completely razed. Opening on May 15, 1905, the one-story wooden structure soon outgrew its purpose and was replaced in 1917 by a grandiose, Western-style station. During construction on the third-generation station in 2017, workers discovered the service pit for the original station’s locomotive depot. A year later, a small wooden building on site was determined by historians to be the first stationmaster’s office, built around 1908. With these findings, the Taichung Railway Station Cultural Park now boasts that it has
The latest Formosa poll released at the end of last month shows confidence in President William Lai (賴清德) plunged 8.1 percent, while satisfaction with the Lai administration fared worse with a drop of 8.5 percent. Those lacking confidence in Lai jumped by 6 percent and dissatisfaction in his administration spiked up 6.7 percent. Confidence in Lai is still strong at 48.6 percent, compared to 43 percent lacking confidence — but this is his worst result overall since he took office. For the first time, dissatisfaction with his administration surpassed satisfaction, 47.3 to 47.1 percent. Though statistically a tie, for most
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and
Six weeks before I embarked on a research mission in Kyoto, I was sitting alone at a bar counter in Melbourne. Next to me, a woman was bragging loudly to a friend: She, too, was heading to Kyoto, I quickly discerned. Except her trip was in four months. And she’d just pulled an all-nighter booking restaurant reservations. As I snooped on the conversation, I broke out in a sweat, panicking because I’d yet to secure a single table. Then I remembered: Eating well in Japan is absolutely not something to lose sleep over. It’s true that the best-known institutions book up faster
RSS