Scientists have announced that the Sumatran Rhino appears to be completely extinct in the Malaysian wild. The survival of the species now relies on fewer than 100 individuals that remain in the wild in Indonesia and nine living in captivity.
The wild Sumatran rhinoceros has not been spotted in the wild in Malaysia since 2007, and is now considered extinct in this region, the Natural History Museum of Denmark reported.
The recent announcement highlights the importance of increased conservation efforts in Indonesia to prevent the same thing from occurring there. The distribution of the Indonesian rhino population has declined by 70 percent over only the past decade. This rapid decline is largely linked to excessive poaching that occurs to meet the huge demand for rhinoceros horns in Asian black markets.
"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," said lead author and PhD student Rasmus Gren Havmøller from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate.
The researchers believe creating intensive management zones could be a potential solution to the species' rapid extinction. Individual rhinos could be transported to these regions, where they would have increased protection from hunters and more mating opportunities. It has been urged that Rhino Protection Units increase their coverage of known breeding areas. In the future, researchers hope to develop improved reproductive technology to increase breeding among the captive rhinos.
"Serious effort 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 stakeholders," said Widodo Ramono, co-author and Director of the Rhino Foundation of Indonesia (YABI).
The findings and potential solutions were published in a recent edition of the journal Oryx.
