Cincinnati Zoo officials have decided let go of their last captive Sumatran rhino – the only one of its species in the U.S. – and send him to Indonesia to breed. The eight-year-old male rhino is scheduled to travel in October.
"It really makes no sense," Terri Roth, Cincinnati Zoo vice president of conservation and science, told USA Today. "But sometimes we are faced with circumstances beyond our control, and at those times we simply have to make the best of the situation."
Harapan, fondly called "Harry," is one of three sibling rhinos who were born into captivity at Cincinnati. The eldest, Andalas, was sent to Indonesia in 2007 to breed and now has one male offspring. Suci, the only female sibling, died last year from a disease caused by having too much iron in her diet.
The three were part of an initiative to breed Sumatran rhinos in the U.S. Aside from the U.S., Malaysia is the only other country with captive Sumatran rhinos. However, their females are infertile.
To date, there are only nine Sumatran rhinos in captivity and about 100 in the wild. The number of Sumatran rhinos decreased greatly in the 1980s because of poachers and habitat loss brought about by the development of forest areas, Reuters reports.
Now Harapan is going to his ancestral home in Sumatra. Although the decision to let him go was a tough one, it was a necessary move to enable him to breed. Cincinnati Zoo had been hoping Indonesia would send a female rhino so the captive breeding program would continue, but Indonesia would not send anymore rhinos outside of the country.
"For many years we were hopeful we would receive a female," Roth told Reuters. "Indonesia has been clear recently that they never plan to send another Sumatran Rhino out of the country again."
"The conclusion of experts is that Harapan has to be saved," Bambang Dahono Adji, director of biodiversity conservation at Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry, told Associated Press. "Therefore, we are insisting on getting Harapan back to its original habitat here rather than having it live alone there."
Harapan is now being prepared for the long trip to Sumatra. To prepare him for the travel, he will be conditioned to stay in a crate for long periods of time.
"We will all rejoice when we hear of another birth – a son, a daughter – of either Harapan or Andalas," Roth said.
