Wild Sumatran Rhinos Considered to Be Extinct in Malaysia

Despite intensive efforts in conducting surveys of the animals, there have been no sightings of Sumatran rhinos in the Malaysian wilderness since 2007, with the exception of two female rhinoceroses that were captured for the objective of breeding in 2011 and 2014.

The conclusion they were extinct in Malaysia was reached by University of Copenhagen scientists writing in Oryx, a conservation journal. This includes one at the Cincinnati Zoo (soon to be moved to Indonesia); three in Sabah, Malaysia to be engaged in in vitro fertilization; and five in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Sumatra, Indonesia.

After a 31-year-old northern white rhino died last month, living only four of its species in the world, her potentially healthy ovary was immediately removed and taken to a specialized laboratory in Italy for scientific research and reproduction work.

“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 global borders in order to maximise overall birth rate”.

As years of extensive surveys have proven fruitless in finding any sign of Sumatran rhinoceros in the forests of Malaysia, officials made the sad declaration this week that the iconic animal has likely gone extinct in the wild there. One of the co-authors of the study, Widodo Ramono, called for “serious efforts by the government of Indonesia” to strengthen protection of the remaining Sumatran rhinos.

“This means that, without intervention, all known wild and captive populations are in an extinction vortex and are not sufficiently abundant to increase in population over time in isolation of each other”, he said in reference to a Frequently Asked Questions fact sheet recently released by WWF-Malaysia. Rasmus Gren Havmoller, the lead author of the study said in a statement. This trend echoes how the Sumatran rhino population dropped from around 500 to extinction between 1980 and 2005 in Sumatra’s largest protected area, the enormous 1,379,100 hectare Kerinci Sebelat National Park.

The researchers believe that intervention like India’s project tiger can help save the rhinoceros species.

A new study indicates that around 100 Sumatran Rhinos are left both in wild and captive.

Sumatran Rhinos were once found across the Southeast Asia region but hunting and habitat loss have reduced their number to less than hundred in wild and nine in captivity.