Indonesia announced it will create a third rhino sanctuary for captive breeding of the Sumatran rhino (
Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). The center will be located in the Leuser ("
looser") Ecosystem at the north end of the island of Sumatra. Indonesia currently has two breeding centers in the south holding a total of eight rhinos. The plan also includes cooperation with Malaysia, which has a collection of frozen rhino eggs; that country recently lost its last male rhino.
{28.05.19}. Rhino
experts agreed in 2017 that captive breeding was the only way to save the species from certain extinction. Only 30-100 are believed to exist in the wild, and they are hampered by their solitary lifestyle, loss of forest habitat, and low reproductive rate. Once found across Southeast Asia, rhino was declared extinct in the wild in Malaysia in 2015, leaving Indonesia as the only country in the world with a known wild population. A previous effort at captive breeding in the 1980's collapsed when half of the rhinos died without producing offspring. Since then there has been captive reproductive success in both the US and Indonesia.
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| female wallows in Way Kambas, credit R.A. Butler |
The new sanctuary will allow biologists to avoid the reproductive peril of too many eggs in one basket. Proximity breeds susceptibility to disease; dispersal of captive breeding animals is a more sustainable solution. Leuser seems to be an ideal location since remote cameras have photographed 12 wild individuals living there. Captive breeding aims to supplement the wild population with released offspring to bring the population up to a viable level. Because of Leuser's remoteness, poaching is a serious problem that must be solved to protect the existing population and any released rhinos. Officials promise that security will be as strict as the Way Kambas National Park where one of the breeding centers is located. International rhino conservation groups have signed on to the project, agreeing to provide financial support.
