Injured rare Sumatran rhino rescued in Sabah: wildlife official

Yahoo News 23 Aug 08;

A rare Sumatran rhinoceros, whose species is on the brink of extinction, has been rescued injured in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island, a wildlife official said over the weekend.

It was discovered after wandering into an oil palm plantation in a two week operation that saw a team from the state Wildlife Department transfer it to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in eastern Sabah.

The animal comes from the very rare Bornean sub-species of the Sumatran rhinoceros.

"It was obvious that the rhino was injured to some degree as it left its forest...to come out on the flat terrain of the oil palm plantation," the department's chief veterinarian Senthilvel Nathan said in a statement.

"When we first got there, the rhino showed signs of aggression and made mock charges at us but we kept our distance and left leaves and fruits for it to eat as the oil palm environment is not suitable for wildlife," he said.

He said a group of 24 veterinarians, rangers and volunteers from the state wildlife department, SOS Rhino Borneo and the World Wildlife Fund Malaysia monitored the rhino 24 hours a day before moving the animal to its new home.

WWF Malaysia said in the statement it believes the rescued rhino is the same one that was captured on its camera and video trap in February 2007.

The footage showed a rhino eating, peering through jungle foliage and sniffing the automatic video camera equipment used to shoot it.

The Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the world's most endangered species with only small numbers left on Indonesia's Sumatra island, Sabah and peninsular Malaysia, according to the WWF.

The Bornean sub-species is the rarest of all rhinos, distinguished from other Sumatran rhinos by its relatively small size, small teeth and distinctive shaped head.

State wildlife officials say that only 30 of the Bornean sub-species remain in Sabah's wilderness.

Last December, a Sumatran rhinoceros was photographed in peninsular Malaysia in the first sighting for more than a decade.