Malaysia: Racing against time to save our rhinos

ROY GOH New Straits Times 14 Sep 15;

KOTA KINABALU: Not so long ago, hopes were high on finding the Sumatran rhinoceros in the wild in Sabah. It was one of the rarest species in the world and an all out effort was undertaken to prevent it from becoming extinct.

Despite the optimism, backed with a belief that there could be about 30 or more wild rhinos in the state, only three were caught in the last 20 years. Flags were raised recently to urgently conserve the species as reality sank in.

In May, state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun revealed that the three captive rhinos were possibly the only ones left in the country.

“We are facing the prospect of our Sumatran rhinos going extinct in our lifetime,” he said.

The following month, an international scientific journal on conservation, Oryx, published a report with a similar conclusion, confirming what Masidi said.

Conservation efforts began in 2000 by an organisation called SOS Rhino, later renamed SOS Rhino Borneo, and eventually became the Borneo Rhino Alliance or Bora.

For more than a decade, teams of trackers, rangers and scientists were routinely despatched into jungles to track down Sumatran rhinos at the slightest word, or evidence, of its possible existence.

Two potential areas identified as the animal’s habitat were the 120,000ha Tabin Wildlife Reserve and 80,000ha Danum Valley conservation area, both in Lahad Datu. But surveys were also conducted in other forests in the east coast of Sabah.

Soon, telltale signs began appearing and by 2008, a male rhino was caught outside of Tabin at a plantation owned by Kertam Holdings, where it got its namesake.
A captive female known as Gelugub was available back then, but all attempts failed to produce any offspring from the two.

The age of the female rhino, caught in Kinabatangan in 1994, might have been a factor that contributed to its infertility.

Then, in 2011, a female with a severed front left hoof was caught. This was four years after it was first discovered within the Tabin Wildlife Reserve. Hopes withered as it was discovered that it had cysts in its reproductive organs.

Last year, another potential mate was found for Kertam at the Danum Valley conservation area, but like the others, Iman, as it was eventually named, had a tumour as big as a football in her uterus.

Bora executive director Datuk Junaidy Payne, who is also co-author of the report published in Oryx, had said a number of baby Sumatran rhinos must be produced to save the species from extinction.

“The only way now to achieve that is to use in vitro fertilisation to produce the embryos, and to have a few fertile females in well-managed facilities and excellent care for the surrogate mothers.”

To do this, Payne had suggested that all parties work together as each rhino needed to be closely managed to ensure the survival of the species.

Echoing similar sentiments in a statement recently, Rasmus Gren Havmøller, the lead author of the Oryx report on the rhinos, said the key to saving the species relied on whether “all remaining Sumatran rhinos are viewed as a metapopulation”.

This meant that all should be managed in a single programme across national and international borders in order to maximise the overall birth rate, including individual animals held in captivity, he said.

In Indonesia, there are about 100 Sumatran rhinos in the wild and five in captivity. There is also a male rhinoceros at the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States.

Sperm and egg cells had been collected from the three rhinos in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in the hope that a surrogate mother could be found someday.

Experts from Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute in Serdang, Selangor, and Leibniz Institute of Wildlife in Berlin, Germany, are working with Bora to achieve this. An obvious option to save the rhinos from extinction would be to work with Indonesia.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said he would bring up the possibility of a rhino breeding programme when he meets his Indonesian counterpart, Siti Burbaya of the Forestry and Environment Ministry, soon.

Sabah Wildlife director William Baya had said to save the rhinos from extinction, Malaysia and Indonesia had to work together.

“I hope this will happen sooner rather than later as the Sumatran rhinos are living on borrowed time.”

Keepers can’t bear thought of species they share a bond with becoming extinct
New Straits Times 14 Sep 15;

IT is hard to convince Wilson Kuntil that there are no more rhinoceros in Malaysia. The 35-year-old caretaker of possibly the last three Sumatran rhinos in the country refuses to believe it.

“It’s hard for me to accept this. I know many scientists say it’s going extinct, and I know many out there in the jungle looking for the rhinos will say the same thing. But I can’t get myself to say they are gone. I don’t want it to go extinct,” said the head keeper at the Borneo Rhinoceros Sanctuary at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Lahad Datu.

“If you have looked after one as long as I have, maybe you will feel the same way,” said the Borneo Rhino Alliance (Bora) worker with a faint smile.

For five years, Wilson has looked after Kertam, the only male among three living in the sanctuary. He is hoping against all odds that things will turn out for the better.

The two females are Puntung and Iman, both deemed by experts as incapable of naturally bearing any offspring for Kertam.

“I am no expert but if it’s one thing I know, it’s how to look after Kertam and I will make sure he is in the best of shape when a suitable partner is found for him.”

Then, he turned and called out to Kertam: “Boleh kan Tam Tam?”

Kertam turned its head, snorted and went back to wallowing in its mud pit.

Wilson and six other keepers look after the three rhinos round the clock. They feed, clean, nurse and protect them within a paddock that leads to an enclosed jungle, where the trio roam.

The keepers live in quarters just a few metres away from the paddock. Everyday, they take turns to inspect the three fenced jungle areas, one each for the rhinos.

During bad weather, they risk their lives going inside the beasts’ territories to make sure all three are safe from fallen trees. Another team is in charge of growing plants of leaves, shoots and fruits to feed the rhinos.

Since Bora began its programme in 2010, more than 120 species of plants have been identified as food for the rhinos, although each of the three has its own preference.

Ronald Jummy, who chats with Iman during feeding time, says it has become a habit for him as he considers the rhino like his own child.

“Sometimes, Iman will be choosy, sometimes moody, but there are days when she can be friendly and playful,” said the 29-year-old keeper, who rewards the rhino with a rub on its ears if “she is a good girl”.

Despite his attachment to Iman, which has been under his care for over a year since its capture in Danum Valley, he knows his limits.

“A rhino is a big animal and a small nudge can knock you down. Iman is the most aggressive of the three because she’s not used to people, unlike Kertam and Puntung, that have been in captivity much longer.”

Samat Gubin, who looks after Puntung, says they prepare the food and hand-feed the rhinos twice daily.

“After feeding, the rhinos will go back to their jungles and wallow in mud,” he said, adding that food will also be tied in branches nearby in case “they get hungry at night”.

Apart from occasional snorts and faint squeaks they make while eating, the rhinos do not make much noise.

“It’s only when they see each other or mate, then you can hear them from as far as 1km away,” Gubin said, describing the eerie bellowing that rhinos make when they fight or warn their enemies.

Bora field manager and veterinarian Dr Zainal Zahari Zainuddin says there have been a few unsuccessful attempts by Kertam to mate with Puntung.

“For big animals, mating is a complicated process and for rhinos, in particular, the male needs to win over Puntung before she will allow any advances. To do that, the two will fight. The act of mounting a female, too, is a big effort for a male as it will need to conserve its energy for that .”

Dr Zainal says the rhinos will also be protective of its own territory and react to the slightest whiff of “intruders” with its strong sense of smell. For now, with Puntung or Iman not in the best of health, the field team has to collect the sperm from Kertam and eggs from the two females.

“We have a highly-dedicated team here who treats the three rhinos with great respect and care. We just have to,” he said.