April 2011

TABIN (Lahad Datu): The only female Sumatran Rhinoceros kept in captivity at the Lokawi Wildlife Park was safely translocated to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, near here yesterday. Gelegub, the 28-year-old rhino, is now part of the Borneo Rhino Conservation Programme also known as the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary Programme in Tabin. The aim of the programme is to ward off the extinction of the species which now numbers at less than 50 in the wild. The rhino underwent a 12-hour journey from the Lokawi Wildlife Park to the Tabin Wildlife… Read more

BORA staff in… Read more

Together with the Javan Rhino, the Sumatran Rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the most critically endangered of the rhino species. This rhino species may represent the rainforest relic of a rhino which was once adapted to the open woodlands of the Pleistocene ice ages when sea levels were much lower than now, and Borneo and Sumatra were joined to mainland Asia via savannahs now under the South China Sea. Over the past millennium, hunting and habitat loss have driven this rhino to the brink of extinction. Now, there may be just too few… Read more

Tags: critically endangered, hairy rhino, Sumatran rhino

Three of Malaysia’s endangered large mammal species are experiencing contrasting futures. Populations of the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) have dwindled to critically low numbers in Peninsular Malaysia (current estimates need to be revised) and the state of Sabah (less than 40 individuals estimated). In the latter region, a bold intervention involving the translocation of isolated rhinos is being developed to concentrate them into a protected area to improve reproduction success rates. For the Asian elephant (Elephas… Read more

Isolated rhinos in fragmented Sabahan forests will be captured and placed in a new rhino sanctuary in a last bid to multiply their numbers. Article by Michael Cheang, The Star, August 18 2009 AS you head into Tabin Wildlife Reserve, there is a massive tree that stands tall and proud beside the road. The tallest tree in the reserve, it seems to stand guard against the advancing hoard of oil palm trees across the road that also serves as the border between protected and developed land. Tabin Wildlife Reserve is in need of such… Read more

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia, March 20, 2006 (ENS) – Poaching has reduced Malaysia’s population of Sumatran rhinos to just a small group plus a few individuals clinging to survival in the state of Sabah on the island of Borneo, according to an extensive field study conducted in 2005. Teams from nine government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and academic institutions were able to find just 13 animals in the state of Sabah. The survey of Sabah’s rhinos involved about 120 people in 16 teams. It was conducted by the Sabah Wildlife… Read more

Tags: extinction, rhino population, Sumatran rhino