Almost a decade ago, Andalas’s birth at the Cincinnati Zoo was cause for much celebration. It offered hope that individuals in captivity could help to replenish the numbers of this critically endangered species. Since then, Andalas has gone from strength to strength. In 2007, it was time at last to return to Sumatra to do what comes naturally. After an arduous journey, Andalas was home in his native habitat. This photo gallery and video captures moments from his journey over the past ten years.
As part of the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary’s captive breeding program, Andalas (the 7-year-old male Sumatran rhino born at the Cincinnati Zoo and transferred to Indonesia in 2007) is being exposed to as many of the sanctuary’s female rhinos as possible so he learns to communicate with the females long before they are put together for breeding purposes. This socialization process is being facilitated by feeding the rhinos their daily diets through the fence at the central breeding area, and then opening the gate so the rhinos can interact with each other if they choose. Over the past several months, Andalas has routinely been introduced to all three of the Sanctuarys females: Bina, Ratu and Rosa. This video shows an introduction between Andalas and Ratu – chasing and fighting are actually part of normal rhino “courting rituals.” Soon after this video was shot, Andalas mated with Ratu for the first time.
For Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), the deaths of the last native rhinos in Malaysia has prompted us to consider our next steps. This process has forced us to contemplate all that we have worked towards over these past years and the remarkable support we have received in our mission to save the Sumatran Rhino in Malaysia.
Sime Darby Foundation had supported BORA’s work on the Hairy (Sumatran) rhino from 2009 to 2016 when, time and again, hopes were dashed and it became clear that the Foundation was supporting a unique but increasingly high-risk project. The Chairman, Tun Musa Hitam, and CEO, Hjh. Dr. Yatela Zainal Abidin, stuck their necks out repeatedly in the hope that the work being done would turn around the steady decline in options to save the species in Malaysia. Although they, and many others, may think that this support was wasted, they would be wrong.
Looking at just a seven-year window in a decades-long story misses the big picture. It is absolutely necessary to judge the work that the Foundation supported in a global and long-term context. Almost incredibly, when the Foundation decided that further funding could not be justified, the Government of Malaysia took over. Under a project entitled “Application of Advanced Reproductive Technology to Endangered Species in Sabah”, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia (now Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources) has funded through Sabah Wildlife Department the development of many aspects of assisted reproductive technology, and a laboratory, Reproductive Innovation Centre for Wildlife and Livestock, located in the Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, in Sandakan.
This Centre is now unique in Malaysia in terms of skilled staffing, equipment and storage of the cryopreserved gametes of more than 10 endangered wildlife species. It has emerged as a Malaysian national centre which, due to the historical background, happens to be located in Sandakan, Sabah.
A Malaysian team able to safely capture, translocate and care for Hairy rhinos, and put them under and recover well from general anaethesia Knowledge on how to sustain Hairy rhinos that are chronically sick with cysts, tumours and associated bleeding, while at the same time allowing periodic, planned harvest of egg cells.
Some of the significant outcomes of the seven-year support by Sime Darby Foundation and Government of Malaysia from 2016 to 2020 include:
The pioneering assistance and continuing interest of world-class cutting edge rhino reproductive scientists in Germany (Professor Thomas Hildebrandt and team at Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin), Italy (Professor Cesare Galli of Avantea laboratory, Cremora) and Indonesia (Professor Arief Boediono and colleagues at IPB University, Bogor)
Living cell cultures of the last four Hairy rhinos in Malaysia, developed by Associate Professor Muhammad Lokman Bin Md. Isa of the International Islamic University Malaysia, as well as in Germany and USA, from which Bornean rhino gametes can potentially be made at any time in the future (genetically, the last four native rhinos in Malaysia – Gelogob, Puntung, Tam and Iman – are still alive)
The beginnings of a “frozen zoo” of wildlife genomes. Malaysia’s most skilled specialists in wildlife anaesthesia and handling of animal gametes for in vitro fertilization and cryopreservation
The potential to expand work to other critically endangered wildlife species including Malayan tiger and two critically endangered wild cattle species
If BORA stays open it has the opportunity to apply experience gained from the Hairy rhino story. Here are some thoughts and lessons learned which we want to share:
Rare wildlife species other than Hairy rhino are going to suffer the same fate – it is just a matter of time
We can do something before it is too late
Doing the same thing again and again will not be enough
Let us learn specific lessons from the Hairy rhino story
BORA will be re-branding by the end of 2020 to offer suggestions and resources that will help to implement these lessons learned.
Animal care: Veterinarians Dr Hildebrand, Dr Robert Hermes and Borneo Rhinoceros Alliance’s Dr Zainal Abdul Hamid (standing) doing an ultrasound on Puntung.
By Ruben Sario
KOTA KINABALU: A team of veterinarians is treating a female rhino in the east coast Lahad Datu district in the hope that the animal will eventually be able to breed.
Puntung, the sole fertile female Sumatran rhino at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary (BRS) in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, had been examined and treated in the past several months to improve her chances of conceiving.
Borneo Rhinoceros Alliance (Bora) executive director Dr Junaidi Payne said the examination was carried out by specialist veterinarians from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, led by Dr Thomas Hildebrand.
The veterinarian team was roped in after an ultrasound examination on Feb 24 showed that Puntung was suffering from endometrial cyst growth, a painful condition that could hinder the sperm from reaching the ova as well as prevent the implantation of embryos on the uterine wall.
Dr Payne said BRS officials were now deciding whether to let Puntung breed naturally or opt for artificial insemination.
Sabah Wildlife Department rangers had airlifed Puntung from a solitary life on a hill range at Tabin two years ago to be a mate for the male rhino, Ketam, at the sanctuary.
Wildlife conservationists were hoping that both animals would eventually be able to produce an offspring to help save the highly endangered species, of which only an estimated 200 were left in the wild in Sabah and Sumatra.
The Sabah government had initiated the BRS in 2009 to stave off the extinction of the Sumatran rhinos here with Yayasan Sime Darby, contributing RM5mil to the cause over the past three years.
The foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Sime Darby Group, had also committed another RM6.4mil for the development and operation of the BRS programme over the next three years.
Meanwhile, Bora chairman Dr Abdul Hamid Ahmad said the priority in the husbandry of captive wildlife was the animal’s health, including reducing all forms of biological and mental stress.
“There is no point in maintaining a breeding programme if animals die through poor hygiene and if their reproductive potential is depressed through stress,” he said.
Precious pair: Tabin Wildlife Reserve currently houses a fertile male rhinoceros, Tam, and a sub-fertile female rhinoceros, Puntung.
THE Sumatran rhinoceros once thrived throughout South-East Asia but the species is now confined to the islands of Borneo and Sumatera.
Today, they are considered the most critically endangered wildlife in the world. There are fewer than 10 Sumatran rhinos in Sabah and fewer than 100 in Sumatera, Indonesia.
Currently, Sabah has a fertile male named Tam and a sub-fertile female named Puntung at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary interim facilities in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve. There is also another female rhino, Gelogob, who is too old to breed at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park.
The species has almost disappeared because there are only a small number of rhinos left in any one place, making breeding in the wild difficult.There are plans to confine the last remaining Sumatran rhinos for breeding within a natural forest. Last month, the construction of a breeding and holding facility commenced at Datum Valley, an area believed to hold the last remaining fertile Sumatran rhino in Malaysia.
A charity polo tournament is being organised to raise funds to support the construction. The Rhino Cup, in partnership with Borneo Rhino Alliance (Bora), aims to raise a minimum of RM100,000 towards the cost of building the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in Danum Valley.
“We aim to assist Bora in their efforts to breed rhinoceroses,” said Rhino Cup head organiser Adilla Jamaludin.
The event will also feature a bazaar and live music from Blastique, Victor Trixter and a-marQ during the day while Gregory Ramanado and Bazli will entertain the crowd at night.
It will be held from 3pm on Oct 20 at the Royal Selangor Polo Club.
The event is open to all with an admission fee of RM20. For details visit www.facebook.com/therhinocup.
An aerial view of Tabin Wildlife Reserve, the site of the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary
Various measures have been taken to conserve Sabah’s rhinos since the 1980s by government and NGOs alike. Attempts were made at captive breeding at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehablitation Centre with little success. This well-intentioned effort was hampered by inadequate knowledge of the Bornean rhino, its behaviour, reproductive physiology and diet. Borneo’s forest dwelling rhino was quite unlike the Indian or African rhino species -in many ways as such rhino conservation knowledge from these species could not simply be transplanted to Borneo. Much remained to be learned.
Thus, up to present, rhino numbers have continued to decline overall, and have seemingly stagnated in both Tabin and Danum. A July 2007 expert workshop in Kota Kinabalu led by SOS Rhino and the Sabah Wildlife Department, resulted in strong consensus that urgent and decisive steps needed to be made to concentrate remaining rhinos at a single site in order to boost prospects for successful breeding.
In early 2008, the national government of Malaysia launched the Sabah Development Corridor programme to promote a more rapid approach to development in Sabah. The official Sabah Development Corridor document, page 189, section 7.4.9 Rhino Rescue Programme clearly states that “guaranteeing the sub-species protection is no longer sufficient to ensure its survival” and that “Lack of breeding and inbreeding present the most immediate threat”. The document also concluded that it was necessary to establish a closely-managed population in a designated area.
In terms of a conservation strategy for Sabah’s rhinos, there is a need to implement two sorts of actions to stop the Bornean rhino from drifting to extinction, and to initiate a trajectory of increasing rhino numbers. The first is to have zero poaching and trapping of rhinos anywhere in Sabah. The second action consists of a “Rhino Rescue Programme” and establishment of a “Borneo Rhino Sanctuary” in Tabin Wildlife Reserve.
Tabin Wildlife Reserve consists of 1,220 square kilometers of mainly regenerating logged dipterocarp forest located in eastern Sabah, 42 kilometers from Lahad Datu. The area has been a secure wildlife reserve for the past 25 years and is categorised as a Class Seven forest reserve in Sabah. This means that its primary purpose is to conserve wildlife, and the forest cannot be logged. It is also in no danger of being encroached upon by surrounding oil palm estates. In addition, Tabin Wildlife Reserve is one of the most significant conservation areas in Southeast Asia, with wild populations of Bornean elephant, Bornean orang-utan, banteng (wild cattle), Sunda clouded leopard, sun bear.
The Borneo Rhino Sanctuary will be developed as a large fenced area inside Tabin Wildlife Reserve, to be populated by rhinos translocated from sites where they are not breeding. What conservation scientists now know about the Bornean rhino is that it is a creature that favours the cover of the forest canopy and seems to require a combination of nutrients and minerals from wild plants and the natural salt licks which are a feature of Tabin, as well as clay-rich soils for constructing mud wallows. The small population of rhinos in Tabin and Borneo Rhino Sanctuary will be managed in an attempt to boost the breeding rate, as well as to prevent the death of rhinos by illegal hunting and trapping.
A doomed species?
There are some that contend that it is too late to save this rhino because its numbers are critically low, or because of inbreeding. One response to this view is that historically there are several examples of species that were teetering on the brink of extinction that have been able to recover through successful human intervention. The African and Indian rhinos are prime examples of species that were similarly threatened about a century ago. Other mammal species such as the European bison, Arabian Oryx and Pere David’s deer each have amazing comeback stories. Today these species are inspiring living examples of what is possible with appropriate passion and action by a small number of people.
BORA believes that no species is doomed if concerned people are prepared to intervene. The organisation is determined to doing all that it can to reverse the fate of the Bornean rhino. With the continued commitment of the Sabah government and other supporters we believe that together we can give the Bornean rhino population a chance to stabilise and strengthen. In our lifetime we will be able to tell our children that we did all that was possible to ensure the survival of this magnificent and endearing creature.
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 fertile females and males in any one forest area to sustain breeding.
Scientists now estimate that there are only about 200 animals remaining in the wild, clinging to existence in highly fragmented populations. As the persistence of populations in Peninsular Malaysia is very much in doubt, Indonesia and Sabah hold the only significant breeding populations. Between 30 – 40 rhinos are thought to be found in Sabah’s Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Danum Valley Conservation Area, and pockets of eastern and central Sabah.
In Indonesia, small populations may be found in three Indonesian National Parks in Sumatra: Bukit Barisan Selatan, Way Kambas and possibly Gunung Leuser.
Sumatran rhinos can be expected to persist and breed only in protected areas where they are physically guarded from harm by Rhino Protection Units. The continuation of this protection provides a necessary but perhaps insufficient means for the species’ survival. Active programmes to bring fertile females and males together may now be a necessary supplement to pull the species back from the brink of extinction.
The Littlest rhino
The Sumatran Rhino found in Sabah, is somewhat smaller than that found in Sumatra. It ranges from 4 to 5 feet in height, and 6.5 to 9.5 feet in length. Of course little is relative when discussing rhinos! Sumatran rhinos still weigh in at between 500 and 800 kilos. The Borneo form has been classified as a sub-species belonging to the same species as the rhinos found in Sumatra. This is based on skull shape, DNA and a slight difference in size – the Sumatran rhinoceros is now known as Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis while the Bornean rhinoceros is more correctly referred to as Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni.
The Sumatran Rhino is also known as the Asian Two-horned rhino because of its two horns – a larger anterior horn and a smaller horn behind it. However, the main feature that distinguishes it from the other four rhino species is its covering of hair and reddish-brown skin. This is why the Sumatran rhino is sometimes called the ‘hairy rhino’.
Sumatran rhinos are browsers and consume a wide variety of plant species in the tropical forest. They have a lifespan of between 25 and 35 years. Mothers give birth to one calf every 3 years and the gestation period for a Sumatran rhino is 15-16 months. Females reach sexual maturity between 6 and 7 years of age, while males mature at approximately 8 years of age. Sumatran rhinos are generally solitary in nature and generally form temporary associations for mating before parting ways once again.
On December 17 2014, BORA participated in Nottingham University’s (Malaysia Campus) Mindset Seminar series. View the presentation titled “The near extinction of the Sumatran Rhinoceros and what needs to be done to prevent the first extinction of a mammal species in Malaysia since 1932” by clicking on this link. Be sure to allow enough time for the programme to upload fully.
Starting in early 2017, BORA relies on Malaysian governmental funding to sustain its work to care for Tam and Iman (Puntung having passed away on 4 June 2017). The funding allows us to do all the basic tasks necessary, but does not cover engagement with Indonesia, nor maximising the frequency of harvesting sperm and eggs for continued in-vitro fertilization attempts. Contributions to BORA allow those two elements of our work to continue.
Here are some of the ways you can support this effort.
Your funds can help BORA find a scientific breakthrough as well as continue our attempts to engage with Indonesia on a joint programme.
Your skills and time can provide invaluable assistance to us in a variety of areas where we need help.
Your voice can be the difference between the survival of an ancient genus or its extinction.
Scroll down to find out more.
DONATE
BORA’s funding ended in June 2016. We are in need of financial assistance to aid in the following:-
Expertise
• To engage the best scientific practitioners in the field to extract sperm and eggs from our two rhinos, and to create a Sumatran rhino embryo.
Engage with Indonesia on the same species
• BORA has offered its experience and manpower to assist in finding, capturing and translocating Sumatran rhinos
Logistics • To create a sustainable fresh water supply from a nearby river, for Tam and Iman.
• To help maintain access roads and infrastructure in and around the Rhino Sanctuary.
SAN DIEGO – Victoria, a southern white rhino at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, is pregnant. It’s an event of vital importance for a program to bring back her nearly extinct kin, the northern white rhino.
The developing baby is also a southern white rhino, conceived on March 22 through artificial insemination. The pregnancy is a dress rehearsal for the ultimate goal of creating more northern white rhinos, grown from embryos made from stem cells.
The lengthy rhino gestation period means the baby isn’t due until the summer of 2019. A failure would mean more work needs to be done, or that the female is infertile.
Only two northern white rhinos are alive today, both females. The last male, Sudan, died in March in a Kenya preserve. Another white rhino, Nola, died in November 2015 at the Safari Park. She was one of four alive at that time.
Credit: AP PHOTO
Victoria and five other female southern white rhinos at the Safari Park’s Nikita Khan Rhino Rescue Center have been conditioned for years to willingly accept the most intimate handling, such as ultrasound examination of their reproductive tracts.
Jeanne Loring, a stem cell scientist at The Scripps Research Institute, has worked on this project with the zoo for years. She expressed delight in the news.
“That’s awesome,” Loring said from Germany. “It’s an amazing feat. This is a milestone.”
Much of the rhino reproductive system hasn’t been studied before, she said. So the zoo and allied researchers like Loring have had to invent the technology as they go along.
View the related video here.
The project’s roots go back decades to a dream inspired by Oliver Ryder, a geneticist at San Diego Zoo Global, the zoo’s conservation arm.
Ryder suggested deep-freezing tissue from endangered animals, in the hope that future technology could recreate whole animals from these cells. He established a cryobanked collection of tissue from these animals, known as the “Frozen Zoo.”
The technology to put these cells to use finally arrived in 2007. Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka demonstrated that adult mammalian cells can be turned into artificial embryonic stem cells. He shared a Nobel Prize in 2012 for his discovery.
Loring is leading a separate project to use the cells to treat Parkinson’s disease. These induced pluripotent stem cells, as they are called, are to be created from the patients themselves. They will be matured into brain cells of the type destroyed in Parkinson’s, then implanted into the patient’s brains.
The rhino project is even more complicated. Thawed cryopreserved tissue will be converted into the artificial embryonic stem cells, then matured into egg and sperm cells. These will be united by in vitro fertilization to create an embryo. This is what will be implanted into the southern white rhino surrogate mothers.
Loring and Ryder are co-authors of a recent study describing how stem cells were produced from four northern white rhinos with a method they say is superior. Unlike earlier methods, it doesn’t use viruses to deliver genes that help convert the cells. So the cells created have a healthier genetic profile.
The study, which has yet to be published, can be found at j.mp/rhinostem.
The Safari Park says the work may be applicable for other rhino species, including the critically endangered Sumatran and Javan rhinos.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency
This article appeared in VC Star on 18 May 2018. Read the original online article here.
1 Mar 2015, Kota Kinabalu: The Sumatran rhino once browsed the forests in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. By the mid-20th century, its range and population has drastically shrunk due to forest habitat loss and killing for its horn. The demand for rhino horn stems from the common yet misguided belief that it harbours medicinal properties.
In Malaysia, a disturbing combination of factors has led to its dwindling population and near-extinction: the lack of knowledge on rhino population and reproduction status in the wild, poor husbandry practices in captive centres, the conservation focus being solely on protecting rhinos in the wild which has not been effective, and at the same time not developing an effective captive breeding population as a parallel effort.
Some wildlife researchers estimate that there are less than 100 Sumatran rhinos left in the world and current populations are largely confined to Indonesia, with very few wild rhinos possibly remaining in Sabah. In Peninsular Malaysia, the species is likely to be totally extinct although this terrible event has gone unrecognized. Rhino biologists regard the species as functionally extinct in all of Borneo as the few individuals remaining are insufficient to provide hope of survival of the species.
Over the last thirty years, more Sumatran rhinos have died than have been born, both in the wild and in captivity. Between 1984 and 1995, a total of 22 Sumatran rhinos were captured in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah for a captive breeding project. Except for one which was already pregnant when captured, none bred while in captivity, and all have since died. It is clear that protecting wild populations has failed, and that natural breeding in captivity results in too few births to be a viable strategy.
What remain of the Malaysian population are a male named Tam and two females named Puntung and Iman. Captured from the wild in Sabah from 2008 to 2014, the trio currently resides in the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary (BRS) in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, under the care of Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), a non-governmental organization developed for this purpose under the guidance 0f Sabah Wildlife Department. Unfortunately, both Puntung and Iman have severe reproductive tract pathology, possibly due to having gone un-bred in the wild for a long time. However both are still producing oocytes, which are cells that form eggs which then can be fertilized by sperm. Rather than throwing in the towel and abandoning the species to extinction, Sabah Wildlife Department and BORA with its donor Sime Darby Foundation are collaborating with Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Germany and professor Cesare Galli and his wife of Avantea laboratories in Italy to produce Sumatran rhino embryos in the laboratory using Advanced Reproductive Techniques (ART).
It appears that ART represents the best chance of growing the captive population of Sumatran rhinos. Compared to classical artificial insemination technique which pumps millions of sperm into the uterus of a rhino, a technique already well-established for domestic animals called intracellular sperm injection maximizes the chance of fertilization of the egg by injecting only one viable sperm into a single oocyte in a laboratory condition. The resulting embryo is then implanted into a female rhino for development of the foetus over a normal pregnancy period.
According to Datuk Dr Junaidi Payne, BORA’s Executive Director, “All remaining Sumatran rhinos should be brought together in two or three closely-managed captive care facilities, where the use of their gametes can be maximised. At BRS, we are racing against time to harvest gametes from the rhinos here for use in in-vitro fertilisation, as well as preserving frozen gametes and stem cell lines within the 2014-2017 window”. He added, “The programme which we are pursuing for this period requires a few millions of ringgit to run, with Sime Darby Foundation being the primary financial supporter, while the specialist veterinary team from IZW with associated colleagues from Avantea laboratories, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute and San Diego Frozen Zoo are providing Sabah with the necessary ART expertise,” he added.
“Through ART, each rhino can be maximised to help save its species,” said William Baya, Director of Sabah Wildlife Department. He continued, “With the species on the brink of extinction, SWD is committed to support a global Sumatran rhino captive breeding programme using ART as it is the best chance we have to save this species. We are ready in principle to support Indonesia if requested”.
Dato’ Dr Dionysius Sharma, the CEO and Executive Director of WWF-Malaysia, has this to say to sceptics of the Sumatran rhino’s ART programme:
“WWF-Malaysia believes in using innovative solutions to resurrect the critically endangered Sumatran rhino population. More than a century ago, moving critically endangered African rhinos on to fenced private land, as well as captive breeding of the European bison were necessary and successful elements in saving these species from extinction and we hope to have the same success for the Sumatran rhino with ART,” he commented.
With time clearly running out, it is paramount that remaining wild rhinos are captured for ART as maximising births in captivity seems to now be the only viable way to save this 20 million-year-old mammal species from extinction.
Read the original article on WWF Malaysia’s website.
Animal care: Veterinarians Dr Hildebrand, Dr Robert Hermes and Borneo Rhinoceros Alliance’s Dr Zainal Abdul Hamid (standing) doing an ultrasound on Puntung.
Precious pair: Tabin Wildlife Reserve currently houses a fertile male rhinoceros, Tam, and a sub-fertile female rhinoceros, Puntung.
An aerial view of Tabin Wildlife Reserve, the site of the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary
On December 17 2014, BORA participated in Nottingham University’s (Malaysia Campus) Mindset Seminar series. View the presentation titled “The near extinction of the Sumatran Rhinoceros and what needs to be done to prevent the first extinction of a mammal species in Malaysia since 1932” by clicking on this link. Be sure to allow enough time for the programme to upload fully.
Credit: AP PHOTO
1 Mar 2015, Kota Kinabalu: The Sumatran rhino once browsed the forests in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. By the mid-20th century, its range and population has drastically shrunk due to forest habitat loss and killing for its horn. The demand for rhino horn stems from the common yet misguided belief that it harbours medicinal properties.