Puntung enjoying a mud wallow in the safety of her temporary forest paddock days after her capture

Today is one of the saddest days we’ve ever faced. As of this morning, Puntung’s suffering has come to an end.

She was euthanized just past dawn, ending her battle against squamous cell cancer.

It was one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make, but euthanasia had become the only defensible option. Chemotherapy, radiation treatment and excision surgery might seem possible. But for us, her welfare was the most critical element. Any of those treatments would bring further distress to Puntung because they would cause her further pain and, at best, give her a few more months of life.

Sumatran rhinos wallow in mud for at least six hours daily and become increasingly stressed if kept in clean, closed facilities. A stress-free life for Puntung was simply not going to be possible. And so we made the very difficult choice of ending her suffering and giving her peace.

We’ll always remember her as a fighter. She survived a poacher’s attempt as a calf, when her foot was cut off. But she refused to give up and went on to survive in the forests. She then became pregnant in the wild, but tragically lost her baby. The complications of that pregnancy resulted in her having cysts in her uterus, but still she fought on… till the very end.

And that’s how we will honour her. By embracing her tenacity for life. We at BORA will not give up the fight to save the critically endangered Sumatran Rhino.

There are now only two left in Malaysia, and less than 100 in Indonesia. Puntung’s passing is the third captive Sumatran rhino death in the past 3.5 years. In this time, there has only been one birth in captivity. And with wild populations continuing to face risks, the number of deaths could dangerously continue to outpace the number of births.

This is the great tragedy that’s at our doorstep. One that we must fight. But we can’t do this alone. Humanity needs to come together, now more than ever. What we do today will define the very existence of an entire species. It will define who we are as people, a species who have the power to save the rest of life that we share this world with.

And just like Puntung, we at BORA will not give up.

Be at peace, Puntung.

It is with great sadness that we make this announcement.

Puntung is dying of cancer.

The swelling on Puntung’s left cheek that alerted us to the infected tooth root had a more serious origin. The cancer has been spreading rapidly over the past few weeks. Specialists from several countries concur that it will be fatal, with or without treatment.

As of today, Puntung can no longer breathe through her left nostril, she can no longer vocalise, she is in pain and her condition is declining fast. Other than administering painkillers, there is nothing more anyone can do. Accordingly, the government has authorized euthanasia. This was a very difficult decision to make, but this is the best out of a very small number of unpleasant choices.

This is devastating news for all of those who have been involved in Puntung’s life over the past ten years, from those in SOS Rhino who monitored her wild in the Tabin forests since 2007, those who captured her in 2011, to those who cared for daily and still care for her right up to now.

We thank the many people – from our kind sponsors, to our staff who’re providing intensive care to her, and to all of you – who heartened us with their good wishes in April and financial support for the dental surgery and follow-up work.

We have kept in close touch with experts in Europe, South Africa and Thailand, and there is no doubt in our minds that any form of conventional treatment would just prolong her agony. We are also making preparations to try to recover eggs or oocytes from Puntung. With that, she may yet be able to contribute to the survival of her species.

Till then, we will provide her the very best of care, and help to minimize her suffering. By making her as comfortable as possible, we hope to ease the great pain we feel as well.

A media update from the Sabah Wildlife Department: Wildlife officials and rhino conservationists breathed a big sigh of relief today (19 April 2017) after successful surgery on Puntung, one of only two female Sumatran rhinos still alive in Malaysia. Puntung had been suffering since mid March from an abscess that would not heal despite treatment. Thai veterinary dentist Dr Tum Chinkangsadarn extracted two molar teeth and one premolar from Puntung’s left upper jaw during an operation that in total lasted two hours and twenty minutes on the morning of 19 April.

Puntung feeding again after the surgery

“This was a remarkable and successful operation that came about as a result of global discussion and multi-national collaboration over the past two weeks” said Sabah Wildlife Department Director Mr Augustine Tuuga.

“Sabah thanks Dr Tum and the team who had not worked together before but who did a fantastic job. Dr Abraham Mathew, senior veterinarian from Singapore zoo helped with anaesthesia. Dr Johan Marais and Dr Zoe Glyphis of South Africa based “Saving the Survivors” initiated the planning, advised on procedures and provided major financial support to ensure that the team got together in Tabin. We had vets in attendance and assisting from my Department as well as Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo Rhino Alliance.”

The procedure started at 7 am with X-rays done under sedation. Then Puntung was put under general anesthesia for 110 minutes. Dr Tum noted severe calcification of one large molar, which is where bacteria initially accumulated and led to the abscess. The calcification had also loosened two adjacent teeth.

Borneo Rhino Alliance veterinarian Dr Zainal Z Zainuddin said “We are so relieved and very grateful to Dr Tum, “Saving the Survivors” and the specialist vets who have given Puntung a new lease of life. Incredibly, she started feeding within two hours of the operation ending. But we are not done yet. There will be a period of post operation care which will mean trying to keep Puntung clean, stress-free and under medication including for pain relief.”

Puntung being prepped for surgery A closer look at the extracted molars

This commentary by rhino expert John Payne urges the use of all available technologies to raise birth rates of Sumatran rhinos where they persist in Sabah and Sumatra.
14 January 2016 / Commentary by John Payne

The announcement on 9 December 2015 of the first births of healthy puppy dogs from in vitro fertilization was greeted with a few predictable comments (e.g. “test tube dogs … don’t we have enough homeless dogs already?”) but in general positively in the usually separate worlds of mammalian reproductive research and dog-lovers. Its potential relevance to critically-endangered wild mammal species was mentioned by the authors of the paper, but seemingly drew few remarks from people concerned with wild mammals that are endangered with extinction.

There are five extant rhinoceros species (two in Africa, three in Asia, all endangered), representing four genera, which tend to be lumped by non-specialists as if they are one, comparable to assuming that orang-utans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos can all be treated in the same way. For three rhino species (both African species and the Greater Asian One-horned), which live in extensive, lightly-wooded or grassy habitats (and which have received by far the most attention and funding over the past fifty years), the concept of simply protecting rhinos and habitats, with periodic rhino translocations, has essentially worked. Massive poaching is now the major problem to address. Experts in the African and Greater Asian species assume that the other two Asian rhino species (Sumatran and Javan) will be saved by the same approach.  I suggest that this view is incorrect.

A Sumatran rhino (D. sumatrensis) at Way Kambas, Sumatra. Photo credit: Willem v Strien, Creative Commons

I have been involved for nearly four decades in endangered wildlife work in Malaysia and Indonesia, most closely with the Asian Two-horned Rhinoceros, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, commonly known as Sumatran rhinoceros. Early on, I believed that a combination of a protected areas and a global captive breeding program would save the species. Now that the species is on the edge of extinction, it is clear that neither method has worked, and that the only options are to give up entirely, or engage in a new approach, where the sole and uninhibited goal is to produce as many individual Dicerorhinus rhinos, as soon as possible. [Read more…]

In the hierarchy of biological classification of living and fossil organisms, two levels are well known : species and family. For example, humans are the species Homo sapiens, and they come under the family Hominidae, which includes orang-utans, gorillas and chimpanzees, as well as many extinct apes known only from fossils. Between species and family is a level called genus. Homo, for example, is the genus that refers to humans.

The last genus of rhinoceros to go extinct was Coelodonta, the woolly rhinoceros, about 10,000 years ago. The only mammal genera that went extinct between 1000 and 1900 AD were Megaladapis and Palaeopropithecus (giant lemurs on Madagascar) between 1200 and 1500 AD, and Hydrodamalis (Steller’s sea cow in the north Pacific) by 1768. Since the existence of modern, human nation states, only one mammal genus has gone extinct: Thylacinus, the thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial that died out in Australia in 1936. A close contender now is Lipotes (Chinese river dolphin), which is probably extinct.

After Australia and China, Indonesia will be the nation to oversee the next genus that will go extinct: Dicerorhinus, commonly known as Sumatran rhinoceros. A few tens still exist, but overall birth rate of this genus has been lower than death rate at least since the 1940s. Extinction is assured in the absence of a programme to boost births.

Habitat loss and hunting are NOT the reason that this genus is now critically endangered. To repeat, the reason is: not enough births. Leaving Sumatran rhinos in the wild will just allow them to die without contributing to saving the genus. The way forward is for Indonesia to urgently start a programme to boost birth rate through both captive natural breeding and advanced reproductive technology. Malaysia has made a start on the latter approach, in collaboration with German, Italian and Indonesian experts and has offered to assist Indonesia. The future of the Sumatran Rhino now depends closely on what Indonesia chooses to do – JPayne.