Some rhinos in human care don’t reproduce well, which complicates efforts to sustain these important insurance populations. Scientists have worked for years to develop reliable means of artificial reproduction, with limited success.

Examples are scarce: A dozen years ago, a southern white rhino was born through artificial insemination in Budapest, and a greater one-horned rhino was born with such help in Miami in April.

Southern white rhinos of Africa, once close to extinction, have rebounded in protected sanctuaries. Edward’s arrival by artificial means thus would not have been quite the heralded event it was if not for one fact: His birth holds out hope for saving the functionally extinct northern white rhino.

Only two northern white rhinos remain in the world, and both are female. The last male died in March 2018. The duo lives under protective guard from poachers at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. But there is hope, in the form of DNA from a dozen northern white rhinos banked at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, in a facility called the Frozen Zoo. Over the past 44 years, tissues and cells from some of the world’s most endangered species have been stored in this cryobank.

Analysis by my colleague Oliver Ryder, director of conservation genetics, has found that there is sufficient genetic variability in the frozen northern white rhino cell lines to theoretically reestablish the population. By collaborating with scientists around the world, we envision a future northern white rhino baby born to a southern white rhino surrogate. Perhaps Edward’s mother, Victoria, will fill that role.

Victoria and her new calf are doing well. Edward represents an important step in an effort to save a related white rhino subspecies, but what we learned from his birth could also help Sumatran and Javan rhinos.

At the moment, though, he is simply a baby rhino, staying close to his mother as she guards him, cuddles him (in rhino fashion, between her horns) and puts mud on his back to screen him from the summer sun.

Edward is also a lesson to all of us, a reminder that humans, as stewards of Earth, must protect species at risk of extinction.

The world faces an epic extinction crisis, outlined most recently in a United Nations report in May that brought together three years of work by nearly 150 researchers from 50 nations. Climate change, habitat loss, wildlife trafficking and other human-caused disturbances all play a role in the rising threat.

Humanity must work to preserve these species — in the wild and in managed care. Ideally, protective action will follow the guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s One Plan Approach to Conservation, which blends human management with preservation in the wild. But the world cannot wait until each species, one by one, vanishes before our eyes. Success will require initiating conservation efforts when it is possible to bolster and protect existing populations.

Last year, San Diego Zoo Global played a part in efforts to rebuild the black rhino population in Africa by sending a Safari Park-born 8-year-old black rhino to be released into the wild in Tanzania. He has joined a female black rhino at Singita Grumeti Reserves, where we hope they will help restore a rhino population that was lost in the region, and unite four scattered remnant populations of the species.

If they are successful, the species will recover long before it gets to the brink of extinction.

But the northern white rhino is already teetering on the brink. Now we are compelled to intervene using banked frozen cells rather than protecting populations of living individual animals.

Saving individual animals and family groups while fostering sustainable populations is the ideal conservation strategy. But sometimes artificial reproductive intervention may be the only way to avert extinction. With persistence leading to further scientific advances, Edward’s arrival will be living proof of that.

Read this article in the Omaha World-Herald

Tam at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary, 2016 BORA Filepic

By JASON BITTEL published May 27, 2019 on National Geographic

Malaysia’s last male Sumatran rhinoceros, Tam, has died—a serious blow for the critically endangered species, which is already extinct in the country.

Discovered poking around an oil palm plantation in 2008, Tam was captured and transferred to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in the state of Sabah. Efforts to breed him with two female rhinos—Puntung, captured in 2011, and Iman, captured in 2014—proved unsuccessful.

With Puntung’s euthanization in 2017 due to cancer, Iman is now the nation’s sole remaining member of its species in Malaysia. Due to decades of habitat loss and poaching, fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos are thought to exist in the wild, most on the nearby island of Sumatra. The rest are scattered across Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo.

Read the full article on National Geographic.com

South China Morning Post, 27 May 2019

The last male Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia has died of old age, dashing efforts to save the critically endangered species in the country.

Tam the rhino, who was in his 30s, lived at a wildlife reserve in Sabah state on Borneo island since his capture in 2008, according to Christina Liew, the state minister for tourism, culture and the environment.

“Regrettably, Tam died at mid-day, around noon on Monday. Invariably, everything that could possibly have been done, was done, and executed with great love and dedication,” Liew said in a statement on Monday.

“His last weeks involved the most intense palliative care humanly possible, rendered by the Borneo Rhino Alliance team under veterinary surgeon Dr Zainal Zahari Zainuddin at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Lahad Datu,” said the minister.

Tam was believed to have died of old age, but the wildlife reserve would release more information after completing an autopsy report, Liew said.

Despite approaching middle age, Tam was not grumpy and was “quite the gentleman”, according to the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA). He had a calm and steady manner, although he was “a bit cheeky at times”, BORA said.

Sumatran rhinos are the smallest of the living rhinoceroses and the only Asian rhino with two horns. They are more closely related to the extinct woolly rhinos than any of the other rhino species alive today, according to the WWF. The Sumatran rhino was declared extinct in the wild in Malaysia in 2015.

• Iman, Malaysia’s last female Sumatran rhino. Photo: Borneo Rhino Alliance

Iman, a female captured in 2014, is now the only surviving member of the subspecies left in the country.

She suffered a ruptured tumour in her uterus in December 2017, but was said to have been showed some signs of recovery by the end of the month, although she remains in poor health.

Another female rhino, jackfruit-loving Puntung, was euthanised in 2017 after suffering from incurable squamous cell cancer.

On Monday, WWF Malaysia called the loss of Tam a “wake-up call” and urged more action to save the endangered animals.

“Our hearts are filled with sadness as we mourn the loss of a species. With Tam gone, we now only have Iman left, our last female rhino. Let the loss of Tam be the wakeup call,” the group said in a tweet. “Our #wildlife needs protection.”

Wildlife experts estimate that only about 30 to 80 Sumatran rhinos remain in the world, mostly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and on the Indonesian side of Borneo.

Their isolation, caused by habitat loss and poaching, means they rarely breed and may go extinct in a matter of decades, according to conservation group International Rhino Foundation.

Since 2011, Malaysia has tried to breed the species in captivity through in vitro fertilisation, but without success.

Liew said Tam’s genetic material has been preserved for future attempts to reproduce Sumatran rhinos.

“We hope that with emerging technologies at cell and molecular level, he may yet contribute his genes to the survival of the species,” she said.

Sabah conservationists feel that urgent steps should be initiated to prevent other wildlife species from meeting the Sumatran rhino’s fate.

They hoped for more attention to be given to the conservation of pangolins, banteng, the Bornean elephant, clouded leopard and sun bear whose numbers have dwindled over the years due to poaching and wildlife conflict.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/05/26/experts-weve-lost-battle-on-rhino-conservation/#pqm4XflTgcDxJfJL.99

By Avila Geraldine, NST Online May 27, 2019

KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia’s last remaining male Sumatran rhinoceros, affectionately called Tam, has died today.

Tam died at about noon at Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Lahad Datu.

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister cum Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew said the exact cause of death would be known after the autopsy.

“Invariably, everything that could have possibly been done, was done, and executed with great love and dedication.

“(Tam’s) last weeks involved the most intense palliative care as humanly possible, rendered by the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA) team under veterinarian Dr Zainal Zahari Zainuddin at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary,” she said in a statement, here.

Liew said Tam’s death was related to old age and involved multiple organ failures.

It was reported that Tam’s appetite and alertness had declined significantly since the end of last month.

Urine analysis tests indicated that Tam was suffering from organ damage and poor kidney function.

It spent most of its time lying down, having received round-the-clock attention and medication from keepers as well as veterinarians.

In Aug 2010, a wildlife team captured the male rhinoceros at the Kretam oil palm plantation in Tawau.

At the time of its capture, the rhinocerous was thought to be in its mid-20s. Tam was taken to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve where it had lived ever since.

Liew said Tam’s living genome was now preserved in cell culture.

“We hope that with emerging technologies at cell and molecular levels, he may be able to contribute his genes to ensure the survival of the species,” she added.

With Tam’s death, Malaysia is now left with one female Sumatran rhinoceros, Iman. She was captured in 2014.

In 2017, another female rhinoceros Puntung was euthanised because she was suffering from a painful and incurable cancer.

Iman appears to be the last Sumatran rhinoceros that was found in the wild. Since her rescue, no other Sumatran rhinoceros has been detected in Sabah, indicating that the species may have become extinct.

The Star Online, 20 May 2019

KOTA KINABALU: The health of Malaysia’s last surviving male Sumatran rhino is fast fading.

Struggle to heal: Tam being cared for by his caretakers at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah

Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said serious concerns were growing over the health of the rhino named Tam, whose appetite and alertness had declined abruptly since late April this year.

“It is now well into old age for a Sumatran rhino,” he said in a statement yesterday.

“It is receiving round-the-clock attention and medication. Tests are ongoing but it seems that one or more of its internal organs are not functioning well,” added Tuuga.

After a week of being fed and befriended by the department staff, local non-governmental organisation SOS Rhino (now known as the Borneo Rhino Alliance) and WWF-Malaysia, Tam was coaxed into a crate, and brought to facilities in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, where he has lived ever since.

Tuuga said Tam had always been a favourite of the people who worked with it or visited it due to its calm and steady manner.

However, hopes to find a mate for Tam were dashed when female rhino Puntung, captured in 2011, was found to have multiple cysts throughout its uterus, and Iman, captured in 2014, was found to have massive uterine fibroids.

These illnesses are a reflection of too few rhinos and insufficient breeding success during the last decades of the 20th century.

Puntung was euthanised in 2017 because of painful and incurable cancer.

Since 2011, all efforts in Malaysia to save the species from extinction have focused on the application of advanced reproductive technology, including in vitro fertilisation attempts as well as collaborating with Indonesia.

To date, neither have met with success.

Rhinos have not been seen in Sabah’s jungles for over a decade.
Read the full article here