Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary

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Coordinates: 5 ° 4 ′ 36 ″  S , 105 ° 42 ′ 9 ″  E

Map: Indonesia
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Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary​
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Indonesia

The Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary ( English for Sumatran rhinoceros sanctuary ) is a cordoned off sanctuary for the endangered Sumatran rhinoceros located in the Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra . It was established in 1997 and serves as a breeding area for this rhinoceros species. There are currently seven Sumatran rhinos there.

Protected area

The Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary is located within the 1,250 km² Way Kambas National Park on the island of Sumatra ( Indonesia ) and covers an area of ​​100 hectares. It is operated and funded by the International Rhino Foundation , in collaboration with the Asian Rhino Specialist Group of the IUCN and employees of the Cincinnati Zoo ( USA ), which has had the greatest success in breeding Sumatran rhinos to date . The location within the nature reserve should offer the animals the most natural environment possible in order to guarantee the success of the project. The area is completely surrounded by an electric fence. Within the reserve, each of the rhinos - a maximum of five that can be kept there - has a separate area of ​​up to 20 hectares, which is naturally overgrown with tropical rainforest . However, the plots are designed so that the animals can be mixed or separated again if necessary. The system is continuously monitored with cameras during the day and especially during the rutting season . For further control of the animals and to ensure the success of the birth, the hormone levels of the rhinos are continuously analyzed using fecal samples .

prehistory

Rhinoceros cow "Emi" with her calf "Harapan" at the Cincinnati Zoo (May 2007)

The Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the most threatened species of large mammals on earth. It currently inhabits individual areas in Sumatra and possibly Borneo in small, dispersed populations , while it is already extinct on the Malacca Peninsula and the rest of mainland Southeast Asia. The stock is estimated at 40 to 78 animals, the information is inaccurate, since it at secondary clues such as kick seals or droppings are based on actual rare sightings. The zoo populations of Sumatran rhinos are very small, around 100 animals have been kept in the last 200 years. In addition, the rhinos give birth in human care only very rarely, the first and only birth until the beginning of the 21st century was reported in the zoo of Calcutta in 1889 , no birth success could be recorded in the entire 20th century.

In 1984 it was decided by employees of the Asian Rhino Specialist Group of the IUCN to conduct a worldwide breeding program for the rhino species in zoological gardens. Participating countries were Malaysia , Indonesia , Thailand , Great Britain and the USA . For this purpose, a total of 40 Sumatran rhinos were caught from the wild over several years and distributed to the various participating institutions. The program itself was implemented with funding of over 2 million US dollars . However, it was unsuccessful, as not a single young animal was born until 1995, with the exception of a cow that was pregnant when it was caught. For the experts involved, the mortality rate of the animals in captivity also turned out to be extremely high, as 20 animals had died of natural causes by this point in time. For this reason, the project was declared a failure and discontinued. By 2005, a total of 34 of the 40 rhinos had died.

In response to this first failure, a follow-up program was initiated which was intended to breed offspring in protected areas in as natural an environment as possible. These sanctuaries, called sanctuaries , should therefore be set up as close as possible to the original range of the rhinoceros species and be under constant protection and observation. The Way Kambas National Park in southeast Sumatra was chosen as the location, which also has a high priority level within the conservation efforts. A similar project was started in 2009 in Borneo with the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary . In the aftermath of the first breeding program, in September 2001 the rhinoceros cow "Emi", who was caught in a trap as a cub in 1991 and integrated into the program as the 28th animal, gave birth to a male cub in the Cincinnati Zoo, which was christened "Andalas" . This marked the first Sumatran rhino birth in a zoo in 112 years. Another calf, this time female, followed in July 2004 and was named "Suci". In April 2007 a third male calf was born, which was called "Harapan". “Emi” himself died of hemochromatosis in October 2009 at a relatively young age of 21 for the rhinoceros species . Your eggs have been removed and saved. However, a planned in vitro fertilization was not successful. "Suci" died in spring 2014 at the age of only 10, so that at that time only one Sumatran rhinoceros remained in the Cincinnati Zoo.

Development since the existence of the protected area

Rhinoceros cow "Rosa" in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary within the Way Kambas National Park on Sumatra.

The reserve was opened in 1997. In the following year the founder population was introduced, which came from the animal stocks of the first breeding program. The group consisted of the two cows "Bina" and "Dusun" from zoological institutions in Indonesia and a bull named "Torgamba" from the United Kingdom . The acclimatization phase took several months. "Torgamba", who was caught in a trap in 1985 at the age of 3 or 4 and was one of the first animals to be included in the original breeding program, began sexual interactions with "Bina" in 1999, which continued but not for the following years Fertilization . "Dusun", who was no longer of childbearing potential, died in 2001.

Two other very young cows arrived in 2005. "Rosa" originally came from the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park , also Sumatra, but was repeatedly spotted in neighboring villages and then captured and brought to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. The second animal, "Ratu", was also found in a village outside the Way Kambas National Park. In February 2007, “Andalas” arrived, the young bull given into human care by the rhinoceros cow “Emi” in 2001 at the Cincinnati Zoo. After several months of acclimatization, the first interactions with the other Sumatran rhinos in the sanctuary took place. “Andalas” successfully fertilized “Ratu” in 2010, but she lost the fetus a few months later, which is not unusual for very young rhinoceros that are pregnant for the first time. In the Cincinnati Zoo, “Emi” needed six fertilizations to give birth to her first cub. A second fertilization of “Ratu” by “Andalas” in the same year was unsuccessful and ended a month later. In April 2011 the bull "Torgamba" died at the age of more than 30 after a long illness. "Ratus" third fertilization by "Andalas" took place in March 2011. After the artificial addition of special hormones , the pregnancy proceeded without complications, similar to what was done at "Emi" in Cincinnati. After 16 months, “Ratu” gave birth to a male calf on June 23, 2012, the first birth in the sanctuary and the fifth worldwide of a Sumatran rhinoceros conceived in human captivity. The calf was given the name "Andatu", which on the one hand represents the connection between the names of the parent animals and on the other hand also means "gift from God". A second calf, this time a female, gave birth to “Ratu” on May 13, 2016. In the meantime, in October 2015, “Harapan”, the last Sumatran rhinoceros remaining in Cincinnati, was brought to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary .

Web links

  • International Rhino Foundation: Sumatran Rhino Conservation Program ( [7] )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Abdul Wahab Ahmad Zafir, Junai di Payne, Azlan Mohamed, Ching Fong Lau, Dionysius Shankar Kumar Sharma, Raymond Alfred, Amirtharaj Christy Williams, Senthival Nathan, Widodo S. Ramono and Gopalasamy Reuben Clements: Now or never : what will it take to save the Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis from extinction? Oryx 45 (2), 2011, pp. 225-233
  2. ↑ International Rhino Foundation: Annual Report 2010. ( PDF )
  3. ↑ Richard H. Emslie, Tom Milliken, Bibhab Talukdar, Gayle Burgess, Karyn Adcock, David Balfour and Michael H. Knight: African and Asian rhinoceroses - status, conservation and trade. A report from the IUCN Species Survical Commission (IUCN / SSC) African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups and TRAFFIC to the CITES Secretariat pursuant to Resolution Conf. 9.14 (Rev. CoP17). In: Report to CITES. 17th meeting, Colombo, CoP 18 Doc.83.1 annex 3, 2019, pp. 1–38 ( [1] )
  4. ↑ Thomas J. Foose and Nico van Strien (eds.): Asian rhinos - Status survey and conservation action plan. IUCN, Salisbury, 1997
  5. ↑ Terry L. Roth: In loving memory of Emi. The Crash - The newsletter for rhino professionals, January 2010, pp. 1-3
  6. ↑ BL Plair, PR Reinhart and TL Roth: Neonatal milestones, behavior and growth rate of Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) calves born and bred in captivity. Zoo Biology 30 (4), 2011, pp. 1-15
  7. ↑ Monica A Stoops, Helen L. Bateman, Mark K. Campbell and Terri L. Roth: Attempted in vitro maturation and fertilization of postmortem sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) oocytes. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 42 (4), 2011, pp. 723-726
  8. ^ Henry Nicholls: Sex and the single Rhinoceros. Nature 485, 2012, pp. 566-569
  9. ↑ Cincinnati Zoo: Cincinnati Zoo Devastated By Loss of Endangered Sumatran Rhino. March 2014 ( [2] )
  10. ^ Muhammad Agil, Marcello Adi Riyanto, Tony Sumampau, Keith J. Hodges and Nico J. van Strien: A program of managed breeding for the Sumatran rhinoceros at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park, Indonesia. In: Harald M. Schwammer, Thomas J. Foose, Michael Fouraker and Deborah Olson: A research update on elephants and rhinos: Proceedings of the International Elephant and Rhino Research Symposium, Vienna, June 7-11, 2001. Münster, 2002, p 303
  11. ↑ Muhammad Agil, B. Purwantara, I. Supriatna, Marcello Adi CT Riyanto, D. Candra, R. Sudarwati, Tony Sumampau and Nico van Strien: Pathway to successful breeding in the Sumatran Rhino at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park , Lampung (1998-2002). Report 2002, S 1–7 ( PDF )
  12. ^ Nico J. van Strien: Asian Rhino Specialist Group report. Pachyderm 39, 2005, pp. 13-17
  13. ^ Nico J. van Strien and Bibhab Kumar Talukdar: Asian Rhino Specialist Group report. Pachyderm 42, 2007, pp. 17-21 ( online )
  14. ^ International Rhino Foundation: Mourning the Loss of Sumatran Rhino Torgamba. The Rhino Print 9, 2011 (winter), p. 4 ( PDF )
  15. ^ International Rhino Foundation: Rare Sumatran Rhino Pregnancy Announced. February 2012 ( [3] )
  16. ^ International Rhino Foundation: First born baby at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. June 2012 ( [4] )
  17. ↑ International Rhino Foundation: It's a Girl! Rare Sumatran Rhino Gives Birth At Indonesian Sanctuary. May 2016 ( [5] )
  18. ^ International Rhino Foundation: Harapan The Rhino Arrives In Indonesia. November 2015 ( [6] )