Extinction Looms Large for World’s Smallest Rhino
Time is running out for the world’s smallest rhino. According to a recent press release, scientists and experts from all over the world are rushing to save the Sabah rhino, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni, from extinction. Sadly, it is estimated less than 50 of the diminutive rhinos exist today.
Scientists, conservationists and experts from Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Zoo Leipzig, Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), are working together in an extensive conservation project to breed and protect the world’s smallest rhino.
Sabah Rhino Conservation Project (SRCP)
As part of the Sabah Rhino Conservation Project (SRCP), a new breeding station and natural breeding and artificial insemination program will be part of the effort to save this magnificent rhino. And in order to protect the few rhinos that remain, an international awareness program to educate the public and provide funding for sustained management is underway. Zoo Leipzig will open a new tropical world called “Gondwanaland” in 2011, showcasing animals native to the area and highlighting the need for preservation and protection.
Daturk Masidi Manjun, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment said, “The Sabah rhino is our local heritage, we need all the expertise we can get to safeguard the Sabah rhinos from extinction.”
Sabah Rhino
Once widespread throughout Borneo, the rare rhino now lives primarily in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve and Danum Valley in Sabah. A subspecies of the Sumatran rhino, threats to the animal include illegal poaching and reduced population viability.
Photo Sumatran Rhino Ltshears
