Jakarta Globe, Erwida
Maulia, October 2, 2013
Video traps produce first ever hard evidence of Sumatran rhino population in Kalimantan forests. (Photo from WWF Indonesia) |
Camera
traps have caught a glimpse of the elusive Sumatran rhino in the last place
conservation experts expected to look: the jungles of East Kalimantan, the
World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia announced on Wednesday.
“The team
is delighted to have secured the first known visual evidence of the Sumatran
rhino in Kalimantan,” the organization said in a press release.
The Borneo
subspecies of the Sumatran rhino was thought to be extinct in Indonesia. About
25 of the critically endangered rhinos may remain in Malaysia’s Sabah state,
according to WWF-Indonesia.
Conservation
experts first stumbled on footprints that looked suspiciously like rhino tracks
during a trek through the jungle to monitor orangutans in East Kalimantan.
WWF-Indonesia and district officials then set up sixteen camera traps in the
West Kutai district and waited.
It took
three months, but in late June officials caught first sight of the two-horned
rhino. A similar rhino appeared on camera on two other occasions — on June 30
and Aug. 3, WWF-Indonesia said. The animal was seen wallowing in the mud and
wandering through the shots in search of food.
It is
unknown if the footage is of one rhino or two, WWF-Indonesia said.
“This
physical evidence is very important, as it forms the basis to develop and
implement more comprehensive conservation efforts for the Indonesian
rhinoceros,” Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said in his opening speech at the
Asian Rhino Range States Ministerial Meeting, in Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, on
Wednesday.
“This
finding represents the hard work of many parties, and will hopefully contribute
to achieving Indonesia’s target of 3 percent annual rhino population growth,”
he said.
Government
officials and nongovernmental organizations gathered in Bandar Lampung for an
international meeting on rhino conservation. Representatives from Indonesia,
Bhutan, India, Malaysia and Nepal were in attendance.
WWF-Indonesia
conservation director Nazir Foead pushed for greater conservation efforts of
the Indonesian rhino.
“WWF calls
on all parties, in Indonesia and around the world, to immediately join the
efforts to conserve the Indonesian rhinoceros,” Nazir said.
There are
fewer than 300 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild after decades of poaching and
deforestation decimated their numbers.
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