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Short Communication Will Current Conservation Responses Save the Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhinoceros Dicerorhinus Sumatrensis?

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Short Communication Will current conservation responses save the Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis? R ASMUS G REN H AVMØLLER,JUNAIDI P AYNE,WIDODO R AMONO,SUSIE E LLIS K. YOGANAND,BARNEY L ONG,ERIC D INERSTEIN,A.CHRISTY W ILLIAMS R UDI H. PUTRA,JAMAL G AWI,BIBHAB K UMAR T ALUKDAR and N EIL B URGESS Abstract The Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinoceros until . Since then only two pairs have been actively bred Dicerorhinus sumatrensis formerly ranged across South- in captivity, resulting in four births, three by the same pair at east Asia. Hunting and habitat loss have made it one of the Cincinnati Zoo and one at the Sumatran Rhino the rarest large mammals and the species faces extinction Sanctuary in Sumatra, with the sex ratio skewed towards despite decades of conservation efforts. The number of in- males. To avoid extinction it will be necessary to implement dividuals remaining is unknown as a consequence of inad- intensive management zones, manage the metapopulation equate methods and lack of funds for the intensive field as a single unit, and develop advanced reproductive techni- work required to estimate the population size of this rare ques as a matter of urgency. Intensive census efforts are on- and solitary species. However, all information indicates going in Bukit Barisan Selatan but elsewhere similar efforts that numbers are low and declining. A few individuals per- remain at the planning stage. sist in Borneo, and three tiny populations remain on the Keywords Conservation planning, Critically Endangered, Indonesian island of Sumatra and show evidence of breed- extinction, advanced reproductive technology, intensive ing. Rhino Protection Units are deployed at all known management zones, metapopulation management, breeding sites but poaching and a presumed low breeding Sumatran rhino, South-east Asia rate remain major threats. Protected areas have been created for the rhinoceros and other in situ conservation efforts have increased but the species has continued to go locally he Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis is extinct across its range. Conventional captive breeding has Tcategorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN also proven difficult; from a total of Sumatran rhinoceros Red List (van Strien et al., ). It has been extirpated taken from the wild since there were no captive births from . % of its former range, is threatened by poaching for its horn and has proven difficult to breed in captivity (Dinerstein, ). Poaching of rhinoceroses has soared in RASMUS GREN HAVMØLLER Natural History Museum of Denmark, Centre for recent years (Emslie, ) and was the primary cause of Macroecology, Evolution & Climate, Copenhagen, Denmark extinction of the western black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis JUNAIDI PAYNE Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia longipes and wild northern white rhinoceros Ceratotherium WIDODO RAMONO Yayasan Badak Indonesia, Bogor, Java, Indonesia simum cottoni in Africa (Emslie, a, b), and the Javan rhi- SUSIE ELLIS International Rhino Foundation, Strasburg, Virginia, USA noceros Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus in mainland K. YOGANAND WWF–Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia South-east Asia (Brook et al., ). It has also been a causal BARNEY LONG and ERIC DINERSTEIN WWF, Washington, DC, USA factor in the decline of the Sumatran rhinoceros, which has A. CHRISTY WILLIAMS WWF–International, Gland, Switzerland also been affected by habitat loss and isolation (Ahmad et al., ). Here we outline the population status of the RUDI H. PUTRA* Leuser Conservation Forum, Banda Aceh, Aceh, Indonesia Sumatran rhinoceros, summarize the threats to its survival JAMAL GAWI Leuser International Foundation, Banda Aceh, Aceh, Indonesia and highlight the main components and progress of the † BIBHAB KUMAR TALUKDAR IUCN Species Survival Commission Asian Rhino emergency plan developed during the April Specialist Group, Guwahati, Assam, India Sumatran Rhino Crisis Summit in Singapore and later NEIL BURGESS‡ United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK agreed upon in the Bandar Lampung Declaration in *Also at: Tropical Biodiversity Conservation, Bogor Agricultural University, October . Bogor, Indonesia Reliable population estimates for Sumatran rhinoceros †Also at: International Rhino Foundation, Strasburg, Virginia, USA ‡ have always been difficult to obtain. After years of suspected Also at: Natural History Museum of Denmark, Centre for Macroecology, Evolution & Climate, Copenhagen, Denmark decline, the population was assessed in to comprise – Received January . Revision requested February . individuals (Zafir et al., ). We provide an up- Accepted March . First published online August . dated estimate (Fig. ) but it should be noted that robust Oryx, 2016, 50(2), 355–359 © 2015 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605315000472 http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 20 Apr 2016 IP address: 130.226.229.16 356 R. G. Havmøller et al. FIG. 1 Historical and present distribution of the Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis in South-east Asia. The historical distribution is derived from range maps in Foose & van Strien (), and the current distribution from IUCN (). population data are lacking in most areas and these numbers were not optimized for surveys of Sumatran rhinoceros. represent best estimates. Based on patrol data, the distribution of rhinoceros signs had In Indonesia the population in Way Kambas National decreased by % during – (Talukdar et al., ). Park was estimated to be c. individuals in To date only c. %ofthe, km Leuser Ecosystem has (Talukdar et al., ), indicating a strong recovery after been surveyed for Sumatran rhinoceros, and a minimum of being declared extinct in the Park in but rediscovered individuals were confirmed in a km area in (Leuser in the s (Reilly et al., ). Immediately after the International Foundation, ). The species has also been – El Niño drought a study using camera-trapping recorded in other parts of the Leuser Ecosystem, including ob- data (P. Wells, unpubl. data) estimated there were – in- servation of a mother and calf in (Leuser Ecosystem dividuals remaining in the Park, a decline of % of the Management Authority, unpubl. data). Camera-trap footage population estimated to have been present in . If these of a Sumatran rhinoceros was obtained from East Kalimantan, estimates are accurate, the implication is that the population Indonesian Borneo (WWF–Indonesia, ), but the evidence may have doubled between and . suggests the population consists of very few individuals. In Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park a study conducted The most recent record of a Sumatran rhinoceros in during – estimated there were ± . rhinoceroses Peninsular Malaysia was in (Magintan et al., ) in the Park (Pusparini & Wibisono, )butthemethods and there is no evidence to support previous population Oryx, 2016, 50(2), 355–359 © 2015 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605315000472 http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 20 Apr 2016 IP address: 130.226.229.16 Sumatran rhinoceros 357 estimates of – individuals (Zafir et al., ; Talukdar breeding events become rare. These problems have implica- et al., ; WWF–Malaysia, ). Tabin Wildlife Reserve tions for natural breeding efforts in captivity and in situ, in- in Sabah, Malaysia, was believed to contain as many as cluding the effectiveness of efforts within the proposed rhinoceroses in the s but records of fresh footprints de- intensive management zones. We recommend that all fe- clined thereafter. Since there have been no definite males in these zones not known to be breeding are checked signs of the presence of wild rhinoceroses in the Reserve for reproductive pathology before a decision on their utiliza- other than those of a female that was captured in . tion in recovery efforts is made. This was despite an effort by Borneo Rhino Alliance of One of the key actions identified at the Sumatran Rhino , trap-days at trap stations covering . km in Crisis Summit and in the Bandar Lampung Declaration is a a . × . km grid during July –July , overlapping unifying global strategy to manage the global population the entire area where footprints had been recorded during (both wild and captive) as a single metapopulation across –. national and international borders. The best example of suc- In Danum Valley WWF–Malaysia conducted camera-trap cess of a single metapopulation strategy is that of the greater surveys within a × km grid from October .ByMarch one-horned rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis in Nepal and , after surveying grids over , trap-days, only one India (Talukdar, ; Martin et al., ). This manage- rhinoceros had been photographed, which was subsequently ment strategy has yet to be implemented for the Sumatran caught in March .Thisispresumedtohavebeenthelast rhinoceros. The national government of Malaysia and state individual in Danum Valley and the Sumatran rhinoceros government of Sabah are ready to collaborate in this way. may now be extinct in Malaysia, echoing the concern raised The second agreed action is the continued deployment of by Rabinowitz (). As of June no further signs of the Rhino Protection Units at sites with remaining breeding po- species have been found in Sabah, and it is safe to consider the pulations. This has been achieved in all breeding areas but species extinct in the wild in Malaysia. requires strengthening, especially in northern Sumatra. Currently the two main threats to the Sumatran
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