01 Sep 2006: Baby boom for world\u2019s rarest rhino species<\/p>\n
The Javan rhinoceros is perhaps the most threatened large mammal in the world, with only two populations known to exist in the wild. Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Jakarta, Indonesia\/Gland, Switzerland \u2013 Scientists have found signs of four Javan rhinos born in recent weeks in Indonesia, a surprising baby boom for a species that may be reduced to fewer than 60 individuals worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Signs of the rhino calves were discovered in Indonesia\u2019s Ujung Kulon National Park by a team of biologists, including park rangers and WWF staff, and local people checking on the rhinos after the recent earthquake on the island of Java. These are the first known births for the Javan rhinos in three years.<\/p>\n
“Javan rhinos are probably the rarest large mammal species in the world and they are on the very brink of extinction,\u201d said Arman Malolongan, Director General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation at Indonesia\u2019s Ministry of Forestry.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo discover that this population is breeding, and even slowly growing, gives us hope for the species\u2019 future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Javan rhinos are the rarest of the world\u2019s five rhino species and are critically endangered. It is estimated that between 28 and 56 Javan rhinos live in Ujung Kulon. The only other known population is in Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam, where no more than eight rhinos are thought to survive. <\/p>\n
The team found the first sign of a calf a few weeks ago, with the discovery of a small footprint (about 16\u201317 cm) along with a larger footprint belonging to the mother. One day after this first discovery, another set of mother and calf footprints of slightly different size was found in a different area. Both signs were estimated to be three days old or less. On the same day, a second team came face-to-face with a mother and female calf. And the following day, the team found a fourth small footprint in a different location. <\/p>\n
Because of the distance between the four areas where the discoveries were made and the differences in the size of the footprints, the team concluded they are evidence of four different calves.<\/p>\n
\u201cJavan rhinos live deep inside the rainforest and it\u2019s very unusual to catch a glimpse of them,\u201d said Adhi Rahmat Hariyadi, WWF-Indonesia Site Manager in Ujung Kulon National Park. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur team was lucky to actually be able to observe a mother and calf in the Ujung Kulon Peninsula while checking camera traps installed in the area.\u201d <\/p>\n
WWF and park staff hope to capture photos of the newborns from remote-triggered camera traps used to monitor the rhinos.<\/p>\n
With this new evidence that the Javan rhino population in Ujung Kulon is breeding, WWF recommends that the park authorities find ways to reduce the main threats to this rare species, such as habitat and food competition with wild cattle within the park, and invasive vegetation that limits the expansion of the rhinos\u2019 favoured food sources. WWF also calls for the establishment of a second population of Javan rhinos outside the park to protect the species from disease or natural disasters that could wipe out the entire population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-env-geography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}