Nardelli, F., 1985. The Sumatran Rhinoceros Project. Help Newsletter, Port Lympne 7: 4-8, figs. 1-2
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| Location: |
Asia - South East Asia - Indonesia - Sumatra |
| Subject: |
Management - Programs |
| Species: |
Sumatran Rhino |
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On Friday, 24th May 1985, an historic agreement was signed in Jakarta for the formal establishment of a project for the conservation of the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), a project based on close cooperation between the Howletts and Port Lympne Foundation and the Indonesian Directorate-General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation. The signing of the agreement by Professor Rubini, on behalf of the Directorate, and Francesco Nardelli, on behalf of John Aspinall and the Howletts and Port Lympne Foundation, was witnessed and endorsed by the Indonesian Minister of Forestry and the British Ambassador, who described the project as an imaginative illustration of the sort of collaboration between the two countries discussed by the Indonesian President and the British Prime Minister during Mrs Thatcher's recent visit. The whole scheme has been made possible only by the determination and perseverance of both Professor Rubini and Mr Aspinall.
The two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest of the five species in its group - rarely more than 135 centimetres at the shoulder and one of the most seriously endangered mammals in the world, thanks to the loss of its preferred rain-forest habitat, poaching, and other factors upsetting the normal patterns of the animal's life in the wild. The new project will be run as a comprehensive conservation for the species, aimed at ensuring its survival by the protection of viable populations in the wild and the establishment of captive breeding colonies, both in Indonesia and at Howletts. Initially, the capture of four pairs of rhinos is planned, the first and fourth pair to be sent to Howletts, the second and third to be settled in a breeding centre in Indonesia, which will be developed with the help of people and technical advice from Howletts. Permits for the export and import of the rhinos were granted by both governments concerned when the agreement covering the whole project was approved, although all captured animals and their progeny will be owned jointly by the collaborating partners.
Howletts will support a team of field workers from its own staff and the Indonesian Directorate of Nature Conservation, which will choose the animals to be captured, concen- trating on those prevented from breeding by destruction of their habitat or other factors threatening their survival. If more than eight doomed rhinos are located, extra ones may be captured, and any which are infertile or die in captivity may also be replaced, if and when others become available. A preliminary survey has shown that the Torgamba district in the eastern part of Sumatra contains enough rhinos to make it a likely source of the first captures. This region has some of the last groups surviving in the lowlands, and the team will start work there in July. The Field Supervisor representing the Howletts Foundation will be Francesco Nardelli.
The management of successful captive breeding colonies has become a Howletts speciality, and financial and technical help from this source will include the training of keepers and veterinarians in both Indonesia and England, as well as advice on the care, treatment, and transport of captured rhinos. Help will also be given to plans for increasing the protection of viable groups of rhinos in the wild, especially those in national parks and other sanctuaries. If the captive breeding programme is successful, with numbers of rhinos increasing fast, some of its products may even be able to be sent back to reinforce wild populations. Current estimates of the total surviving in the wild vary from 500 to 750 individuals, with Sumatra itself, the last stronghold, containing between 400 and 600. The animal was once known in eastern India, Assam, Burma, Malaya, Indochina, Thailand, and Borneo, as well as Sumatra, but very few, if any, still survive in most of these countries, apart from a handful in Borneo, Malaya, and Thailand. As the first detailed description of this little rhinoceros was published nearly two hundred years ago, perhaps a halt in its sharp decline would be a good way of marking the bicentenary of its introduction to the scientific world.
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The Sumatran Rhinoceros Project
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