11-13, cf. Harrisson 1965
Surveys by Wildlife dept. between 1980 and 1991 indicated minimum 3-7 rhinos, with steady declines in rhino signs between 1982 and 1991.
nearly extinct, cf. Harrisson. Countries as Singapore continued to obtain rhino horn from Borneo
relatively common, cf. Mj?berg 1930
relatively common, cf. Weedon 1906
The use and trade in rhino horn is recorded from China as early as 2600 BC. But what was once a familiar animal throughout much of China was already considered a rarity `by the time of the ages of illuminated books' [Schafer 1963].
5, cf. Harrisson 1965
15-30, cf. Davies & Payne 1982
2, cf. Harrisson 1965
Of two new rhinos captured since 1992, both in the forests of an area proposed for protection along the Kinabatangan River, one died in captivity under the care of a foreign veterinarian sponsored by the United Nations Development Program and another was radio-collared by the Program's wildlife specialist and put in an enclosure in Tabin. The rhino immediately broke free of the enclosure and went into the forest. Despite the collar, the animal was never followed after its escape. Under the same management, efforts to capture, collar, and relocate additional rhinos were continued.
Census 1995. In September 1992, Rabinowitz organized a rhino survey at the request of the Sabah Foundation and the Sabah Wildlife Department to assess rhino abundance and to standardize a methodology for future rhino surveys and monitoring in the area. Two small groups of rhinos, each consisting of two to three individuals, were found through intense surveying of areas totalling 80 km?. Assuming that other rhinos might be similarly distributed, an estimate of 13-23 rhinos was made for the 1000 km? Greater Danum Valley Conservation Area. While this estimate was more than twice that speculated by the Asian Rhino Action Plan, this survey put to rest the assumption that much of the area was undisturbed and protected by virtue of its ruggedness and isolation. Only two out of seven teams found recent evidence of rhino presence. Five teams encountered only old rhino sign, along with old hunting camps. This included an area where rhinos had been studied in 1986, but were now no longer present. Of the two teams that discovered fresh rhino sign, one was located adjacent to the field station and tourist accommodation. The second team, which was dropped by helicopter into the most remote section of the study area, encountered an ongoing rhino-poaching expedition. The hunters fled along a well-used trail peppered with old campsites, indicating a history of poaching in the area.
Fauna Conservation Ordinance of 1963 protects rhino
During a 1992 elephant census in Tabin, spoor of only one rhino was encountered in 118 km of transcends. Later that year, rhino tracks were sighted close to the Tabin ranger station in an area firequented by visitors and researchers but with virtually no hunting pressures.
The Javan Rhino was thought to have disappeared due to natural causes about 12,000 years ago.
Wildlife Protection Ordinance of 1958 protects rhino.
The Silabukan Forest Reserve had been commercially logged since the 1960s, even while it was thought to contain one of the largest remaining concentration of rhinos in Sabah. In the early 1980s, Davies and Payne (1982) verified the presence of a breeding population of Sumatran rhinos in this lowland forest and pushed for protection of the area. Finally, in 1984 1220 km? were gazetted by the Sabah government as the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, primarily for the protection of rhinos (Andau 1987). But, selective logging in the reserve continued under license through 1986 (Payne 1986) and `unofficially' through the early 1990s.
Rhinoceronte de Sumatra
Sumatran rhino. Although no definitive rhino sign was observed, interviews with local hunters and forestry officials resulted in 33 reported rhino locations spanning the years 1971-93 in the Upper Chindwin River area around Tamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary (Figure 1). These records indicate that a small rhino population existed in the Tamanthi area until the early 1980s. However, with at least nine documented rhino kills (six adult males, three adult females) during the 1980s, poaching has reduced any remnant population in the area to near extinction (Figure 1). Our guide, a former rhino-hunter, saw rhino tracks in 1991. This and other recent sightings of rhino tracks indicate the possibility of one or two individuals in the northeast corner of Tamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary. Other sightings indicate the possibility of one or two rhinos in the forests between Tamanthi Sanctuary and Indawygi Lake, and maybe one or two rhinos in the vicinity of Mt Saramati on the Indian border.
