7-14
Early in 1986, the staff of Sabah Foundation reported the sighting of two rhinos in Malua Forest Reserve, an area within the Foundation's concession about 25 km north of Danum Valley Conservation Area. Game Branch staff subsequently confirmed the presence of rhino in this area, and in April 1986, a survey was carried out in the upper Matua/upper Bilong drainage. The survey found definite evidence of only one rhino and footprints indicating the possible presence of three adults in the 13,000 ha. The Matua/Bilong area is in forest (scheduled for logging) contiguous with the Danum Valley Conservation Area, and so the Danum-Malua rhinos may in fact, be one contiguous population.
2-4
more abundant than thought
A short survey has been done, since access to this area is much easier now than in 1982
1-3 in Malua/Bilong area bordering on Danum
Recommendation of 1982 AsRSG meeting: Danum Valley, Sungai Imbak, Kuamut, Gunung Lotung. These remote areas have never been the concern of a biologist or conservation survey. They might still harbour rhinos. The other regions mentioned (Sungai Imbak, Kuamut, Gunung Lotung and the Sabah-Kalimantan border area) are still the remotest parts of Sabah and primarily for this reason have not been surveyed. There is actually no immediate urgency to conduct thorough surveys in the.most remote areas where rhinos are relatively safe.
Recommendation of 1982 AsRSG meeting: Danum Valley, Sungai Imbak, Kuamut, Gunung Lotung. These remote areas have never been the concern of a biologist or conservation survey. They might still harbour rhinos. The other regions mentioned (Sungai Imbak, Kuamut, Gunung Lotung and the Sabah-Kalimantan border area) are still the remotest parts of Sabah and primarily for this reason have not been surveyed. There is actually no immediate urgency to conduct thorough surveys in the.most remote areas where rhinos are relatively safe.
Less than 20 adults
Over 90% of the Reserve has been selectively logged or allocated for logging. Formerly, the Sabah Foundation (Sabah's largest logging concession-holder) held 100-year logging rights over half the area of Tabin. In 1983, the Foundation.relinquished those long-term rights, and it was expected that logging in the reserve would cease in 1987 or 1988. An area of 8616 ha in the middle of the reserve has been designated as the `core area' where logging is not permitted. The purpose of the `core area' (designated in 1984) was to provide a refuge for the rhinos that are displaced by the logging activity nearby.
The park contains the largest known concentration of rhinos remaining in Sabah. Roughly one quarter of the reserve's boundary is shared with oil palm and cocoa plantations, the remainder with contiguous logged dipterocarp forest in which rhinos undoubtedly occur.
Possibility of rhino in East Kalimantan, according to Mr. Roedjai.
The Game Branch (= Wildlife Section) of the State Forestry Department is the Government Agency responsible for the conservation of wildlife including the rhinos in Sabah (except in the Parks, which cover about 3% of Sabah, and in which there is no evidence of any rhino). Other duties which the Game Branch is obliged to perform, prevent any major survey effort for rhinos except in special cases, and instead personnel working in appropriate areas (logging camps, new plantations etc) are encouraged to report any evidence of rhinos to the Game Branch Staff.
Record 1985: The record from the southern slopes of Gunung Lotung (south of central Sabah) is of interest because the size of the footprints reported suggests that tapir may be present. The dung of this animal, brought to Sandakan by the discoverer, was undoubtedly that of a rhino or a tapir.
Recommendation of 1982 AsRSG meeting: Danum Valley, Sungai Imbak, Kuamut, Gunung Lotung. These remote areas have never been the concern of a biologist or conservation survey. They might still harbour rhinos. The other regions mentioned (Sungai Imbak, Kuamut, Gunung Lotung and the Sabah-Kalimantan border area) are still the remotest parts of Sabah and primarily for this reason have not been surveyed. There is actually no immediate urgency to conduct thorough surveys in the.most remote areas where rhinos are relatively safe.
Sabah foundation relinquishes rights for logging.
records 1980-1985 noted on distribution map, p.41. The two northern records shown on the map represent general regions within which rhinos have definitely occured in the past (up to the 1960s), and from where unconfirmed reports of both footprints and rhino poaching have come within the past year. The three southern records represent reports of rhinos or their footprints received during 1986, which seem reliable but are yet to be confirmed. The records of rhinos in Sabah collected over the past five years indicate a wider distribution and probably an even greater abundance than was thought likely at the 1982 meeting. These data do not indicate that the status of the rhino is any better now than it was then. Firstly, despite all the new records, there is still no evidence of any one concentration of rhinos bigger than that found in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve. Most of the rhinos appear to be living isolated from one another, not in potentially viable breeding populations. Secondly, poaching pressure is still highly significant. Thirdly, some of the rhinos are living in areas scheduled for forest clearance.
A survey of the same region as in 1982, but covering a smaller area centred on the Tabin watershed revealed a higher density of rhinos than was indicated in 1982
1985 March, gazetted by the State Government, about 120.000 ha
Designation of a `core area' of 8616 ha without logging
A survey conducted in an undisturbed forest in the Silabukan area in august 1982. Definite evidence was found of the presence of seven adult rhinos within an area of 28,000 ha. Additional surveys conducted before and after the main survey, and ambigous data from the main survey, indicated that up to 14 animals, including one juvenile were living in and around this area.
Recommendation of 1982 AsRSG meeting: Danum Valley, Sungai Imbak, Kuamut, Gunung Lotung. These remote areas have never been the concern of a biologist or conservation survey. They might still harbour rhinos. The other regions mentioned (Sungai Imbak, Kuamut, Gunung Lotung and the Sabah-Kalimantan border area) are still the remotest parts of Sabah and primarily for this reason have not been surveyed. There is actually no immediate urgency to conduct thorough surveys in the.most remote areas where rhinos are relatively safe.
Recommendations at AsRSG meeting, 1982. For practically the whole Silabukan rhino range, the Sabah Foundation has a logging consession. At present, several logging teams are operating. Evidently, this causes serious disturbances to the rhinos. In addition, some time ago, a rhino was shot by loggers. The objectives in the interest of rhino conservation are (a) to stop illegal hunting of rhinos, (b) to save as large an area as possible from being logged, (c) to select patterns of logging to which the rhinos are able to adapt. Evidently these objectives necessitate negotiations with the Sabah Foundation and supervision of the loggers' activities by guards.
Logging in the Silabukan area has continued. Two 4-wheel drive vehicles have been purchased through IUCN/WWF Project No: 1972 to assist Rangers of the Game Branch, Sabah Forestry Department in protecting rhinos in the Silabukan region.
A comprehensive series of amendments to the Sabah legislation relevant to rhino conservation were drafted earlier this year, and are currently under review. Suggested amendments include a mandadory minimum jail sentence for anyone found in possession of rhino part or product. At present heavy penalties apply only to hunting of rhino which normally cannot be proven, while penalties for possession of parts of rhino are not commensurate with the black-market value of those parts. Passage of new legislation is unlikely until 1987.
In 1985, the Sabah Government formed the Sabah Rhino & Wildlife Conservation Committee (SRWCC) in response to the need for urgent measures to save the endangered Sumatran rhino in Sabah. The. committee was given a grant of MR 3,000,000 and the responsibility of translocating or capturing isolated individuals for captive breeding in cooperation with the Game Branch of the Forestry Department.
Sabah, showing reports received 1980-1985 of areas with 1-2 rhinos remaining, evidence of killing, unconfirmed reports.
Since the 1982 AsRSG Meeting, Sabah Foundation has officially designated Danum Valley (42,755 ha) as a Conservation Area in its long-term management plan for its concession, in which no logging will be allowed. A road has been constructed to meet the eastern boundary of the Conservation Area, and there are several buildings at the site including permanent staff quarters, two classes of visitor accommodation, laboratory and meeting room.
The method entails the involvement of as many personnel as possible in the search for footprints of rhinos within a predetermined area and in accordance with a predetermined schedule of routes and times. Personnel enter the survey area in groups of four and work from a series of work camps in sub-groups of two. Survey routes cover streams and ridge tops wherever possible, and are spaced on an average, at about 2 km apart. All evidence of rhinos is recorded, in particular measurements of fresh footprints. The data are used to calculate the minimum number of animals present in the survey area. Methods are similar to those used by rhino researchers in Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra.
From Sabah. Ethnic Chinese traders in Sabah are known to maintain close links with their counterparts in Hong Kong and Singapore.
