Chaiyaphum Province, in north-east Thailand (16?N., 101?E.) (1 on map), is far from any previously reported rhinoceros localities. In 1967 a report that one had been killed in the Petchabun Mountains of Chaiyaphum was greeted with some scepticism, but it was reinforced in 1970 when another rhino was killed in the same area; this time sufficient skin was recovered to enable Thai Forestry Department officials to identify it as Sumatran. In order to have a better insight into the situation at Chaiyaphum, the Association for the Conservation of Wildlife (ACW) in January 1972 sent an expedition to the Phu Kheo Forest Reserve, where the rhino was killed in 1970 and where, according to local hunters, three still exist. Despite the price (or because it), its sale is widespread; of 25 Chinese medicine shops visited in Bangkok, eight had a complete rhino horn (from which shavings are sold) and several others had fragments. A shop in Nakorn Ratsima, in north-east Thailand, had three complete horns, several fragments, and one complete rostrum skin of sumatrensis, with both horns still attached to the skin. This came from Chaiyaphum, according to the shopowner.
Between the Tenasserim and the Malay border are Krabi and Trang Provinces (3 on map), where rhino have been reported by local villagers who insist that they are Javan ('raat' in Thai), not Sumatran ('krasoo'). Both provinces, being sparsely populated and covered with tropical rain forest, are suitable for Javan.
Hislop (1965) indicated that there were three to six Sumatran rhinos along the Thai border, with one or two in Perak, bordering on Yala Province (4 on map), and two to four in Kedah, bordering on Songkhla (5 on map). Some of these might occasionally cross the border into Thailand, but this area is now occupied by insurgents living off the land, so it does not seem likely that the rhino are very secure.
Hislop (1965) indicated that there were three to six Sumatran rhinos along the Thai border, with one or two in Perak, bordering on Yala Province (4 on map), and two to four in Kedah, bordering on Songkhla (5 on map). Some of these might occasionally cross the border into Thailand, but this area is now occupied by insurgents living off the land, so it does not seem likely that the rhino are very secure.
Of the two rhinos formerly found in Thailand, the Javan is believed now to be extinct there, although the authors of this survey report that some villagers in southern Thailand insist that the rhinos in their area are Javan.
The Sumatran rhino is in desperate straits, with poaching a major threat - not surprisingly when a dead animal can be sold for the equivalent of up to twenty years' wages for a farmer. Their decline is largely due to human factors beginning at least 50,000 years ago (Martin and Wright). The rhinos along the Tenasserim and the Malay border do not represent any addition to the known world rhinoceros population because most of these animals were probably included in earlier censuses. But they are a reminder that rhinoceroses are wide-ranging animals, and that their conservation on the mainland should be considered an international problem, not an internal one. Further, the rhinos living in these areas are part of a political problem, the increasing domination of forested areas by insurgents of various political persuasions, who live off the land, killing large maminals for meat. Conserving rhinos in Thailand raises a serious economic problem. The remains of a rhino are worth over $2000 (10 to 20 years' earnings for a Thai farmer), so it is extremely difficult to prevent a villager shooting one if he has a chance.
Raat
Krasoo
The horn is used for everything from painkiller to easing childbirth, but the most popular use is as an aphrodisiac among elderly Chinese men.
Thailand. The horn is used for everything from painkiller to easing childbirth, but the most popular use is as an aphrodisiac among elderly Chinese men.
Thailand, Chaiyaphum Province. With one guide we walked up river, reasoning that a rhino, to cross the valley, would have to cross the stream, and it was an ideal situation for tracks. We found tracks of rodents, civets, tigers, bears, elephants, otters, deer, and gaur, and eventually came across one track which appeared to be that of Sumatran rhino. It was 20 cm wide, well within the normal 18-24 cm range given by Medway (1969), and well under the 25-35 range for the Javan. The track was at least three weeks old, but the animal appeared to have dug his toes into the bank for a better grip, leaving a relatively clear print for the middle toe, less clear for the side toes. We followed tracks upstream and found other less obvious tracks (though the size was appropriate for Sumatran), a very old wallow and a few feeding sites, where some thin saplings had been twisted in a manner distinctly rhinoceros (Strickland, 1967).
