Copyright 2001, Environmental News Network
October 16, 2001

On the extreme southwestern tip of the Indonesian island of Java, deep in a forested national park, four new baby rhinos have been born in the past two years. Along with them, new hope has been born that the Javan rhinocerus as a species may not yet vanish from the Earth.

After years when no Javan rhinos were born, photos released this week by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) show the presence of the rhino babies. The new births were confirmed through an 18 month survey carried out by WWF and the national park authority in Ujung Kulon National Park.

WWF has also been working with the International Rhino Foundation to support Rhino Monitoring and Protection Units. Patrol units are made up of park rangers and local people as part of an effort to boost community participation in conservation.

Researchers, using camera traps, DNA analysis of droppings and tracking the animals through the forest, have documented the existence of the young rhinos. One of the world's rarest large mammals, the last remaining viable natural refuge for Javan rhinos is in Ujung Kulon National Park where there are about 50 rhinos.

They are the remnants of a richer and biodiverse ecosystem which once included the Javan tiger, locally extirpated about 40 years ago. Another five to eight Javan rhinos are believed to live in the Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam. None exist in captivity.

Once found in Malayasia, Burma, Thailand, Indochina, Java, Sumatra, and Northern India, they have fallen to poachers. Now, the Javan and the Sumatran rhinos are both considered the most endangered rhino species.

Nazir Foead, deputy director for species conservation at WWF Indonesia, says, "The births are a significant step and indicate that the rhinoceros are breeding with potential for further gains in population after years of zero growth."

In January 2000, WWF Indonesia and the Ujung Kulon park management, with the support of the American Association of Zoo Keepers, started the camera trapping survey with the setting up of 10 cameras. Between August 2000 and July 2001, the team found footprints of calves and mothers in Ujung Kulon.

In August and September 2000, photos of a mother named Cici were captured on camera in Cigenter in the park. In January 2001, a calf named Doly was photographed in Cikeusik. Another calf, Rara, estimated to have been born in April 1999, has been captured twice on camera.

Footprints of another calf and mother were located in Citadahan in July 2001.

Although cameras have been set up, neither this mother nor calf have yet been captured on film. Ujung Kulon was originally established as a nature reserve to protect the rhinoceros whose population had fallen to between 25 and 30 animals in the 1930s.

Since the 1960s, WWF has been working with the Indonesian authorities to improve park management and rhino conservation. WWF is helping village communities around the park of whom about 30 percent are farm labourers, to improve their livelihoods without jeopardizing conservation of the rhinoceros.

This includes supporting micro-credit programs for women and farmers groups, setting aside zones from which seaweed can be put to traditional use, and promoting locally based ecotourism cooperatives and agroforestry measures. Foead is hopeful that this cooperation can help increase the Javan rhino population in the future.

"Working with the local community, the park authorities and the government, between 1967 and 1978 we managed to double the population of Javan rhinos. WWF will continue to support conservation activities in Ujung Kulon, however, much more intensive monitoring of the new-borns and their mothers is needed so that the population growth can be convincingly determined," he said.

WWF and the park authority share the goal of building the rhino population up to the habitat's carrying capacity of about 80 animals in Ujung Kulon National Park. They then intend to translocate some of the rare rhinos to form a founding group in a different area for a second Javan rhino population in Indonesia. Error: Unable to read footer file.