Salvation through science

Sep 12 2016

Salvation through science

Attempts to breed these three rhinos naturally have proven unsuccessful. Tam’s sperm quality is not ideal. Although Puntung and Iman are still producing eggs, they both have reproductive pathologies that have rendered them unable to bear a foetus. The only way the species can be saved in Malaysia is through advanced reproductive technology (ART) – using methods such as in-vitro fertilization to create a Sumatran rhino embryo in a laboratory before implanting it in a viable surrogate mother.

This scientific method has proven successful for humans and livestock, but it has never been attempted on the Sumatran Rhino before. BORA have teamed up with renowned international reproductive scientists to work towards a breakthrough before it’s too late.

This experimental process is costly and laborious. As of June 2016, BORA’s funds have run out. If we cannot secure further funding needed to continue ART, our efforts will come to an end and the species will become extinct in Malaysia. BORA and three rhinos need your help. Click here to find out how you can help support this cause.

In the in vitro laboratory at Agro-biotechnology Institute (ABI) Malaysia, (left to right) Prof. Abdul Wahid Haron (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia), Mr Loo Shu San (ABI), Dr Zainal Z Zainuddin (BORA veterinarian), Prof. Arief Boediono (Institut Pertanian Bogor, Indonesia)

Aug 23 2016

Will current conservation responses save the Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis?

This Short Communication appeared in Oryx 2015. It is jointly authored by Rasmus Gren Havmoller, Junaidi Payne, Widodo Ramono, Susie Ellis, K. Yoganand, Barney Long, Eric Dinerstein, A. Christy Williams, Rudi H. Putra, Jamal Gawi, Bibhab Kumar Talukdar and Neil Burgess.

Abstract: The Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis formerly ranged across Southeast Asia. Hunting and habitat loss have made it one of the rarest large mammals and the species faces extinction despite decades of conservation efforts. The number of individuals remaining is unknown as a consequence of inadequate methods and lack of funds for the intensive field work required to estimate the population size of this rare and solitary species. However, all information indicates that numbers are low and declining.

A few individuals persist in Borneo, and three tiny populations remain on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and show evidence of breeding. Rhino Protection Units are deployed at all known breeding sites but poaching and a presumed low breeding rate remain major threats. Protected areas have been created for the rhinoceros and other in situ conservation efforts have increased but the species has continued to go locally extinct across its range. Conventional captive breeding has also proven difficult; from a total of 45 Sumatran rhinoceros taken from the wild since 1984 there were no captive births until 2001. Since then only two pairs have been actively bred in captivity, resulting in four births, three by the same pair at the Cincinnati Zoo and one at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Sumatra, with the sex ratio skewed towards males.

To avoid extinction it will be necessary to implement intensive management zones, manage the metapopulation as a single unit, and develop advanced reproductive techniques as a matter of urgency. Intensive census efforts are ongoing in Bukit Barisan Selatan but elsewhere similar efforts remain at the planning stage.

Read the full article.

Aug 23 2016

Preventing the extinction of the Sumatran rhinoceros

This article which traces the decline of the Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia in the 20th century and considers the challenges of saving this highly endangered species was published in the 2013 Journal of Indonesian Natural History Vol 1 No 2. It is jointly authored by Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Junaidi Payne and Zainal Zahari Zainuddin.

Mud bath: Male rhino Tam enjoying his moment in a wallow at Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Sabah. In the past, captive rhinos were not given access to wallows, which they need to cool their bodies and obtain various minerals. — Bernama — Mud bath: Male rhino Tam enjoying his moment in a wallow at Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Sabah.

Sumatran rhino (SR), Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, represents one the oldest surviving mammal genera. Due to its role in traditional Chinese medicines, the horn of SR has been sought for well over a millennium and for many years the price of SR horn by weight rivalled that of gold. Extensive hunting lead to a precipitous decline in distribution and numbers of SR, particularly during the first decades of the twentieth century (van Strien, 1975) and it seems little short of a miracle that the species is not already extinct. By the mid twentieth century, the species was depleted from its former range and in danger of extinction in Malaya and Borneo (Hubback, 1939; Metcalf, 1961; Medway, 1977; Rookmaaker, 1977), and elsewhere on mainland Asia (Harper, 1945). Flynn and Abdullah (1984) suggested 52-75 SR roamed Peninsular Malaysia in the early 1980s, including 20-25 individuals in the Endau-Rompin area, while Davies and Payne (1982) estimated 15-30 SRs in Sabah. By 1981, the only clear evidence of periodic breeding in wild SR in Malaysia was in Endau-Rompin and the Tabin area of eastern Sabah. At that time, the species was disappearing rapidly from the 20 or more locations where it had been present just a few decades earlier (Payne, 1990). Zainal Zahari (1995) found evidence of only five SRs, all adults, in Endau-Rompin by 1995, showing that published estimates of SR numbers were notoriously unreliable, and that actual numbers had declined by half over the preceding decade. The 1995–1998 Global Environment Facility-UNDP Sumatran Rhinoceros Conservation Strategy project saw SR numbers declining still further, but inflated numbers kept appearing in public domain, largely due to some proponents’ disbelief that two decades of effort had failed.

To read the full article, click the link below:

Preventing the extinction of the Sumatran rhinoceros_Abdul Hamid et al Vol 1(2) Dec2013(1)

Apr 09 2016

Tragic death of Sumatran Rhino points to the need for a single species recovery programme

Media Release – 7 April 2016: An NGO in Malaysian Borneo that has been rescuing critically endangered Sumatran rhinos since 2008 under a program to prevent the species’ extinction says that they stand ready to play a new role with Indonesia.

Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), a non-governmental organization dedicated to preventing the extinction of the Sumatran rhino, is greatly saddened to learn of the death of Najaq, the first rhino captured in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo in recent times. “Najaq was captured less than 700 kilometers south of the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in Sabah, so she might even be distantly related to our rhinos,” said Dr. John Payne, Executive Director of BORA, the organization entrusted with the care of the last three Malaysian Sumatran rhinos in Sabah.

“We recall the cordial visit of representatives of the Government of Indonesia and WWF-Indonesia in early 2015 to observe our captive rhinos. We would value collaboration with Indonesia through the mutual exchange of information and expertise. If Indonesia should so desire, we can bring to the Sabah government the idea of sharing Sabah’s remaining rhinos, or their gametes, in support of Indonesia’s efforts to save this ancient species.”

“BORA applauds the Government of Indonesia’s decision to rescue the remaining rhinos in Kalimantan,“ said Dr Abdul Hamid Ahmad, BORA’s Chairman.

“Our veterinarian, together with the Sabah Wildlife Department, has used a similar capture and translocation protocol to rescue the last two wild rhinos from remote hill forests in Sabah. The capture of isolated Sumatran rhinos is indeed inherently risky, but leaving isolated animals in a place where they cannot find a mate and breed has far greater risks for a critically endangered species with a global population of less than 100. Protection and habitat restoration are no longer sufficient to ensure the Sumatran rhino’s survival.”

“Although Najaq’s death is tragic, we stand with and encourage Indonesia to continue its rescue efforts.”

In addition to Indonesia’s ongoing strategy to find and rescue isolated Sumatran rhinos, reproductive specialists and veterinarians from Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia and those in Malaysia, who together represent Southeast Asia’s leading Sumatran rhino experts, are already working together with experts from Germany, Italy, the United States and other nations. Their goal is to develop advanced reproductive techniques, including in vitro fertilization, in order to give every remaining Sumatran rhino the chance to contribute to the survival of its species. This approach will also help to sustain genetic diversity, a factor critical for the long-term survival of the species.

For further information, please contact:

John Payne, Borneo Rhino Alliance, sabahpayne@gmail.com, phone & whatsapp +60198602040

Sep 22 2015

BORA views on World Rhino Day 2015

Sumatran rhinos are indeed likely to become extinct … but stopping poaching without boosting birth rate will not save the species — Borneo Rhino Alliance

Ceratotherium simum (White rhino), Dicerus bicornis (Black Rhino), Rhinoceros unicornis (Indian rhino) and Dicerorhinus sumatrensis (Sumatran rhino) belong to the same family, just as humans, orang-utans, gorillas and chimpanzees belong to the same family but belong to different genera. We would not presume that the same techniques should be used to promote breeding in all four ape species. Or that what was true in 1980s is the same as in 2015. Or that what is true in Kenya (for example) is true in Malaysia (for example). So there is no reason to treat rhinos as one big homogeneous type of animal with the same issues globally. Each species is different. The Sumatran rhino is the most different of all: it is about to go extinct … not primarily as a result of poaching but primarily because there are not enough births … and this has been the main problem for many decades.

Certainly, we cannot discount poaching. But there is no point in putting most of our efforts into preventing poaching if we are not putting even greater efforts into making more Sumatran rhino babies. You would think that that is common sense.

There is a misconception that more data are needed on wild Sumatran rhinos in order to imagine the best way to save the species from extinction. It does not matter if there are 37 or 57 or 127 Sumatran rhinos remaining (except that, if there are indeed “more studies”, those who think there might be more than 100 Sumatran rhinos are surely in for a nasty surprise. Every effort to estimate Sumatran rhino numbers in the wild after 1980 has resulted in wildly optimistic over-estimates).

To those who wish to deploy camera traps and get faeces to analyse for DNA: “Doing that will not give us any data of use in deciding on policy”. For a solitary and extremely rare animal (in most places where cameras are set, there will be only 0, 1 or 2 rhinos) there is NO way to estimate numbers in the wild. And even if someone does produce an estimate, we have no way of knowing of those individuals are fully fertile or if they are involved in breeding.

The points to bear in mind are: the number of Sumatran rhinos left is getting close to zero; the number that are fertile adults ready to breed is almost zero; the species WILL go extinct if ways are not found and IMPLEMENTED to boost the birth rate above that we have seen since 1980. Those points apply to both wild Sumatran rhinos and to the nine in captive conditions.

The difference between the wild and captive rhinos, however, is profound: we have no idea at all of the actual numbers, fertility, relatedness or frequency of mating (if any) of any wild rhinos. But with the -existence of a single collaborative programme – every rhino in fenced, managed conditions – can contribute to the goal of producing more babies. Even rhinos that cannot breed naturally can contribute.

In Sabah, sperm and eggs have been harvested successfully from Sumatran rhinos that otherwise would have no hope of contributing to production of babies. We in BORA agree that in vitro fertilization is NOT the solution for saving almost any other species from extinction. In fact, it is irrelevant and not even part of the solution for almost all species. But the Sumatran rhino is different. Every possible method known to man has to be used to produce more baby rhinos. Successful in vitro fertilization leading to embryo production is not unknown to man.

Let’s do it.

Filepic of Tam being coaxed into a trap with leaves. He was found wandering in an oil palm plantation in Kretam, Sabah in 2008