Borneo Rhino Alliance

BORA is an NGO which is dedicated to uniting partners in a concerted campaign to save the Sumatran Rhinoceros from extinction.

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World’s attention on bid to breed rhino

Dr Laurentius (centre) presenting mementos to Dr Heribent

By LARRY RAILON-Daily Express, 23 November  2010

Kota Kinabalu: The world’s attention will be on the Tabin Wildlife Sanctuary in Lahad Datu for the next 12 months or so to witness an attempt to breed the Sumatran rhinoceros – the world’s most endangered rhino species.

This will be done under a collaboration between the State Government and Germany. If successful, it will be an important milestone not only for the State’s conservation efforts but also the world.

The Sumatran rhino has been known all the while to be very sensitive with countless attempts made previously to breed it failing.

The breeding attempt is one of the collaboration projects under the Memorandum of Understanding sealed between the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), the Leipzig Zoo (LZ) and State Government, represented by the Sabah Wildlife Department.

It was signed Wildlife Director Dr Laurentius N. Ambu, IZW Director Prof. Dr Heribert Hofer DPhil and LZ Director Dr Jorg Junhold in a ceremony held at the department headquarters in Wisma Muis, here, Monday. The MoU is aimed at combining international expertise and resources in order to prevent further losses of biodiversity.

Sabah is internationally renowned as one of the world’s most important hotspots of biodiversity, including the world’s oldest rainforests with its associated fauna and flora. According to the IUCN, Sabah’s large animals – such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, Borneo pygmy elephants, Sunda clouded leopard and orang-utan, which are seriously threatened, face an extinction crisis.

For several years already, both the Wildlife Department and IZW have cooperated in conducting research on the conservation needs of threatened Bornean carnivores. This initiative has raised international attention through the re-discovery of the hairy-nosed otter in Sabah after over 100 years, and the first video ever taken of the Sunda clouded leopard or the endangered otter civet. With the MoU signed, this partnership will expand its remit to other Bornean flagship species such as the Sumatran rhino.

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has agreed to finance the attempt to breed the Sabah rhino, the first project in the collaboration.

The Sabah rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni) is a subspecies of the Sumatran rhino and primarily lives in the lowland rainforests of the State. It is the smallest rhino and with less than 50 individuals it is the most endangered rhino species on the planet after the Northern white rhino in Africa. The Wildlife Department, with the cooperation of the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA) and WWF Malaysia, started a comprehensive conservation programme to protect and breed these impressive rhinos.

The Bornean Rhino Rescue Programme is jointly funded by the Malaysian Government through the Sabah Development Corridor as well as Yayasan Sime Darby. “Yayasan Sime Darby has been very instrumental in initialising the Rhino Rescue Programme here in Sabah. The IZW will contribute to this programme with its scientific expertise in assisted reproduction techniques, and the LZ will contribute their skills in animal husbandry and will train our local staff in handling the animals,” said Dr Laurentius.

The IZW is known for its scientifically based approach to conservation research. “With the financial support from the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education, which has recently been granted for the Sabah rhino project, we are able to implement research and to support the local breeding programme with high tech equipment and a team of experts from Germany and Australia,” said Dr Heribert. LZ will send skilled keepers to Sabah in order to exchange their experiences in captive management, enrichment techniques and in enclosure design with the local keepers in Lok Kawi and Tabin. “On top of this we will inform more than two million visitors annually about Sabah’s outstanding rhino conservation project in our tropical hall ‘Gondwanaland’, which will open in 2011,” said Dr Jorg.

The IZW and LZ are closely collaborating with dan pearlman, a German brand and experience architecture firm, which will help promote the Sabah rhino project in Germany.

The cooperation between the Wildlife Department, IZW and LZ was initiated in November 2009 during a visit by the directors of the two German institutions in Sabah. The parties agreed to cooperate, improve, develop and implement strategies in the fields of wildlife conservation research, wildlife veterinary medicine and zoo management science. Shortly after their visit, the experts from both organisations performed a reproductive assessment of a captive male and female rhino, conducted by a specialist team of wildlife veterinarian scientists led by Dr Thomas Hildebrant from IZW and Prof. Chris Walzer from the Veterinary University of Vienna.

In January next year, the next step of the programme of reproductive research will take place.

“A female rhino, recently transferred to Tabin, will be stimulated with hormones and artificially inseminated,” said Dr Petra Kretzschmar from IZW. Explaining further, she said the resulting embryos will be collected and frozen in liquid nitrogen. Her genes are very valuable for the survival of the species but she is unfortunately too old to breed naturally.Acting swiftly is necessary for the success of the Sabah rhino conservation programme and its associated research.

Large areas of rhino habitat have disappeared for oil palm production which has fragmented the landscape, making reproductive contact between individuals difficult.

The Rhino and Forest Fund, a German-based non-governmental organisation, will supplement the conservation research programme of IZW and LZ, restoring and reconnecting degraded and fragmented forest land through reforestation.

The aim is to increase habitat and reconnect patches of rainforest, enabling the movements of individuals and the continuation of breeding of isolated populations.

The project is conducted in cooperation with the Sabah Forestry Department.

It is believed that this approach, including cutting edge scientific know-how from IZW, training and preparation from a prominent zoo, a reforestation programme and a public awareness campaign is unique and necessary for the rescue of one of the most endangered species on earth.

New vehicles make all the difference

3rd March 2010

Sime Darby Auto Connection Sdn Bhd Branch Manager, Chris Mojingol (third from left) handing over the three vehicles to Dr Abdul Hamid (second left), with BORA Executive Director Dr Junaidi Payne (far left) and BORA Administration Officer Lonia Adam (second right).

A big boost to BORA’s work was made today when three 4WD vehicles were purchased using the RM5 million fund from Sime Darby Foundation, the main funding organization for the current work on the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary.

Chairman of the BORA Board of Directors, Dr Abdul Hamid, received the Ford Ranger vehicles at the Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation at Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu on 3rd March, 2010.

One of the vehicles in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, with Sabah Wildlife Department senior ranger Mr Herman Stawin (right) and BORA Rhino Protection Unit ranger Augustine David.

Until now BORA staff in the field had to rely on one aging 4WD vehicle to carry out all their activities so the addition of the new Ford Rangers will be a huge boost.

An added bonus was getting tax exemption for the three vehicles from the Malaysian government, for which BORA is extremely grateful.

Said Dr Junaidi Payne “Our work is largely field based. I cannot emphasise enough the need for this type of vehicle.”

A Plan to Bring Isolated Borneo Rhinos Together

Story by RHISHJA LARSON

Published on www.ecolocalizer.com, August 18th, 2009

Tam can roam in the knowledge that he is safe from poachers in the rhino sanctuary.

An initiative to transport lone Borneo rhinos to a secure central location – where they can interact with other rhinos – could mean hope for this extremely rare subspecies.

Tabin Wildlife Reserve located in Sabah, Malaysia is the last home of the Bornean rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni), a distinct subspecies of the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis). It is estimated that fewer than 50 Bornean rhinos are still surviving in Sabah. Borneo rhinos are said to be even smaller than Sumatran rhinos, with some standing only three feet tall at the shoulder. Both species are covered with bristly hair that rubs down as they mature and create “tunnels” by crashing through the rainforest.
Sadly, some of these rhinos are living alone in fragmented pockets of forest, cut off from other rhino populations, where they have no hope of meeting another of their kind – and the isolation of these animals could lead to their extinction.

In a recent article in the Star (Malaysia), Junaidi Payne of WWF and Borneo Rhinoceros Alliance (Bora) says that these rhinos are likely to die out completely unless there is some active intervention.

In the past, rhinos were threatened by poaching, loss of habitat and so on. But now they are mostly threatened by the simple fact that there just aren’t enough of them around in one place anymore. Tabin is the only place left in Malaysia where there is hope of saving the rhino because there are a few breeding individuals and we know the habitat is good because historically they were here.

An intervention to save Borneo rhinos

Fortunately, some human intervention has arrived: Plans have been approved to create the 4,500ha Borneo Rhinoceros Sanctuary (BRS) within Tabin Wildlife Reserve. Individual rhinos will be brought in from their fragmented locations in hopes that roaming free together in the sanctuary will entice them to breed.

The Borneo Rhinoceros Sanctuary (BRS) is new hope for these small rhinos. The plan is not to round up every wild rhino in Sabah, but rather to locate the isolated rhinos and transport them to a central location where they can roam and interact naturally with other rhinos in the sanctuary.

This will be a “hands-off” breeding program, in contrast to a failed captive breeding program in Malaysia in which tragically, most of the rhinos died. By translocating these rhinos to the BRS, they are given a chance to contribute to the survival of the species – something they certainly cannot do alone.

As part of the initiative, the sanctuary will be encircled by an electric fence – the first project of its kind to include a large fenced area in a tropical rainforest.

The rhino sanctuary’s first resident

The Borneo Rhino Sanctuary even has its first resident – Tam, a male rhino found in a palm oil plantation last year. Because Tam did not want to return to the forest on his own, WWF’s Payne suspects the rhino had previously been injured by a trap set by poachers.

Tam is currently living in a fenced 2,500ha area until the sanctuary is ready. He receives regular medical check-ups from volunteers in a makeshift paddock within his temporary home.

Once the BRS is ready, Tam will be moved. The sanctuary is expected to be open in year. Wildlife experts are planning to capture four or five additional rhinos over the next few years, and introduce them to the sanctuary. It is not expected that the rhinos will begin breeding immediately, and it could be ten years before the success of the project can be determined.

Borneo rhinos in the future

The ultimate goal of the BRS is to ensure the long-term survival of these rhinos. Payne points out that without a conservation “intervention”, the Borneo rhino will become extinct in our lifetime.

The BRS is a joint initiative between the Sime Darby Foundation and the Sabah Government. The project is part of Sime’s Big 9 campaign to protect nine endangered Malaysian animals – the Sumatran rhino, orang utan, hornbill, sun bear, banteng (wild cattle), clouded leopard, pygmy elephant, proboscis monkey and the Malayan tiger, all of which (with the exception of the tiger) can be found in Tabin.

Here’s to the future success of the Borneo Rhinoceros Sanctuary!

Sime Darby Foundation Plans Rhino Sanctuary in Sabah

BERNAMA June 30, 2009
LAHAD DATU, June 30 (Bernama) — The Sime Darby Foundation (SDF) and Sabah government will set up a sanctuary in the Tabin Forest Reserve for sumatran rhinos to protect the wildlife from extinction.
The Borneo Rhino Sanctuary will provide a safe refuge for the endangered Bornean rhino whose range is increasingly being encroached upon by commercial agriculture.

A 4,500-hectare area will be allocated for the project with the cost of providing the infrastructure including a fence around it being funded by SDF.

An agreement on the cooperation was signed at Tabin Wildlife Resort, about 48 kilometres from here, between the foundation and the state government Tuesday.

YSD was represented by its chairman Tun Musa Hitam while Sabah by State Wildlife Department Director Datuk Lawrentius Ambu. Present was Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.

“We are providing RM7.3 million including RM5 million for the infrastructure in 4,500-hectare area to keep all sumatran rhinos found,” Musa said.

He said the plan to create the sanctuary was part of Sime Darby’s “Big 9” campaign to protect nine endangered wild animals, namely sun bear, orang utan, pygmy elephant, bornean clouded leopard, sumatran rhino, malayan tiger, monyet belanda (long-nosed monkey), hornbill and banteng (species of wild cattle).

Masidi said that project would hopefully help sumatran rhino to breed since there was a fear that it would become extinct if no effective action was taken.

Based on studies, no sumatran rhino calf had been found over the past four to eight years and one was the reasons was that adult rhinos live in solitude.

“Our hope is to build a wildlife centre specially for rhinos and put the animal caught in the wild in the sanctuary. Hopefully, the meeting of rhinos will help them mate and breed,” he said.

According to statistics, 13 sumatran rhinos have been detected in Danum Valley and another 15 in the Tabin Forest Reserve.

— BERNAMA

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