Efforts to save Malaysian rhinos

[Guest guest]

Tuesday, March 26, 2002 - The Star

Stout efforts on the horizon

By S.S. YOGA

GOOD news is so rare in environmental reporting. But we finally have some:

two young Sumatran rhinos have been spotted in the wilds of Pahang in the

past few months.

This is great news considering we have killed off their cousins, the Javan

rhino, and reduced their own numbers to an estimated 100 in Peninsular

Malaysia. In fact, experts think there are only 300 Sumatran rhinos left in

the world – 50 in Sabah in addition to the 100 on the peninsula; the

remaining 150 are in Indonesia.

Mohd Khan Momin Khan, chairman of the Malaysian Rhino Foundation, beamingly

reports that four calves had been sighted in Pahang in recent years and 10

rhinos of various ages spotted there last year, including the two

youngsters.

The smile turns to a frown, though, when I ask where exactly in the state

the calves were sighted. Giving their location away would sentence them to

death, he says, for poachers would be in there in a flash, giving those rare

gems no chance to live to adulthood.

Therein lies a major problem. Poachers hunt these animals for their horns

because they are supposedly an aphrodisiac, and other body parts because

they have medicinal value – even though there is still no scientific

evidence proving any part is of any use for anything.

In Taman Negara, teams from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks

(commonly known by it’s Malay acronym, Perhilitan) came across groups of

poachers numbering from 10 to 20. Apparently, many of these poachers are

from our neighbour up north where a thriving market in illegal animals and

animal parts supplies the huge Hong Kong and China markets.

Rhino horn and body parts are much in demand among traditional Chinese

medicine practitioners and users. So much so that one rhino horn can fetch

RM150,000! Put that beside the intangible value of saving a species from

extinction and there’s obviously no contest.

Nor was there any contest during the last century when it came to choosing

between turning wild lands into plantations and the continued existence of a

species, especially on the peninsula.

Efforts to save the rhino

Perhilitan is trying to do what it can to save the rhinos’ habitat by

getting state governments to protect some remaining wild lands from

development. Mohd Khan, who has also been chairman of the Asian Rhino

Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union for 17 years, says that the

Malaysian Rhino Foundation is working with the department to persuade the

Pahang Government to gazette the area where the calves were spotted as a

park or wildlife sanctuary.

“In situ (meaning within the habitat itself) conservation actually started

formally in 1972 … with protection of habitats and all species without

specialisation. Later, specific units for animals like tigers and rhinos

were formed within Perhilitan,” details Mohd Khan, who is a former

Perhilitan director-general.

The specialised units were formed as a response to the increasingly severe

poaching problems. Perhilitan’s anti-poaching Rhino Protection Unit was

formed in 1997.

The Rhino Protection Unit went into full swing in 1993 when it received

funding from the Global Environment Facility of the United Nations

Development Fund. From a total of US$2mil (RM7.6mil), half went to a

Perhilitan trust fund while the remainder went to the Sabah Wildlife

Department.

There are 13 Rhino Protection Unit teams with a total of 62 rangers; an

additional two rangers who are paid for by the Malaysian Rhino Foundation

are attached to the Sumatran Rhino Breeding Facility in the Sungai Dusun

Wildlife Conservation Centre in Selangor. Each protection team normally has

four members but in Taman Negara there are six because of the huge area they

have to cover. There are five units in the park that each spend a minimum of

10 days a month in the jungle.

Mohd Khan says even though they have not caught any rhino poachers, these

dedicated teams have arrested people involved in other nature offences.

Also, the teams look for and destroy traps.

The Global Environment Facility funding only lasted until 1998. After that

the Rhino Foundation of Malaysia and the Internation-al Rhino Foundation (a

non-profit international corporation of institutions and individuals whose

sole purpose is dedicated to the conservation of the world’s five rhino

species) came in with financial support. Mohd Khan says that the Malaysian

foundation was launched last March with its current focus of raising funds

from corporations, other organisations and even individuals for rhino

conservation.

It’s ironic that while poachers can get hundreds and thousands of ringgit

for one horn, the bodies charged with protecting these animals have to

struggle for every ringgit. When the global fund ran out, Perhilitan even

worked with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which provided

funds through an act of the US Congress, the Rhinoceros and Tiger

Conservation Act. Last year, thanks again to Mohd Khan’s influence with Save

the Tiger Fund (of which he is a council member), Perhilitan received

US$70,000 (RM266,000), which was used to purchase equipment.

Wait a minute, tiger funds to save the rhinoceros? Mohd Khan’s explanation

underlines just how interconnected nature is and why it is urgent that these

rhinos are saved.

“Tigers and elephants, like rhinoceros, are ‘flagship’ species and one of

the big four here that includes the seladang. If you save the rhino’s

habitat you save the habitat of other species too,” he explains.

Charging ahead

Despite the effort to fund rangers and their in-situ conservation work,

ex-situ conservation – such as captive breeding programmes – is urgently

needed, too. According to Mohd Khan, rhinos are solitary animals to begin

with; add the fact that their numbers are so low and that they are scattered

in isolated pockets of jungle, and the chances of a male and female rhino

meeting up and mating are very low indeed.

The Sungai Dusun Wildlife Conservation Centre in Selangor is where one such

breeding effort takes place. Started in 1984, the centre is run jointly by

Perhilitan, the International Rhino Foundation and the Asian Rhino

Specialist Group, while the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States also

provides financial and technical assistance. As Mohd Khan points out, rhino

conservation is very much an international effort because the animal is a

flagship species.

Unfortunately, mortality rates among captive rhinos are high and of the 40

rhinos in captivity worldwide, there are now only 14 left; the latest death,

of a rhino called Shah at the Sungai Dusun facility, occurred on Jan 19.

Equally disappointing is the fact the first birth to occur in captivity, at

the Cincinnati Zoo last September, took 112 years to happen.

Mating is difficult for rhinos, says Mohd Khan. Getting the male and the

female together is a matter of exact timing; and the mating act itself is a

difficult procedure. Carrying a baby to full term is another difficulty

captive female rhinos have faced over the years. The Sungai Dusun centre has

come up with some innovative methods to help the process along. For

instance, they now find it easier to know if the female is ready for mating

by taking blood samples.

The breeding programme, however, needs to work in tandem with in situ

conservation efforts if our rhinos are to be saved. Mohd Khan advocates a

two-prong approach: carry on with the breeding programme by replacing some

of the older animals in captivity – some are 14 to 20 years old. Secondly –

and more importantly – capture rhinos from non-viable and isolated areas and

translocate them to an area that is well protected and where the two sexes

have better chance of meeting up. Of course the area has to be big enough as

a rhino’s home range can go from 40sq km to 80sq km. Mohd Khan says that

they probably can look at gazetted wildlife areas or even new areas to set

aside.

The Krau Wildlife Reserve in Pahang is a possibility as it is big enough and

it doesn’t have its own population despite its closeness to Taman Negara.

Endau Rompin National Park that straddles Pahang and Johor, is another

possible area.

“It was the core area for rhinos at one time. It’s sad that it has reached

the stage where there’s probably only two left. Why is this so? We must

examine the mistakes made,” says Mohd Khan.

He cautions, though, that the problems Endau Rompin is experiencing must be

eliminated, otherwise sending the rhinos there would be signing their death

warrant. For one thing, the park has to stop letting anyone and everyone in,

as and when they like. “If you go there on weekends you see thousands of

people and you can be pretty sure among them are poachers,” he warns

ominously.

A system like the one at Taman Negara and Krau, under which a permit is

required, would be better as there would be more control.

All of this requires money, of course: rhino conservation is expensive

business. The Malaysian Rhino Foundation will be doing the rounds, trying

its best to raise funds over the next few months. What would be best,

though, is if the government gets involved, say rhino conservationists, not

only to provide funds but to protect areas as well.

Otherwise, the only rhinos we’ll be able to see is the rhino beetle. Then

again, if we carry on as we have been doing in the past century, even that

little beetle might not be around in the next century.

 

 

 

 

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