![]() However, the last known specimen was found dead in 2010. The last continental population occurred in Vietnam and it is believed that a single population of over a dozen individuals was still remaining in Cat Tien National Park in the 1980’s. The most endangered species, the Javan rhino, has now been fully extirpated from continental Asia and can only be found in a sanctuary in Java. Adult rhinos hair tend to shorten through abrasion in the wild. Sumatran rhino calves are usually born with long reddish hair. A unique feature among rhinos is their distinctive hairy skin. It also belongs to a distinct genus that makes it closer to the last ice age rhinos than existing rhino species. The Sumatran rhino is the smallest of the three Asian species. The Javan rhino Rhinoceros sondaicus and the Sumatran rhino Dicerorhinus sumatrensis.īoth species once thrived on the Asian continent in an area spanning from northeastern India to Indochina and southward to peninsula Malaysia. There are today two species of rhino that live on islands: This practice is a part of a centuries old tradition. In Asia, the use of rhino horns in medicine is thought to be the major cause of their decline. From 1741 to 1758, people across Europe flock to see her and she is the object of such attention that most of the royal dignitaries and prominent scientists wanted to see her in person. She was christened Clara and her fame spreads from England to Poland. This woodcut is still considered to be a masterpiece of western fine arts today.ĭuring the 18th century, a female Indian rhino travels to Europe. Without ever having seen a real specimen, Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer made a woodcut of a rhinoceros, emphasizing the shield-like appearance of the animal’s skin. Rhinoceros have fascinated the western world since the very first reports of these animals were made by travelers. This means that the Sumatran rhino shares a genetic heritage closer to an extinct rhino adapted to a cold and dry climate than to the existing rhino species. Īs the smallest in size of all surviving members of the Rhinocerotidae family, the Sumatran rhino is particularly interesting as it is genetically closer to last ice age woolly rhino than it is to its living cousins. This includes the extinctions of the Javan rhino in continental Asia and of the West African subspecies of the Black Rhino as recently as in 2011. In the last decades, this plague led to the local extinctions of several species. ![]() Much ahead of habitat loss, the largest threat on Asian and African rhinos is poaching for their horns. The five remaining species are protected, therefore hunting them is illegal. In the relatively small order of Perissodactyla, Rhinocerotidae is certainly the most threatened family. ![]() Artiodactyla include cows, sheeves, antelopes, pigs, giraffes. Those have their legs supported by an even number of toes. From an evolutionary point of view, they differ from the larger order of the Artiodactyla. Perissodactyla have leg extremities supported by an uneven number of toes. Today they are represented by horses (and their cousins donkeys and zebras) as well as tapirs and rhinoceros. And that is where you can currently find me, working to ensure that this species does not get added to the IUCN list of “extinct”.Among herbivorous, members of the Perissodactyla order are much less numerous than the Artiodactyla. Today this male’s relatives in Ujung Kulon National Park are one of the most protected animals in the world. Replica of male Javan rhino Zoological Museum, Bogor, Indonesia. His body remains today at the Zoological Museum at Bogor and has been most useful for my own research to preserve his species. So in 1934 the male weighing in at 2280 kg (5,016 lb- mind your toes) was killed by a single Mauser bullet (cal. Why be so hypocritical? To ensure that the body could be preserved for science, not for someone’s trophy wall. So the Dutch government, which ruled Indonesia at the time, made a startling move in order to show defiance against the poachers: they decided that if the poachers would somehow find a way to kill the rhino, they would be certain that they killed the rhino first. Thoughts to transport the rhino from West Java to Ujung Kulon in the far south-west tip of the island where other Javan rhinos remained were not much of an option at that time- veterinary medicine wasn’t quite as up to par as it is today in order to make such a mission like that successful. The hope of the West Javan population regaining vigor was snuffed out when his mate was killed earlier that year by poachers. He was the sole surviving rhino in the district of Karang-nuggal Tasikmalaya. In 1914, the last Javan rhinoceros of Preanger (West Java, Indonesia) roamed his lonely forests peacefully munching on leaves, grass, and branches found almost exclusively in Indonesia. Replica at Zoological Musuem, Bogor, Indonesia.
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