Sumatran rhino's survival hopes ride on Puntung and Tam

Robin McKie

Saturday 31 December 2011 22.30 GMT

For Puntung and her mate Tam, this is set to be a momentous year. The nuptials of this pair of Sumatran rhinos are due to take place in 2012 and, according to wildlife officials in Malaysia, the coupling represents the last chance to save the species.

The two rhinos are members of Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, the smallest species of rhinoceros on the planet. Only 150 to 300 Sumatran rhinos are thought to exist. Most live in fragmented habitats in Borneo and the Malaysian peninsula, hunted by poachers for their horns, which are prized as a Chinese traditional medicine. As a result, the Sumatran rhino is now critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

But the capture in Borneo last week of Puntung, a female aged between 10 and 12, has raised hopes that it may be possible to pull the Sumatran rhino back from the brink of extinction. Puntung is to be paired with Tam, a lone captive male, at the Tabin wildlife reserve in Sabah, north Borneo. It is hoped that a relationship between the two Sumatran rhinos, a notoriously solitary species, will blossom and the couple will breed, thus helping to reinvigorate the animal's dwindling population. "This is now the very last chance to save this species, one of the most ancient forms of mammal," said Laurentius Ambu, director of the Sabah wildlife department.

The news of the efforts to try to restore Sumatran rhino numbers comes as wildlife officials in South Africa – the last main refuge of other species of rhino – revealed that in 2011 poachers there killed more rhinos than ever to supply the growing demand for horns in Asia. Last year, at least 443 animals, mostly southern white rhinos, were slaughtered in South Africa – in 2010 the figure was 333, while in 2007 it was 13 – as the street value of their horns soared to more than £40,000 per kilo. At this price, rhino horn is more expensive than gold, platinum or cocaine.

Rising affluence in Asia is thought to be pushing up the price of horn and poaching has increased as a result. In traditional Chinese medicine, rhino horn is shaved or ground into a powder and dissolved in boiling water, and then used to treat fever, rheumatism, gout and other disorders.

Wildlife officials are particularly alarmed because this year's record number of killings in South Africa happened despite great efforts to protect the rhino. Park rangers, police and defence forces were all conscripted into the war against the poacher. In Kruger national park, for example, a special unit of soldiers was deployed to patrol its 400km border with Mozambique, the main springboard for poaching sorties into South Africa. Nevertheless 244 rhinos were killed in the Kruger park alone, an indication of the immense pressure now being exerted on rhino populations.

The story of Puntung and Tam, and the bid to save the Sumatran rhino, will thereforebe watched closely by conservationists. Puntung was caught on 18 December in a joint operation by the Borneo Rhino Alliance and the Sabah wildlife department. She had been specifically targeted in 2010 as a mate for Tam, a 20-year-old, lone male rhino, who had been rescued from an oil palm plantation in August 2008.

"All of us in Sabah are relieved that we have been able to capture this rhino after almost a year and a half," said Borneo Rhino Alliance director Junaidi Payne. "It is an ideal age for breeding. Puntung and Tam are being kept in adjacent paddocks. They can see each other and there is some communication," Payne said.

The success of the breeding project is not guaranteed, for the Sumatran rhino is a mostly solitary animal except for courtship and rearing young. Previous attempts in the 1980s and 1990s to breed Sumatran rhinos in Borneo failed. Yet Payne said he was "cautiously optimistic" the latest captive breeding programme would succeed.

Payne added that the main threat to the species was their sparsity of numbers which meant they do not get a chance to meet in the wild. He blamed the recent dramatic loss of rhino numbers on poachers who can command higher and higher prices for horn on Asian markets. "My opinion is that palm oil plantations are not the main source of threat because there are significant potential rhino habitats in the natural forests in Borneo."

ENDANGERED

There are five species of rhinoceros, all of which have been pushed to the brink by loss of habitat and by poachers who kill them for their horns.

White

Exists as two sub-species: the southern white lives mostly in South Africa and numbers around 15,000; whereas only seven northern whites survive (including a calf born at a Czech zoo in 2000, pictured right) and may even be extinct in the wild.

Black

In 1900, there were several hundred thousand black rhinos in east and central Africa. Now there are a few thousand and the species is critically endangered.

Indian

Lives in the southern foothills of the Himalayas. Poaching and habitat loss reduced numbers to fewer than 200 early in the 20th century. Now, thanks to a recovery programme, there are thought to be up to 2,600.

Javan

Once the most widespread of Asian rhinoceroses, the Javan is now critically endangered, with only 40 surviving in Ujung Kulon National Park on Java, and none in captivity. It is probably the rarest large mammal on earth.

Sumatran

Has two horns like the African species. It is the smallest of all rhino species and has a coat of reddish-brown hair. Fewer than 300 are thought to survive today and the species is critically endangered.