Trained sniffer dogs may have rediscovered a lost population of Sumatran rhinos in Indonesia.
In the dense rainforest of southern Sumatra, a handful of dog tracks may have unsettled a long-held assumption. For years, conservationists believed the Sumatran rhinoceros had vanished from Way Kambas National Park. Then Yagi and Quinn, dogs trained by Working Dogs for Conservation to detect wildlife, uncovered scat that early tests suggest belongs to the world’s most endangered rhino. For a species whose total wild population is thought to number fewer than 50, even the possibility of survival here feels momentous, reports Jeremy Hance.
“With fewer than 50 [Sumatran rhinos] in the entire global population, even a single individual is a big deal,” said Peter Coppolillo, who led the dog teams.
But a rediscovery, if confirmed, would not alter the species’ peril. The Sumatran rhino — hairy, small, and evolutionarily ancient — clings on in tiny fragments of forest. Its elusiveness has long confounded rangers; its biology, with long gestation periods and fragile calves, resists quick recovery. Eleven animals are safeguarded in captivity, a precarious lifeline against the losses in the wild.
The plight of Indonesia’s other surviving rhino is scarcely brighter. In Ujung Kulon National Park, the world’s last Javan rhinos have fallen from 76 to about 50 after poachers killed 26 animals, mostly males. Arrests have been made and new patrols deployed, but the damage is lasting: an already fragile population skewed further by sex.
“Poachers are creative and bold,” said Nina Fascione of the International Rhino Foundation.
Yet even against this backdrop of attrition, there are signs of resilience. Six Javan calves have been born in two years, reminders of the species’ persistence. In 1967, surveys found only 26 Javan rhinos. Against the odds, they rebounded once before.
Whether in Way Kambas or Ujung Kulon, survival now rests on whether such flickers of hope can outpace the forces that have driven Indonesia’s last rhinos to the brink.