Last-ditch for rhinos
A desperate situation calls for special measures
The future of the Sumatran rhino is now so precarious that experts are recommending that all wild individuals be removed from the wild for captive breeding.
No more than 90 of these secretive pachyderms remain, and there might be as few as 30, including nine captive individuals. The population is thought to have halved over the last two decades as a result of poaching and habitat loss.
Research just published in the Journal of Heredity confirms that these survivors can be split between two distinct subspecies – one on the island of Sumatra and one on Borneo. A third, which once ranged widely across mainland south and east Asia is now probably extinct.
But numbers are now so low that the biologists behind the study say the best hope for the species overall is to pool the two subspecies into a single breeding population.
“My strongest recommendation is that they are brought into breeding centres as soon as possible because they aren’t going to survive in the wild in such low numbers,” said Alfred Roca of the University of Illinois, who led the research. “It is heartbreaking as a geneticist to recommend that two subspecies, which are probably as different as humans were from the Neanderthals, should be combined into a single conservation unit.”
The team also urges the collection of tissue samples from all the surviving animals in order to preserve the limited genetic diversity that remains. These could be used in the future to breed from dead individuals.
“Unfortunately, at this point we have to act quickly and risk losing unique genetic lineages in order to save a whole species,” says Roca’s colleague Jessica Brandt.