Two Baby Rhinos Born in Manas!

Baby Indian rhino just born in Manas National Park – Photo by Jamir Ali (WWF)

Question: How does one weigh the recent news of two rhino calves born in India’s Manas National Park against reports of increased poaching in the region?

Answer: These new additions to the Park’s rhino population help offset losses that, unfortunately, are difficult to prevent. The births also offer hope that efforts designed to restore Indian rhinos to former habitats and safeguard the species’ future will ultimately prove successful.

Hunting the Indian rhino

A little more than a century ago, northeastern India was home to three rhino species – the greater one-horned or Indian rhino, the Javan rhino and the Sumatran rhino. Throughout recorded history, this region appears to be the only one on Earth where three different rhino species could be found. However, hunting and habitat loss spelled the eventual demise of two species in India. The Javan rhino, a smaller relative of its one-horned Indian cousin and once said to be common in the state of Bengal, was extirpated – wiped out – by about 1900. The Sumatran rhino, the smallest of the living species and more closely related to the extinct woolly rhinoceros than to any of the surviving forms, used to be found in the hill country of Assam until about 1935. Only the Indian rhino remains, with the largest populations found in the Brahmaputra River valley.

Somewhere around 3,300 wild Indian rhinos are believed to survive in northeastern India and neighboring Nepal.  The largest population is found in Kaziranga National Park. The most recent survey estimates as many as 2,330 animals, which is an increase of about 40 individuals over the last year despite losses due to drowning during seasonal flooding, a number of recent poaching incidents, and the translocation of eight rhinos to Manas National Park as part of an ambitious reintroduction program – Indian Rhino Vision 2020.  The program’s goal is to restore this threatened species throughout strategic portions of its former range. Objectives call for reaching a population of at least 3,000 rhinos in the state of Assam by the year 2020 by establishing secure populations in seven protected areas, including Manas National Park. Although rhinos were once common in Manas, violent civil conflict that began in 1989 caused massive damage to the park’s infrastructure, including the destruction of anti-poaching camps, roads and villages. The park’s original rhino population was extirpated in 1996.

Release of translocated rhinos in Manas National Park

The first coordinated round of Indian Rhino Vision 2020 translocations to Manas began in 2008, when two male rhinos were moved from the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. To date, 18 animals have been translocated from both Pobitora and Kaziranga. The program is a joint effort of the International Rhino Foundation, the Government of Assam, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Bodoland Territorial Council, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

First Indian rhino born in Manas – 2012

Last summer, the first rhino born in Manas since translocation efforts began was discovered by rhino monitoring units – a calf born to Rhino #10. Given that the female had been moved to Manas less than a year before, it’s clear that she was pregnant prior to the translocation.  Only a few days ago, rangers discovered two more surprises. Both Rhino #8 and Rhino #12 were spotted with calves in tow.  The latter female also must have been pregnant prior to the move, but Rhino #8 has been in Manas since January 2011, so it’s clear that she was impregnated by one of the translocated males. This represents the first successful breeding in the national park since Indian Rhino Vision 2020 was launched almost five years ago.

In the midst of the recent poaching pressure in northeastern India, these births are very encouraging. The high demand for rhino horn in the illegal wildlife trade continues to be the biggest threat to Indian rhinos, especially this new population. Two translocated rhinos have fallen prey to poachers in the past two years. The next major step in the program will be to return rhinos to Assam’s Laokhowa-Burachapori complex, a site where they were poached out in the 1980s.

If you’d like to help support these critical conservation efforts, go to: http://www.rhinos.org/donate.

“R” is for Rhinos … and also for Raoul du Toit

Wildlife Heroes by Julie Scardina and Jeff Flocken

In their new book, Wildlife Heroes, authors Julie Scardina (SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment) and Jeff Flocken (International Fund for Animal Welfare) spotlight 40 of the world’s leading wildlife conservationists.  Prominent on their list is Raoul du Toit, the International Rhino Foundation’s Africa Program Coordinator.  Raoul is no stranger to such honors that recognize his commitment to African rhinoceroses, having received the World Conservation Union’s prestigious Sir Peter Scott Award in 2009 and the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2011.

Raoul du Toit – Lowveld Rhino Trust

Raoul was born and still lives in Zimbabwe, a country that harbors the fourth largest populations of both black and white rhinos.    He holds degrees in zoology and environmental studies, but claims to have become involved in rhino conservation somewhat by chance.  In 1990, he established the Lowveld Rhino Conservancy Project, which became the Lowveld Rhino Trust (LRT) a decade later.  The LRT focuses its efforts in two privately-managed wildlife conservancies – Save Valley and Bubye Valley – converted cattle ranches that span a combined area of nearly one-and-a-half million acres and harbor several hundred rhinos, both black and white.  Following a period of intense poaching in the late 1980s, strategic conservation efforts helped Zimbabwe’s black rhino population rebound in the 1990s. Animals were moved from threatened areas to more secure conservancies, and the results are increasing rhino numbers in the Lowveld region, despite the recent rise in poaching pressure.

Lowveld Rhino Trust black rhino immobilization

Under Raoul’s direction and the auspices of Zimbabwe’s National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, Lowveld rhinos are monitored year round.  The goal is to identify every animal, using a system of distinct physical characters, tags and transmitters.  Local teams of rhino trackers work hand-in-hand with wildlife rangers and veterinarians both to prevent poaching and respond to emergencies.  Each year, dozens of rhinos are routinely immobilized for identification purposes or for veterinary treatment, and these procedures involve coordination of teams on foot, all-terrain vehicles, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.  In addition, the LRT must also deal occasionally with orphaned rhino calves whose mothers have been killed by poachers.  These animals may require rescue and rehabilitation, but are eventually returned to the wild.

Black rhino mother and calf – Lowveld Conservancies

As a result of all these efforts, the Bubye Valley Conservancy recently witnessed the birth of the 100th black rhino calf since recovery efforts began there 10 years ago.  With the continued success of intensive management efforts, experts estimate that only five years will be necessary for the next one hundred calves to be born.

Lowveld Rhino Trust Monitoring Team

Raoul relies on a very dedicated team of colleagues to accomplish these results.  Australian biologist Natasha Anderson coordinates both monitoring and local education programs, while fellow Zimbabweans Lovemore Mungwashu and Jackson Kamwi serve as operations coordinator and head rhino monitor, respectively.  Their collective work in the Lowlveld receives generous support from a variety of sources including government agencies, international foundations, zoological parks, corporations and individuals.

If you’d like to know more about rhino conservation in Zimbabwe, click on http://www.rhinos.org/zimbabwe-lowveld-rhino-program.

Raoul du Toit and black rhino

Stopping Vietnam’s War on Rhinos

Northern white rhino

Unfortunately, the rhino poaching crisis is nothing new. Throughout history these large land mammals have been subject to periods of unconscionable slaughter at the hand of man.  Of the five living species, four – the white, Indian, Sumatran and Javan – have, at one time or another, been reduced to populations of only a few hundred individuals or less. Perhaps more than any other species on the planet, rhinos define what it means to teeter on “the brink of extinction”.

The rhino’s problem isn’t an albatross around its neck, it’s the horn at the tip of its snout.  For centuries, millions of people in Asia have regarded rhino horn as medicine, and a growing number now consider it a status symbol as well. A Vietnamese citizen will shell out a relatively small fortune for an ounce of powdered rhino horn, but his or her ability to pay the purchase price has little to do with its effectiveness. It’s doubtful that the buyer has any clue to the “price” the rhino had to pay, and that situation must change.

The 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) in Bangkok, Thailand was recently attended by representatives of 179 CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) signatory countries. Discussions at COP 16 focused on the enforcement of existing wildlife laws and the imposition of international trade sanctions on countries like Vietnam if they do not clean up their acts. In order to curtail the illegal trade in horn, the parties agreed that specialized investigative techniques are necessary and that the problem of money-laundering must be addressed. They also called for consumer research that will help better understand the factors that are driving demand.

TRAFFIC WWF/IUCN Report: The South Africa-Vietnam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus

There are no more wild rhinos in Vietnam

A number of organizations are already working hard to document and analyze the trade that originates largely in the Republic of South Africa – a country that holds almost three-quarters of the world rhino population – and now ends primarily in Vietnam – a country has a rising standard of living but lost its last rhino only a couple of years ago. The International Rhino Foundation will help TRAFFIC: The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, translate a comprehensive report, The South Africa – Vietnam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus, and distribute it in Vietnam. Two other non-governmental organizations, Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV) and South Africa’s Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) , are partnering on an anti-rhino poaching campaign that is both multi-media and bi-lingual. Posters encourage consumers to stop the slaughter by not using rhino horn, and to consider the baby rhinos that are orphaned by poaching. An ENV public service announcement supported by Save the Rhino – International and Conservation International’s Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund confronts rhino horn consumers as “ignorant, foolish, backward, cruel and evil”, and hammers home the message that rhino horn is neither status symbol nor medicine.

ENV & EWT anti-rhino poaching poster #1

ENV & EWT anti-rhino poaching poster #2

In 2012, more than 700 white and black rhinos were killed by poachers in southern Africa, 668 of them in the Republic of South Africa alone – a rate perilously close to two rhinos per day – and the slaughter shows need immediate signs of decreasing. Fortunately, up to this point, births have kept pace with deaths, but that situation is destined to change if nothing is done, and experts predict that African rhino populations will begin to spiral downward in only a couple of years.

If you would like to help support efforts to save southern Africa’s threatened rhinos, go to: http://www.rhinos.org/operation-stop-poaching-now.

The Curse of the Unicorn

The Unicorn in Captivity (from the Unicorn Tapestries) – Metropolitan Museum of Art

In his book, The Future of Life, biologist Edward O. Wilson had this to say about the first time he laid eyes upon the rare Sumatran rhinoceros in the flesh: “One of the most memorable events of my life occurred on a late May evening in 1994, in a back room of the Cincinnati Zoo, when I walked up to a four-year-old Sumatran rhinoceros named Emi, gazed into her lugubrious face for a while, and placed the flat of my hand against her hairy flank.  She made no response except maybe to blink her eyes. That’s it; that’s all that happened.  No matter: I had at last met my real-life unicorn.”

The unicorn is an imaginary creature that symbolizes purity.  It was first described by Ancient Greek naturalists as a species that inhabited the distant land of India.  Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) spoke of the monoceros, “a very fierce animal … which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits in length.”  Perhaps the Indian rhinoceros comes to mind?

Greater One-horned or Indian Rhinoceros, Kaziranga National Park

The unicorn legend became popular throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  The creature was said to roam the woodlands and could only be captured by a virgin.  Many people believed that its horn, which was called an alicorn, was an antidote to poison and could be used to treat illness. Alicorns could be purchased from Scandinavian traders, but the price was extravagant – per weight, supposedly many times more than that of gold.  The average alicorn was grooved and about three feet long.  Unfortunately, it never came from a unicorn.  A Dutch physician and naturalist, Ole Wurm, told the world the truth, the alicorn was really the long tusk of the small arctic whale known as the narwhal.  Narwhals are still hunted today for their tusks by certain indigenous populations, but many experts believe that this is not sustainable over the long-term.

White rhinoceros – South Africa

That the rhinoceros might be likened to the legendary unicorn is not so far-fetched, certainly no stranger than ancient sailors believing that hefty, whiskered sea mammals like dugongs and manatees were really mermaids.  Rhinos are distant relatives of horses and the horns of some rhino species can grow quite long.  So, with a dash of imagination and perhaps a pinch of intoxication, a person viewing a rhino could conjure the image of a unicorn in his mind, although that transformation would seem to be a bit easier with several of the antelope species, such as the oryx, that sport spectacular horns, albeit in pairs and from the top of the skull instead of the nose.

Arabian oryx – United Arab Emirates

Like the unicorn’s unusual appendage, the rhino’s horn also was once believed to detect and neutralize poison, and it is still believed by many Asian people to have medicinal properties.  As a result, white and black rhinos in southern Africa are now being killed by poachers at the rate of almost two per day.  If such slaughter continues, decades of dedicated efforts to bring these species back from the brink of extinction will have been for naught.

Unicorns never existed, but rhinos can and must survive as living legends.

If you’d like to know more about what the International Rhino Foundation is doing to combat poaching in southern Africa, go to: http://www.rhinos.org/operation-stop-poaching-now.

Sumatran Rhino Crisis Summit

Sumatran Rhino, WayKambas National Park, Indonesia

In just under a month, rhino specialist from around the world will convene the Sumatran Rhino Crisis Summit, a crucial international meeting aimed at saving one of the planet’s most critically endangered species from extinction.  The five-day Summit is scheduled to be held from March 31 – April 4 in Singapore.

Two-horned, hair-covered rhinos – early ancestors of the present-day Sumatran rhino – appeared on Earth nearly 20 million years ago.  Sumatran rhinos were once widespread throughout Southeast Asia, occurring from the foothills of the Himalayas southward to the extreme southern tip of Sumatra.  However, hunting for horn and other body parts, in combination with the loss of tropical forest habitat, has resulted in the disappearance of Sumatran rhinos from at least four countries.

Andatu and Ratu – Sumatran Rhinos, Way Kambas National Park, Indonesia

At one time the species probably numbered in the tens of thousands, but today probably fewer than 200 animals survive as small, fragmented populations.  From 14 sites that recorded the presence of Sumatran rhinos twenty years ago, only five still harbor the species:  Bukit Barisan Selatan, Gunung Leuser and Way Kambas National Parks on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Danum Valley Conservation Area and Tabin Wildlife Reserve located in Sabah, Malaysia in northeastern Borneo. In addition, 10 animals held in zoos and special sanctuaries in Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States offer a thin sliver of hope that managed breeding programs will serve as a stopgap against extinction.The Sumatran Rhino Crisis Summit has been called to review the present situation and existing strategies for survival, to identify key issues and possible actions, and to gain inspiration from previous endangered species campaigns and important lessons learned.  Wildlife conservationists are encouraged by success stories such as those of the Californian condor, black footed ferret, Mauritius kestrel, pink pigeon and red wolf, as well as of the Indian rhino and white rhino – both of which also were reduced to wild populations of less than 200 individuals by the early 1900s.

Sumatran Rhino – Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

The International Rhino Foundation will be represented at the Summit by executive director Susie Ellis.  Other participants will include individuals who have firsthand experience at saving endangered species from extinction, persons whose efforts to save endangered species have not met with success, representatives of institutions that are currently involved in protecting wild Sumatran rhino populations and breeding this species in captivity, current major donors to Sumatran rhino conservation, and interested parties who may help initiate new opportunities for the long-term support of critical programs.

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The International Rhino Foundation is dedicated to saving the world’s five remaining rhino species. To learn how you can help support our Sumatran Rhino Conservation Program, go to: http://www.rhinos.org/sumatran-rhino-conservation-program.

Say “No” to Rhino Horns!

Yao Ming meets white rhino and director Rick Barongi at the Houston Zoo

Say “No” to Rhino Horns!

That’s the message that retired Chinese basketball superstar Yao Ming has for his fans back home, many of whom believe that rhino horn has powerful tonic or curative properties. Unfortunately, these traditional, but mistaken, beliefs have fueled an increasing international trade in rhino horn that ultimately threatens the survival of the world’s five remaining rhino species. Yao visited Kenya last year to observe the desperate situation firsthand. He is working closely with the organizations Wild Aid and the African Wildlife Foundation to stop rhino and elephant poaching by creating public awareness of the slaughter involved in bringing illegal horn and ivory to market. Billboards at airports across China and graphic online videos tell the gruesome story and present stark statistics to would-be consumers. The campaign slogan – When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too!

In Houston to attend the 2013 NBA All-Star Game, Yao stopped in for a visit to the Houston Zoo, where he met one of the resident white rhinos and zoo director Rick Barongi. Rick is also a board member of the International Rhino Foundation and serves as vice president for African programs.

Seeking the Elusive Badak Jawa: Encounter with Javan Bantengs

Bill Konstant, Program Officer
International Rhino Foundation

A short hike from our landing point on the Ujung Kulon peninsula brings us to a large clearing and a favored grazing ground for the Javan banteng, another of the national park’s endangered species.   In addition to Java, banteng are found on the island of Borneo and on the Asian mainland.   Banteng are wild cattle that tip the scales at half a ton or more – not quite as large as a Javan rhino, but a rare and impressive animal just the same.

A chocolate brown banteng bull

We’re in luck!  At the far end of the clearing, four banteng – a bull and three cows – are grazing at the forest edge.  They’re about two hundred yards away, the wind is blowing from them toward us, and a few clumps of trees block our team from their view.   So they don’t notice us.   I’m hefting a large telephoto lens but, even using that, the banteng would be little more than specks in any photo I might take at this distance.  There’s a good chance I can get closer.

Two mahogany brown banteng cows

The first hundred yards are easy.  I half walk, half jog across the field, being careful to keep the clumps of trees between the banteng and me.  I reach the trees undetected and squat down to remain out of sight.  The banteng  are busy munching grass.  Their heads are down.  I can continue to move toward them, but from here on I’ll be out in the open and will have to remain low to the ground.   I also need to remain closer to the trees than to the banteng, just in case they notice me and aren’t pleased about it.  They may look like contented cows, but appearance can be deceptive.

I halve the distance to them crawling on my belly, keeping below the tips of the tall grass and being careful not to damage my camera or lens.  Every so often, one of the animals raises its head and surveys the landscape.  I freeze. When it returns to grazing, I snap a test photo, move forward once more, and then repeat the process.  Eventually, I reach a point where any further progress would put me “too close for comfort”.  It’s time to focus and click.

The banteng more than oblige me, posing calmly even though I can see that they’re being pestered by flies.  The bull grazes apart from the cows, closer to the forest edge.  The cows are the first to spot me, but their reaction is encouraging.  Instead of bolting, they seem curious and actually take a few steps in my direction.  They seem to want a closer look at the intruder.  So I decide to sit up, take a kneeling position and offer them a better view.  This also prepares me to take off in the opposite direction should their mood change for the worse.  But it doesn’t.  They pose just a little longer, long enough for the bull to become aware and decide that the most appropriate path for the small herd is in the opposite direction, back into the forest.  A quick “Adios!” and the only evidence of banteng is the dried cow pie that I nearly crawled through to get here.

It’s time to resume our search for rhinos.

To be continued ….

2009 Rhinos in Focus photo contest winners announced!

Thank you to all who participated in our first ever photo contest. Over 190 wonderful photos were submitted. See the winners below!

 

Rhinos in Zoos Category Winner, Photo by Becky Krywko

Rhinos in the Wild Category Winner, Photo by: Dhilung Hang Kirat

Express Your Inner Rhino Category Winner, Photo by John Bendon

Bowling for Rhinos – Indonesia Trip

Each year the American Association of Zoo keepers (AAZK) sponsors a fund raising bowl-a-thon called Bowling For Rhinos (BFR). Over 60 AAZK chapters participate throughout the US and Canada raising over $300,000 annually. BFR funds support LWC- Lewa Wildlife Conservancy (formerly called Ngare Sergoi rhino sanctuary) in Kenya, Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, Indonesia and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBSNP) and Way Kambas in Sumatra. These sanctuaries not only save rhinos but also these entire ecosystems! Each year the top BFR fundraisers are invited to visit the rhino sanctuaries that the event proceeds support. Contact your local zoo’s American Association of Zoo Keepers Chapter for more information about an event in your area. www.aazkbfr.org

Below is a special post from one of the top Bowling for Rhinos fundraisers, Rana Bayrakci, on her recent trip to Indonesia.

 

I’m a zoo keeper of Asian bears and a wildlife research and conservation associate for the International Snow Leopard Trust. So what on earth was I doing studying rhino conservation in the tropics this spring? My desire to help with rhino conservation grew from reading Anna Mertz’s inspirational book, Rhino, after I heard her speak in Seattle several years ago. Her life’s work demonstrates that even someone without a scrap of wildlife conservation experience can make a huge impact on a species.

Zoo keepers around the country have raised almost $3 million for rhino conservation since the 1990s by hosting “Bowling for Rhinos” fundraisers through the American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK). After several years raising money through Woodland Park Zoo’s AAZK chapter, I was stunned to learn that I had placed third in the nation and was therefore going to Indonesia for two weeks in April and May of 2008 with the International Rhino Foundation (IRF). 

Our trip was led by IRF’s charismatic Executive Director, Dr. Susie Ellis, and expertly organized by IRF’s Indonesia Liaison, Sectionov (“Inov”). We were joined by YABI (Rhino Foundation of Indonesia) Protection Program Manager Waladi Isnan who shared his extensive knowledge of Indonesian flora and fauna with our group. We visited two national parks in Sumatra, Bukit Barisan Selatan (BBS) and Way Kambas, and one national park in Java, Ujung Kulon. We hiked in the hot, humid jungles of all the parks and traveled by boat along rivers in two of them.

We all took turns falling in a swampy section of forest in Way Kambas, with minor damage ranging from a sprained ankle to a broken camera that took a brief swim in the water (That was all me!). Susie took the prize by landing on her wrist at a very bad angle. The injury unfortunately required surgery to mend the break, and she had to fly home after just one week of our journey. We missed her presence and experience.

The highlight of the trip was spending time with the “RPUs” or Rhino Protection Units.  These uniformed men are the front lines of rhino conservation, believing so strongly in the preservation of the rhino that they put their lives on the line to provide rhinos the protection necessary to eradicate poaching.  The RPUs are organized in groups of four; and spend 15-20 days per month on patrol in the forest, constantly searching for signs of rhino, which they measure and record, as well as evidence of poaching and encroachment.  Through their constant vigilance, undercover intelligence work, education of and outreach to park neighbors, they have all but eliminated poaching and garnered well-deserved respect and support from locals.

The RPUs guided us on walks through the forests of the three parks, skillfully wielding machetes to clear vegetation from our paths. They took us along several well-used animal trails where we saw evidence of rhinos, including more than 50 rhino footprints, rhino dung, evidence of rhino and tapir browsing, wallows used by both rhino and elephant, and horn scrapes from male rhinos.

The obvious respect and camaraderie between the RPUs and their supervisors was professional and impressive. There was an intense atmosphere of passion, dedication, and desire to work together to further their conservation work. We attended presentations on RPU work in all three parks and participated in discussions about successes and challenges for the RPUs.

I was honored to meet these men, the RPUs, who are truly living the lives of dedicated conservationists. Our contributions and support are critically important for their work to continue with the success it has already experienced, and our gratitude is shown by the support that we provide for organizations like IRF who understand where to best allocate the monies. I learned that our dollars go a long way in Indonesia. Together, we are truly making a difference and helping ensure that these prehistoric beasts will see another millennium. Long live the rhinos!

To view more photos from this trip, click here.