By Jack Martinez
In a news conference (click here) yesterday, the
Cincinnati Zoo officially announced plans to relocate an endangered
Sumatran rhinoceros to Indonesia, according to an NPR report.
Terri Roth, the director of the zoo’s Center for Conservation & Research of Endangered Wildlife, told Newsweek
that the news conference would let zoo guests and members know about
the plans to relocate the rhino, named Harapan, so that they can visit
him one last time. Zoo officials have obtained import permits from the
Indonesian government, but await approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Harapan is the only remaining member of his species currently living
outside of Southeast Asia. The species is critically endangered, with
fewer than 100 individuals estimated in the wild. As Newsweek reported last week,
scientists now believe that the species is extinct in Malaysia, and
only survives in Indonesia. Its habitat is threatened by development,
and poachers hunt the animals for their horns....
It is foolish to send a critically endangered species to the wild unless there is reassurances of his safety. There should have been a breeding program even if it meant bringing a member of the opposite sex to the zoo.
...In recognition of the difficulty of protecting wild populations, (click here) in 1984 the IUCN/SSC Asian Rhino Specialist Group recommended that a captive breeding programme be developed, thus establishing a dual approach to Sumatran rhino conservation: protecting wild populations through the RPUs and running a breeding programme at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) within a semi-natural environment in Way Kambas National Park....
Given the ruthlessness of poachers to entice protected species out of protected habitat there needs to be Conservation Rangers assigned to these habitats.
...In June 2012, Sumatran rhino calf Andatu was born making history as the first Sumatran rhino birth at a breeding centre in Indonesia.
...In recognition of the difficulty of protecting wild populations, (click here) in 1984 the IUCN/SSC Asian Rhino Specialist Group recommended that a captive breeding programme be developed, thus establishing a dual approach to Sumatran rhino conservation: protecting wild populations through the RPUs and running a breeding programme at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) within a semi-natural environment in Way Kambas National Park....
Given the ruthlessness of poachers to entice protected species out of protected habitat there needs to be Conservation Rangers assigned to these habitats.
...In June 2012, Sumatran rhino calf Andatu was born making history as the first Sumatran rhino birth at a breeding centre in Indonesia.
