Every specimen counts!: Rare Sumatran rhino born in Indonesia

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The offspring of one of the rarest mammal species in the world: a small Sumatran rhinoceros, has come to light in a national park in Indonesia.

The local environment ministry said the male calf was the second rhino calf born this year in Way Kambas National Park in the east of Sumatra island. As part of the conservation program, five rhinos have been born in the park since 2012.

The mini rhino was born on Saturday, on the 460th day of her mother’s pregnancy, ten days ahead of her expected date. It doesn’t have a name yet.

Her parents are seven-year-old Delilah, who was born in the park, and Harapan, a bull, who was born in the Cincinnati Zoo in the USA in 2007. In 2015, Way found a new home in Kambas. Since then, no Sumatran rhino has survived outside Indonesia, according to the ministry.

It is the smallest of the five rhinoceros species that exist worldwide. Animals’ bodies are hairy, unlike other species. They have two horns and a wide repertoire of sounds, including squeaking, humming and grunting.

Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) were once common throughout Southeast Asia. Hunting of the animals and destruction of their habitat has caused the population to decline to an estimated 80 individuals today.

“This rhino is so rare that very few people have seen it in the wild,” the Sumatran Rhino Alliance writes on its website. The alliance includes the Indonesian government, WWF, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the International Rhino Foundation, among others. (SDA)

Source : Blick