The Sumatran Rhino found in Sabah, is somewhat smaller than that found in Sumatra. Active programmes to bring fertile females and males together may now be a necessary supplement to pull the species back from the brink of extinction. The continuation of this protection provides a necessary but perhaps insufficient means for the species’ survival. Sumatran rhinos can be expected to persist and breed only in protected areas where they are physically guarded from harm by Rhino Protection Units. In Indonesia, small populations may be found in three Indonesian National Parks in Sumatra: Bukit Barisan Selatan, Way Kambas and possibly Gunung Leuser. Between 30 – 40 rhinos are thought to be found in Sabah’s Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Danum Valley Conservation Area, and pockets of eastern and central Sabah. As the persistence of populations in Peninsular Malaysia is very much in doubt, Indonesia and Sabah hold the only significant breeding populations. Scientists now estimate that there are only about 200 animals remaining in the wild, clinging to existence in highly fragmented populations. Now, there may be just too few fertile females and males in any one forest area to sustain breeding. Over the past millennium, hunting and habitat loss have driven this rhino to the brink of extinction. This rhino species may represent the rainforest relic of a rhino which was once adapted to the open woodlands of the Pleistocene ice ages when sea levels were much lower than now, and Borneo and Sumatra were joined to mainland Asia via savannahs now under the South China Sea. Together with the Javan Rhino, the Sumatran Rhino ( Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the most critically endangered of the rhino species. A mother rhino and her young: rhinos involved in the captive breeding programme at the Cincinnati Zoo

Rhino gestation period