Low rhino numbers in Ujung Kulon concern park officials, experts
Low rhino numbers in Ujung Kulon concern park officials, experts
By Pandaya
UJUNG KULON, West Java (JP): There is nothing more enigmatic
than the Javan rhino, as far as the famed Ujung Kulon National
Park is concerned.
These animals are so timid that experts rely on their dung and
tracks to estimate their number. Although rarely sighted, they
have become the main attraction of the park. In fact, Ujung Kulon
is almost synonymous to the rhino.
Forest rangers say that the beast is able to sense the
presence of humans from a great distance and will avoid
encounters.
Ujung Kulon, which was declared a world Heritage Site by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) in 1992, has won international recognition thanks to the
single-horned rhino and other endangered species of both flora
and fauna.
The Javan rhino's precise number remains a mystery but
official statistics put it at "between 50 and 60". The population
is estimated by way of DNA analysis of its feces, camera traps
and track counts.
With any of the methods, it needs an observation span of about
three years to arrive at a conclusion. The DNA method is said to
give the best results, but is expensive. The analysis is done in
cooperation with Columbia University in the U.S. and the
University of Indonesia.
The 10 automatic infrared cameras fixed in selected places
throughout the 28,000-hectare park jungle photographed 13 rhinos
(eight male and five female) between January and May this year.
Photographic surveys indicate that the adult rhino is about
150cm in height, 300cm in length and up to 2,000 kilograms in
weight. Many of the rhinos were captured by the automatic cameras
at night.
Triwibowo, the manager of the park, says the animal is highly
active at night. Rhinos are sighted wallowing in mud, grazing and
drinking at the beach.
According to Ujung Kulon, Indonesia's National Park, the Javan
rhino was once found across much of Southeast Asia. The first
accounts of the animal date back to China's Tang dynasty (AD 618-
906) when Java was famous for being a source of rhino horns.
The Javan rhino resembles the Indian rhino in that they are
both single-horned and have the same skin folds, but they have
markedly different neck plates and skin textures.
The book says that rhino were so numerous and damaging to
plantations in the 1700s that the government paid a bounty for
every rhino killed, bagging 500 within two years.
Rhinoceros of different species are also found in Africa,
India and Vietnam. In Indonesia, the two-horned rhino lives in
Sumatra. It is endangered and protected by law.
Experts wonder why the Javan rhino population in the Ujung
Kulon peninsula has remained more or less the same since 1970s,
when more a systematic census began. There are no theories as to
the ideal number of rhinos for Ujung Kulon, where they have to
compete with an estimated 800 banteng (wild cattle) for food.
Nazir Foead, a project executive of the World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF) in Indonesia, which is involved in conservation in
Ujung Kulon, says that breeding is not the right way to preserve
the endangered animal.
He recalled that in the 1980s, an attempt to breed 40 Sumatran
rhino in various zoos ended in disaster: Twenty-two died and none
of the rest bore offspring. Only one rhino gave birth to a calf,
but the animal was already pregnant when captured in the wild.
"So the best conservation method is to leave them in their
natural habitat and see to it that their ecosystem is not
disturbed," he said.
The female Javan rhino is sexually mature from the age of 5
years to 6 years, and the male at 7 years. Generally, the female
has a baby every four years or so. The animal's lifespan is about
30 years.
Enigmatic though it may be, the magnificent but highly
endangered rhino is deserving of all the ongoing efforts to keep
its limited habitat intact.