Sign of hope for shy, elusive Javan rhinos

Endangered animals: In this image made from undated video released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), mud-bathing Javan rhinos are captured by a camera trap in Ujung Kulon Wildlife Park in Banten province. The numbers of the world’s rarest rhino have been decimated over the past 50 years by rampant poaching for horns used in traditional Chinese medicines and destruction of forests. There are around 70 Javan rhinos left in the wild, about 60 of which live in Ujung Kulon on the western tip of Java Island. The reminder live in Vietnam. (AP/World Wildlife fund)

Infrared footage, released Thursday, captures images of the world’s most critically endangered Javan rhinos in the western jungles of Java island.

The clip shows a mother and calf and large male wallowing in various mud holes. It also records a female rhino chasing a wild pig away from a mud hole.

“Within a month since new cameras were installed, we have already recorded videos of nine individuals, including a mother and calf,” Andi Rachmat Hariyadi, who leads the WWF- Indonesia’s project in the Ujung Kulon National Park, said in a statement as the fascinating footage was released.

“It also reveals rhino behavior at their wallows, for example a clip shows a Javan rhino taking over a wild pig’s mud wallow and chases the owner away. It is a first-of-its-kind video clip recording rhino aggression to other species.”

The WWF and the Ujung Kulon National Park in Banten provice installed 34 video cameras in
the forest to trace the lives of Javan rhinos.

The rhinos can now be found only in two locations in the world — one in Ujung Kulon,  which is home to  an estimated  50 Javan rhinos, and another in the Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam, whose rhino population is probably no more than 10.

“These rhinos are very shy. In the last 20 years our team has only seen rhinos two or three times with their own eyes,” said WWF Asian rhino coordinator Christy Williams as quoted by AFP.

“The videos are showing a lot of young animals but not many calves so even though there is evidence of breeding, it is not enough,” Williams said.

“A healthy rhino population should be increasing at about 7 percent a year or three or four calves, but here we are getting three or four calves every four or five years.”

The WWF first launched the project last year with four infrared video traps that captured two
images of a camera-shy mother and calf.

They added another 30 video camera traps in December 2008 in order to study better the distribution and behavior of the Javan rhinoceros which lives deep in the jungles of the national park.

New cameras were donated by the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), Asian Rhino Project (ARP) and WWF-AREAS Programme.

“The video serves as a positive tool providing evidence on the urgency of saving this species,” said Agus Priambudi, head of the Ujung Kulon National Park.

“It is important to be able to show the real conditions of Javan rhinos to local and central government.”

The WWF has identified about 37 individuals in Ujung Kulon through camera trapping.

Once as the most widespread of Asian rhinoceroses, the Javan rhinos ranged from Indonesian islands, throughout Southeast Asia and into India and China.

However, due to habitat loss and poaching for their horns, Javan rhinos are now the rarest of the world’s five rhino species and considered critically endangered.

Other potential risks included competition with other herbivores with larger populations and the growth of secondary rainforest into a more mature environment.

The government recently launched the Rhino Century project to help increase the Javan rhino population, by translocating a few individuals from Ujung Kulon to another suitable site.

Javan Rhino and facts

Behavior
Javan rhinos are very agile and quiet in their forest environment.
They are very solitary except for the females when they have a calf. But may congregate at mud-wallows or salt-licks.
Javan rhinos bulls have territories of 12-20 square kilometers in size. Females have smaller teritories (3-14 square kilometers).
They are very weary for humans, a valuable survival trait, and are therefore hard to study.

Reproduction
Gestation period : 16 months.
Birth intervals per calf: 4 to 5 years.
Female sexual maturity: at 3 to 4 years
Male sexual maturity: at approximately 6 years
Newborn weaned: at 2 years