September 12, 2006
excerpts from article
by Victoria Gilman
The first ever photo of a male Sumatran rhinoceros in the wild offers concrete proof that the rare animals are living in the Malaysian section of the Southeast Asian island of Borneo (Malaysia facts and map), wildlife rangers announced last week.
The Sumatran is often called the rarest rhino species in the world and is listed as critically endangered by the Switzerland-based nonprofit the World Conservation Union.
Fewer than 400 Sumatran rhinos live in isolated pockets of wild habitat in Malaysia and Indonesia, and only about 50 of the animals are thought to exist in Sabah. While some of the animals are kept in zoos, the Sumatran rhino is difficult to breed in captivity. The 2000 birth of a healthy calf to a rhino called Emi at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio was the first successful captive delivery in 112 years.
Read the full article at National Geographic.com
