A Sumatran rhino has successfully given birth at an Indonesian sanctuary, environmental officials have announced. The animal is critically endangered.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), there are less than 80 Sumatran rhinos left in the world, mainly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and Borneo.
Last Thursday (24), a rhino named Rosa gave birth to a female calf in the Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra, after suffering eight miscarriages since 2005, when she was taken from the wild for a breeding program.
“The birth of this Sumatran rhino is very good news for the government and its partners’ efforts to increase the population,” Wiratno, a senior official at the Indonesian Environment Ministry, said in a statement released on Monday. 28).
The calf, which has not yet been named, brings the number of Sumatran rhinos in Way Kambas Park to eight. Successful births are rare.
Andatu, father of the newborn calf, was the first Sumatran rhino born in a sanctuary in over 120 years.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the Sumatran rhino, the smallest of all rhino species, as critically endangered.
Multiple threats have pushed these animals to the brink of extinction, such as poaching and climate change. Rhino horn is often illegally traded for traditional Chinese medicine.
