 Reference Base  Helping a species go extinct: the Sumatran rhinoceros in ... |
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Rabinowitz, A., 1995. Helping a species go extinct: the Sumatran rhinoceros in Borneo. Conservation Biology 9 (1): 482-488
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Management - Programs |
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Sumatran Rhino |
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The first meeting of the Asian Rhino Specialist Group (AsRSG), convened in Thailand in 1979. By the third meeting in Singapore in 1984, the AsRSG decided to launch a program to capture 'doomed' Sumatran rhinos for breeding in captivity in Asian, European, and North American zoos. Doomed rhi- nos were loosely defined as animals whose lives were in immediate danger due to the clearing or conversion of forest for other uses.
The Sumatran Rhino Trust (SRT), an organization spawned from the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, initially worked out an agreement with Malaysia for the export of animals to the United States with the aim of establishing a captive-breeding program. But protests over the shipping of Malaysian rhinos to western zoos resulted in the dissolution of the proposed agreement and the establishment of a separate Malaysian captive-breeding program. Political differences between the state of Sabah and the national government then led to the creation of two separate Malaysian breeding programs, one in Peninsular Malaysia and one organized by the newly formed Sabah Rhino and Wildlife Conservation Committee, each to be funded and coordinated individually.
In 1987, the SRT signed an agreement with the Indonesian govermnent. It continued to acknowledge that protection and management in situ was a top priority for Sumatran rhino conservation, but the agreement stipulated the following:
(1) A donation of US $60,000 per rhino would be paid to the newly established Indonesia Rhino Foundation once rhinos were received in SRT facilities in North America.
(2) In the event of death during transport to the zoos and for a period of one year, an indemnity of US $25,000 per rhino would be paid by SRT to the Indonesia Rhino Foundation.
(3) in the event of death during capture, US$ 5000 per rhino would be paid by SRT to the Indonesia Rhino Foundation.
(4) All expenses for the survey, capture, and transport of rhinos would be covered by SRT.
(5) SRT would contribute $20,000 per year for the duration of this agreement for improving protection and management for rhinos in National Parks.
In 1993, the SRT was dissolved after five years and a cost of more than US $2.5 million. Virtually none of the money went to improving the protection and management of wild rhinos in existing protected areas. This program, along with the similar efforts in Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia to catch doomed rhinos for breeding, were expensive failures resulting in the capture of 35 rhinos and the deaths of 12 rhinos between 1984 and 1993. The failure was partly a result of the skewed sex ratio of captured animals. Still, as of 1993, the surviving 23 rhinos ( 14 females, 9 males) were being held in 10 separate areas in Indonesia, Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Other than one facility in Peninsular Malaysia with five rhinos, no more than three rhinos were at any of the other facilities. Because adult males and females were never together in the same place for a significant amount of time, there have been no births from captive Sumatran rhinos to date.
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