 Reference Base  Project 884: Sumatran rhinoceros - international conserva... |
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Borner, M., 1975. Project 884: Sumatran rhinoceros - international conservation programme. WWF Yearbook 1974-1975: 170-171
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| Location: |
Asia - South East Asia - Indonesia - Sumatra |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Sumatran Rhino |
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The terrain in the central parts of the reserve is steep and high and covered with sub-montane and damp moss forest. The trees are smaller, with beards of lichen on their branches, and the ground is covered with moss. It is here that the Sumatran rhinoceros is found, in what is possibly its last stronghold. It was to study this extremely rare rhino that 1 was sent to Sumatra some two and a half years ago by the World Wildlife Fund . Little was known about the species' status and distribution and virtually nothing about its ecology. The aim of my project was to locate the remaining few populations and work out plans for their conservation.
I soon learned that the rhinos had vanished from the forests close to populated areas, and I therefore had to search the hitherto unexplored central mountainous regions of the Gunung Leuser Reserve. It was there, in an area that can only be reached by a week-long walk through dense forest and difficult terrain - or by helicopter - that I found the tracks, wallows, trails, and saltlicks of this elusive animal.
Direct observation is nearly impossible. To start with, a population of maybe 30 animals is scattered over an area of more than 3,000 square kilometres. And secondly, the rhinos have a flight distance much greater than the approximately 20 metres a human observer can see in the forest.
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