The pair of Sumatran rhinos, Torgamba and Meranti, in the wood part of their 12 acre exhibit. Meranti died in 1994, the male wass end back to indonesia in 1998.
He is now one of the oldest sumatran rhinos in captivity.
As far as I am aware this was a purpose-built stable as opposed to a 'reconstructed garage'. It certainly included indoor showers for both animals. I can remember having the opportunity one evening to hand-feed both Torgamba and Meranti inside - John Aspinall and his team afforded every conceivable luxury for this pair.
Francesco Nardelli, who was the Curator of Mammals at Howletts/Port Lympne at the time, was the individual who drew Mr Aspinall's attention to the plight of the Sumatran rhino in the wild and who subsequently led the efforts in Sumatra to capture 'doomed' individuals for the captive breeding programme.
Further information on various aspects of the planning, capture, and attempts to breed these animals can be found in Howletts & Port Lympne annual newsletters (HELP) and also in the Rhinoceros Monograph that Dr Nardelli subsequently wrote.
It is indeed a great shame that port lympne didnt agree to have indian rhinocerous that would be fantastic to see and im sure they would have been very content, but still im very glad to have seen the pair of sumatran rhinos as i doubt very much i will ever see another in my life because of their rarity in captivity
They did indeed. They never seemed to have any of the dietary or other problems with them as experienced by the US zoos which lost several animals during this period. I'm surprised the US zoos didn't contact them for help or advice over diet- perhaps they did? It was also very unfortunate- the luck of the draw so to speak- that both females that went to Port Lympne were unsuitable for breeding- with a younger reproductively capable female they might well have succeeded with a birth.
In that respect the most unfortunate person I know is Bongorob who said on here that he visited Howletts one time when unknown to him the male 'Torgamba' was still at Port Lympne, and had not already left as Bongorob thought was the case. So he was only about twenty miles (and half a hour) from seeing him.:
In that respect the most unfortunate person I know is Bongorob who said on here that he visited Howletts one time when unknown to him the male 'Torgamba' was still at Port Lympne, and had not already left as Bongorob thought was the case. So he was only about twenty miles (and half a hour) from seeing him.:
I very much doubt I will ever see one in person. I did also read what Bongorob wrote a while back. (my excuse is I didn't know about them at the time )
In that respect the most unfortunate person I know is Bongorob who said on here that he visited Howletts one time when unknown to him the male 'Torgamba' was still at Port Lympne, and had not already left as Bongorob thought was the case. So he was only about twenty miles (and half a hour) from seeing him.:
I think I admitted this a while back, but I went to the Bronx in 2004 (whilst the female sumatran Rapunzel was still alive) and didn't check a species list beforehand so didn't know she was there. Only found out I'd missed her about a year later - you think 20 miles is bad, try 20 metres!
