The future of the Javan rhino

[Panthera1981]

Hello everyone,

Apologies if this topic has been posted before but I'd like some thoughts...

Has there ever been, or is there one in the pipeline, a concerted effort from the global zoo community to implement a captive breeding programme for the Javan rhino?

Surely there must come a time where we cannot let such a wonderful creature be butchered into oblivion, or have we reached the tipping point?Forgive my ignorance but, due to their apparent close relationship to GOH rhino, wouldnt they be easier to keep than Sumatran rhino? Does anyone have concrete figures of the remaining population?

Many thanks,

 

[Hamerhaai]

I believe there were plans for captive breeding. But it was abandoned after the Sumatran rhino project failed.

 

[vogelcommando]

Now and then ideas of translocation part of the population can be heared but so far, it has never become a reality. As far as I'm aware the populations is already for years between 50 and 60.

 

[Pertinax]

Forgive my ignorance but, due to their apparent close relationship to GOH rhino, wouldnt they be easier to keep than Sumatran rhino?

I very much suspect they would, given that close relationship. Unfortunately no-one has taken the risk of trying it.

 

[IanRRobinson]

I find it hard to imagine that Javan Rhino would be any harder to breed in captivity than Great Indian. But the population figure quoted now is 35. To subtract enough animals for a viable captive population (presumably using the same hit and miss trapping methods that saw Port Lympne lumbered with two elderly, post breeding age Sumatran females) would be taking a hell of a risk.

If somebody had taken the trouble to get enough Sumatran Rhinos out in the 1920s/30s (I suspect it was probably commoner than either Southern White or Great Indian then) it's very easy to imagine that the tricks needed to breed the animal would by now have been learnt, as has been the case with gorillas, Cheetah, Giant Panda and Okapi.

Javan Rhino, OTOH, I think was a very rare animal by 1914. The specimen in London's Natural History Museum (and why does it have that copper green tinting? ) was shot in Malaya in 1921 as it was deemed to be the last specimen there. Nowadays we would have moved heaven and earth to have moved her to Udjung Kulon, but the world was a different place then.

I fear that it's heading inexorably towards extinction now, but I would be thrilled beyond measure to be proven wrong.

 

[Pertinax]

I fear that it's heading inexorably towards extinction now, but I would be thrilled beyond measure to be proven wrong.

I fear we could lose both Sumatran and Javan, though they are facing rather different problems apart from poaching. The Javan is confined to just that one tiny population in one small area, whereas the Sumatran is distributed over much larger areas but in tiny fragmented numbers such that in many cases they can't meet, which has seriously affected/ruined the breeding potential of many females.

I agree that had steps been taken to captive breed Sumatrans decades ago (ZSL having already proved they could be kept successfully long term), then many of the husbandry/breeding problems might have been ironed out before they became so rare, even without the aids of modern science. Instead some of the very tiny remainder have had to be used as Guineapigs in that respect. And the failure/poor example of the Sumatran programmes may well have worked against any attempts being made with Javans, even if a few could be successfully captured. Its ironic that being so closely related to Indian Rhino, the Javan would very probably be a much easier species to work with in captivity than the Sumatran.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I agree that had steps been taken to captive breed Sumatrans decades ago (ZSL having already proved they could be kept successfully long term), then many of the husbandry/breeding problems might have been ironed out before they became so rare, even without the aids of modern science.

Or indeed if the Aspinalls had been given animals which were actually *viable* to breed from!

 

[lamna]

Have there been attempts to get DNA from the few remaining Javan Rhinoceros?

Right now cloning isn't really an option, for whatever reason clones don't thrive, but I'm sure the problem will be solved eventually.

I always thought it was a shame that the last few Vietnamese Rhinoceros were not captured and brought to Ujung Kulon. Was that ever seriously discussed?

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

The latest population figures based on continued camera trapping have determined the population to be somewhat higher than the earlier figure of 35.

The population had 2 main threats at the U.K. site:
1. Arenga palm invasion supplanting rhino forage plants,
2. Food competition with burgeoning Javan banteng population.

Both are now being addressed and a new secure rhino habitat has been opened up in U.K. extension that is already being used by 5-8 rhinos.

The next phase will be to sent surplus stock to a second - already identified - secure rhino reserve on Jawa.


I would not recommend - at this phase - any captive-breeding effort.
In effect, the current Ujung Kulon reserve IS a de-facto semi-captive breeding area for Jawan rhino (badak Jawa) and the foundation overseeing this work is well equipped to do so!

 

[Pertinax]

Or indeed if the Aspinalls had been given animals which were actually *viable* to breed from!

We can't guarantee they would have been successful with them even if they had. After all they were no more successful with Asian elephants than other places and Cincinnati had lots of problems before they had a successful birth.. But at Port Lympne they never had the chance to show if they could do it..

 

[TeaLovingDave]

But at Port Lympne they never had the chance to show if they could do it..

This, of course, being my thinking - especially as they have done well with the husbandry of Black Rhinoceros.

 

[Panthera1981]

Thankyou all so far for your excellent feedback, keep it coming!

Was John Aspinall ever offered Javan rhino? Or was his mind set on the Sumatran?

 

[Torgamba]

I would like to clarify that no Sumatran Rhino but one died during capture and transport to zoos. The Rhinos died later for unsuitable diet and reproductive pathologies. All the individuals were isolated (aka doomed).
There have been proposals for captive breeding the Javan Rhino (today some 40) with only 5-10 females. Ref papers: Rhino Resource Center.
In my opinion the Javan is to be compared to the Sumatran more than the Indian. The ecology of S. and J. is very similar.

 

[Pertinax]

Was John Aspinall ever offered Javan rhino? Or was his mind set on the Sumatran?

I have heard vague rumours of that in the past, but nothing concrete and obviously nothing in that direction has ever happened as no Javans have been captured for many decades now(almost within living memory now). I believe he wanted to be involved with the Sumatran rhinos when that programme was happening and given their good track record with Black Rhinos, he was an obvious choice. Despite the lack of breeding for reasons mentioned above, they didn't appear to have any feeding/management problems as some of the US zoos experienced e.g. getting them to feed/keep condition.

I also heard Howletts/PL were offered Indian rhinos some years ago(as surplus from the wild) but declined to take them. Maybe they were put off by their Sumatran experiences (which were not their fault obviously). A great pity as they have the perfect area for either of the one horned species at Port Lympne- the low lying part of the park where the water buffalo are.

 

[Jurek7]

In my opinion the Javan is to be compared to the Sumatran more than the Indian. The ecology of S. and J. is very similar.

Actually, this should not be the matter of anyone's opinion but somehow nobody gathered former reports from outside Ujung Kulon into one picture of Javan rhino biology in S Asia.

What is known that Indian and Javan rhinos are very closely related, while Sumatran is a relatively distant branch of rhino tree. There are many reports of JR living in different habitats, and grazing like Indian Rhino on open meadows and rice fields.

It is probable that dense rainforest of Ujung Kulon is marginal habitat of Javan rhino. The species was pushed into dense forest from semi-open habitats by human hunting, like several other large mammal populations worldwide. At the same time, forest in Ujung Kulon was temporary opened by Krakatoa tsunami. The dense forest is now redeveloping in natural succession.

I hope that the recent addition of semi-open grazing habitats to Ujung Kulon will help Javan rhinos.

 

[Pertinax]

What is known that Indian and Javan rhinos are very closely related, while Sumatran is a relatively distant branch of rhino tree. There are many reports of JR living in different habitats, and grazing like Indian Rhino on open meadows and rice fields.

It is probable that dense rainforest of Ujung Kulon is marginal habitat of Javan rhino. The species was pushed into dense forest from semi-open habitats by human hunting,

I think you are correct in that analysis. Indian/Greater One horned and Lesser/Javan are so closely related they no doubt occupied the same or at least a very similar ecological niche, until such time as Javans/Lessers were forced for various reason to use the more forested sub-optimum habitat of their last retreat in Udjong Kulon. So that now they appear at least to behave more like Sumatran rhino, despite not being related to them at all closely.

 

[IanRRobinson]

When Raffles ruled Java for the East India Company during the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars (1811-1814) a bounty was put on the heads of Javan Rhino, as they were deemed to be so destructive to rice plantations. This is something that I could imagine very easily from a floodplain grazer (like Great Indian) but not really from a true dense rainforest btowsing species.

 

[Chlidonias]

When Raffles ruled Java for the East India Company during the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars (1811-1814) a bounty was put on the heads of Javan Rhino, as they were deemed to be so destructive to rice plantations. This is something that I could imagine very easily from a floodplain grazer (like Great Indian) but not really from a true dense rainforest btowsing species.

this is what I wrote in my blog when I went to Ujung Kulon in 2009:

They were so common in Java in the 18th century and caused such damage to plantations that in 1747 the government placed a bounty of 10 crowns on each animal killed. The bounty lasted for two years and 500 rhinos were shot. Despite this the species remained relatively common for the next 150 years. They became officially protected in 1908 but with no implementation numbers dropped rapidly due to poaching. By 1967 there were an estimated 28 left.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

It's a bit of a unfortunate Catch-22 in some ways; there are too few of them to risk taking any out of the wild in the hope of captive breeding, but there are so few of them left in the wild that captive breeding might be their only chance - with the added irony that with the century of improvements in rhinoceros husbandry since the last time the species was held in captivity the odds are a captive programme might work rather well.

 

[DavidBrown]

It's a bit of a unfortunate Catch-22 in some ways; there are too few of them to risk taking any out of the wild in the hope of captive breeding, but there are so few of them left in the wild that captive breeding might be their only chance - with the added irony that with the century of improvements in rhinoceros husbandry since the last time the species was held in captivity the odds are a captive programme might work rather well.

Doesn't the evidence from the Sumatran rhino captive program suggest that it might not work at all for the Javan rhinos? One of the major criticisms of the Sumatran rhino program at its beginning was that some individuals were killed in the process of being captured. Is there any margin of error that would make that acceptable for the Javan rhinos?

You're completely right though about it being desperation time. The California condors were in the same predicament. A major difference was that all of the condors in the wild were known and being followed, so pulling them out of the wild was possible and relatively straightforward. There were some individuals in captivity already, so the basic husbandry had been worked out. It's true that the Javan rhinos are evolutionarily close to the Indian rhino, but that doesn't necessarily mean that their husbandry would follow the same path...