Two new Javan rhinoceros calves spotted in Javan national park

KevinB

KevinB

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Two Javan rhinoceros calves, a male and a female, were spotted on camera traps in Ujung Kulon national park (Banten province, Java, Indonesia) between March and August, according to a recent release by authorities, documented in the Phys article linked below. The two new calves bring the Javan rhinoceros population to 74.

The image was linked from that article also.

twoextremely.jpg


https://phys.org/news/2020-09-endangered-javan-rhino-calves-indonesian.html
 
This is such great news for World Rhino Day! What is the chance that we will see a Javan Rhino in captivity during our lifetime? If I remember correctly Indian Rhinos were in zoos when numbers were as low as 200-300? So I guess we might see them in captivity in maybe another 40-50 years in the current population keeps steadily growing????
 
Sarus Crane said:
This is such great news for World Rhino Day! What is the chance that we will see a Javan Rhino in captivity during our lifetime? If I remember correctly Indian Rhinos were in zoos when numbers were as low as 200-300? So I guess we might see them in captivity in maybe another 40-50 years in the current population keeps steadily growing????
Click to expand...
Yes great news indeed. I believe its unlikely that Javan Rhino will be kept in any zoo in the near term future if at all, if they did I believe it would be in Indonesia itself!
 
Sarus Crane said:
This is such great news for World Rhino Day! What is the chance that we will see a Javan Rhino in captivity during our lifetime? If I remember correctly Indian Rhinos were in zoos when numbers were as low as 200-300? So I guess we might see them in captivity in maybe another 40-50 years in the current population keeps steadily growing????
Click to expand...

Would there ever be a need to take them into ex-situ captive management ?

I mean the general consensus appears to be that there is a need to translocate Javan rhinos from Ujung Kulon to other protected areas within Java and maybe even to Sumatra but why to captivity in zoos if they are seemingly doing well ?

It seems to me that what is needed with the Javan rhino is improvements in the in-situ management of the species and for the translocation plans to be actualized (as opposed to being pipe dreams that get lost in bureaucracy for decades) rather than them being taken into captivity to zoos.

The Sumatran rhino on the other hand definitely needs to come into captivity , that is beyond any doubt.
 
Last edited:
The Javan population will not continue to grow without translocation to other protected parks. Ujung Kulon is at carrying capacity and is mainly habitat that actually isn't the most suitable for the rhinos, and therefore the population will never grow beyond 60-80 animals due to a lack of resources and space to sustain them. If the species is to survive long-term and continue growing their population, the population must be split between multiple parks. To be honest, I don't think a captive (or semi-captive) reserve would be the worst idea, I'd imagine their husbandry wouldn't be all far off from that of Indian Rhinos which now do very well in captivity (after all, for a long time Javans would be mistaken for Indians in zoos) so a captive assurance population could probably be very beneficial.

Conversely, I don't think captivity is the answer for Sumatran Rhinos. They need to be rounded up, and all consolidated into one protect park--Way Kambas probably--so that they can breed naturally and build their numbers back up before eventually also being translocated to other parks once numbers are stabilized enough. Captive study and breeding should continue, of course, but I don't believe this will be able to save the species considering the captive issues they have suffered in the past.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
The Javan population will not continue to grow without translocation to other protected parks. Ujung Kulon is at carrying capacity and is mainly habitat that actually isn't the most suitable for the rhinos, and therefore the population will never grow beyond 60-80 animals due to a lack of resources and space to sustain them. If the species is to survive long-term and continue growing their population, the population must be split between multiple parks.~Thylo
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this assessment !

ThylacineAlive said:
To be honest, I don't think a captive (or semi-captive) reserve would be the worst idea, I'd imagine their husbandry wouldn't be all far off from that of Indian Rhinos which now do very well in captivity (after all, for a long time Javans would be mistaken for Indians in zoos) so a captive assurance population could probably be very beneficial.
Click to expand...

That is a fair point but I still question the need for captivity if translocation to multiple protected areas becomes an option. Translocation just seems like an overall better long-term strategy to me (even though I think any increased focus on the Asiatic rhinos in captivity is an improvement over the inordinate attention towards the African species).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top