Most importantly, we were able to precisely estimate the population of Javan rhinos at 62 animals. Ujung Kulon National Park is at the far left (west) end. We outline our developments and findings in a new research paper, published in the journal Conservation Letters. We fit these data using statistical models to estimate rhino movement, population size and spatial distribution. Once we could recognize individual rhinos, we could figure out how often we saw each rhino and where.
#JAVAN RHINOCEROS POPULATION 2014 SKIN#
This led to a multi-step identification process that uses morphological features, such as sex, horn shape and position, skin wrinkles around the eyes, neck skin folds and scars. We did this by having three independent teams identify rhinos and compare results. First, however, we had to ensure that we could reliably identify individuals from the videos. My role was to work with these expert biologists to develop statistical methods using these video data to provide estimates of population size and distribution. While biologists are rarely lucky enough to see one of the rhinos, their hard work keeping the cameras operating over the course of a year led to obtaining 36,104 video clips, of which 1,660 were of rhino. Each camera was set to record a high-quality video clip of any animal that walked past.
#JAVAN RHINOCEROS POPULATION 2014 INSTALL#
Expert field biologists trekked over intense rainforest terrain to install cameras at 178 locations. Over the past four years, I have worked as an external scientific advisor with researchers and biologists from World Wildlife Fund Indonesia and the United States, UKNP biologists, Global Wildlife Conservation and the Indonesian nongovernment agency YABI to help create a robust strategy for monitoring Javan rhinos.īuilding on past efforts, my colleagues developed a systematic approach to deploy camera traps throughout the rhino habitat of UKNP. Video of a Javan rhino from a camera trap in Ujung Kulon National Park, West Java, Indonesia. More recently, scientists set up camera traps to capture images of rhinos, but without high-quality images it was hard to tell individual animals apart. Instead we find tracks and dung, which help us understand the habitats that rhinos use, but are rarely good indicators of population size. Javan rhinos range over large areas of dense and swampy rainforest, and researchers rarely see them.
Since then, at least 36 population surveys have attempted to count the rhinos, but most have failed to account reliably for the entire population or provide much insight into the factors that drive their distribution within UKNP. The first estimate of the rhino population in UKNP, made in 1937, put their numbers at 20 to 25. Losing it would mean a less diverse forest.īut despite almost a century of studies on the Javan rhino, we still know relatively little about them. The Javan rhino creates unique habitats within the rainforest by dispersing seeds, creating mud wallows and removing large amounts of understory plants. Rhinos play a significant role in structuring ecosystems. The rhino lineage has survived 50 million years through ice ages and attacks from prehistoric animals, such as the “dog-bear” ( Hemicyon sansaniensis). Burnesedays/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA Why counting rhinos is hard A small population was then discovered in Vietnam's park, and for the past 20 years, a number of wildlife conservationists have worked closely with the government to try to prevent the species from dying out in Vietnam.Map of Java, Indonesia. Twenty-two of the rhino's dung piles were found in Cat Tien from October 2009 to February 5, 2010, but no dung piles or fresh rhino footprints were seen in the subsequent nine weeks, the 44-page report said.īefore 1988, the Javan rhino was believed to be extinct from mainland Asia. WWF, along with the International Rhino Foundation, confirmed that the last rhino had died in Vietnam by collecting and analyzing its feces. Global demand has also increased in the last four to five years as some people have begun to consider rhino horn a remedy for cancer, Williams said. A small amount of ground-up powder can bring hundreds of dollars on the black market.
Horns can now fetch up to $50,000 per pound (about $100,000 per kilogram), the WWF report said Tuesday. (AP Photo/WWF) EDITORIAL USE ONLY WWFĭemand for rhino horn has surged in recent years among Vietnamese and Chinese who believe it can cure an array of ailments. Vietnam has lost its fight to save its Javan rhinoceros population after poachers apparently killed the country's last animal for its horn, international conservation group WWF said in a report Tuesday, Oct. In this photo released by WWF, officials arrange the skeleton of the last rhino in Vietnam in Cat Tien National Park in Lam Dong Province, southern Vietnam. "We're not trying to avoid our responsibility in the death of the rhinos, but we've done our best to protect them," Thanh said.
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