24 Apr 2007 - A video
“camera trap” positioned inside the jungle
has captured rare footage of an elusive
Borneo rhino, WWF and Malaysia’s Sabah Wildlife
Department announced today.
The 2 minute video — showing the animal
eating, walking to the camera and sniffing
the equipment — is the first-ever footage
of observing the behaviour in the wild of
one of the world’s rarest rhinos.
Scientists estimate there are only between
25 and 50 rhinos left on the island of Borneo.
These last survivors of the Bornean subspecies
of Sumatran rhinos are believed to remain
only in the interior forests of Sabah, Malaysia
— an area known as the “Heart of Borneo.”
The rhinos are so secretive that the first-ever
still photo of one was captured last year.
“These are very shy animals that are almost
never seen by people,” said Mahedi Andau,
director of the Sabah Wildlife Department.
“This video gives us an amazing opportunity
to spy on the rhino’s behaviour.”
The rhinos in Sabah spend their lives in
dense jungle where they are rarely seen,
which accounts for the lack of any previous
photographs of them in the wild.
The video camera trap that captured the
rhino footage was developed by Stephen Hogg,
Head of Audio Visual at WWF-Malaysia. After
successfully testing the newly developed
camera trap on Malayan tigers in Peninsula
Malaysia, it was set up in Sabah to capture
the Sumatran rhino. Photos and video footage
can determine the condition of rhinos, help
identify individual animals and show how
they behave in the wild.
“We did a pilot test with two of my video
cameras in an area that the field team had
determined was used by rhinos. The first
time we checked them, after four weeks,
there were these fantastic images,” Hogg
said. “This is further proof that these
video cameras do work and are of value to
our conservation work. This footage is awesome
and could not have been better.”
On Borneo, there have been no confirmed
reports of rhinos apart from those in Sabah
for almost 20 years, leading experts to
fear that the species may now be extinct
on the rest of the island. Major threats
include poaching, illegal encroachment into
key rhino habitats, and the fact that the
remaining rhinos are so isolated that they
may rarely or never meet to breed.
“The photos and video footage will be used
to determine the condition of the rhinos
in the wild,” said Raymond Alfred, project
manager for WWF’s Asian Rhino and Elephant
Action Strategy (AREAS). “But we have to
realize that these rhinos could face extinction
in the next ten years if their habitat continues
to be disturbed and enforcement is not in
place.”
Recently, the ministers of the three Bornean
governments – Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia
and Malaysia – signed an historic Declaration
to conserve and sustainably manage the Heart
of Borneo. This has put the area on the
global stage of conservation priorities.
END NOTES:
• The rhinos found on Borneo are regarded
as a subspecies of the Sumatran rhinos,
which means they have different physical
characteristics to rhinos found in Sumatra
(Indonesia) and Peninsular Malaysia. The
Sumatran rhino is one of the world's most
critically endangered species, with small
numbers found only in Sumatra (Indonesia),
Sabah (on the northern end of Borneo) and
Peninsular Malaysia.
• Conservationists hope that the population
is viable and will be able to reproduce
if protected from poaching. However, a high
proportion of females have reproductive
problems. Many of the remaining rhinos are
old and possibly beyond reproductive age.
The death rate may be exceeding birth rate.
• Sabah and the forests of the "Heart
of Borneo" still hold huge tracts of
continuous natural forests, which are some
of the most biologically diverse habitats
on Earth, with high numbers of unique animal
and plant species. It is one of only two
places in the world – Indonesia's Sumatra
island is the other – where orang-utans,
elephants and rhinos still co-exist and
where forests are currently large enough
to maintain viable populations.
• WWF, Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah
Forestry Department and SOS Rhino are currently
conducting on-the-ground monitoring to protect
key rhino habitat in Sabah. However, based
on the field survey and patrol in several
key habitats in Sabah, a single field enforcement
activity will not be effective without an
integrated awareness programme and the willingness
of the public and other agencies to cooperate
to protect rhino habitats.
• Sabah Forestry Department is leading
the acquisition of a 200-hectare forest
corridor to be secured as rhino habitat,
and is strengthening security within this
portion of the Heart of Borneo with the
support of Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah
Foundation and WWF-Malaysia.
Angela Lim, Senior Communications Officer
WWF-Malaysia Borneo Programme
Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer
WWF International
+ More
Build a tiger online: Web campaign seeks
photos to stop tiger trade
23 Apr 2007 - Thirty conservation groups
have launched a worldwide campaign to collect
supporters’ pictures online to create the
world’s largest photo mosaic of a tiger.
The mosaic, built with thousands of photos
from tiger supporters submitted around the
globe, will be unveiled to world leaders
in June as they gather to discuss wildlife
trade at a meeting of the Conference of
the Parties to the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES).
Visitors to the mosaic can zoom in on the
larger tiger picture and find images submitted
of themselves and family and friends.
The mosaic campaign launches as China considers
lifting its ban on trade in tiger bones
and other body parts, a move that would
be disastrous for wild tigers since an increase
in poaching would likely follow.
“Your photos and actions could help save
tigers,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director
of WWF’s Global Species Programme.
“The Chinese government is being pressured
to lift the ban and be able to sell tiger
bone wine, tiger meat and skins. This would
make it open season on the fewer than 5,000
tigers left in the wild, with criminals
seeing the Chinese market as an easy way
to ‘launder’ tigers poached from the wild.”
Supporters will also have the opportunity
to send a note to China’s leaders applauding
them for their effective 1993 ban on tiger
trade and urging them to maintain it. These
messages of appreciation will be hand delivered
to officials in China.
Supporters of tiger conservation can take
part in the tiger protection campaign by
uploading their photos to www.panda.org/tigermosaic
