Wed Jul 1, 7:06am ET
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – The future of one of the world's rarest
animals, the Borneo rhino, depends on action taken to
protect the forest reserves where it lives, conservation group WWF
said Wednesday.
Malaysian wildlife officials say that only 30 Borneo rhino
remain in the wilderness of Sabah state, on Malaysia's side of
Borneo, the island which it shares with Indonesia.
"The future of rhinos in Borneo now depends on how seriously the
forest reserves can be managed sustainably," Raymond Alfred, senior
manager of WWF-Malaysia's Borneo Species Programme said in a
statement.
Alfred's comments came after his team captured a rare image of
the near-extinct animal, a female believed to be about 20 years
old.
WWF said that the image, along with the identification of two
rhino calves, added weight to the need to manage the species'
forest home sustainably.
Alfred urged forestry and wildlife authorities in Sabah, and the
police, to adopt "strong and co-ordinated enforcement to ensure the
survival" of the species.
WWF said the rhinos' range was being affected by the expansion
of oli palm plantations,
and called for action to protect its habitat from
fragmentation.
The Borneo sub-species is the rarest of all rhinos,
distinguished from other Sumatran rhinos by its relatively small
size, small teeth and distinctively shaped head.
The Sumatran rhinoceros
is one of the world's most endangered species with few left on
Indonesia's Sumatra island, Sabah and peninsular Malaysia.
