Sumatran Rhino Extinct In Malaysia

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Last of her tribe

The last Sumatran rhino in Malaysia, a female named “Iman,” died on November 23,2019 at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in Sabah, Malaysia.
Her death at age 25 marks the extinction of her species in Malaysia.
Fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild (in Indonesia) according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Dicerorhinus sumatrensis

Sumatran rhinos are the smallest of the living rhinoceroses and the only Asian rhino with two horns.
They stand about 3 feet (1 meter) tall, measure up to 13 feet (4 m) long and can weigh as much as 2,000 lbs. (900 kilograms)

Once it roamed as far away as the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, China and the Malay Peninsula.
Today, the species only survives on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

The critically endangered species was decimated by poaching and habitat loss in the past.
Today the biggest threat to their survival is –
small and fragmented nature of their populations,
and a low birth-rate(1 calf in 4 years)
Solitary nature
Few remaining populations in the wild
Not enough to support natural reproduction
Isolated individuals have been found to be prone to developing reproductive pathologies like the uterine tumors suffered by Iman.

Captured in 2014 and brought to a sanctuary for a breeding program, Iman suffered from uterine fibroid tumors— growths on the walls of her uterus.
Malaysia declared in 2015 that the species was extinct in the wild, with only the captive population remaining.
Between 1987 and 2014, Malaysia had captured over a dozen wild rhinos.

Conservationists have stored cell cultures from Iman.
They hope that, when the technology is in place, these cells can be turned into viable embryos and transplanted into a surrogate

~60-80 Sumatran Rhinos remain in the wild in Indonesia.
Indonesia developed a plan in 2017 to capture rhinos and corral them into large, semi-natural breeding and research facilities.

The country has eight individuals in captivity:

Growing consumer demand for rhino horn has driven the unsustainable increase in poaching across Africa and Asia.
Rhino horn is coveted in parts of Asia for its purported medicinal qualities and as an ornament, which connotes social status and prestige.
An average sized horn can bring in as much as a quarter of a million dollars in Vietnam
The horns are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails.