Rhino breeding facility urgently needed in Borneo

TABIN: There is now an urgent need to establish the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary (BRS) breeding facility.

The facility, expected to cost around RM8 million is needed badly, and while the government has agreed to its establishment in 2008, it has not been built yet, Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA) Executive Director Datuk Dr Junaidi Payne said this to reporters visiting the interim facility on Thursday.

“I hope the capture of Puntung would prompt the government of Malaysia with renewed interest because we are in need of this proper long term breeding facility,” said Payne.

Puntung is a young Sumatran rhino that was captured on December 18, 2011, within the reserve itself and was moved to the interim facility next to the sole male rhino in captive, Tam, on Dec 25, last year.

“A tentative estimate of her age is 10 to 12 years old. She is feeding well and putting on weight,” he said.

Payne added that the capture of Puntung haD raised their hopes for survival of the species.

“What I can say at this stage is that we have a potentially fertile male, Tam, and a potentially fertile female, Puntung. So we are now presented with a potential that wasn’t there before, several years ago. If nothing else, it gives us something like the confidence element, not only for BORA but also the government, and that is something worth pursuing,” said Payne.

Without the facilities established, mating for Puntung and the sole male captive rhino on site, Tam, would have to take place in a small paddock between the night stall and the forest paddock, which Payne described, as tiny and not ideal.

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Sime Darby key to setting up the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary

KOTA KINABALU: Yayasan Sime Darby has emerged a key player in assisting efforts to set up the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve over the last three years.

The foundation has contributed RM5mil towards the development of Borneo Rhino Sanctuary as well as provide additional funds for management of wildlife in Tabin Wildlife.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Dr Laurentius Ambu said that support by the private sector played an important role in the conservation of the Sumatran rhinos whose last known remaining populations were in the Danum Valley and Tabin Wildlife Reserve in the Lahad Datu district.

He said the Government had outlined several steps towards helping in the survival of the endangered Sumatran rhinoceros.

The first need is to prevent the poaching and illegal trapping of Sabah’s remaining wild rhinos.

The second need is to bring the few remaining rhinos which are not breeding to the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary, a managed fenced facility being developed at Tabin Wildlife Reserve.

“The people who will be protecting, monitoring, rescuing and caring for rhinos need a comfortable place to stay as well,” he said in thanking Yayasan Sime Darby and other partners in helping provide basic facilities for the area.

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Restoration of degraded forest crucial for survival of orang-utans

The large scale restoration of degraded forest in Ulu Segama and Malua Forest Reserves are crucial for the long term survival of the orang-utans population in Sabah.

According to Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA) Executive Director, Datuk Dr Junaidi Payne during the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) 70th Anniversary International Conference on “Challenges and Solutions for a Tropical Biodiversity” held at a hotel near here recently that the two areas had the country’s largest orangutan population.

He added that the current government has made a strong commitment to keeping the area (about 240,000 hectares) under natural forest in order to conserve the orangutan population.

However, a future administration can just as easily alter that commitment and ‘cut off’ a big chunk of the forest for oil palm plantation expansion on the grounds that ‘there is no choice’ for the State economy or to sustain the local processing industry at Lahad Datu, he said.

“Investing in restoring the big areas of degraded forest here will help to ensure the commitment of the present government is sustained in the long term,” he said.

Dr Junaidi also commented that efforts by certain quarters to conduct public awareness and the building of rope bridges across rivers for orangutans to cross are equally important aids to helping save the species in the long-term.

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Female Sumatran Rhinoceros translocated to Tabin Wildlife Reserve

TABIN (Lahad Datu): The only female Sumatran Rhinoceros kept in captivity at the Lokawi Wildlife Park was safely translocated to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, near here yesterday.

Gelegub, the 28-year-old rhino, is now part of the Borneo Rhino Conservation Programme also known as the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary Programme in Tabin. The aim of the programme is to ward off the extinction of the species which now numbers at less than 50 in the wild.

The rhino underwent a 12-hour journey from the Lokawi Wildlife Park to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, leaving the park at 6.30pm on Tuesday and arriving at about 6am yesterday. She was accompanied by a convoy headed by the Park’s Veterinarian, Dr Roza Sipangkui, staff of the Sabah Wildlife Department’s (SWD) Wildlife Rescue Unit and its veterinarians. They were also assisted by police.

Gelegub has been placed at the Lokawi Wildlife Park for the last three years prior to the move.

Sabah Wildlife Department Director, Dr Laurentius Ambu said that the decision to move Gelegub was made after consulting with rhino experts in the country as well as from abroad.

“The threat of extinction on the rhino is imminent, with less than 50 left in the wild presently and mainly in fragmented forest,” he said.

He said that SWD are working together with the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), Liebniz Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research and Liepzig Zoo with the effort to rescue the rhinos at these fragmented forest and bring them to the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary (BRS) where they can meet and mate naturally.

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