UPDATE 25 OCTOBER 2011: Javan Rhinos Declared Extinct in Vietnam.

Dung-sniffing dogs have confirmed that Javan rhinos are indeed still surviving in Vietnam.

The WWF survey of Vietnam’s Javan rhino population is off to a promising start: Two dung piles and recent footprints!

WWF biologists Sarah Brook and Simon Mahood have announced via the survey project’s blog – Rhinomania – that Javan rhino dung and footprints have been found in Vietnam.

In five days of searching we found two dung piles, both rather old.

At the wallows, rhino footprints were often clearly visible. Ageing the footprints is fraught with difficulty, but the lack of fallen leaves in these prints indicate that they were made very recently.

Those footprints led out of a wallow where a rhino had been moving around … Again, there is no debris in the areas flattened by the rhino, this and the cloudiness of the water where the rhino has been moving around indicated to us that the rhino had been here recently, perhaps as recently as the night before.

Just a handful of Javan rhinos left in Vietnam

It is estimated that there are no more than five individuals of this rare Javan rhino subspecies (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) still surviving in Vietnam.

The purpose of the Javan rhino population study is to gather urgently needed genetic data in order to develop a local conservation management strategy for these critically endangered mammals. According to WWF, data about these shy and elusive creatures will be compiled using Javan rhino dung analysis.

The project is being carried out by the WWF, Forest Protection Department, Cat Tien National Park, and international rhino experts.

Learn more about the Javan rhino population study at WWF Rhinomania blog.

Image source: flickr.com/argenberg/ / CC BY 2.0

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“Javan Rhinos Confirmed in Vietnam!” by Rhishja Larson originally published November 20, 2009 on EcoWorldly.

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