A camera trap on the island of Borneo has photographed what is believed to be a pregnant Sumatran rhino.

Although only a handful of the Borneo subspecies of the Sumatran rhino still remains, new hope for this species has been discovered: A pregnant Borneo rhino has been captured on film!

According to the Borneo Rhino Alliance, a camera trap set up by the Sabah Wildlife Department and WWF-Malaysia caught the 20-year-old rhino. She is just one of perhaps 30 Borneo rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni) still surviving. They are the world’s smallest species of rhinoceros, with some reaching just three feet high at the shoulder.

Both the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis) and Borneo rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni) are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and have been included in CITES Appendix I since 1975.

The two principal threats are poaching and reduced population viability. Hunting is primarily driven by the demand for the supposedly medicinal properties of rhino horns and other body parts, and many centuries of over-hunting has reduced this species to a tiny percentage of its former population and range. The species is now so reduced that there are very small numbers in each locality where it still survives. As a result, breeding activity is infrequent, successful births are uncommon in many populations, and there is a severe risk of inbreeding depression (J. Payne pers. comm.).

Sumatran rhinos – along with all rhino species – have been slaughtered to near extinction due to superstitions about rhino horn as an Asian folk remedy. Unfortunately, illegal markets in rhino horn are thriving in southeast and east Asia. Alleged “medicines” comprised of rhinoceros horn are still manufactured by Chinese pharmaceutical companies and touted as a cure for common ailments, such as pain, fever, and acne.

In addition, palm oil plantations are responsible for destroying Sumatran rhino habitat throughout the rhinos’ range and fragmenting already fragile populations.

To learn more, please visit Borneo Rhino Alliance.

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. Besides writing Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, I am the author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, the Editor of Project Pangolin, and a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

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