Malaysia lost its last specimen of a Sumatran rhino when a 25-year-old Iman female died at a Tabin refuge on Saturday
Iman, a 25-year-old female, died in a natural death at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve rhino in Lahad Datu, Borneo, Tourism, Culture, and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew has announced.
The female has received the best care since she was caught in March. She was on the verge of death several times because of blood loss from a uterine tumor, but on Saturday she was no longer helping, the official said, adding that they were very sad.
"Although we knew it would happen by then, we are very sad," the minister said of the woman suffering from cancer.
After the death of Tam, a man in that refuge in May, Iman's death left Malaysia without the last specimen of a Sumatran rhino.
It is a species that is critically endangered, which, according to the International Wildlife Conservation Alliance, means a step toward extinction.
Once a resident of rainforests across Asia, Sumatran rhinos now live in the wild in Indonesia alone. In announcing Iman's death, the Minister reminded me that a memorandum of understanding with the neighboring state of Indonesia is expected to be signed. Experts at the refuge managed to freeze Imani's eggs in order to perform artificial insemination in collaboration with Indonesia.
There are fewer than 80 specimens of Sumatran rhinos in the world - also called "hairy rhinos" - but darker estimates say only 30 individuals, according to the Wildlife Conservation Foundation (WWF).
Efforts to rebuild the population are complicated by human activity - poaching and the destruction of their natural habitats, but also by the specific nature of the Sumatran rhino, says Terri Roth, vice president of conservation and science at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.
It is a type of solitary rhino.
"Scattered live in nature, males and females don't come into contact often," Roth told the Times.
