Javan rhino clings to survival in last forest stronghold

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/07/javan-rhino-survival


A Javan rhinoceros in Ujung Kulon national park, Java, Indonesia. Photograph: Mary Plage/Getty Images

For most people in south-east Asia, the Javan rhino is effectively already a relic from the past. The stocky herbivore, that once roamed across Burma, Vietnam and Indonesia, is now a rarely glimpsed inhabitant of a single patch of thick forest on the island which gives it its name.

No zoo in the world – even through captive breeding programmes – boasts a Javan rhino. Even people dedicated to protecting the world's rarest large mammal seldom catch sight of the species.

"I've been to its habitat three times and got very excited just to see its footprints," says Kerry Crosbie, project director at the Asian Rhino Project, which funds the efforts of Indonesian rhino NGOs. "You have to be incredibly lucky to see one."