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dpa
Jakarta
Two rare Javan rhino calves were caught on camera in March in an Indonesian national park on the western tip of the island of Java, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry said on Saturday. In a statement, the ministry said it was the first sighting of the calves of the endangered species that were born this year on the Ujung Kulon National Park peninsula.
The camera trap first caught sight of a female rhino calf, whose mother is a rhino named Ambu, in mid-March. This calf is Ambu’s second, following her first one that she gave birth to in 2017. The second calf spotted in the video was a male calf estimated to be about 1 year old. He was also spotted in March with his mother, Palasari. “The birth of the calves in Ujung Kulon National Park showed that the full protection policy on the Javan rhino habitat at the national park has been successful in making them breed naturally,” said minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar.
With the birth of two calves this year and last year, there are now 73 Javan rhinos - 40 males and 33 females - at the national park, according to the ministry data. Indonesia is home to two out of five rhinoceros species in the world, the Javan rhino and Sumatran rhino.
The latter is the only Asian rhinos with two horns.
The two species are listed as critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species as their population have been rapidly shrinking due to poaching for their prized horns and habitat loss.
Jakarta
Two rare Javan rhino calves were caught on camera in March in an Indonesian national park on the western tip of the island of Java, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry said on Saturday. In a statement, the ministry said it was the first sighting of the calves of the endangered species that were born this year on the Ujung Kulon National Park peninsula.
The camera trap first caught sight of a female rhino calf, whose mother is a rhino named Ambu, in mid-March. This calf is Ambu’s second, following her first one that she gave birth to in 2017. The second calf spotted in the video was a male calf estimated to be about 1 year old. He was also spotted in March with his mother, Palasari. “The birth of the calves in Ujung Kulon National Park showed that the full protection policy on the Javan rhino habitat at the national park has been successful in making them breed naturally,” said minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar.
With the birth of two calves this year and last year, there are now 73 Javan rhinos - 40 males and 33 females - at the national park, according to the ministry data. Indonesia is home to two out of five rhinoceros species in the world, the Javan rhino and Sumatran rhino.
The latter is the only Asian rhinos with two horns.
The two species are listed as critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species as their population have been rapidly shrinking due to poaching for their prized horns and habitat loss.
