Andalas - also the original name of the island of Sumatra - was born on September 13, 2001 to rhinos Emi and Ipuh at the Cincinnati Zoo. His birth marked the first time that a sumatran rhino has been born in a zoo since 1889.
Credit: Los Angeles Zoo
JAKARTA: The first Sumatran rhino born in captivity in more than 100 years arrived in Indonesia today on a mission to help save the beleaguered species from extinction.
American-born Andalas landed at Jakarta international airport to an enthusiastic welcome from officials, conservationists and reporters of a kind more usually associated with visiting top celebrities.
Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban offered the rhino a snack of leaves to welcome him to his ancestral homeland after his flight from Los Angeles, California. Banners and posters proclaiming "Welcome Andalas" decorated the hanger where he arrived.
Small and hairy, the two-horned forest-dwelling Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is one of the world’s most endangered mammals, with only about 300 remaining in the wild. The species has been ravaged by hunters after its meat and and poachers seeking for its horns - which are used in some traditional Asian medicines. An estimated 70 per cent of their numbers have been lost in the past two decades.
Born on September 13, 2001 at Ohio's Cincinnati Zoo and later transferred to Los Angeles, six-year-old Andalas is now on the island of Sumatra as part of an international breeding programme to save the species.
Two young female rhinos, Rosa and Ratu, are awaiting his arrival at a rhino sanctuary in Sumatra’s Way Kambas National Park. "We are going to provide Andalas with two girls," said Kaban.
He added that another male rhino brought over from England had proved sterile, potentially quelling a popular Asian belief that rhino horn improves sexual performance. "If our rhinoceros cannot have babies then the myth is not valid any more."
After the welcome and a brief rest, Andalas was due to be transported by road for the 12-hour journey to the rhino sanctuary at Way Kambas National Park. He is the first Sumatran rhino born in captivity to return to his homeland, and the first born in captivity since 1889, when a live birth was recorded at the Calcutta Zoo in India.
"Andalas' journey to Indonesia is vital to the future of Sumatran rhinos," said Los Angeles Zoo director John Lewis. "This breeding program is just one example of the extent zoos will go to in order to save a species from extinction."
Andalas' parents were captured in a national park in Sumatra in 1990 and 1991, under a joint Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States program aimed at saving the Sumatran rhino, and later sent to Cincinnati Zoo. He is called after the former name for Sumatra.
With a shaggy coat of reddish hair, the Sumatran rhino is the smallest rhino species, weighing 590 to 770 kilograms. All five rhino species are endangered, but the single-horned Javan rhino is even more at risk, with just 60 or so believed to remain alive.
More information:
Sumatran rhinoceros, Wikipedia
Sumatran rhino makes historic journey to indonesia, Los Angeles Zoo
