Trap cameras capture extremely rare baby rhinos

A new video captures Javan rhino pups, increasing the critically endangered species to 60.

A video from a trap camera in Indonesia's Ujung Kulon National Park features a critically endangered Javan rhino and a cub. © Ujung Coulon National Park

Written by Rachel Becker, National Park

A small rhino emerged from the bushes and fanned its ears wide. Not far behind it, its mother followed suit, looking around alertly.

This little guy is not ordinary. It is one of three new Javan rhinos photographed by trap cameras in Ujung Kulong National Park in Indonesia. The national park is the last habitat of the Critically Endangered Subspecies of the Javan Rhinoceros.

Today, there are only 60 Javan rhinos on Earth, and that number has gradually recovered over the past 50 years.

Years of poaching and habitat destruction have left many Javan rhinos dead. Now, the remaining rhinos are concentrated in this national park.

Barney Long, head of the organization's species conservation program at the World Wide Fund for Nature, who maintains the trap camera, said the video of the new cubs was a reason to regain hope.

This is because, "it proves that the Javan rhinoceros is breeding in the wild", which has never happened since captivity, so this baby rhino is particularly rare.

Long said: "I think the most memorable thing is that the rhino population is starting to recover. This video proves that with the right protections, you'll get more cubs. ”

We haven't weathered it yet

However, the fate of this species remains unresolved.

On the one hand, Ujung Kulong National Park is so close to the anak Krakatau active volcano that a single eruption could wipe out rhino populations. On the other hand, 60 rhinos have almost reached the maximum number that the national park can support.

According to Long, female rhinos give birth to a baby rhino every three to five years, but when the rhino population density increases, its fertility frequency decreases.

To keep this rhino population slowly recovering without reducing fertility, WWF is finding a new home for them.

In addition, they hired patrollers and encouraged locals to protect these rhinos from poachers. In 2010, poachers in Vietnam brutally murdered the country's last few rhinos.

Long said: "We need to pay more attention to this species. We'll let them recover and we know how to do it. But we need the whole world to pay attention to them. ”

(Translator: MikeGao)