Jakarta - Thirty-four video cameras have been installed at
an Indonesian national park to track every move of Java rhinos, the
world's most endangered large mammal, the global conservation group
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said Thursday.
The cameras installed at the Ujung Kulon National Park on the
western tip of Java island are intended to find out more about the
animal and help to prevent the species from going extinct, the WWF
said.
There are fewer than 60 Javan rhinos in the world and Ujung Kulon
is home to 50 of them, the group said.
Cameras have already helped to reveal some previously unknown
behaviour of the rare mammal, which can weigh 2,300 kilograms and
measure over 3 metres in length.
One of the female Javan rhinos has been captured wrecking one of
the cameras, possibly out of fear that it might hurt her calves.
'The project is helping the most endangered large mammal species,'
Adhi Rachmat Hariyadi, who leads WWF-Indonesia's project in the
national park, said in a statement.
'We've already recorded videos of nine individuals, including a
mother and calf,' he said.
Camera traps are fairly basic photographic equipment with
infra-red triggers which take a picture every time they sense
movement in the forest.
'Video serves as a positive tool to provide evidence on the
urgency of saving this species,' Agus Priambudi, head of Ujung Kulon
National Park, said in the statement.
'It is important to be able to show the real condition of Javan
rhinos to local and central governments.'
Vietnam is the only other country with a Javan rhino population.
The WWF said the Indonesian population had a better chance of
survival since it was the only one that still has proof of breeding.
There has been no verifiable signs of Javan rhinos breeding in Cat
Tien National Park in Vietnam.
'We are concerned because we have not seen many very young calves
for several years and worry that the population may be dependent on
two or three breeding females,' Hariyadi said.
Conservationists want to identify another suitable site, where a
second population could be established.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story