We’ve Just Got One Shot to Save Javan Rhinos – Can You Help? 

Next to the banks of a muddy river, deep in the Indonesian jungle, the world’s rarest land mammal quietly approaches the water for a drink. This Javan rhinoceros is one of fewer than 50 of its kind left on the planet.
 
Rhinos have walked the earth for more than 50 million years, but now three of the five remaining rhino species could very well become extinct within our lifetimes. The Javan rhino is most endangered and the least well-known of them all.
 
Because the Javan rhino is so rare, shy and mysterious, we know very little about its life cycle and behavior. No one knows exactly how Javan rhinos socialize and mate, how long their pregnancies last, or even how long they live. But one thing we do know for sure is that unless we take action now to protect and expand the Javan rhino population, we could lose this species forever.
 

The only viable population of Javan rhinos is confined to Indonesia’s small Ujung Kulon National Park on the island of Java. The second population in Vietnam, numbering only three or four individuals, is too small to survive on its own, and there are no Javan rhinos in captivity anywhere in the world. This means we only get one shot to save this species, and every day counts!
 
The Javan rhino population in Ujung Kulon National Park, estimated at 37 – 44 individuals, has remained stable over the past decade, largely thanks to the devoted efforts of our Rhino Protection Units, elite anti-poaching teams that patrol the park every day, essentially eliminating losses from poaching.
 
But despite this intensive protection, the fact that there is only one viable population in one location means that Javan rhinos face a significant risk of extinction from a single natural disaster or introduced disease – and these animals are quite literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.
 
Ujung Kulon National Park sits on a tiny peninsula, jutting into the sea between Java and Sumatra. To the west sits Krakatau, long considered one of the most active and destructive volcanoes on the planet. (Ujung Kulon and much of Java were decimated by the eruption of Krakatau in 1883, one of the most violent volcanic events in modern times.) To the east is the rapidly-increasing and ever-encroaching human population of Java, the most populous island in the world. (There have already been a handful of rhino deaths as a result of diseases introduced by domestic livestock living in villages near the park.)
 

IRF and our partners are working to expand and improve the habitat available to Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon, which should allow the population to increase. This in turn will allow us to eventually move some animals to establish a second “insurance” population at a separate site, further helping to expand the species’ population and prevent its extinction. 

We have selected Gunung Honje (an area adjacent to Ujung Kulon) as the site of a 4,000 hectare Javan rhino research and conservation area. The current Javan rhino population ranges in an area just next to Gunung Honje, and individual animals occasionally wander into Gunung Honje already.  If we can make the Gunung Honje area more suitable for Javan rhinos (by planting more of the rhinos’ favorite foods, increasing the availability of wallows and water, creating rhino access paths, and providing necessary protection), the rhino population should then expand into Gunung Honje.
 
Our team on the ground in Indonesia has worked hard to obtain approval and support from all levels of Indonesian government -- village, province and central -- for this ambitious initiative, and on June 21, 2010, the Indonesian Minister of Forestry and the Governor of Banten Province officially launched the Javan Rhino study conservation area in Gunung Honje.
 

We are now ready to begin on-the-ground activities, and we need your help!
 

To make the new habitat suitable and safe for Javan rhinos, we will clear the site for an electric fence and adjacent patrol road, construct small bridges and a fence, plant rhino food plants and remove invasive species, create a water supply and saltlick, construct new guard posts, hire and train more guards and other staff from local villages, and launch an education program for nearby communities.
 

Through our generous partners and donors, we have already raised $350,000 of the $650,000 needed for this ambitious effort. We are now asking for your helping in raising an additional $300,000. 100% of your donation will be used to plant rhino food plants, create water sources and wallows, construct guard posts and patrol routes, and pay for anti-poaching units to patrol the area.