World's rarest rhinos make first video trap appearance - then toss camera 

JAKARTA--After just a month in operation, specially designed video cameras installed to capture rhino footage in the jungles of Indonesia have twice recorded remarkable images of the world's rarest rhino accompanied by a calf.

But the success was not without incident as after a short inspection, one rhino mother charged the camera and sent it flying on one of the occasions in Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, Indonesia. Javan rhinos occur only in that park and one in Vietnam.

"With fewer than 60 Javan rhinos left in the wild, we believe this footage was well worth the risk to our equipment," said Adhi Rachmat Hariyadi, who leads WWF-Indonesia's project in Ujung Kulon National Park. “It’s very unusual to catch a glimpse of the Javan rhinos deep inside the rain forest. The motion triggered infrared video traps are a useful way to observe them and the ways they use their habitat in a more detailed way."

"We are proposing a test translocation of a few Javan rhinos in the near future to establish a new population in a new area. This requires reliable data and science and setting up video traps allows us to do that without sending researchers spending nights on rickety bamboo platforms trying to observe these highly endangered rhinos," said Adhi. "Since the video traps don’t have any moving parts and are very silent, they can be placed much closer than humans along the favourite haunts of the Javan rhinos, like salt licks, trails and mud wallows."

“We are encouraged by the initial results from these video traps, and hope this data will help the park authorities to understand the population dynamics and behaviour of Javan rhinos better and help manage the threats to this population in a more scientific manner”, said Agus Priambudi, Head of Ujung Kulon National Park.

Javan rhinos are found only in two locations in the world with Ujung Kulon NP in Java, Indonesia estimated to have around 60 rhinos -- more than 90 percent of the global population. To prevent the rhino population from going extinct from a sudden catastrophe like a diseases or other natural disasters, the Government of Indonesia recently launched the rhino conservation strategy entitled “Rhino Century Project” (Proyek Abad Badak) in partnership with WWF, International Rhino Foundation (IRF), Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI), and US Fish and Wildlife Service to create an additional Javan rhino population by translocating a few individuals from Ujung Kulon to another suitable site.

“The use of such cutting edge technologies for studying Javan rhinos should be encouraged more. We believe that the data generated from these video traps in the coming years will be of immense help in planning the test translocation of a few Javan rhinos to another suitable habitat –an effort IRF is planning to support,” said Susie Ellis of the International Rhino Foundation. “Identification of individual rhinos and insights into their roles in the population will be invaluable in carrying out a successful relocation.”

Adhi Rachmat, the WWF team leader in Ujung Kulon, was happy that the camera attacked by the female Javan rhino wasn’t damaged badly. “The camera tossed in our footage was found by a survey team and put back on its stand the next day” said Adhi. The video trap instalments are done and monitored by a survey team consisting of biologists, including Ujung Kulon park rangers, WWF, and local people.

Contact Persons:

Agus Priambudi
Head of Ujung Kulon National Park
m +6281341301701
email a_priambudi@yahoo.co.id

Adhi Rahmat Hariyadi
Site Manager of WWF-Indonesia in Ujung Kulon National Park
m +62 818134178
email: ahariyadi@wwf.or.id

Susie Ellis, PhD
Executive Director, International Rhino Foundation
m 1-540-660-4152
email s.ellis@rhinosirf.org

NOTES for EDITORS:

• Footage from the Javan rhino video trap and still photos from the footage can be downloaded from the WWF Press Room drop box at
  https://intranet.panda.org/documents/folder.cfm?uFolderID=61441
• The log-in is: intranet@wwfint.org and the password is: dropbox   For the highest quality image choose the large MPG file which can take some time to download, while there is a shorter Flash version for quick viewing. A related article will appear on www.panda.org at embargo time
• Javan rhinos are the rarest of the world’s five rhino species and are critically endangered. It is estimated that not more than 60 individuals live in Ujung Kulon. WWF has identified about 37 individuals in Ujung Kulon through camera trapping, a critical part of WWF research of these rhinos.
• The video camera trap that made this glimpse of rhinos in the wild possible is the creation of WWF-Malaysia photographer Stephen Hogg, who perfected a video camera trap that works in dense, humid jungles. Recent footage from Hogg’s video trap of a rare Malayan tiger is also available in the drop box, as per the directions above.