Operation Javan Rhino: Field Updates

Our team on the ground has already begun holding community meetings in both of the sub-districts in which the Javan Rhino Study and Conservation Area (JRSCA) will be located, Sumur and Cimanggu.  They will continue to hold meetings and workshops to educate local community members about the construction of the JRSCA and its importance, and to hear and address community concerns.  Working with Ujung Kulon National Park authorities, we are also reaching out to the local government in Pandegelang District and Banten Province, to help ensure their support.  Recently the Banten Government invited the Director of Ujung Kulon NP and the Executive Director of Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI) to a meeting to discuss making the Javan rhino the official mascot and icon of Banten province, to generate public awareness and pride. We anticipate that work on that campaign will begin soon.

Along with the Government of Indonesia, our team on the ground has recently completed another set of surveys to finalize the exact location for the fence that will demarcate the boundaries of the new Javan Rhino Study and Conservation Area. The map below shows the fence and guard post locations.

October 19, 2010

Recently, IRF’s Asian Rhino Coordinator, Dr. Bibhab K. Talukdar, and Indonesia Coordinator, Sectionov, visited Ujung Kulon National Park and the Gunung Honje area. They were accompanied by a GIS Specialist from Indian NGO Aaranyak, Pranjit Sarma. Dr. Talukdar and Mr. Sarma were in Indonesia in part to conduct GIS training for all our Indonesian Rhino Protection Units.

While surveying Ujung Kulon NP with the RPUs there, they conducted a quick survey and found that there are several locations in Ujung Kulon where Langkap (Arenga obtusifolia) grows dominantly. Langkap, or arenga palm, is an invasive species that now exists in nearly all areas of Ujung Kulon.  The spread of langkap in Ujung Kulon National Park has been responsible for killing other vegetation, especially vegetation that the Javan rhinos feed on.

Here are a few more recent photos from the RPU patrols in Gunung Honje - it's a muddy job, but someone's got to do it!

RPU member measuring the depth of a Javan rhino wallow. 

Javan rhino dung - an exciting discovery since it helps us to learn a lot about the rhinos in the area.

Javan rhinos love the mud, as these footprints demonstrate. (And Ujung Kulon is full of mud!)

 
September 21, 2010

The Ujung Kulon Rhino Protection Units have just send several great new photos showing Javan rhino wallows and footprints in Gunung Honje - we hope to be seeing lots more evidence of rhinos as we work to improve this habitat and make it suitable for a larger rhino population!

 

Javan rhino sign - horn rubbing marks on tree.

RPU member measuring rhino footprints.

Javan rhino wallow

 

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September 17, 2010

    Over the past several months, while conducting a large and detailed camera trap survey of Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon National Park, authorities discovered three dead rhinos – two carcasses and one older set of bones. Each of the animals had been dead for some time, and we don’t believe that any of them were poached, as all the horns were still intact. Instead, it is likely that these animals either died from natural causes, or possibly from diseases. In the past, there have been disease outbreaks among both Javan and Sumatran rhinos that were caused by diseases spread by domestic livestock grazing in rhino habitats and this is one of the major threats facing the Javan rhino population. (Unfortunately it is quite common for local people to graze their cattle within park boundaries.)

 

 

 During a recent visit to Indonesia, Dr. Terri Roth, IRF’s Vice President for Asia, travelled to Ujung Kulon to help park authorities there try to determine the causes of death of these three rhinos. Dr. Roth collected spores from the rhino bones, as well as vegetation and soil samples from the sites where the carcasses were found, for further testing. Once we determine how these rhinos died, we will be able to decide whether we need to take further actions to help protect the population from disease.

 

   

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September 15, 2010

 

Rhino Protection Units have been operating in Ujung Kulon National Park since 1998. Originally there were three units, but a fourth unit was added in 2008 when we discovered that several Javan rhinos were regularly straying into the Gunung Honje area of the park. The fourth unit was created to monitor the rhinos in this area because it is particularly close to numerous local villages and settlements. Because Gunung Honje is the area where we are currently creating an expanded habitat for Javan rhinos, it is now even more important for RPUs to regularly patrol the area.

On a recent patrol and survey, the RPU found evidence that there are currently 2 – 4 Javan rhinos living in the Gunung Honje area – a great start! (These photos show a rhino footprint and a rhino wallow that the RPU identified during their last patrol.) From this evidence, and our past assessments, we know that the Gunung Honje habitat obviously already has enough rhino food plants, water, and other necessities to support a very small population of rhinos. Our plan now is to improve the habitat even further – by clearing out invasive species, planting even more rhino food plants, creating more water sources and wallows as necessary, etc. – so that more rhinos will move into the area.

 

It will be particularly important to continue and expand RPU patrols in Gunung Honje as we work to increase the rhino population there, since Gunung Honje is under heavy pressure from the communities living around the park. As always, we will recruit local people to join the Rhino Protection Units.

 

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September 9, 2010

When we conducted the detailed habitat assessment that eventually pointed to Gunung Honje as the most appropriate “second” Javan rhino habitat, one of the factors we had to examine was the presence of local people living inside the park boundaries. Throughout Indonesia (and many other countries), there are numerous families living illegally inside national park boundaries. Some people don’t realize that they’re not supposed to be living in these areas, and some don’t feel that they have other any options for supporting their families. And, in many cases, national park authorities and government agencies don’t have the manpower or resources to relocate people and push back encroachment. People living within park boundaries can create a significant threat to wildlife, both by participating in illegal hunting, and also by destroying habitat.

 

So when determining the most appropriate site for the Javan rhino habitat expansion program, we had to figure out how many people were living in the area, and work with government authorities to come up with a possible solution. We found that there were a number of families living within the Gunung Honje boundaries (but there were far fewer families there than in other possible protected areas we also assessed). After the Indonesian government and NGOs working on the project determined that Gunung Honje was our best option for a number of reasons, we began working on a plan to fairly relocate families living inside the park boundaries so that we can make the area as safe as possible for Javan rhinos.

 

The Ujung Kulon National Park authorities have now begun negotiating with people living in the Gunung Honje area. To date, they have concluded agreements with 51 families. These families have agreed to relocate to outside the park boundaries, and they will be eligible to participate in various job opportunities, possibly to include construction/development of the Javan rhino conservation and study area. After these families move, we will work to rehabilitate the previously-settled areas to make them more appropriate for Javan rhinos and other wildlife. Meanwhile, our Rhino Protection Unit that is currently patrolling Gunung Honje is working to remove any illegal shelters they come across within the area.

 

 

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September 7, 2010

 

It's official! On June 21, 2010, the Government of Indonesia formally launched the Javan Rhino Study and Conservation Area.  This ground-breaking initiative will expand the habitat available to Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon, which should allow the population to increase. This in turn would allow us to eventually translocate some animals to establish a second population at a separate site, further helping to expand the species’ population and prevent its extinction.

 

Late last year, IRF commissioned a habitat assessment to evaluate potential translocation sites in Java.  This assessment recommended the creation of a 4,000 hectare Javan Rhino Study and Conservation Area inside the Gunung Honje area (adjacent to Ujung Kulon) with intensified active management. 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 is already beginning construction to improve this habitat and make it suitable for rhinos. One of the first activities will be to clear enough land to construct an electric fence around the borders of the Gunung Honje conservation and study area. (A small, sample piece of electric fence was already erected during the official ceremony for the launch of the conservation and study area -- see photo above.)  The electric fence will help prevent contact between Javan rhinos and cattle from surrounding villages. (Domestic livestock often graze near or even in the park, and can possibly transit diseases that could decimate the rhino population.) The fence (see design below) will also keep the rhinos who have moved in Gunung Honje in the area, making it easier for our biologists and veterinarians to study them. Because Javan rhinos are so rare and elusive, we currently know very little about their basic biology, when hampers our ability to protect them. For instance, we don’t even know the age or gender break-down of the current population. In order to successfully translocate rhinos and establish a second population at a second site (our ultimate long-term goal), we need to learn much more about the biology of the species and its habitat requirements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Back to main Operation Javan Rhino page.

 

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