Torgamba's Story
Torgamba, a 26-year-old male rhino, was the first wild-born Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) to become part of an international Sumatran rhino breeding effort.
The Sumatran rhino is one of the most endangered of all rhino species. Sumatran rhinos have decreased by more than 50% in the last 15 years, primarily due to poaching and habitat loss. Fewer than 300 Sumatran rhino now survive in very small and highly fragmented populations in Southeast Asia. Sumatra Island in Indonesia is home to the only significant population, but the rapid felling of the island’s old growth forests to meet the growing human population’s demands for land, food and income has placed rhinos at grave risk of extinction.
During the 1980s, most of the forests in Riau province where Torgamba lived were cleared to make way for logging concessions and palm oil plantations, leaving Torgamba and other rhinos stranded without enough habitat in which to browse for food. In November 1985, Torgamba was rescued by an organization working to capture these displaced rhinos using sophisticated pitfall traps constructed so as to avoid any possible injuries to the animals. Torgamba was the first displaced rhino to become part of a joint program between the Indonesian government and international zoos and non-profits to research and breed Sumatran rhinos in captivity, with the ultimate aim of reinforcing populations in the wild.
Soon after his rescue, Torgamba was moved to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park near Kent, England, where he lived for 11 years. Torgamba was much loved by staff and visitors of the zoo, and was the subject of a book, The Rhinoceros, by zoo owner John Aspinall. Torgamba was paired with two different female Sumatran rhinos in England, but unfortunately both suffered health problems and Torgamba never successfully reproduced.
In early 1998, Torgamba was transferred back to Indonesia, where the newly-opened Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) had been constructed in Way Kambas National Park to manage an intensive research and breeding program aimed at increasing the Sumatran rhino population. (At the sanctuary, the rhinos reside in large, open forest areas where they can experience a natural habitat while still receiving state-of-the-art veterinary care and good nutrition.)
Torgamba arrived back home in good health, and quickly adapted to life at the sanctuary. Although he had learned to eat apples, grapes and other foods during his time in England, at the sanctuary, Torgamba soon became accustomed to browsing for more traditional rhino fare. Like Sumatran rhinos in the wild, he spends most of the day in his 25-acre enclosure feeding on the twigs and leaves of trees and shrubs growing in the forest understory.
Torgamba has bred numerous times with two female rhinos at the SRS, Bina and Ratu, but neither has become pregnant. As Torgamba ages, he may fill a new role as ambassador for a visitor program at the sanctuary, so he can help to instill wonder about his secretive forest relatives, and educate tourists and local communities about the importance of protecting his species from extinction.
