Sumatran rhino Harapan at the Cincinnati Zoo. Photo: Cincinnati Zoo
The Sumatran rhino is in serious danger of extinction. Due to poachers hunting them down for their valuable horns and unchecked development destroying their natural habitats, conservationists believe that the species has been completely wiped out in Malaysia and less than 100 of them still exist in Indonesia.
In the hopes of helping to turn that alarming number around, an eight-year-old named Harapan (which means “Hope” in Indonesian), the last Sumatran rhino currently living in the Western Hemisphere, is being sent to Indonesia in the hope that he’ll hook up and help produce some new baby rhinos.
Harapan currently lives in the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio, the place where he was born. The zoo is renowned for its Sumatran rhino breeding program that has produced the only three of the species born in captivity.
“We are very sad about the (Sumatran rhino) program coming to an end here in Cincinnati,” said the head of the zoo’s Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife, Terri Roth, as quoted by the Associated Press.
“It’s a huge loss for us. But it’s the right thing, to at least have Harapan able to contribute to survival of the species.”
A rhino named Ratu and her then four-day-old calf Andatu at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia. Photo courtesy of the International Rhino Foundation
Although the details of Harapan’s trip to Indonesia are still being worked out, it is expected he will first come to Jakarta before traveling to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park, where he will live with three female rhinos and another male rhino who was born in the Cincinnati Zoo.
We wish Harapan the best of luck in his voyage and his mating mission, in the hope that his noble species will one day flourish again.
