The Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (TNBBS) is estimated to have accommodated between 60 and 80 two-horn Sumatran rhinoceroses (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis).

The figure was obtained based on a survey of rhino census in 2005, Program Manager of Indonesian Rhino Conservation Program M Waladi Isnan said here on Thursday.

“The last survey that we have carried out, was in 2006, and the result is being analysed and we have not yet gotten the estimation on the rhino population in the wild,” Waladi Isnan said.

Thanks to the establishment of Rhino Protection Unit (RPU) in 1996 in the national park, rhinocerores have been better protected, according to him.

The RPU staff members routinely patrol the 356,800-hectare national park to prevent poaching.

In addition to The Bukit Barisan Selatan National Paks, other habitats for Sumatran rhinos include The Way Kambas National Park in East Lampung District, with a rhino population of around 20 heads.

The Sumatran hairy rhino, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, is probably the most endangered of all rhinoceros species. Numbers have declined over 50% due to poaching over the last 15 years. Fewer than 300 Sumatran Rhino survive in very small and highly fragmented populations in Southeast Asia with Indonesia and Malaysia being the only significant range states.

My-Indonesia.info