'Protect Borneo rhino habitat'

2009-07-03 07:54

Kuala Lumpur - The future of one of the world's rarest animals, the Borneo rhino, depends on action taken to protect the forest reserves where it lives, conservation group WWF said on Wednesday.

Malaysian wildlife officials say that only 30 Borneo rhino remain in the wilderness of Sabah state, on Malaysia's side of Borneo, the island which it shares with Indonesia.

"The future of rhinos in Borneo now depends on how seriously the forest reserves can be managed sustainably," Raymond Alfred, senior manager of WWF-Malaysia's Borneo Species Programme said in a statement.

Alfred's comments came after his team captured a rare image of the near-extinct animal, a female believed to be about 20 years old.

WWF said that the image, along with the identification of two rhino calves, added weight to the need to manage the species' forest home sustainably.

Alfred urged forestry and wildlife authorities in Sabah, and the police, to adopt "strong and co-ordinated enforcement to ensure the survival" of the species.

WWF said the rhinos' range was being affected by the expansion of oil palm plantations, and called for action to protect its habitat from fragmentation.

The Borneo sub-species is the rarest of all rhinos, distinguished from other Sumatran rhinos by its relatively small size, small teeth and distinctively shaped head.

The Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the world's most endangered species with few left on Indonesia's Sumatra island, Sabah and peninsular Malaysia.

- Sapa - AFP