Looking at a Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is a little like looking at a mammoth — both roamed the planet millions of years ago (this small rhinoceros species is thought to have first appeared around twenty million years ago) and, in all likelihood, we will soon be able to admire the lifeless remains of both only in some natural history museum. Another individual has indeed died: representing roughly one per cent of the global population, it was the last male Sumatran rhinoceros living in Malaysia.

Malaysia mourns Tam

His name was Tam, and his death was announced by Malaysian wildlife officials. Tam was found in 2008 near an oil palm plantation, captured and transferred to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in the state of Sabah. The cause of death has not yet been confirmed; the animal had, however, been suffering from kidney and liver problems for some time, and his health had been in steady decline since April. Tam may simply have died of old age: he was around thirty years old, and the average lifespan of Sumatran rhinoceroses ranges between 35 and 40 years.

Read also

• Un altro gigante se n'è andato, si è estinto in natura il rinoceronte di Sumatra di Sabah
• Rinoceronte di Sumatra, continua il conto alla rovescia verso l'estinzione, è scomparso anche in Malesia
• Il rinoceronte di Sumatra è ancora vivo, avvistato dopo 40 anni
• È morta Najaq, la femmina di rinoceronte di Sumatra appena ritrovata

Malaysia's last rhinoceros

Now that Tam is gone, and following the death of Putung in 2017 — a female euthanised due to incurable cancer — only one individual of the Sumatran rhinoceros remains in Malaysia: a female named Iman. Fewer than 80 rhinoceroses are estimated to survive in the wild, distributed between the island of Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo. The species, which once inhabited the forests of eastern India and throughout Malaysia, has been brought to its knees by decades of deforestation and poaching, and the few survivors are too isolated from one another, further complicating the situation.

WWF-Malaysia ✓ @WWFMy

𝕏

Today, we bid farewell to Tam, our last surviving male Sumatran #rhino. Our hearts are filled with sadness as we mourn the loss of a species. With Tam gone, we now only have Iman left, our last female rhino. Let the loss of Tam be the wakeup call. Our #wildlife needs protection

♥ 6073💬 118 27 mag 2019 · Apri su X →

A faint hope

Not everything is lost, however. Despite the current number of rhinoceroses being unsustainable for a viable population, scientists still hold out some hope. In this case, that hope goes by the name of Pahu — a female Sumatran rhinoceros captured on the island of Borneo last December. Pahu could indeed make it possible to expand the breeding programme launched to save the species. "Our most recent surveys indicate that there are other rhinoceroses still out there in the forests of Indonesian Kalimantan," Margaret Kinnaird, coordinator of the WWF campaign in support of Sumatran rhinoceroses, also stated. "This gives me further hope."

How to save the rhinoceroses

To avert the extinction of these magnificent animals, and to prevent "an entire branch of the rhinoceros tree of life from being lost," as Jonathan Baillie, vice-president of the National Geographic Society and partner of the Sumatran rhino rescue, put it, efforts to protect rhinoceroses living in the wild must be intensified while, at the same time, attention must be devoted to captive breeding. Since female Sumatran rhinoceroses can develop uterine tumours if they do not become pregnant, it is also essential to bring together the fragmented rhinoceros population as much as possible, even at the cost of capturing them one by one.

Read also

• È morta Puntung, uno degli ultimi 3 rinoceronti di Sumatra in Malesia
• L'ultima femmina di rinoceronte di Sumatra della Malesia ha un tumore
• C'è ancora speranza per l'ultima femmina di rinoceronte di Sumatra della Malesia

Something similar happened in the United States at the end of the 1970s, when the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) was on the brink of extinction. To save these giants of the skies, a drastic federal programme was launched that involved capturing all the birds and initiating a breeding programme. Today the California condor, though not yet out of danger, has returned to soar over the skies of California, and we hope that the Sumatran rhinoceros too may one day return to graze in the forests from which it has disappeared.