Puntung, one of the last 3 Sumatran rhinoceroses in Malaysia, has died
Environment — di Lorenzo Brenna
The animal, suffering from an incurable cancer, was euthanised. The conservation of this rare species is becoming increasingly difficult.
Puntung, one of the last 3 Sumatran rhinoceroses in Malaysia, has died
The animal, suffering from an incurable cancer, was euthanised. The conservation of this rare species is becoming increasingly difficult.
Of the five currently existing rhinoceros species, the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the most ancient. This strange animal with its reddish colouring and shaggy coat, a relic of a world long gone, first appeared approximately twenty million years ago, during the Miocene. Genetic analyses have demonstrated that the Sumatran rhinoceros is the living creature most closely related to the extinct woolly rhinoceros. Sadly, the species seems destined to join its prehistoric cousin in the pantheon of extinct animals.
Farewell to Puntung
Puntung has died — a 25-year-old female who lived in the Borneo sanctuary and was one of the last three Sumatran rhinoceroses remaining in Malaysia. Puntung had an incurable cancer, and the vets at the centre decided to euthanise her so as not to prolong her suffering. "It was one of the most difficult decisions we have ever had to make, but euthanasia had become the only justifiable option," the Borneo Rhino Alliance explained in a statement. "Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery may have seemed possible, but her wellbeing was the most important factor for us. None of these treatments would have brought her relief; on the contrary, they would have caused her more pain to give her at most a few extra months of life."
The story of Puntung
Puntung's life was a constant struggle against adversity: as a calf, she survived a poaching attempt in which she lost a leg. Despite this, she survived in the forests, disappearing into the dense vegetation of the rainforest, clinging to life and to a world that seems to no longer belong to her kind, with the blind determination typical of animals. Volunteers from the Borneo Rhino Alliance remember her as a "fighter."
Conservation under threat
With Puntung's death, only two Sumatran rhinoceroses remain in Malaysia, both in captivity, while fewer than one hundred individuals are estimated to live in the wild in Indonesia, conferring upon this animal the grim status of "one of the rarest mammals on the planet." Several individuals are scattered across zoos around the world, but these animals rarely reproduce in captivity; only one birth has been achieved in this way so far. Females belong to the category of so-called induced ovulators — that is, they do not release an egg unless they perceive the presence of a suitable male nearby.