The fate of the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), one of the rarest mammals in the world, seems sealed and inevitable. However deeply it may hide in the densest, most impenetrable jungle, this shy giant is condemned to extinction — and we to living in a world a little sadder for it.

Extinct in Malaysia

In Malaysia the species has been declared extinct in the wild, as confirmed by a study conducted by the Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with Wwf, the International Rhino Foundation and Iucn.

100 individuals stand between the species and extinction

This bleak conclusion was reached after years of in-depth research in Malaysia's forests; the last trace of a wild Sumatran rhino there dates back to 2007. The survival of this rare and ancient mammal, the study published in Oryx, The International Journal of Conservation states, now depends on fewer than one hundred individuals remaining in the wild in Indonesia, divided across three distinct populations, and on approximately nine individuals living in captivity.

The fall of the prehistoric giants

Sumatran rhinos, the smallest rhino species in the world, distinguished by their peculiar reddish hair, were once widespread across much of South-East Asia. Most of the animals lived in Sumatra's Kerinci Sebelat National Park; around 500 individuals were recorded in 1980 — today there are none.

The reasons behind the rhinos' decline

The causes of the species' tragic decline are, as is so often the case, deforestation, habitat destruction and poaching. To try to save these animals, scientists say, targeted captive breeding programmes would be needed, alongside robust action to suppress poaching and the establishment of new protected areas into which the rhinos could be safely reintroduced.

Before long, only captive individuals may remain (whose breeding is particularly difficult) — ancient relicts unable to adapt to a new and profoundly wrong world, no longer built to the scale of a rhino.