Sumatran Rhinos are types of mammals. They are critically endangered. There is less than 100 Sumatran Rhino left in the world. Its scientific name is Dicerorhinus sumatrensis. The Sumatran Rhinos are also known as Hairy Rhino or Asian Two-Horned Rhino. Do you know that Sumatran Rhinos will mark their territory with dung and urine and by scraping the ground with their feet to avoid bumping into each other?
Physical Description
Sumatran Rhinos are the smallest and the hairiest of the of the rhino family. Usually, their reddish-brown skin is covered in patches of short, dark coarse hair with longer, thicker hair around their ears and tail. Sumatran rhinos have two horns. The front horn is larger and measures 25-79 cm long. The second horn is smaller, generally less than 10 cm. Adult males grow to between 2-4m in length and reach up to 1-1.5m in height. They can weigh as much as 950kg, considerably less than their larger relatives elsewhere in Asia and Africa.
Habitat
Sumatran Rhino can be found in the hilly areas of tropical rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Kalimantan province of Borneo. They can be found in dense highland and lowland tropical and subtropical forests. They can also be found in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Diet
They eat the tips of plants growing on the forest floor, they search leaves from combining trees. They feed mostly in small patches of juicy vegetable created by landslides or tree falls and along river banks. They are also fond of fruits that have fallen from the forest trees. Sumatran rhinos eat on average 50-60 kg of the plant each day. The young start nibbling the food hanging from the mother’s mouth at an early age to learn which plants are good to eat.
Reproduction
The birth weight is 40-50 kg. The young drinks and grows 1-2 kg daily. They start nibbling from the food hanging from the mother’s mouth at an early age to learn which plants are good to eat but may continue to suckle up to the age of 13-15 months. Sumatran rhinos will have a single calf every 4-5 years. The young of the Sumatran Rhinos stay very close to the mother at all times. The mother of Sumatran Rhino will protect their calves from being predated by tigers or wild dogs.
Threats
The Sumatran Rhinos lost their habitat due to forest conversion and human settlements. Sumatran Rhinos are known to use logged however the construction of logging roads makes areas more accessible to poachers. Poaching is another threat to the Sumatran Rhinos. People are using the Sumatrans Rhinos horn as a traditional medicine for treatment. Vietnamese are still using the Sumatran Rhino horn as a status symbol.
Conservation
The WWF teams are helping by protecting their habitat, strengthening anti-poaching efforts and monitoring the illegal trade in rhino horns with traffic, promoting controlled. They are working with communities to aware people. In the Indonesia Rhino Foundation, they operate a multifaceted program name Sumatran Rhino Conservation Program. They also included the protection of the Sumatran Rhinos habitat.
