Miracle survival of Sabah’s lonely female rhino

Spent years without contact with another rhino

January 2012: The survival of a sole female rhino in Sabah was a miracle, experts have said. The Sumatran rhino, called Puntung, was captured after years of monitoring revealed that no other rhino had come into her range - the tragic result of an increasingly fragmented habitat in the country.

RESCUED: Puntung had not seen another rhino in years. Picture credit: Borneo Rhino Alliance/Abdul Hamid Ahmad

Dr Laurentius Ambu, the director of the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), said: ‘Puntung's situation is symptomatic of many other species of wildlife in Sabah as their habitat is broken up and we have a lack of linkages between them.'

Broken landscapes are threatening wildlife
While Sabah is considered rich in wildlife and has many success stories in terms of conservation, much still needs to be done to rectify the broken landscape of conservation areas according Dr Ambu, as it ‘increases the level of threats to wildlife, giving opportunity to poachers and increasing conflicts with humans as access to fragmented areas is not difficult'.

Puntung is a prime example of this type of threat as, upon close examination by the vet, it was also found that the bones of her front left foot was missing, indicating that her foot had been ripped by what was most likely an illegal wildlife trap when she was young.

‘We need palm-oil industry to play its part - now'
‘This makes her survival a true miracle as she survived what would have been a horrible amputation,' said Dr Ambu.
The Sabah Wildlife Department has been continually calling for corridors and linkages to be made between fragmented forest with wildlife populations.

‘The government is playing its part but what we need is actions of the private sector now, particularly from the oil palm industry. We want them to put aside land for corridors or patches of forest today,' said Dr Ambu.

‘This is why we are jointly organising the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium (SWCC) with the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) to bring together these different groups of people for the future of wildlife conservation in this state,' he said.

The SWCC will address wildlife issues in Malaysia with emphasise on wildlife in Sabah as well as the role of funding from corporate and non-corporate bodies in wildlife conservation. Special consideration will be given to the state's three keystone species - the rhino, the elephant and the orang-utan - and a five year action plan is to be drawn up.

‘We have done our studies, we know what we need to ensure the survival of the wildlife and we are looking for action particularly from the private sector to make this happen today before it is too late,' concluded Dr Ambu.