Once roaming across Southeast Asia, the Javan rhino today persists on a single peninsula off the western-most coast of Java in Indonesian. There, in Ujung Kulon National Park, around 70 Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus) survive. A tsunami, a disease or a determined group of poachers could wipe them out for good. To complicate matters further, a report this year by local NGO Auriga Nusantara alleged that rhinos in the park were being mismanaged, raising numerous concerns — including of dead rhinos officially being counted as alive. Now, a new paper in the journal Gazella argues that conservationists should begin felling large trees in the park to create more feeding areas for rhinos, and start a captive-breeding population due to rising concerns over potential inbreeding. “Genetic studies conducted on the Javan rhinoceros have indicated low genetic diversity within the population,” says study co-author Francesco Nardelli, with the Asian Rhino Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. “Low genetic diversity is often associated with inbreeding depression, which can lead to reduced fitness and increased susceptibility to diseases.” Indeed, a government management program for the critically endangered Javan rhino, which lays out plans for 2023-2029, mentions 13 Javan rhinos displaying “congenital defects” likely due to breeding within such a small group for decades. Another concern is that the population is lopsided in terms of sex. The population has significantly fewer adult females than males. Nardelli says there may only be a “dozen” breeding females left. And although they continue to…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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