The last surviving Sumatran Rhinoceros in Malaysia, a 25-year-old female named Imam, has died. Imam passed away on Saturday 23 November 2019, at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary at Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah State on the island of Borneo. She had been suffering from uterine cancer since at least 2014, when she was captured in the hope of using her in a captive breeding program. Her death follows the death of the last male Sumatran Rhinoceros in Malaysia in May this year, and the second-to-last female in 2017. The species is now extinct in Malaysia.
Sabah's Deputy Chief Minister for Tourism, Culture & Environment
, Christina Liew visiting Iman the Sumatran rhino in August this year. CNN.
The Sumatran Rhinoceros, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, was once found across Southeast Asia from Sumatra and Borneo in the south northward through Peninsula Malaysia, Laos, and Thailand to Myanmar, southeast China, northeast India, Bangladesh and Bhutan. However the species has been wiped out across much of this range due to hunting and habitat loss, with now less than 100 animals left in five scattered populations on the island of Sumatra and the province if Kalimantan on Indonesian Borneo. The species is considered to be Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
The Sumatran Rhinoceros is the smallest living species of Rhinoceros, seldom exceeding 1000 kg in mass, and reaching an adult body length of about 2.36–3.18 m, and height of 112–145 cm at the shoulder. The animals are solitary, coming together only in the mating season, and live in deep forest environments, requiring large territories; up to 50 km² for males and 10-15 km² for females, something which makes them particularly vulnerable to habitat loss. The species is extremely vocal, producing constant eeps, whales, and whistle-blows both in the wild and captivity, though the purpose of this is unknown.
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