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Indonesia
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Indonesia welcomes birth of critically endangered Sumatran rhino

  • Conservation groups estimate the population of Sumatran rhinos to number less than 80 on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo
  • The as-yet-unnamed addition to the herd at Way Kambas National Park brings the total number of Sumatran rhinos there to 10

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The two-day-old Sumatran rhino calf who was born to 7-year-old female rhino Delilah at the Way Kambas National Park rhino sanctuary in Lampung province. Photo: Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry Handout via AFP
Agence France-Presse
A Sumatran rhino has been born in western Indonesia, officials said on Monday, a rare sanctuary birth for the critically endangered animal with only several dozen believed to be left in the world.
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The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimate the population of Sumatran rhinos to number less than 80 on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

A female rhino named Delilah gave birth to a yet-to-be-named male calf weighing 25kg (55 pounds) at Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra over the weekend, fathered by a rhino called Harapan.

An official looks after the two-day-old Sumatran rhino calf at Way Kambas National Park. Photo: Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry Handout via AFP
An official looks after the two-day-old Sumatran rhino calf at Way Kambas National Park. Photo: Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry Handout via AFP

It was the fifth calf born under a semiwild breeding programme at the park, Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said in a statement.

The new addition to the Sumatran rhino herd at Way Kambas, which numbers 10, comes after another baby Sumatran rhino was born there in September.

“This birth is the second birth of the Sumatran rhino in 2023. This further strengthens the government’s commitment to rhino conservation in Indonesia,” the minister said.

A conservation guard found Delilah lying next to her newborn calf on Saturday, the ministry statement said.

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