Video surveillance for rare Javan rhinos

Mar 5, 2009, 5:24 GMT

   Jakarta - Thirty-four video cameras have been installed at an Indonesian national park to track every move of Java rhinos, the world's most endangered large mammal, the global conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said Thursday.

   The cameras installed at the Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of Java island are intended to find out more about the animal and help to prevent the species from going extinct, the WWF said.

   There are fewer than 60 Javan rhinos in the world and Ujung Kulon is home to 50 of them, the group said.

   Cameras have already helped to reveal some previously unknown behaviour of the rare mammal, which can weigh 2,300 kilograms and measure over 3 metres in length.

   One of the female Javan rhinos has been captured wrecking one of the cameras, possibly out of fear that it might hurt her calves.

   'The project is helping the most endangered large mammal species,' Adhi Rachmat Hariyadi, who leads WWF-Indonesia's project in the national park, said in a statement.

   'We've already recorded videos of nine individuals, including a mother and calf,' he said.

   Camera traps are fairly basic photographic equipment with infra-red triggers which take a picture every time they sense movement in the forest.

   'Video serves as a positive tool to provide evidence on the urgency of saving this species,' Agus Priambudi, head of Ujung Kulon National Park, said in the statement.

   'It is important to be able to show the real condition of Javan rhinos to local and central governments.'

   Vietnam is the only other country with a Javan rhino population.

   The WWF said the Indonesian population had a better chance of survival since it was the only one that still has proof of breeding.

   There has been no verifiable signs of Javan rhinos breeding in Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam.

   'We are concerned because we have not seen many very young calves for several years and worry that the population may be dependent on two or three breeding females,' Hariyadi said.

    Conservationists want to identify another suitable site, where a second population could be established.