Last male critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia, Tam, has died—a serious blow for the critically endangered species, which is already extinct in the country.
- It was Discovered poking around an oil palm plantation in 2008, and was captured and transferred to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in the state of Sabah. Efforts to breed him with two female rhinos—Puntung, captured in 2011, and Iman, captured in 2014—proved unsuccessful
- The rhino once roamed across much of Asia, but has now almost disappeared from the wild, with fewer than one hundred animals believed to exist.
- A female called Iman is now the only remaining member of the species in Malaysia.
- After decades of deforestation and poaching, it’s now thought only 30 to 100 Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild, most on the nearby island of Sumatra.
- Tam was aged 30 or more and had been living at a reserve in the Malaysian state of Sabah since being discovered wandering in a palm oil plantation in 2008.
About Sumatran rhino
- Five rhino species can be found on the earth, two in Africa and three in Asia
- The Asian species include the Sumatran rhino, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, which is the smallest living rhino species
- This animal is closely related to the woolly rhinoceros, which became extinct about 10,000 years ago
- No more than 100 Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild, scattered on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
