Existence of endangered Javan rhinos found
By Mong Binh - The Saigon Times Daily
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| A Javan rhino caught by a camera trap in a national park in southern Vietnam - Photo: Courtesy of WWF |
HCMC - WWF researchers and Vietnam’s national park rangers have discovered clear evidence of the existence of critically endangered Javan rhinos in the country’s forests after five days of surveying.
With the detection of two specially-trained dogs from the United States, the team found seven rhino dung samples in the forests of southern Vietnam which they do not want to specify for fear of illegal hunting for the species, 
according to WWF Vietnam.
WWF Vietnam said in a statement that the specimens had given the project team confidence to gather all the scientific information they needed to form the basis for an urgent rhino conservation plan.
Samples of the dung will be sent to Queen’s University in Canada for DNA analysis to determine the sex and number of animals and to the Zoological Society of London for hormone analysis to show the breeding capability and stress levels of the rare species.
“The researchers will be sending the results throughout the survey,” Julianne Becker, communications manager of WWF Vietnam, told the Daily on Friday. She added that they would compile the results after completing the field survey of national parks in southern Vietnam in April.
Sarah Brook, leader of the WWF rhino project, said the survey aimed to reveal the secrets of Vietnam’s obscure Javan rhino population in an effort to save it from extinction. “The Javan rhino is possibly the rarest large mammal on Earth.”
Tran Minh Hien, country director for WWF Vietnam, said the rhino was not only a rare animal unique to this country, but preserving it was a flagship for conservation efforts in Vietnam.
“If we lose the rhino, the future does not look good for Vietnam’s other rare and endemic animals,” Hien said.
Scientifically known as rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus, the Javan rhino was thought to be extinct on mainland Southeast Asia until hunters in Vietnam killed one in 1988, the statement says. Less than ten are believed to remain, but no conclusive survey has ever been conducted to verify this.
This critically endangered species, on the 2009 International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, is a highly valued commodity in illegal wildlife trade as the horn, skin and feces are used for medicinal purposes.
According to WWF Vietnam, habitat encroachment from agricultural expansion and hydropower development also pose increasing threats to this small population.
Three subspecies of Javan rhino are recognized. The most abundant subspecies, R. sondaicus sondaicus, lives only in Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, with some 40 to 60 individuals remaining.
The subspecies R. sondicus inermis, once found in Bengal, Assam and Myanmar, is now extinct. The third subspecies exists only in Vietnam.