{"id":847,"date":"2011-12-18T11:33:46","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T01:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=847"},"modified":"2011-12-08T11:36:17","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T01:36:17","slug":"javan-rhino-confirmed-extinct-in-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=847","title":{"rendered":"Javan rhino confirmed extinct in Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"The Vietnamese subspecies of the Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) was declared extinct in a report critical of Vietnam\u2019s \u2018poor protection and law enforcement\u2019 that was jointly produced by the International Rhino Foundation and World Wildlife Fund.\r\n\r\nAlthough widely believed to have perished during the Vietnam War, a rhino was hunted in the Cat Loc region of southern Vietnam in 1988, which led to the discovery of a small population of about 15 animals. The area was subsequently designated protected in 1992 and eventually incorporated into Cat Tien National Park, but despite conservation attempts by several organisations, the results of a 2004 survey identified only two individuals remained.\r\n\r\nFurther survey work by a research team from WWF and Cat Tien National Park, conducted between October 2009 and April 2010, involved the collection of 22 dung samples from the park\u2019s core rhino area.\r\n\r\nThey were sent to Canada\u2019s Queen\u2019s University for genetic analysis, together with the skin and teeth samples from the mutilated body of a female Javan rhino, that was found soon after the official survey ended. The results confirmed that all the samples were from one individual.  According to the WWF report the dead rhino was the probable victim of poaching:  \u2018a common problem in most protected areas in Vietnam that threatens the survival of many other species\u2019.\r\n\r\nWWF\u2019s species program manager in the Greater Mekong Nick Cox said the report showed actions to save the Javan rhino in Vietnam were inadequate, and this continued situation would undoubtedly lead to the extinction of many more species from the country.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n\u201cThe tragedy of the Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros is a sad symbol of this extinction crisis. The single most important action to conserve Vietnam\u2019s endangered species is protecting their natural habitat and deterring poaching and illegal wildlife trade. Vietnam\u2019s protected areas need more rangers, better training and monitoring, and more accountability,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nDespite the lack of any scientific evidence to support claims rhino horn contains medicinal properties beneficial in treating cancer, and that it is no longer listed in the official Chinese traditional medicine pharmacopeia, rhino horn continues to be in high demand for traditional Asian medicine.\r\n\r\nThis puts increased pressure on the last remaining Javan rhino population living in Indonesia\u2019s Ujong Kulon National Park. Based on IRF camera trap data, this critically endangered population is thought to consist of between 2 and -44 animals. Of these only three to five are believed to be breeding females.\r\n\r\nWith Vietnam\u2019s position as the pre-eminent market destination for illegally sourced rhino horns TRAFFIC rhino program co-ordinator Tom Milliken said it was hardly surprising the horn was missing from Vietnam\u2019s last rhino.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s tragic that the Javan rhino has been wiped out in Vietnam by the same forces that are driving rhino poaching in Africa. This is the ultimate wake-up call for the Vietnamese government to turn aggressively on its internal rhino horn market,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nSpeaking on behalf of Indonesia\u2019s UKNP rhino population the IRF\u2019s Susie Ellis said losing the last rhino in Vietnam made the organisation\u2019s work in Indonesia even more critical.\r\n\r\n<a name=\"_GoBack\"><\/a>\u201cWe must ensure that what happened to the Javan rhinoceros in Vietnam is not repeated in Indonesia a few years down the line,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nWith reports that 341 South African rhinos have already been killed during 2011, compared with  a 2010 total  333 animals, conservationists are calling for \u2018significant improvements in law enforcement and protected area management in Vietnam to ensure other species do not share the same fate as the Javan rhinoceros\u2019.\r\n\r\n<strong>ANNE LAYTON-BENNETT<\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Vietnamese subspecies of the Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) was declared extinct in a report critical of Vietnam\u2019s \u2018poor protection and law enforcement\u2019 that was jointly produced by the International Rhino Foundation and World Wildlife Fund. Although widely believed to have perished during the Vietnam War, a rhino was hunted in the Cat Loc [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[196,596,221,113,131,533,597,254,594,595],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-196","tag-endangered-species","tag-extinction","tag-news-2","tag-november","tag-november-2011","tag-poaching","tag-veterinarian","tag-vietnam","tag-vietnamese-javan-rhinoceros"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":402,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":402,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"The Vietnamese subspecies of the Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) was declared extinct in a report critical of Vietnam\u2019s \u2018poor protection and law enforcement\u2019 that was jointly produced by the International Rhino Foundation and World Wildlife Fund. Although widely believed to have perished during the Vietnam War, a rhino was hunted in the Cat Loc region of southern Vietnam in..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"196":{"name":"2011","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=2011"},"596":{"name":"endangered species","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=endangered-species"},"221":{"name":"extinction","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=extinction"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"131":{"name":"November","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=november"},"533":{"name":"November 2011","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=november-2011"},"597":{"name":"poaching","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=poaching"},"254":{"name":"veterinarian","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=veterinarian"},"594":{"name":"Vietnam","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=vietnam"},"595":{"name":"Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=vietnamese-javan-rhinoceros"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}