A Day at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary
If you’ve been following our blog, then you’ve heard us talking about the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS). For our new readers, the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, located in the heart of Way Kambas National Park on the island of Sumatra, is home to the only reproductively viable captive Sumatran rhinos in the world.
Created in 1996, the facility’s seven resident rhinos – adult males Andalas and Harapan, Andatu (born at the facility in 2012), and females Rosa, Bina, Ratu and her female calf Delilah (also born at the facility May 12th, 2016), reside in large, natural rainforest habitats and receive state-of-the-art veterinary care and nutrition. This tiny population is the core of an intensively managed breeding and research program that is intended to promote the species’ population growth while also generating a genetically diverse “founder” group that could be used as a source for animals to repopulate the National Parks.
IRF Deputy Director, CeCe Sieffert, took our Instagram followers on a tour of the SRS last week. In case you missed it, we wanted to share it again here for you.
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4/11 The current SRS facility is at capacity, so IRF has funded an expansion project that will double its size. When complete, the SRS will be able to hold 11 animals – and we’re excited to fill those empty spaces with rhino babies! In addition to building 20-hectare enclosures in the forest for each animal, the expansion also includes new dorms for the vets, keepers, and staff, a new office, and a new visitor center. The work is done by hand by workers from local villages, which gives the SRS an opportunity to provide employment for the community and build good will. All work is overseen by Sumadi Hasmaran, the SRS manager. Sumadi built the SRS from the ground-up 23 years ago, and has kept it running smoothly ever since. He’s so talented that he’s earned the nickname “Su-Magic”. Shown here is Sumadi, a worker laying the foundation for the new dorm restrooms, a worker putting finishing touches on the plaster in the new dorm, and the SRS sign in front of the SRS base camp. #SumatranSunday #TeamRhino #SumatranRhinoRescue #InstagramTakeover #Rhino
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6/11 Rhino Protection Units (RPUs) patrol Way Kambas National Park and the SRS 24/7 to ensure the world’s remaining Sumatran rhinos are safe. Each RPU is a four-man team, which spends a minimum of 14 days in the field each month, walking 70-100 km (40-65 miles) per month! They search for signs of rhino and other species, and look for any illegal activity that’s happened in the park, including poaching, harvesting trees and other protected plant species, and starting forest fires, which can flush wildlife out of a grassy area to making it easy to poach animals. RPUs have the authority to arrest people found engaging in illegal activities within the park, and have been trained in crime scene investigation methods so that criminals are prosecuted correctly. Thanks to 24/7 protection, no known Sumatran rhino poaching has been reported since 2006. Shown here is Muniful Hamid, the Manager of Sumatran Rhino RPUs, an RPU collecting evidence on patrol, RPUs backpack (which weigh more than 20 kg – that’s over 40 lbs!), and Rahman, the Way Kambas RPU Coordinator, communicating with teams while on patrol. #SumatranSunday #TeamRhino #SumatranRhinoRescue #InstagramTakeover #Rhino #WildlifeRanger #RhinoProtectionUnits #ThinGreenLine
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8/11 The SRS rhinos spend 22 hours a day in their 10-hectare forest enclosures, so what does staff do the rest of the day and what’s it like to live at the SRS? The staff lives on site, so in many ways it’s like a big family. Meals are shared, and cooked fresh, three times a day. Popular foods include stir fried vegetables, local fish, tofu, tempeh, fried chicken, and of course, rice and noodles! Most staff get around the SRS on bicycles, so most of the noise comes from the resident siamang troops yelling at each other in the treetops. #SumatranSunday #TeamRhino #SumatranRhinoRescue #InstagramTakeover #Rhino #WayKambas #Nature
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Posted in Featured ,IRF Staff ,Sumatran Rhino Sancutary ,Sumatran Rhinos ,Way Kambas National Park Tagged CeCe Sieffert ,deputy director ,featured ,Indonesia ,instagram takeover ,SRS ,sumatran rhino ,Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary