Sumatran rhinoceros
Dicerorhinus sumatrensis
— Where the name comes from
Dicerorhinus is “two-horned nose”, from the Greek di-, kéras and rhís: it is the only Asian rhinoceros with two, while the Indian and Javan have one. Sumatrensis names Sumatra. It is also the only living hairy rhinoceros, and the closest relative of the woolly rhinoceros of the ice age — in a sense, its last surviving cousin.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Odd-toed ungulates
- Habitat
- Lowland and montane rainforest, near streams and mud wallows
- Range
- Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo; a few dozen individuals
- Size
- 200–318 cm of body, 500–1,000 kg
- Diet
- Herbivore — leaves, shoots, fruit, twigs
- Lifespan
- 35–40 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It is the smallest of living rhinos and the only one covered in hair.
- 02
Fewer than fifty individuals remain, in populations isolated from one another.
- 03
It gives out complex vocalisations, among them a sound that recalls humpback whale song.
— What sets it apart
It is vanishing for a reason that makes helping it almost impossible: females that go too long without mating develop cysts and fibroids in the uterus and become infertile. Forest fragmentation has isolated individuals so thoroughly that many do not meet a partner for years, and by then the damage is done even if they do. It is an extinction that feeds itself: rarity itself produces infertility, and every year of delay removes fertile females from the count.
