For a while it seemed that the condition of Malaysia’s last female Sumatran rhino was touch-and-go, but it appears now that Iman is now on the mend. According to a senior wildlife official in Sabah, she has regained some of her appetite and is responding well to treatment at the…

Malaysia has only two Sumatran rhinos left and both of them, a male and a female, are in captivity. It’s no surprise then that when Iman, the female, fell seriously ill recently her keepers became exceedingly concerned. Not long ago Puntung, another female rhino, had to be put down after…

To her keepers, Puntung, one of Malaysia’s last three Sumatran rhinos, was a precious animal beloved for her gentle nature. To animal lovers across the country and farther afield, she was no less precious: she was one of her species’ very last Mohicans in Malaysia. Her loss has dealt a…

Puntung the rhino looked like she might not make it. Now it appears she will pull through. One of Malaysia’s last three Sumatran rhinoceroses is on the mend, thanks to nonstop medical care. In March, Puntung fell critically ill after she had developed a bad abscess on her upper jaw. The infection did not respond well…

Once, in blissful times past, Sumatran rhinos roamed far and wide in the depths of forests in Sabah. Today a mere three of the animals are left, and all three of them are in captivity. Now Putong, one of the state’s last three rhinos, has fallen gravely ill. Two weeks…

In its newly released Living Planet Report 2016, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has painted an alarming picture of the impending prospects of the planet’s wildlife. Unless we change course, the numbers of wild animals will have declined by a staggering 67% by the year 2020, a mere…

If you are a wild animal and you have an international day named after you, you’re in trouble. Rhinos are among those animals. World Rhino Day, on September 22, serves to celebrate these majestic animals, but it also serves to remind people that unless drastic steps are taken, several wild…

For most people, especially those living in urban areas, “biodiversity” is an abstract concept. It’s a term they may hear used by biologists and environmentalists but one that does not seem to have any relevance for their own lives. How wrong they are. The loss of biodiversity affects us all….

Rewilding Malaysia. Now there’s a thought. As a myriad of endemic species in the country’s wild are coming to be at risk of extinction, Quek Yew Aun of CEKU, an online publication of a Malaysian student organization in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, proposes reintroducing lost species…

Away from the headlines, an oft-neglected species is being driven to the brink of extinction in Sabah’s forests. Meet the Bornean banteng (Bos javanicus lowi). Largely confined to isolated patches within the Sipitang Forest Reserve and the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, the endemic wild cattle, which prefer to dwell in remote…

The Malaysian state of Sabah is pulling out all the stops in its campaign to save the Sumatran rhinoceros from extinction. According to human knowledge, there are only a handful of Sumatran rhinoceros left in the world.  The announcement that wild Sumatran rhinos are extinct in Malaysia has already been…