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<\/a>\u201cThe rug has been pulled out from under us,\u201d said Nina Fascione, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), which works closely with park officials. \u201cThere have been concerns about rhinos missing from camera trap counts over the last few years, but that didn\u2019t necessarily mean they were deceased, as this species is excellent at hiding.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Indonesian government tracks the Javan rhino population using camera traps, but no update has been released since 2019, when officials claimed 72 rhinos inhabited the park. That number, however, was called into doubt last year when the local NGO Auriga Nusantara released a report that found that 18 rhinos of the rhinos being counted hadn\u2019t been seen in three years \u2014 and that some of them were known to have died.<\/p>\n
The report also claimed that poachers were entering the park \u2014 a claim that has proven true this year with the series of arrests and revelations.<\/p>\n
Police arrested the alleged head of the first gang, Sunendi, last November. To date, he\u2019s the only one of the suspects to have gone on trial. Prosecutors in his case are seeking the maximum sentence for poaching in Indonesia: five years. But many experts say that\u2019s not enough to deter poaching.<\/p>\n
Park officials closed Ujung Kulon to tourism last year and say they\u2019ve increased security. The IRF said in a statement that it had been \u201cassured\u201d that the situation \u201cis stable now that local police and military have joined security efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as we know, no Javan rhinos have been poached in 2024,\u201d the organization added, noting that all the poaching revelations that have come to light at trial occurred from 2019-2023.<\/p>\n
But even increased security is unlikely to be enough to ensure the survival of this critically endangered species; for more than 30 years, experts have called on Indonesia to establish a second population of Javan rhinos beyond Ujung Kulon. They warned that the species could be wiped out by a tsunami or disease or, indeed, poachers.<\/p>\n
Some experts have also called on the government to begin a captive-breeding program for the rhinos, similar to what has been successfully done for Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) for decades (there are currently 11 in captivity). Sumatran rhinos are also only found in Indonesia now and are also among the most endangered large mammals on the planet, with no numbers released on how many survive in the wild for years. An independent analysis suggested only 34-47 Sumatran rhinos survive today.<\/p>\n
If the poaching suspects\u2019 claims hold up, that would put the Javan rhino in the same ballpark. Many of Indonesia\u2019s great mammals are now considered critically endangered, including the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica), Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), and all three species of orangutan: Sumatran (Pongo abelii), Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus), and even the newly described Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis).<\/p>\n
Conservationists have long criticized the Indonesian government for not being transparent about the numbers of its vanishing species. In 2022, a leaked census showed that Sumatran elephant populations had dropped by half since the turn of the century. Several scientists have been effectively banned from working in Indonesia for questioning government claims that orangutan populations were increasing. The government has also pledged to do a full census of the Sumatran rhino \u2014 but years later there has been no count released, and only one rhino has been captured from the wild from Borneo, leading some to suspect very few survive.<\/p>\n