AR-News: (Malaysia) Rethinking captive breeding

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Tuesday March 30, 2004
IT IS a perplexing question: What do we do with our dwindling population of 
wild Sumatran rhinos? Captive breeding, once thought to be the best way to save 
the species, has proved to be a costly experiment. But if left in the wild, 
rhinos still face an uncertain future as their habitat is dwindling, they are 
shot for their horns and their scattered locations leave them little chance to 
meet and mate.   
This question dominated a recent meeting in Kuala Lumpur on conservation of 
the critically endangered species. There is no straight answer, of course. 
Regrettably, efforts to protect the species have so far been an exercise in trial 
and error. This is an approach which we can ill afford now. We are dealing 
with a species which is staring extinction in the face ? Peninsular Malaysia has 
fewer than 80 rhinos left.   
Wildlife experts are now wary of putting rhinos in an artificial environment 
as this exposes them to all kinds of deadly pathogens as seen in the Sungai 
Dusun breeding centre. With memory of the rhino deaths still fresh in our minds, 
many understandably no longer support ex-situ conservation and captive 
breeding, especially not in its traditional form of cages and confined spaces.  





full story:

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/3/30/features/7629147&sec
=features 
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