It loves to eat fruit and sing. It is a remnant of the Ice Age, but now only a few dozen of them are left....

This summer, a fossil from the Pleistocene Ice Age was discovered in Zunyi, Guizhou. The fossil skull is 60 centimeters long and has obvious teeth.

It was once spread across many areas of China.

Now I only live in

Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra

Sumatren rhinoceros ( Dicerorhinus sumatrensis )

The national treasure rhino statue Sumatran rhinoceros was photographed at the National Museum

It is a precious bronze artifact in the National Museum

It is also an animal that appears in Qu Yuan's poems and Mozi's memories.

They survived the Ice Age.

But in the new century, there are only dozens of members left.

Where should we begin the story of the Sumatran rhino?

Sumatran rhinoceros source: Wikipedia

Glacial Past

In the family tree, the Sumatran rhino belongs to the family True Rhinoceros, subfamily True Rhinoceros (of course, all existing rhinos belong to this branch). If we go into detail, the two closest relatives of the Sumatran rhino in the rhino family are actually the two "big brothers" from the Ice Age - the woolly rhino ( Coelodonta ) and the Stephanorhinus ( Stephanorhinus ).

The weight of the Sumatran rhino is only about half a ton to one ton, while the weight of the woolly rhino and Stephanorhino can be twice or more than that of the Sumatran rhino.

The picture above shows the size comparison between the Sumatran rhinoceros and humans

The picture below shows the size comparison between Stephen rhinoceros and humans.

During the Ice Age, the woolly rhinoceros originated in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and later expanded to northern regions such as Northeast China, North China and Europe, while the Stephanoceros was mainly distributed in relatively warm areas.

The Sumatran rhinoceros hid in the quiet forests and water towns in the south , together with the Oriental saber-toothed elephants that loved to eat leaves, as well as the giant panda and Gigantopithecus. At this time, there were also tiger fossils in southern China - the Wanxian tiger (Panthera tigris acutidens).

Sometimes young Sumatran rhinos are also threatened by these fierce predators . You know, some Wanxian tigers are as big as Siberian tigers! However, the Sumatran rhinoceros's several centimeters thick skin also has certain physical defense functions.

Oriental saber-toothed elephant molar fossils, they are slightly more distantly related to modern elephants

Photo taken at China Geological Museum

The restoration of Gigantopithecus bu's was taken at the China Paleozoological Museum

Note: The Wanxian tiger is an extinct tiger subspecies, and is the same species as the current tiger. In addition, rhinos are called pachyderms because of their thick stratum corneum.

Sumatran rhino delicacies Source: Wikipedia

Woolly rhinos like to eat rough grass on the ground, Stephan rhinos eat leaves, shrubs and grass. The menu of Sumatran rhinos includes tender leaves and buds of more than 100 plants, as well as mangosteen, durian, wild mango, etc. After meals, the solitary Sumatran rhinos will occasionally communicate with their own kind using songs that can be heard about 10 kilometers away.

Historical memories

After the Ice Age, in the Holocene, many large ice age animals became extinct due to climate change and human activities. However, the Sumatran rhinoceros was lucky enough to survive and moved northward during the Shang and Zhou dynasties in China, when the Yangtze and Yellow River basins were relatively warm.

While the Shang Dynasty domesticated Asian elephants, there are also records of hunting rhinos. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River were all their territory. Qu Yuan wrote "Holding Wu spears and wearing rhinoceros armor" and "there are rhinos, wild oxen, elks and deer everywhere" and the soldiers of the Chu State often wore hard armor made of rhinoceros skin to defend themselves.

Sumatran rhinoceros in Indonesia Source: Wikipedia

A group of elk was photographed at Nanhaizi Elk Park in Beijing

Note: The rhinoceros that have historically been distributed in China also include the Javan rhinoceros and the Indian rhinoceros.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the distribution of rhinoceros moved further southward. After the Tang Dynasty, it was hard to find in many places along the Yangtze River (it was still found in Sichuan, Yunnan, etc.). So when rhinoceros were sent to Chang'an from other Southeast Asian countries, some people wrote poems to record them.

Gilded bronze rhinoceros from the Han Dynasty Source: flgj.cupl.edu.cn

The extinction of the Sumatran rhino in China is due to both climate change and human factors.

There were many plants and trees in the Yellow River Basin during the Xia and Shang dynasties, but during the Warring States Period, many places saw the destruction of vegetation, with problems such as "no fertile forests and marshes" and "no tall trees in Song".

By the Song Dynasty, in addition to the environmental problems of "all mountains are bald" and "there are mountains but no trees" in some places, the southward shift of the economic center and the increase in population in the Song Dynasty also led to many conflicts between large wild animals such as rhinos and humans.

After the Song Dynasty, the distribution of rhinoceros in China gradually shifted to the southwest. In the Qing Dynasty, it was only distributed in parts of Yunnan Province. The characteristics of rhinoceros in many cultural relics after the Song Dynasty were also very different from those of real rhinoceros.

A rhinoceros artifact from the Ming Dynasty that is different from a real rhinoceros

Image source: https://www.zsbeike.com/

The Javan rhino, with a population of less than 100, is as endangered as the Sumatran rhino.

Image source: WWF

Humans' pursuit of rhino horns, which are mainly composed of nails and hair, for medicinal purposes has also led to a significant reduction in their numbers. Rhino horns are essentially similar in composition to human hair . If you cut a rhino horn in cross section, you will find that it is full of bundles of tiny keratin tubes pressed together, without any obvious special medicinal ingredients. In addition, there are already many new drugs and modern medical methods to treat stubborn diseases. Rhino horns are not a good medicine.

Note: Residents in some other parts of Southeast Asia even believe that rhino dung can be made into tea, rhino skin can be used to treat snake bites, and rhino blood can cure all diseases.

Internal structure of rhino horn

Image source: Creating artificial Rhino Horns from Horse Hair

In 1793, someone in the West gave the Sumatran rhinoceros a scientific name and drew a portrait of it while collecting specimens.

Later, the Sumatran rhino was also discovered to have a northern subspecies in mainland Asia (D. s. lasiotis, which is also recorded in ancient China), a Bornean subspecies (Dsharrissoni) and a Malayan subspecies (Dssumatrensis).

In the 20th century, all rhinos in China were gone. Around the time when China lost its Sumatran rhinos, Sumatran rhinos in Indochina and other places also became extinct (some say they exist in Myanmar, but this has not been confirmed). In 2018, Sumatran rhinos in Malaysia also became extinct. Indonesia in the Malay Archipelago became the last land confirmed to have Sumatran rhinos.

Sumatran rhinoceros natural history picture source: Wikipedia

Sumatran rhinoceros exhibited at London Zoo in the late 19th century Source: Wikipedia

Conservation status

When the Sumatran rhinoceros on the Asian continent was facing extinction, the Sumatran rhinoceros in the Malay Archipelago became the last hope for this rhino.

However, estimates of their population have always been a mess. Previous surveys from the 1980s to the beginning of the century put the number at 300, but currently it is thought to be less than 100.

There is no clear survey on the number of individuals in the East Borneo population. On the island of Borneo, rhinos brought from the wild for breeding have insufficient sperm activity or postpartum injuries and are unable to reproduce. In early 2017, there was also news that a Sumatran rhino used for breeding died of cancer.

Sumatran rhinoceros in the forest. Source: junglesumatra.com

Sumatran rhinoceros bred at the Cincinnati Zoo Source: Wikipedia

Fortunately, the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States and the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia have achieved artificial breeding of this species.

In the spring of 2022, the Indonesian conservation center will have an additional Sumatran rhino. According to relevant research on the Sumatran rhino genome, their population is very small and their habitat is fragmented, so their genetic diversity is not as low as imagined, and they are not harmed by inbreeding.

Sumatran rhino baby and mother born in spring 2022

Source: Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry

Will the Sumatran rhino, which has endured many hardships and setbacks, have a bright future? The key lies in whether humans can truly implement protection measures and strengthen all-round monitoring of their habitats, so that they can continue to write an indomitable chapter of survival on Earth.

References:

von Seth, J., Dussex, N., Díez-del-Molino, D. et al. Genomic insights into the conservation status of the world's last remaining Sumatran rhinoceros populations. Nat Commun 12, 2393 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22386-8

Ellis, S. & Talukdar, B. 2020. Dicerorhinus sumatrensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T6553A18493355. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T6553A18493355.en. Accessed on 28 July 2024.

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Browsers, grazers or mix-feeders? Study of the diet of extinct Pleistocene Eurasian forest rhinoceros Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis (Jäger, 1839) and woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.08.039

Lee, YH; Stuebing, RB; Ahmad, AH (1993). "The mineral content of food plants of the Sumatran Rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) in Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia". Biotropica 3 (5): 352–355. doi:10.2307/2388795.

Pusparini, W.; Sievert, PR; Fuller, TK; Randhir, TO; Andayani, N. (2015). "Rhinos in the parks: An island-wide survey of the last wild population of the Sumatran Rhinoceros". PLOS ONE 10 (9): e0139982. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0136643. PMID 26376453. Bibcode: 2015PLoSO..1036643P.

Rookmaaker, LC (1984). "The taxonomic history of the recent forms of Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 57 (1): 12–25.

Brook SM, Dudley N, Mahood SP, et al. Lessons learned from the loss of a flagship: The extinction of the Javan rhinoceros Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus from Vietnam[J]. Biological Conservation, 2014, 174: 21-29.

Brook S, Van Coeverden de Groot P, Mahood S, et al. Extinction of the Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) from Vietnam[J]. WWF report, 2011.

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Postgraduate student of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, member of the Shanghai Science Writers Association

Editor: Dong Xiaoxian