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SUMATRAN RHINO

Dicerorhinus sumatrensis

The three recognized subspecies of the Sumatran Rhino once occurred from the Himalayan foothills in Bhutan and north-eastern India, down through southern China and Indochina to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The species’ precise historical range is uncertain owing to confusion regarding its overlapping range with the Javan and Indian Rhinos.
The Sumatran Rhino is now extinct throughout most of its historical range and is arguably the most endangered of all the rhino species because of the tiny, isolated populations that cling tenuously to survival on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Fewer than 80 individuals remain.

(Updated, April 2022)

Updated date: August 16, 2019
The Northern Sumatran Rhino D. s. lasiotis is listed as extinct. There were occasional reports of sightings in the 1990s and there is a possibility (though unlikely) that a remnant population survives in Myanmar.
The Eastern Sumatran Rhino D. s. harrisoni, was declared extinct in the Malaysia’s Bornean province of Sabah in 2015, but in 2016 a small population was confirmed by researchers in the Indonesian Bornean province of Kalimantan.
The Western Sumatran Rhino D. s. sumatrensis is now extinct in Thailand and the Malaysian Peninsular. No more than 75 remain, scattered across a few national parks on the Malaysian island of Sumatra.
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Legend:
This representation of the historical distribution of the Sumatran Rhino is derived from two sources: The Sumatran rhino is extinct in the wild in Malaysia by Rasmus Gren Havmøller, published by the Natural History Museum of Denmark, and On the alleged presence of the two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros and the one-horned Javan rhinoceros in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan by Kees Rookmaker.

The Northern Sumatran Rhino D. s. lasiotis is listed as extinct. There were occasional reports of sightings in the 1990s and there is a possibility (though unlikely) that a remnant population survives in Myanmar.
The Eastern Sumatran Rhino D. s. harrisoni, was declared extinct in the Malaysia’s Bornean province of Sabah in 2015, but in 2016 a small population was confirmed by researchers in the Indonesian Bornean province of Kalimantan.
The Western Sumatran Rhino D. s. sumatrensis is now extinct in Thailand and the Malaysian Peninsular. No more than 75 remain, scattered across a few national parks on the Malaysian island of Sumatra.
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Updated date: August 16, 2019