On the Ground in Ujung Kulon: Census and research
Different ways of learning about the rhino
Rhino conservation activities include:
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Challenge of Rhino Habitat
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Identification of Key Population Parameters for the Javan Rhinoceros
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Photo Trapping
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Coastal Patrol for Ujung Kulon
These activities, along with the community empowerment prgramme, are now joined under a single project called Integrated Conservation for Javan rhinoceros in Ujung Kulon.
In collaboration with Ujung Kulon National Park, WWF is involved in ongoing surveys of the rhino populations using a variety of census techniques.
Investigating an elusive creature
The species is impossible to monitor closely. Rhinos are said to pick up human scent from a distance of 5 kilometers, and the species is naturally elusive. As a result, placing radio collars to record individual movements, or taking blood samples for DNA analysis have been ruled out; the population is simply too small for the project to risk these research methods. Instead, WWF and the Park rely on more traditional techniques:
Footprint census: This is taken on a regular basis along the 15 transects that have been set out across the Park, separated from one another by a 2-kilometer wide distance.
The rhino's footprint is identified by a lotus-shaped track, from which 5 indices are extracted: the width of the front toes, the width of the upper part of the foot between the side toes, the width of the lower part of the foot between the side toes, and the lengths of the left and right side toes.
Each year, a rhino census is carried out by hundreds of rangers and WWF staff who comb the Park.
Camera trapping: A reportedly more accurate, yet costlier, method to census the population is to use camera-trapping, which also allows to identify the gender and detailed characteristics of individual rhinos.
Monitoring the growth of the calves is intended to yield information on the biology of the Javan rhinoceros, which is insufficiently understood. This will be used to develop a more realistic programme, in order to prepare a possible translocation of some rhinos in the future.
Another output from camera trapping is estimating the population size using the 'mark-recapture' technique. The most recent calculation yielded 47 individuals.
Meet the rhino man
On the WWF side, much of what we are learning about this rhino is owed to a former bus driver. Iwan, a warm, amiable chap with a strong engagement in his work, spends 20 days a month in the jungle to wean out the secrets of the pachyderm.Having already survived a few bouts of malaria and many more mosquito bites, he leads teams of 5, including people from the local villages and Park rangers, into the forest.
Iwan's responsibility is to set the camera-traps to identify the rhinos in the Park. These have been placed in 16 locations, which correspond to sites with the strongest probability of a rhino passing by. The cameras are checked twice a month and surprisingly, only 6 have been stolen in 3 years.
Through WWF's collaborative work with the National Park, 32 rhinos have been fully identified so far – they are clustered in two populations, located in the northern and southern parts of the peninsula [see map] and separated by dense vegetation.
