The forest in Cat Tien National Park is lush and green. It’s vigorous. However, it’s missing a very powerful giant.
In April 2010, park rangers made a discovery that broke the hearts of conservationists world wide. They found the body of a rhinoceros. This wasn’t just any rhino. This was the last Javan rhinoceros in Vietnam.
This majestic animal didn’t die of old age. It didn’t die peacefully. He was shot within the leg by poachers. His horn was cut off. The animal likely suffered from the infection for months before it finally collapsed.
With this one bullet, all the subspecies, Rhino probe annamitedisappeared from the face of the earth.
A miracle that did not last
The story of this rhinoceros is much more tragic when you have a look at the history. For years, experts believed that the Javan rhinoceros in Vietnam was already extinct. The wars and conflicts of the twentieth century actually erased them.
Then a miracle happened.
In 1988, a hunter from the Stieng tribe shot a rhinoceros within the Cat Tien area. Scientists were shocked. They realized that a small, secret population had survived the war. It was a second probability. The world celebrated. We thought we could save them.
But we were mistaken.
Population of 1
In 2009–2010, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conducted a desperate survey. They used specially trained dogs to smell out rhino excrement within the dense jungle. They collected 22 samples.
They hoped to seek out a breeding family. They hoped to seek out a future.
Genetic evaluation revealed the devastating truth. All 22 samples belonged to the identical person. There was no herd. There was no family. There was just one lone woman walking on the forest floor.
When poachers killed her in 2010, they didn’t just kill the animal. They killed the hope of a complete species on the Asian continent.
Lesson for Indonesia
The extinction of the Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros leaves us with an enormous burden. Today, the Javan rhinoceros occurs only in a single place on Earth.
Ujung Kulon National Park. Indonesia.
About 70 rhinos in Ujung Kulon are the last survivors. They are the one individuals of the species that after migrated from India to Southeast Asia. If a tsunami hits Ujung Kulon or if a disease breaks out, they are going to disappear endlessly. Just like their cousins in Vietnam.
The tragedy in Vietnam is a warning. It’s a “wow” moment, but a painful one. It reminds us that second likelihood is rare. And sometimes they’re the last probability we get.
