[Smithy]

In the Malaysian state of Sabah there are no Sumatran rhinos left in the wild, the Environment Minister says.

The eastern Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni), also known as the Bornean rhino, is the world’s smallest rhino. It’s a subspecies of the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) and is a shy and solitary creature that inhabits Bornean forests.

Poaching and deforestation behind their extinction
Or better, it used to inhabit. In fact, according to Environment Minister Masidi Manjun, there are no Sumatran rhinos left in the wild in the Malaysian state of Sabah. About 50 rhinos lived there in 2008, five years later there were only ten individuals left, and today they’re likely to be extinct.

The decline of this species is mainly linked to two factors: poaching for rhino horns (the horn actually doesn’t have any medical properties, contrary to many people’s beliefs), and habitat loss due to deforestation, mainly carried out to make place for oil palm plantations and human settlements.