The world’s rarest rhino has not been filmed often.  Apparently, it simply doesn’t like cameras.  A Javan Rhino was captured on film.  It was attacking an infared camera set up to document the lifestyle of the animal.  The World Wildlife Foundation agreed that the animal must have been defending its young calf.  There are only about 70 Javan Rhinosremaining in the wild, and about 60 of them reside in the Ujung Kulon National Park on Java. The rest live in Vietnam.

The Rare Javan Rhino

WWF officials say that they plan to relocate several of the rhinos in the park to another part of Indonesia in the hope that they breed.  If this does not happen, there is an excellent chance their interbreeding causes decreased resistance to diseases.  They could be easily wiped out by pathogens, prolonged poaching, or some kind of natural disaster.  

The rhino population has been decimated in the last half century by rampant poaching for horns.  The horns are often used in traditional Chinese medicines.  Deforestation by farmers, illegal loggers and palm oil plantation companies also adds to the rhino’s problems.  Apart from the 60 Javan Rhinos, there are thought to be around 300 Sumatran still alive in the forests of the nearby Malaysia and Sumatra islands.