Ex Situ Sumatran Rhinoceros Conservation and the Agony of Choice. An Integration with the Management Strategy Proposed by Brandt et al. (2018)

Brandt et al. (2018) offered a complete synthesis of the historical diversity in the genus Dicerorhinus and their results were consistent with 3 distinct subdivisions: Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis (Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia); Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni (Borneo) and Dicerorhinus sumatrensis lasiotis (mainland Asia, today probably extinct). These have been traditionally treated as subspecies of one polytypic species (reviewed, e.g., in Groves and Grubb 2011). Considering the grim status of the 2 extant taxa (about 30 live individuals including as few as 4 or 5 of the Borneo taxon), the authors propose a last-ditch effort to save the species through an ex situ breeding program, to reverse the alarming declining trajectory (Mays et al. 2018) of this evolutionary very distinct genus (e.g., Groves 2017).

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