It was time for lunch by the time we got back. Afterwards I spent some time watching out for otters along the river, as Paul had spotted one the day before. Unfortunately none reappeared.
As part of the package one afternoon we were invited to the spa to have one of Tabin Wildlife Resort's famous rainforest foot soaks. First you are invited to cover your face in a pack of Lipad volcano mud. Then as this dries you are served hot herbal teak as you soak your tired feet in a bowl of warm herbal water. The exact herbal concoction varies with the availability of the herbs and they also line the bowl with river stones to assist with ex foliation. It was just what I needed after an arduous rainforest trek!
Later on in the afternoon we boarded our vehicle for a late afternoon drive into the reserve.
The plight of the Sumatran Rhino
As mentioned earlier, Tabin Wildlife Reserve is one of the last places in Bornoe where Sumatran Rhinoceros are known to exist. To put this in perspective, there are thought to be fewer than ten Sumatran rhinoceroses in the whole of Borneo. The species is “functionally extinct” in Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia. That means that there are not enough of them left in the wild to breed successfully.
Attempts at breeding this species in captivity have also been a catalogue of disasters and has arguably done more harm than good in that many wild rhinos brought into captivity have died due to poor animal husbandry and lack of knowledge. The Cincinnati Zoo have, however, pioneered the way and have had some success with breeding them in recent years. However the programme has suffered a recent blow with the death of their female Suci.
The Bornean Rhino Alliance (BORA) is now in the process of bringing into captivity the remaining few wild rhinos who have no chance of breeding in the wild. Whilst we were in Danum we'd been told that the Bornean Rhino Alliance had captured a pregnant rhinoceros on 21st March and transported her to Tabin to be part of a last ditch attempt save this species from extinction. She has been named Iman and joins two other rhinos in captivity, one male and one female.
Unfortunately a press release issued on April 4th shows that the plight of rhinos in Borneo is indeed dire. What they thought were signs of pregnancy were actually indications of large tumours in Iman's uterus. This means that she has not been sexually active for a long time, probably without a male partner for maybe 5 to 10 years. The other female has equally severe reproductive tract pathology. BORA are now pinning their hopes on techniques such as in vitro fertilisation. Further information can be found here:
http://www.borneorhi...ve-the-species/
We drove past her enclosure on the way.
As we drove we stopped by the river for a showy blue-eared kingfisher and headed up past the BORA rhino enclosure deeper into the reserve. We spotted a few birds, including rufous woodpecker, Raffles's malkoha, hairy-backed bulbul, buff-rumped woodpecker , bronze drongo, Asian paradise flycatcher and hill mynah. We got down to walk along the road for a bit, Paul going further than me and spotting some grey leaf monkeys which I missed. In the meantime I spotted another tree-shrew, which I couldn't identify, a sambar deer and some pig-tailed macaques.
