Ohio zoo to send rare Sumatran rhino to Asia to mate

CINCINNATI – An Ohio zoo that has the last Sumatran rhino in the United States announced plans Tuesday to send him to Southeast Asia to mate and help preserve his critically endangered species.

Conservation experts at the Cincinnati Zoo said 8-year-old Harapan could be on his way within several weeks to Indonesia, where nearly all the estimated 100 remaining Sumatran rhinos live. Numbers of the two-horned descendants of Ice Age wooly rhinos have fallen by some 90 percent since the mid-1980s as development of their Southeast Asia forest habitat and poachers seeking their prized horns took their toll.

Cincinnati’s zoo has been a pioneer in breeding the species, also called “hairy rhinos,” producing the first three born in captivity in modern times. Harapan will join the eldest, Andalas, who has been in Indonesia since 2007 and has produced one male offspring. Andalas turns 14 next month.

Veteran zoo rhino keeper Paul Reinhart will accompany Harapan. He and others will work with Harapan, who already has traveled across the U.S., to condition him to being in a crate for the long flight.