Protection of endangered rhino urged

• Tweet

KINGSTON, Ontario, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A researcher who confirmed the extinction of the Javan rhinoceros in Vietnam is urging the protection of the last remaining group of the animals in Indonesia.

Peter de Groot of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, confirmed the demise of the Javan rhinoceros population living in Vietnam by analyzing DNA from rhinoceros dung, finding that just one animal was living in Vietnam in 2009.

That single specimen was found dead the following year.

Researchers are now working to save a group of 29 Javan rhinoceroses living in a tiny area called Ujon Kolong in Indonesia.

"We still have a chance to save the species but before we do anything, we have to determine the profile of the remaining group," de Groot said in a Queen's release Friday.

Rhinoceros dung will be collected to determine the age, sex and pedigree of this group, to provide data to try to save the remaining population of one of the most threatened large mammal species in the world, he said.