Jumat, 02 Oktober 2009
JAVAN RHINOCEROS
Javan Rhinoceros
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The Javan Rhinoceros (Sunda Rhinoceros to be more precise) or Lesser One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is a member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant rhinoceroses. It belongs to the same genus as the Indian Rhinoceros, and has similar mosaicked skin which resembles armor, but at 3.1–3.2 m (10–10.5 feet) in length and 1.4–1.7 m (4.6–5.8 ft) in height, it is smaller than the Indian Rhinoceros, and is closer in size to the Black Rhinoceros. Its horn is usually less than 25 cm (10 inches), smaller than those of the other rhino species.
Once the most widespread of Asian rhinoceroses, the Javan Rhinoceros ranged from the islands of Indonesia, throughout Southeast Asia, and into India and China. The species is now critically endangered, with only two known populations in the wild, and none in zoos. It is possibly the rarest large mammal on earth. A population of at least 40–50 live in Ujung Kulon National Park on the island of Java in Indonesia and a small population, estimated in 2007 to be no more than eight, survives in Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam. The decline of the Javan Rhinoceros is attributed to poaching, primarily for their horns, which are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine, fetching as much as $30,000 per kilogram on the black market. Loss of habitat, especially as the result of wars, such as the Vietnam War, in Southeast Asia, has also contributed to the species's decline and hindered recovery. The remaining range is only within two nationally protected areas, but the rhinos are still at risk from poachers, disease and loss of genetic diversity leading to inbreeding depression.
The Javan Rhino can live approximately 30–45 years in the wild. It historically inhabited lowland rain forest, wet grasslands and large floodplains. The Javan Rhino is mostly solitary, except for courtship and child-rearing, though groups may occasionally congregate near wallows and salt licks. Aside from humans, adults have no predators in their range. The Javan Rhino usually avoids humans, but will attack when it feels threatened. Scientists and conservationists rarely study the animals directly due to their extreme rarity and the danger of interfering with such an endangered species. Researchers rely on camera traps and fecal samples to gauge health and behavior. Consequently, the Javan Rhino is the least studied of all rhino species.
Taxonomy and naming
The first studies of the Javan Rhinoceros by naturalists from outside of its region took place in 1787 when two animals were shot in Java. The skulls were sent to the renowned Dutch naturalist Petrus Camper, who died in 1789 before he was able to publish his discovery that the rhinos of Java were a distinct species. Another Javan Rhinoceros was shot on the island of Sumatra by Alfred Duvaucel who sent the specimen to his stepfather Georges Cuvier, a famous French scientist. Cuvier recognized the animal as a distinct species in 1822, and in the same year it was identified by Anselme Gaƫtan Desmarest as Rhinoceros sondaicus. It was the last species of rhinoceros to be identified. Desmarest initially identified the rhino as being from Sumatra, but later amended this to say his specimen was from Java.
The genus name Rhinoceros, which also includes the Indian Rhinoceros, is derived from Greek: rhino meaning nose, and ceros meaning horn; sondaicus is derived from sunda, the biogeographical region that comprises islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and surrounding smaller islands. The Javan Rhino is also known as the Lesser One-Horned Rhinoceros (in contrast with the Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros, another name for the Indian Rhino).
There are three distinct subspecies, of which only two are presumed to be extant:
* Rhinoceros sondaicus sondaicus, the type subspecies, known as the Indonesian Javan Rhinoceros, once lived on Java and Sumatra. The population is now confined to around 40–50 animals in the Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of the island of Java. One researcher has suggested that the Javan Rhino on Sumatra belonged to a distinct subspecies, R.s. floweri, but this is not widely accepted.
* Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus, known as the Vietnamese Javan Rhinoceros or Vietnamese Rhinoceros, once lived across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and into Thailand and Malaysia. Annamiticus is derived from the Annamite Mountain Range in Southeast Asia, part of this subspecies's range. A single population, estimated at less than 12 remaining rhinos, lives in an area of lowland forest in the Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam. Genetic analysis suggests that the two extant subspecies last shared a common ancestor between 300,000 and 2 million years ago.
* Rhinoceros sondaicus inermis, known as the Indian Javan Rhinoceros, once ranged from Bengal to Burma, but is presumed to have gone extinct in the first decade of the 1900s. Inermis means unarmed, as the most distinctive characteristic of this sub-species is the small horns in males, and evident lack of horns in females. The original specimen of this species was a hornless female. The political situation in Burma has prevented assessment of the species in that country, but its survival is considered unlikely.
Evolution
Ancestral rhinoceroses first diverged from other Perissodactyls in the Early Eocene. Mitochondrial DNA comparison suggests that the ancestors of modern rhinos split from the ancestors of Equidae around 50 million years ago. The extant family, the Rhinocerotidae, first appeared in the Late Eocene in Eurasia, and the ancestors of the extant rhino species dispersed from Asia beginning in the Miocene.
The Indian and Javan Rhinoceros, the only members of the genus Rhinoceros, first appear in the fossil record in Asia around 1.6 million–3.3 million years ago. Molecular estimates, however, suggest the species may have diverged much earlier, around 11.7 million years ago. Although belonging to the type genus, the Indian and Javan Rhinoceros are not believed to be closely related to other rhino species. Different studies have hypothesized that they may be closely related to the extinct Gaindetherium or Punjabitherium. A detailed cladistic analysis of the Rhinocerotidae placed Rhinoceros and the extinct Punjabitherium in a clade with Dicerorhinus, the Sumatran Rhino. Other studies have suggested the Sumatran Rhinoceros is more closely related to the two African species. The Sumatran Rhino may have diverged from the other Asian rhinos as far back as 15 million years ago.
Description
The Javan Rhino is smaller than its cousin, the Indian Rhinoceros, and is close in size to the Black Rhinoceros. The body length of the Javan Rhino (including its head) can be up to 3.1–3.2 m (10–10.5 feet), and it can reach a height of 1.4–1.7 m (4.6–5.8 ft). Adults are variously reported to weigh between 900 and 2,300 kg (2,000 and 5,100 lb), although because they are endangered, a study to collect accurate measurements of the animals has never been conducted and is not a priority. There is not a substantial size difference between genders, but females may be slightly bigger. The rhinos in Vietnam appear to be significantly smaller than those in Java, based on studies of photographic evidence and measurements of their footprints.
Like its Indian cousin, the Javan Rhinoceros has a single horn (the other extant species have two horns). Its horn is the smallest of all extant rhinos, usually less than 20 cm (7.9 inches) with the longest recorded only 27 cm (10½ in). The Javan Rhinoceros does not appear to often use its horn for fighting, but instead uses it to scrape mud away in wallows, to pull down plants for eating, and to open paths through thick vegetation. Similar to the other browsing species of rhino (the Black, Sumatran and Indian Rhinoceroses), the Javan Rhino has long, pointed, upper lips which help in grabbing food. Its lower incisors are long and sharp; when the Javan Rhino fights it uses these teeth. Behind the incisors, two rows of six low-crowned molars are used for chewing coarse plants. Like all rhinos, the Javan Rhino smells and hears well but has very poor vision. They are estimated to live for 30 to 45 years.
Its hairless, splotchy gray or gray-brown skin falls in folds to the shoulder, back and rump. The skin has a natural mosaic pattern which lends the rhino an armored appearance. The neck folds of the Javan Rhinoceros are smaller than those of the Indian Rhinoceros, but still form a saddle shape over the shoulder. Because of the risks of interfering with such an endangered species, however, the Javan Rhinoceros is primarily studied through fecal sampling and camera traps. They are rarely encountered, observed or measured directly.
Distribution and habitat
Even the most optimistic estimate suggests there are fewer than 100 Javan Rhinos in the wild. They are considered possibly the most endangered of all large mammals; although there are more Sumatran Rhinos, their range is not as protected as that of the Javan Rhinos, and some conservationists consider them to be at greater risk. The Javan Rhinoceros is only known to survive in two places, the Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of Java and the Cat Tien National Park about 150 km (90 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City.
The animal was once widespread from Assam and Bengal (where their range would have overlapped with both the Sumatran and Indian Rhino) eastward to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and southwards to the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Sumatra, Java and possibly Borneo. The Javan Rhino primarily inhabits dense lowland rain forests, tall grass and reed beds that are plentiful with rivers, large floodplains, or wet areas with many mud wallows. Although it historically preferred low-lying areas, the subspecies in Vietnam has been pushed onto much higher ground (up to 2,000 m or 6,561 ft), probably because of human encroachment and poaching.
The range of the Javan Rhinoceros has been shrinking for at least 3,000 years. Starting around 1000 BC, the northern range of the rhinoceros extended into China, but began moving southward at roughly 0.5 km (0.3 mile) per year, as human settlements increased in the region. It likely became locally extinct in India in the first decade of the 20th century. The Javan Rhino was hunted to extinction on the Malaysian peninsula by 1932. By the end of the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese Rhinoceros was believed extinct across all of mainland Asia. Local hunters and woodcutters in Cambodia claim to have seen Javan Rhinos in the Cardamom Mountains, but surveys of the area have failed to find any evidence of them. A population may have existed on the island of Borneo as well, though these specimens could have been the Sumatran Rhinoceros, a small population of which still lives there.
Behavior
The Javan Rhinoceros is a solitary animal with the exception of breeding pairs and mothers with calves. They will sometimes congregate in small groups at salt licks and mud wallows. Wallowing in mud is a common behavior for all rhinos; the activity allows them to maintain a cool body temperature and helps prevent disease and parasite infestation. The Javan Rhinoceros does not generally dig its own mud wallows, preferring to use other animals' wallows or naturally occurring pits, which it will use its horns to enlarge. Salt licks are also very important because of the essential nutrients the rhino receives from the salt. Males's home ranges are larger at 12–20 km² (5–8 miles²) compared to the females's which are around 3–14 km² (1–5 mi²). Males's territories overlap each other less than those of females. It is not known if there are territorial fights
Males mark their territory with dung piles and by urine spraying. Scrapes made by the feet in the ground and twisted saplings also seem to be used for communication. Members of other rhino species have a peculiar habit of defecating in massive rhino dung piles and then scraping their back feet in the dung. The Sumatran and Javan Rhinoceros, while defecating in piles, do not engage in the scraping. This adaptation in behavior is thought to be ecological; in the wet forests of Java and Sumatra, the method may not be useful for spreading odors.
The Javan Rhino is much less vocal than the Sumatran; very few Javan Rhino vocalizations have ever been recorded. Adult Javan Rhinos have no known predators other than humans. The species, particularly in Vietnam, is skittish and retreats into dense forests whenever humans are near. Though a valuable trait from a survival standpoint, it has made the rhinos difficult to study. Nevertheless, when humans approach too closely, the Javan Rhino becomes aggressive and will attack, stabbing with the incisors of its lower jaw while thrusting upward with its head. Its comparatively anti-social behavior may be a recent adaptation to population stresses; historical evidence suggests that, like other rhinos, the species was once more gregarious.
Diet
The Javan Rhinoceros is herbivorous and eats diverse plant species, especially their shoots, twigs, young foliage and fallen fruit. Most of the plants favored by the species grow in sunny areas: in forest clearings, shrubland and other vegetation types with no large trees. The rhino knocks down saplings to reach its food and grabs it with its prehensile upper lip. It is the most adaptable feeder of all the rhino species. Currently it is a pure browser but probably once both browsed and grazed in its historical range. The rhino eats an estimated 50 kg (110 lb) of food daily. Like the Sumatran Rhino, it needs salt in its diet. The salt licks common in its historical range do not exist in Ujung Kulon, but the rhinos there have been observed drinking seawater, likely for the same nutritional need.
Reproduction
The sexual habits of the Javan Rhinoceros are difficult to study as the species is rarely observed directly and no zoos have specimens. Females reach sexual maturity at 3–4 years of age while the males are sexually mature at 6. Gestation is estimated to occur over a period around 16–19 months. The birth interval for this species is 4–5 years and the calf is weaned at around 2 years. The other four species of rhino all have similar mating behaviors and the presumption is that the Javan Rhino follows suit.
source: wikipedia.com
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The Javan Rhinoceros (Sunda Rhinoceros to be more precise) or Lesser One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is a member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant rhinoceroses. It belongs to the same genus as the Indian Rhinoceros, and has similar mosaicked skin which resembles armor, but at 3.1–3.2 m (10–10.5 feet) in length and 1.4–1.7 m (4.6–5.8 ft) in height, it is smaller than the Indian Rhinoceros, and is closer in size to the Black Rhinoceros. Its horn is usually less than 25 cm (10 inches), smaller than those of the other rhino species.
Once the most widespread of Asian rhinoceroses, the Javan Rhinoceros ranged from the islands of Indonesia, throughout Southeast Asia, and into India and China. The species is now critically endangered, with only two known populations in the wild, and none in zoos. It is possibly the rarest large mammal on earth. A population of at least 40–50 live in Ujung Kulon National Park on the island of Java in Indonesia and a small population, estimated in 2007 to be no more than eight, survives in Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam. The decline of the Javan Rhinoceros is attributed to poaching, primarily for their horns, which are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine, fetching as much as $30,000 per kilogram on the black market. Loss of habitat, especially as the result of wars, such as the Vietnam War, in Southeast Asia, has also contributed to the species's decline and hindered recovery. The remaining range is only within two nationally protected areas, but the rhinos are still at risk from poachers, disease and loss of genetic diversity leading to inbreeding depression.
The Javan Rhino can live approximately 30–45 years in the wild. It historically inhabited lowland rain forest, wet grasslands and large floodplains. The Javan Rhino is mostly solitary, except for courtship and child-rearing, though groups may occasionally congregate near wallows and salt licks. Aside from humans, adults have no predators in their range. The Javan Rhino usually avoids humans, but will attack when it feels threatened. Scientists and conservationists rarely study the animals directly due to their extreme rarity and the danger of interfering with such an endangered species. Researchers rely on camera traps and fecal samples to gauge health and behavior. Consequently, the Javan Rhino is the least studied of all rhino species.
Taxonomy and naming
The first studies of the Javan Rhinoceros by naturalists from outside of its region took place in 1787 when two animals were shot in Java. The skulls were sent to the renowned Dutch naturalist Petrus Camper, who died in 1789 before he was able to publish his discovery that the rhinos of Java were a distinct species. Another Javan Rhinoceros was shot on the island of Sumatra by Alfred Duvaucel who sent the specimen to his stepfather Georges Cuvier, a famous French scientist. Cuvier recognized the animal as a distinct species in 1822, and in the same year it was identified by Anselme Gaƫtan Desmarest as Rhinoceros sondaicus. It was the last species of rhinoceros to be identified. Desmarest initially identified the rhino as being from Sumatra, but later amended this to say his specimen was from Java.
The genus name Rhinoceros, which also includes the Indian Rhinoceros, is derived from Greek: rhino meaning nose, and ceros meaning horn; sondaicus is derived from sunda, the biogeographical region that comprises islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and surrounding smaller islands. The Javan Rhino is also known as the Lesser One-Horned Rhinoceros (in contrast with the Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros, another name for the Indian Rhino).
There are three distinct subspecies, of which only two are presumed to be extant:
* Rhinoceros sondaicus sondaicus, the type subspecies, known as the Indonesian Javan Rhinoceros, once lived on Java and Sumatra. The population is now confined to around 40–50 animals in the Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of the island of Java. One researcher has suggested that the Javan Rhino on Sumatra belonged to a distinct subspecies, R.s. floweri, but this is not widely accepted.
* Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus, known as the Vietnamese Javan Rhinoceros or Vietnamese Rhinoceros, once lived across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and into Thailand and Malaysia. Annamiticus is derived from the Annamite Mountain Range in Southeast Asia, part of this subspecies's range. A single population, estimated at less than 12 remaining rhinos, lives in an area of lowland forest in the Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam. Genetic analysis suggests that the two extant subspecies last shared a common ancestor between 300,000 and 2 million years ago.
* Rhinoceros sondaicus inermis, known as the Indian Javan Rhinoceros, once ranged from Bengal to Burma, but is presumed to have gone extinct in the first decade of the 1900s. Inermis means unarmed, as the most distinctive characteristic of this sub-species is the small horns in males, and evident lack of horns in females. The original specimen of this species was a hornless female. The political situation in Burma has prevented assessment of the species in that country, but its survival is considered unlikely.
Evolution
Ancestral rhinoceroses first diverged from other Perissodactyls in the Early Eocene. Mitochondrial DNA comparison suggests that the ancestors of modern rhinos split from the ancestors of Equidae around 50 million years ago. The extant family, the Rhinocerotidae, first appeared in the Late Eocene in Eurasia, and the ancestors of the extant rhino species dispersed from Asia beginning in the Miocene.
The Indian and Javan Rhinoceros, the only members of the genus Rhinoceros, first appear in the fossil record in Asia around 1.6 million–3.3 million years ago. Molecular estimates, however, suggest the species may have diverged much earlier, around 11.7 million years ago. Although belonging to the type genus, the Indian and Javan Rhinoceros are not believed to be closely related to other rhino species. Different studies have hypothesized that they may be closely related to the extinct Gaindetherium or Punjabitherium. A detailed cladistic analysis of the Rhinocerotidae placed Rhinoceros and the extinct Punjabitherium in a clade with Dicerorhinus, the Sumatran Rhino. Other studies have suggested the Sumatran Rhinoceros is more closely related to the two African species. The Sumatran Rhino may have diverged from the other Asian rhinos as far back as 15 million years ago.
Description
The Javan Rhino is smaller than its cousin, the Indian Rhinoceros, and is close in size to the Black Rhinoceros. The body length of the Javan Rhino (including its head) can be up to 3.1–3.2 m (10–10.5 feet), and it can reach a height of 1.4–1.7 m (4.6–5.8 ft). Adults are variously reported to weigh between 900 and 2,300 kg (2,000 and 5,100 lb), although because they are endangered, a study to collect accurate measurements of the animals has never been conducted and is not a priority. There is not a substantial size difference between genders, but females may be slightly bigger. The rhinos in Vietnam appear to be significantly smaller than those in Java, based on studies of photographic evidence and measurements of their footprints.
Like its Indian cousin, the Javan Rhinoceros has a single horn (the other extant species have two horns). Its horn is the smallest of all extant rhinos, usually less than 20 cm (7.9 inches) with the longest recorded only 27 cm (10½ in). The Javan Rhinoceros does not appear to often use its horn for fighting, but instead uses it to scrape mud away in wallows, to pull down plants for eating, and to open paths through thick vegetation. Similar to the other browsing species of rhino (the Black, Sumatran and Indian Rhinoceroses), the Javan Rhino has long, pointed, upper lips which help in grabbing food. Its lower incisors are long and sharp; when the Javan Rhino fights it uses these teeth. Behind the incisors, two rows of six low-crowned molars are used for chewing coarse plants. Like all rhinos, the Javan Rhino smells and hears well but has very poor vision. They are estimated to live for 30 to 45 years.
Its hairless, splotchy gray or gray-brown skin falls in folds to the shoulder, back and rump. The skin has a natural mosaic pattern which lends the rhino an armored appearance. The neck folds of the Javan Rhinoceros are smaller than those of the Indian Rhinoceros, but still form a saddle shape over the shoulder. Because of the risks of interfering with such an endangered species, however, the Javan Rhinoceros is primarily studied through fecal sampling and camera traps. They are rarely encountered, observed or measured directly.
Distribution and habitat
Even the most optimistic estimate suggests there are fewer than 100 Javan Rhinos in the wild. They are considered possibly the most endangered of all large mammals; although there are more Sumatran Rhinos, their range is not as protected as that of the Javan Rhinos, and some conservationists consider them to be at greater risk. The Javan Rhinoceros is only known to survive in two places, the Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of Java and the Cat Tien National Park about 150 km (90 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City.
The animal was once widespread from Assam and Bengal (where their range would have overlapped with both the Sumatran and Indian Rhino) eastward to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and southwards to the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Sumatra, Java and possibly Borneo. The Javan Rhino primarily inhabits dense lowland rain forests, tall grass and reed beds that are plentiful with rivers, large floodplains, or wet areas with many mud wallows. Although it historically preferred low-lying areas, the subspecies in Vietnam has been pushed onto much higher ground (up to 2,000 m or 6,561 ft), probably because of human encroachment and poaching.
The range of the Javan Rhinoceros has been shrinking for at least 3,000 years. Starting around 1000 BC, the northern range of the rhinoceros extended into China, but began moving southward at roughly 0.5 km (0.3 mile) per year, as human settlements increased in the region. It likely became locally extinct in India in the first decade of the 20th century. The Javan Rhino was hunted to extinction on the Malaysian peninsula by 1932. By the end of the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese Rhinoceros was believed extinct across all of mainland Asia. Local hunters and woodcutters in Cambodia claim to have seen Javan Rhinos in the Cardamom Mountains, but surveys of the area have failed to find any evidence of them. A population may have existed on the island of Borneo as well, though these specimens could have been the Sumatran Rhinoceros, a small population of which still lives there.
Behavior
The Javan Rhinoceros is a solitary animal with the exception of breeding pairs and mothers with calves. They will sometimes congregate in small groups at salt licks and mud wallows. Wallowing in mud is a common behavior for all rhinos; the activity allows them to maintain a cool body temperature and helps prevent disease and parasite infestation. The Javan Rhinoceros does not generally dig its own mud wallows, preferring to use other animals' wallows or naturally occurring pits, which it will use its horns to enlarge. Salt licks are also very important because of the essential nutrients the rhino receives from the salt. Males's home ranges are larger at 12–20 km² (5–8 miles²) compared to the females's which are around 3–14 km² (1–5 mi²). Males's territories overlap each other less than those of females. It is not known if there are territorial fights
Males mark their territory with dung piles and by urine spraying. Scrapes made by the feet in the ground and twisted saplings also seem to be used for communication. Members of other rhino species have a peculiar habit of defecating in massive rhino dung piles and then scraping their back feet in the dung. The Sumatran and Javan Rhinoceros, while defecating in piles, do not engage in the scraping. This adaptation in behavior is thought to be ecological; in the wet forests of Java and Sumatra, the method may not be useful for spreading odors.
The Javan Rhino is much less vocal than the Sumatran; very few Javan Rhino vocalizations have ever been recorded. Adult Javan Rhinos have no known predators other than humans. The species, particularly in Vietnam, is skittish and retreats into dense forests whenever humans are near. Though a valuable trait from a survival standpoint, it has made the rhinos difficult to study. Nevertheless, when humans approach too closely, the Javan Rhino becomes aggressive and will attack, stabbing with the incisors of its lower jaw while thrusting upward with its head. Its comparatively anti-social behavior may be a recent adaptation to population stresses; historical evidence suggests that, like other rhinos, the species was once more gregarious.
Diet
The Javan Rhinoceros is herbivorous and eats diverse plant species, especially their shoots, twigs, young foliage and fallen fruit. Most of the plants favored by the species grow in sunny areas: in forest clearings, shrubland and other vegetation types with no large trees. The rhino knocks down saplings to reach its food and grabs it with its prehensile upper lip. It is the most adaptable feeder of all the rhino species. Currently it is a pure browser but probably once both browsed and grazed in its historical range. The rhino eats an estimated 50 kg (110 lb) of food daily. Like the Sumatran Rhino, it needs salt in its diet. The salt licks common in its historical range do not exist in Ujung Kulon, but the rhinos there have been observed drinking seawater, likely for the same nutritional need.
Reproduction
The sexual habits of the Javan Rhinoceros are difficult to study as the species is rarely observed directly and no zoos have specimens. Females reach sexual maturity at 3–4 years of age while the males are sexually mature at 6. Gestation is estimated to occur over a period around 16–19 months. The birth interval for this species is 4–5 years and the calf is weaned at around 2 years. The other four species of rhino all have similar mating behaviors and the presumption is that the Javan Rhino follows suit.
source: wikipedia.com
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