KOTA KINABALU, April 19 — Wildlife conservationists in Sabah were relieved today after a crucial operation on one of three remaining Sumatran rhinoceroses was successful.
Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said Thai veterinary dentist Dr Tum Chinkangsadarn successfully extracted two molars and one premolar from the female rhino's left upper jaw during a two-hour-and-twenty minute surgery this morning.
"This was a remarkable and successful operation that came about as a result of global discussion and multi-national collaboration over the past two weeks" said Tuuga.
Puntung, a 25-year-old rhino that has been in captivity since 2011, had suffered from an abscess that would not heal despite treatment since mid-March.
Tuuga said that Dr Chinkangsadarn and the team did a fantastic job despite not having worked together before.
The team comprised senior veterinarian from the Singapore Zoo Dr Abraham Mathew, who helped with anaesthesia, South Africa-based "Saving the Survivors" Dr Johan Marais and Dr Zoe Glyphis who initiated the planning, advised on procedures and provided major financial support to ensure that the team got together in Tabin.
Borneo Rhino Alliance veterinarian Dr Zainal Z. Zainuddin said that the successful operation had given Puntung a new lease of life.
“Incredibly, she started feeding within two hours of the operation ending. But we are not done yet. There will be a period of postoperative care which will mean trying to keep Puntung clean, stress-free and under medication including for pain relief,” he said.
Last week, Tuuga said Puntung was in bad condition on April 6 to 7 with low appetite, and intermittent bleeding from her left nostril.
Puntung’s survival is crucial to efforts to keep the Sumatran rhino from becoming totally extinct. It is now being kept at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Lahad Datu with one other female and a male Sumatran rhino.
Sumatran rhinos have a life expectancy of around 35 years and Puntung has potentially a few years of egg production left.
The sanctuary had planned to mate her with another captured male rhino Tam in a managed facility, but then found she had cysts in her uterus that made her unable to bear a pregnancy.
However, the sanctuary was reported to be working on in-vitro fertilisation to breed more rhinos and keep the species from becoming extinct altogether.
Malaysia’s Sumatran rhinos no longer exist in the wild. The remainder of the critically endangered species, numbering in the tens, is in neighbouring Indonesia.
