Ratu, a rare Sumatran rhino, is pregnant!

In February 2010, we posted about Ratu, a rare Sumatran rhino, being pregnant. Unfortunately, she miscarried after two months. However, the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia has announced that Ratu is pregnant again! Currently, she is in her eleventh month of gestation. Her pregnancy will most likely last another four or five months.

To help prevent Ratu from miscarrying again, sanctuary staff give her a hormone supplement daily. Within the sanctuary, she is free to roam and graze in a large forested area with natural plants and mud, just as she would in the wild.

Ratu was originally a wild rhino. She was taken into the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, which offers 250 acres of protected land, after coming in contact with villagers nearby. Andalas, who mated with Ratu last year to produce this recent pregnancy, was a captively-bred rhino from the Cincinnati Zoo.

Sumatran rhinos are in grave danger of becoming extinct. According to the International Rhino Foundation:

The Sumatran rhino is one of the world’s most critically endangered species, numbering no more than 200 individuals in Indonesia and Malaysia. The species is seriously threatened by the continuing loss of its tropical forest habitat and hunting pressure from poachers, who kill rhinos for their valuable horns. Every Sumatran rhino birth – in the wild, in a zoo or in a special sanctuary – represents hope for the survival of this species, which runs the risk of going extinct by the end of this century.

Learn more at the International Rhino Foundation website.

Photo of Ratu by Yayasan Badak Indonesia.

A few weeks ago we reported on the pregnancy of Ratu, an endangered Sumatran rhino. We are saddened to learn today that her pregnancy was lost. Ratu had mated with Andalas, a captive-born Sumatran rhino, three years after Andalas moved to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia from the United States.

Dr. Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation said in a press release, “This is not unusual for a rhino’s first pregnancy.” She added that they are hopeful in this pairing because the two rhinos did produce a pregnancy.

Sumatran rhinos are extremely endangered. There are currently approximately 200 in the wild and 10 in captivity.

Read our previous post about Ratu and Andalas here.

Sumatran rhinos are the most endangered of all rhinoceros species. Their numbers have decreased due to habitat loss and human poaching.

To read more about Ratu, visit CNN.com.

To read about the Indian rhinoceros, a relative of the Sumatran rhino, visit Animal Fact Guide.