Sumatran rhino delivers second calf at Indonesian national park

A Sumatran rhino on Thursday gave birth to her second calf at an Indonesian sanctuary in the original habitat of the highly endangered species, a minister said.

Siti Nurbaya Bakar, the country's environment and forestry minister, told reporters that the female rhino, Ratu, successfully delivered the calf at 5:30 a.m. local time at the Way Kambas National Park in southern Sumatra, joining six other rhinos there.

"We are working hard for wildlife conservation," the minister said in Jakarta, but further details of the new calf and the mother are pending.

In 2012, Ratu, which is now around 12 years old, had her first calf Andatu, which was the first Sumatran rhino born in an Asian breeding facility in more than 140 years.

The father of both calves is Andalas, who was born at Ohio's Cininnati Zoo, but later sent to the Los Angeles Zoo, and then moved to Indonesia in 2007 for mating.

The birth came about a month after the death of a female Sumatran rhino in East Kalimantan, which is affectionately known as Najaq, due to succumbing to snare-wound infections.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said the Sumatran rhino has become extinct in many Asian countries, such as Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia and Myanmar, over the last 50-100 years.

Less than 100 individuals of the creature, which is the smallest and hairiest of the world's five rhino species, are believed to exist in the wild, and 15 of them are thought to be in Kalimantan.

The species is severely threatened due to the loss of habitat caused by deforestation and mining, and illegal wildlife trade. Endit