The Many Firsts of The Borneo Rhino Images
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 7th, 2007
Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni
Earlier on Cryptomundo, Craig Woolheater uploaded the video footage of the Borneo rhinoceros, here.
Now the media is taking video captures from the footage and publishing them. Some who are not reading too carefully will think there is “new” news of the filming of a Borneo Rhino, but this is merely the continued cycling of an updated Reuters dispatch about the recent announcements from April.
For example, The Daily Times of Pakistan for May 7, 2007, is reporting that the two-horned Borneo rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni), a subspecies of the Sumatran rhino, has been filmed (see video capture above) despite no sightings having been confirmed for 20 years. They are discussing the April news today as if it is breaking news.
Of course, there are unconfirmed reports of this subspecies, also called the Eastern Sumatran Rhinoceros, surviving in Sarawak and Kalimantan, and we do have to be aware that future “first” photos may be coming from there.
There may be no more than 25 to 50 of the rhinos in the dense rainforests deep in the heart of the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo. In Sarawak and Kalimantan, the subspecies may already be extinct. Surprises could be in store. But two week old news about earlier footage is not “new” news.
The Borneo subspecies is distinct from those in Indonesia and the Malaysian peninsula, so things do get muddy when talking about the three subspecies of Sumatran rhinos and who has filmed what. The Indian rhino, which has one horn, is even more different.
This April-released two-minute footage shows the Borneo rhino sniffing the camera, breathing heavily, eating, and walking about. It is the first film ever taken of this specific species of rhino on Borneo. The camera hidden in the jungle took the video in February 2007, but the WWF only released it on April 24-25, depending on your time zone. Once again, go here to view that footage.
Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni is being discussed again merely due to the release of the above newly distributed video capture, it seems, and because some editors wait for slow days to talk about animal stories.
This is, however, not to be confused with the few years old footage of the Sumatran rhinoceros in the 47 minute Asia Geographic documentary produced by James Reynolds and Mike Cabarles featuring seven Sumatran Rhinos in West Malaysia and two in Sepilok, Sabah. It is uncertain if that Sabah rhino was the Borneo subspecies.
This first-ever video of Borneo’s Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni, also, is not directly linked, as well, with the first photograph of a Borneo rhino announced the first week of September 2006, which you may read about here.
In the story of the Borneo rhinos, there appear to be many “firsts.”
For even more on the Borneo discoveries from last September 2006, see my blog on the “Sumatran Rhino Discovered in Borneo Jungles,” with other images of what other subspecies of the Sumatran rhinos look like and how they overlap with the Ice Age’s wooly rhinos.
The Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus), a neighboring island’s very rare other rhino, with only 60 or so existing, live in Java, Indonesia and Vietnam. Like the Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), to which they are closely related, the Javan have a single horn. The critically endangered Sumatran rhinos (with three subspecies, one of which is the Borneo variety) is the only surviving representative of the Dicerorhinini, which emerged in the Miocene (about 20 million years ago). The extinct Woolly Rhinoceros of northern Europe and Asia was also a member of this most primitive of all the groups of rhinoceros.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Couple of issues that spring to mind here, drawing parallels between the Sumatran rhino and a possible North American primate. With the former having what seem to be very low population densities and living in a quite remote and undeveloped place yet seems to be comparably easy to locate film and scientifically quantify, with relatively little fuss. In contrast, Sasquash has eluded the hunters, biologists and the rest of the population of one of the most sophisticated nations in the world for decades AND has been suggested to survive in populations’ numbering into the thousands if not more? I know it’s not quite that straight forward but interesting points none the less. An optimist would say as such it is only a matter of time; the pessimist may take another view.
Ranatemporaria:
As you may have noted on other recent threads, there’s another way to compare the Bornean rhino and the sasquatch.
The rhino is a known species (I believe it’s been known for well over a century, but however long, it’s known). It’s isolated on an island that’s being rapidly deforested. The “remote and undeveloped” place it lives in has been getting less remote and undeveloped by the day for the past century. Plenty of evidence of this animal has been available to scientists for almost all that time. And you know that critter’s dumber than an ape. And nobody laughs at you, or tells you you were drinking or on drugs when you see it, because if you see it, you are a biologist STUDYING it.
And the FIRST VIDEO was THIS YEAR, and the FIRST PHOTO was LAST YEAR.
Now we come to the sasquatch. It really doesn’t seem to have eluded anyone BUT scientists. Many children have seen them looking in their bedroom windows. (Among other places.) They report the sighting, decades later, as if it were yesterday. The animal they describe matches, pretty closely, one that has also been seen by: hunters (maybe more hunters see the sasquatch than anyone else), loggers, farmers, miners, fishermen, frog giggers, and urbanites – of the full spectrum of American occupations – out for Sunday drives. Casual hikes. Walking the dog. Taking a shortcut home. More people have seen the sasquatch, for sure, than have seen that rhino. Many times more.
But the sasquatch is way smarter than that rhino, and has the run of virtually the entire North American continent, which means more wild space to run around in than there is in Africa.
Oh, it’s quite logical. We know about the sasquatch. Science just doesn’t want to be accused of hitting the sauce too hard, is all. What could they be thinking – that everybody else on the continent is drunk? 😉
Oh. I forgot to add.
First video of the sasquatch: 1967.
Beat the rhino by 40 years, almost on the nose. Of course a lot of people think the film is fake. One wonders what they’re washing down dinner with.
It’s particularly instructive to read the blog Loren refers to at the end of this one.
For a pretty durn big animal that can’t be too smart, on an island, big for an island but islands aren’t big, losing habitat by the day, it sure is hard to see. And it’s being actively pursued by people who are all in agreement on what to look for, and apparently had been finding evidence for years before they saw an animal.
Comparing this animal to the sasquatch is like comparing a package of sewing needles, sitting on top of your wallet, with a single needle, moving randomly among 50 stacks of hay when you aren’t looking.
Maybe when scientists start looking for the sasquatch, that’ll change.
Don’t count on it, DWA.
Some interesting points there DWA, one you missed is that the population density of Sumatra is nearly 10 times that of areas like in the pacific northwest, this, along with the decreased overall area do make it more difficult for things to hide. However the terrain being dense tropical rainforest as seen on the film would be a hindrance. Your points on evidence are a little confusing as you state that sasquatch has been witnessed by many people from all walks of life, again a valid point, but then go on to compare the chances of finding one to finding “a single needle, moving randomly among 50 stacks of hay when you aren’t looking.” Either it’s that hard to find or it’s often seen, it can’t be both! Also, numerically I believe there are more people looking for sasquatch than the rhino. Im aware of the problems of respectability within the scientific community but this shouldn’t stop people looking for, and finding empirical evidence.
Please don’t think I’m pooh-poohing Sasquatch, just trying to invoke discussion via comparison, playing devils advocate if you will, I think it worked!
I have been interested in the (hairy, two-horned) Sumatran rhino for some time and I am glad to see a lot of the new information. I had felt that it was related to the ice age Wooly rhino for some time.
Incidentally, the (one-horned, hairless, hippolike) Sumatran rhino was a “Known” animal to Ivan Sanderson in Living Mammals of the World while Eberhart calls it a cryptid in his Mysterious Creatures. It is also a “Known” species: Eberhart is evidently following information by Willy Ley.
Ranatemporaria: if it weren’t for devils advocates, there’d be too many slow news days on Cryptomundo. 😉
You also make interesting points, the one about the pop density on Sumatra (and I’m sure in significant areas of Borneo) being one. Another might be that Sumatra’s and Borneo’s population tends to be poorer than is the case in North America…and don’t we have a little problem with the rhino’s horn being something of extreme value….? In other words: LOTS of people have good reasons to look for the rhino.
“Finding” is a relative term. The rhino’s long since been “found” by both the native population and scientists, the former being why it’s in the mess it’s in. Now as to the sasquatch. Many, many people have seen this little needle flitting around. (Go ahead, mental image of something bigger than a gorilla “flitting.” Imagine a tutu. Free of charge; thank me later. 😀 ) The problem is, the scientific mainstream seems not to take these data points seriously enough to even consider following them up. There are some organizations (TBRC is one, and maybe the word “some” is an egregious overstatement) with very limited funding doing three and four day expeditions when they can, putting out a few camera traps with what money they can scrounge from their own pockets, and – not even knowing what a bigfoot travel route looks like, or whether a bigfoot will even use one twice – hoping one wants to have his pic taken. (Rhino trails in rainforest: a given. And look how long it took to see them, and longer still to film one.)
LOTS of people see the sasquatch. LOTS. (You know that you can guesstimate several times, at least, the number of people who submit encounter reports.) AND it’s a teeny needle in mulitiple haystacks. Both. Because it’s an invisible animal from science’s point of view. It’s got way too much room to avoid the people who do search, at the times and places they do search. It shows more than enough curiosity about people for TBRC researchers to have a lot of what sound like close encounters. But they haven’t had the technology (most of the time) nor the good luck (when they’ve had it) to bring it to bear for better evidence.
Numerically there may be more squatchers. But they’re covering vastly more territory, getting much less funding per person, and spending far less time on it than paid rhino biologists.
Hate to invite the Big Guy into this discussion, but looking at this video a thought occured to me. When Bigfoot is supposedly photographed or filmed (a la the PG footage), the basic resemblance to a humanoid form is very detrimental to its chances of being taken seriously. Since even footage that is as clear as the PG footage is accused of being a “man in a suit”, it makes me wonder what it will take for a sasquatch video to be taken more seriously. What is the benchmark people want? Since a rhino is not humanoid, it is harder to fake and therefore video representations of it can be accepted for what they are actually showing.
I swear when I look at this video, it almost looks staged. I know it isn’t, but my point is that if you took this same footage and put in a sasquatch instead of a rhino, this footage would still be considered suspect. No matter how realistic the Bigfoot seemed, people would still be poring over it trying to figure out if it was faked or not. Yeah, even if it sniffed the camera people might be suspicious and trying to spot things that could be fake. I am sure people would point suspiciously to the way it creeps out of the woods to almost seemingly pose for the camera before walking off. On the other hand, this video could have been dramatically blurrier and shakier and it still would have been embraced as showing a rhino. If it exists, the fact that Bigfoot is bipedal and somewhat humanoid is going to present unique challenges for anyone trying to videotape them.
I do agree, that what constitutes undoubtable/empirical evidence often depends on if, and, who wants to prove something. I was taught by well respected biologists and ecologist during my MSc that most things can be proved and (or) disproved, statistically and scientifically just as long as you really want to and you know how to. There is also no issue here with questionable integrity, no one has any reason to doubt the rhino as mystery man points out if that was a clear uninterrupted perfect BF video, the cries of fake would be heard as people would think it was to good to be real!
Anyway sorry for going slightly off topic Kudos to Dicerorhinus, for surviving the adversity and working it for the camera and the worlds press.
By The Way, guys, I made parallel remarks about the unexpected finding of rhinos and why Sasquatch remains hidden so long going on twenty years ago to the SITU, when a population of Javan rhinos turned up in Laos, I believe. The arguments still hold, and it is a little disheartening to realize how little actual progress has been made in the interrim.
I dont want to be picky, but I did get a little confused with the Geography mention in the above piece. So I thought I’d post this to clear up any misconceptions about Borneo’s geographics.
Borneo is a large Island situated in South East Asia, surrounded by the South China Sea, the Sulu Sea,the Celebes Sea, Makassar Strait, Karimata Strait and Java Sea.
Three countries have territories on the Island.
In the north is the Malaysian State of Sabah.
In the north-west is the Malaysian State of Sarawak.
Between the two is the country of Brunei.
In the south is the large Indonesian province of Kalimantan.
The Malaysian mainland in to the west, the Philippines is to the north-east and the Indonesian Islands of Sumatra to the south-west, Java to the south, with other Indonesian islands and provinces to the east and south-east.
Cheers
Most Sumatran Rhinos brought into captivity since 1987 have died without breeding. The exception is the Cincinnati zoo a female named emi has given birth to calves in 2001, 2004 and 2007. Other zoos have to follow their methods to provide a safety net for the endangered Rhinos.
Hi all,
This is Mike Cabarles, director of The Littlest Rhino. I love this footage from the camera trap, we were going to do this in 2003 but our budget ran out. Still I’m pleased that we got some great footage of the Sumatran Rhinos and the Borneo Sub species in captivity in Sepilok.
The rhinos in Sepilok, seemed to have finer features, smoother, darker skin but like the West Malaysian relatives, they still developed the hairy growth if they are without a mud wallow for long.
The programme, filmed in a Sanctuary at Sungai Dusun, aired on National Geographic, but was never released for retail distribution.
You’ll find a sample clip here on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=t2ehNR7jKyE
At last, a DVD will be soon be available at http://www.thelittlestrhino.com and you can see these animals up close, in the light of day!
Cheers!
Hi all,
This is Mike Cabarles, director of The Littlest Rhino. I love this footage from the camera trap!
We were going to try to do the same thing in 2003 but our budget ran out. I’m glad someone finally did it!
Still I’m happy that we got some great steadicam footage of the West Malaysian Sumatran Rhinos in their native habitat (in a sanctuary at Sungai Dusun) and the Borneo Sub species in captivity in Sepilok.
The rhinos in Sepilok, seemed to have finer features, smoother, darker skin but like the West Malaysian relatives, they still developed the hairy growth if they are without a mud wallow for long.
The programme, aired on National Geographic, but was never released for retail distribution.
You’ll find a sample clip here.
At last, a DVD will be soon be available at http://www.thelittlestrhino.com, and you can see these animals up close, in the light of day!
Cheers!