Poachers claim to have killed a third of all Javan rhinos, Indonesian police say

According to local law enforcement authorities, an incredible 26 Javan rhinos may have been killed in Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National Park since 2019.

Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus) now live in a single national park on Java and are one of the most endangered large mammals on Earth. If the death toll is correct, it means that within a few years poachers have killed at least a third of all Javan rhinos still alive on the planet.

The mass murder raises the question of how such an event could have occurred in a park that was supposed to be heavily guarded.

Abdul Karim, police chief of Banten province, where the park is located, told local media that officials did not know exactly how many rhinos were killed because the figure was currently based on statements from suspects in custody rather than direct evidence such as rhino horns or bones.

However, when asked by local media, he confirmed that the suspects claimed to have killed 26 rhinos.

Karim said authorities arrested 13 suspected members of two poaching gangs: all eight suspected members of one gang believed to be led by a suspect named Sunendi, and five suspected members of another gang led by a suspect named Suhar. Three other suspected members of the Suhar gang remain at large.

Police have also arrested two other men for allegedly trafficking rhino horns. In their statements to police, the suspects said the horns were destined for China; one of the traffickers was arrested shortly after returning from a trip to China, although it is not yet known whether he took rhino horns there. Police say they know of at least two Chinese nationals who may also be involved in the case.

“The rug was pulled out from under us,” said Nina Fascione, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), which works closely with park authorities. “In recent years there have been concerns that rhinos were missing from camera trap counts, but that did not necessarily mean they were dead, as this species is extremely good at hiding.”

The Indonesian government monitors the Javan rhino population using camera traps, but no update has been released since 2019, when officials claimed that 72 rhinos inhabited the park. But that figure was thrown into doubt last year when local NGO Auriga Nusantara released a report finding that 18 of the rhinos counted had not been seen for three years – and that some of them were confirmed to have died.

The report also claimed that poachers were entering the park – a claim that was proven true by a series of arrests and revelations this year.

Last November, police arrested the alleged leader of the first gang, Sunendi. To date, he is the only suspect to have been brought to justice. Prosecutors are seeking the maximum sentence for poaching in Indonesia: five years. But many experts believe that this is not enough to deter poachers.

Park authorities closed Ujung Kulon to tourism last year and say they have stepped up security measures. The IRF said in a statement that it was “confident” the situation was “stable after local police and military joined security efforts.”

“As far as we are aware, no Javan rhinos were poached in 2024,” the organization added, noting that all revelations of poaching that came to light during the trial occurred between 2019 and 2023.

But even increased security measures are unlikely to be enough to ensure the survival of this critically endangered species. For more than 30 years, experts have been calling on Indonesia to establish a second population of Javan rhinos beyond Ujung Kulon. They warn that the species could be wiped out by a tsunami, disease or even poachers.

Some experts also called on the government to start a captive rhino breeding program similar to what has already been successfully implemented for Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) for decades (11 of them currently live in captivity). Sumatran rhinos are now only found in Indonesia and are among the most endangered large mammals in the world. There are no figures on how many of them survive for years in the wild. An independent analysis found that only 34-47 Sumatran rhinos survive today.

If the poachers’ claims are true, the Javan rhinoceros would be in the same category. Many of Indonesia’s large mammals are now considered endangered, including the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sylvatica), Sumatran elephant (Large swamp elephant) and all three orangutan species: Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii), Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus) and even the newly described Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo sylvatica).

Conservationists have long criticized the Indonesian government for not being transparent about the number of species going extinct. In 2022, a leaked census showed that the Sumatran elephant population had declined by half since the turn of the century. Several scientists have been effectively banned from working in Indonesia for questioning government claims that orangutan populations are increasing. The government has also promised to conduct a full census of Sumatran rhinos – yet years later, no count has been released and only a single rhino has been captured in the wild of Borneo, leading some to believe that very few survive.