Javan rhinoceros in Vietnam

Two species of rhinoceros—the Javan and the Sumatran—once inhabited Vietnam but the Sumatran rhinoceros apparently became extinct there early this century and by the late 1960s it was feared that the Javan rhinoceros probably no longer occurred there either. Then, in November 1988, a hunter shot an adult female rhinoceros about 130 km north-east of Saigon. He was arrested when he tried to sell the horn and hide. In early 1989 the authors were conducting wildlife surveys near where the killing took place and they took this opportunity to check the status of the species. They found evidence that perhaps 10–15 Javan rhinoceros still survive in Vietnam. As a result of this discovery the Vietnamese Government has set up a Rhinoceros Conservation Group.