A mother and daughter pregnant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ratu, whose name means “queen,” has lived at the sanctuary since 2005. She had wandered into a local village and was moved for her own safety. Her fourth calf was sired by Andalas, a male born at the Cincinnati Zoo and sent to Indonesia in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delilah is Ratu’s daughter, born at the sanctuary in 2016. In 2023 she became the first Sumatran rhino born in managed care to have a calf of her own, a male named Indra. Her second pregnancy is by Harapan, another Cincinnati-born male who arrived in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the ministry’s count on October 3, Ratu was 238 days pregnant, roughly 7.9 months. Delilah was at 251 days, about 8.3 months. “Ratu and Delilah’s pregnancies represent two more individuals that can help bring Sumatran rhinos back from the brink of extinction,” said Nina Fascione, executive director of IRF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IRF built the sanctuary in 1996 with the Indonesian government and Taman Safari Indonesia. It is a semi-wild site. The rhinos roam forest and see people mainly for medical care and reproductive checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the ministry, five calves have been born there. Andatu came in 2012, Delilah in 2016 and Sedah Mirah in 2022, followed by Anggi and Indra in 2023. Ratu alone produced three of them through the sanctuary’s planned, closely monitored breeding program<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The site now holds 10 rhinos and is full. IRF says it is raising money to expand it. Ahmad Munawir, director of species and genetic conservation at the ministry, called the pregnancies “part of long-term efforts” built on “planned breeding, reproductive health management and intensive monitoring of individual rhinos.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Sumatran rhino pregnancy lasts about 15 to 16 months. IRF says females are believed to have one calf roughly every three years. Weaning can take up to two more years, the ministry adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isolation brings a second problem for females. The IUCN Asian Rhino Specialist Group explains that they are induced ovulators. Long stretches without mating are linked to cysts and fibroids in the reproductive tract, which can leave a female permanently infertile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the wild, that turns distance into a threat. The IRF report counts up to four isolated populations and as many as 10 subpopulations. Only the one in Gunung Leuser is thought to be large enough to be viable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Way Kambas, the job for now is close watching. Jansen Manansang, executive director of YABI, said the medical team “will conduct intensive monitoring to ensure that Ratu and Delilah progress well through their pregnancies and give birth to healthy calves.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indonesia’s other critically endangered rhino faces a different risk. About 50 Javan rhinos survive, all in Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of Java. The IRF report calls the area prone to natural disasters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Poachers hit that lone population hard. Gang members confessed to killing between 18 and 26 Javan rhinos from 2019 to 2023, a 33 percent drop. After a 2024 investigation, police arrested the leader and six members, and courts handed down sentences of up to 12 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ministry studies cited in the report point to a potential inbreeding<\/a> rate of 58.5 percent. A population viability analysis forecasts the species could go extinct within five decades. Even so, camera traps and footprint tracking have found five new calves in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indonesia has also announced a Javan rhino biobank and a captive breeding program. The first attempt to capture an animal, in November 2025, failed. Any rhinos caught later will go to a new sanctuary inside the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A study published in March 2026 in Current Biology looked back several centuries. Matthew Granger, Samuel Turvey and colleagues fed historical sightings of both species into habitat models. Southeast Asian rhinos, they concluded, were “ecological generalists that formerly occurred across diverse habitats and a broad elevational range.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their maps flag protected areas across the region that have suitable habitat but no rhinos today. Both species, the team found, can share many of the same landscapes. Sites that still hold rhinos vary in quality, and the authors say they may become less suitable under future climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just outside Way Kambas, IRF partners have replanted almost 300 acres (about 120 hectares) over the past six years, with more than 30,000 seedlings going into the ground in the past year. IRF wants that land to feed the sanctuary’s rhinos and, one day, to serve as a place to return a species<\/a> to the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The IUCN puts wild Sumatran rhinos at 34 to 47, and Indonesia’s government says no more than 80. Around 2000 the estimate stood near 300, though IRF’s report says those older counts may have been too high. Direct sightings are now rare, and even footprints are getting harder to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A habitat map also cannot say whether a relocation would work. In Nepal’s Bardiya National Park, the report notes, floods wiped out the grasslands and wallows that moved rhinos depended on. Ratu and Delilah’s calves will add two animals to a species that needs many more to recover<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pregnancies were announced by Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry<\/a>. The full study was published in Current Biology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo: Indonesian Ministry of Forestry \/ YABI, via International Rhino Foundation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two female Sumatran rhinos at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park are pregnant. Both are due … <\/p>\n![\"Delilah,](\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/sumatran-rhino-delilah-sanctuary.jpg\")
Five calves since 2012<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sixteen months for a single calf<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ultrasound](\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ratu-ultrasound-scan.jpg\")
Ujung Kulon holds every Javan rhino<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Old records point to empty forests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Counts range from 34 to 80<\/h2>\n\n\n\n