CISARUA, West Java, Sept 24- The Indonesian Safari Park (TSI) in Cisarua Bogor, West Java, celebrated the World Rhino Day 2013 in cooperation with the Bank Indonesia Foundation (YABI), TSI Director Frans Manansang said.
“The TSI celebrated the fourth annual World Rhino Day on Sunday, September 22, to raise awareness about protecting rhinoceros and avoid poaching,” Indonesia’s Antara news agency quoted Manansang as saying on Monday.
Indonesia has two of the five species of rhinos found around in the world, namely the Javanese rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus) and the Sumatran rhinos (Dicherorinus sumatrensis), both of which have been categorised as critically endangered.
“Through the celebration of World Rhino Day, we hope that the people of Indonesia will become more familiar with the rhinos and help save them from extinction,” Manansang noted.
He added that the Javanese and Sumatran rhinos were on the verge of extinction because of poaching, forest conversion into plantation areas and illegal logging activities.
Therefore, Manansang stated, the Indonesian Safari Park had collaborated with the Bank Indonesia Foundation to celebrate the World Rhino Day and call for the preservation of the endangered species.
Meanwhile Bank Indonesia Foundation Executive Director Widodo S Ramono pegged the current population of Sumatran rhinos at about 100 and the number of Javanese rhinos in the Ujung Kulon National Park in Banten at only 50.
– BERNAMA
