Injured rare Sumatran rhino rescued in Sabah: wildlife official

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — A rare Sumatran rhinoceros, whose species is on the brink of extinction, has been rescued injured in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island, a wildlife official said over the weekend.

It was discovered after wandering into an oil palm plantation in a two week operation that saw a team from the state Wildlife Department transfer it to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in eastern Sabah.

The animal comes from the very rare Bornean sub-species of the Sumatran rhinoceros.

"It was obvious that the rhino was injured to some degree as it left its forest...to come out on the flat terrain of the oil palm plantation," the department's chief veterinarian Senthilvel Nathan said in a statement.

"When we first got there, the rhino showed signs...