The Sumatran rhino is the smallest living rhinoceros species, and is notable for the reddish brown hair on its body, unlike most other rhinos which are mostly hairless. Sumatran rhinos live only in Sumatra and Borneo, and are critically endangered.
History:
Sumatran rhinos, the only living members of the genus Dicerorhinus, are the most primitive of the rhino species alive today. It shares many of its features, like its hairy coat, with extinct rhinos, and is thought to be more closely related to the prehistoric wooly rhinoceros (genus Coelodonta) than to the other four modern day rhino species.
Though they were once widespread through much of Southeast Asia, there are currently believed to be fewer than a hundred of these rhinos left in the wild. There are only five small isolated populations of Sumatran rhinos in Borneo and Sumatra. They are illegally hunted because their horn is falsely believed by some to have medicinal properties, causing it to sell for very high prices on black markets. Destruction of its rainforest habitat by loggers has also harmed the rhino, and without drastic action taken to save the species it may not last much longer.
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