Last Of The Jungle Rhino

Concealed within Java’s dense tropical forest, the world’s rarest rhino remains a mystery to most. With only a few dozen left, the race is on to learn more about these seldom seen creatures.

- Toby Nowlan

We’re woken with a jolt by panicked shouting in the forest. When the commotion is followed by thunderous crashing just outside our tent, we’re well and truly pulled from our jetlagged slumber. It’s 4 am in the Javanese jungle – we arrived and made camp just a few hours ago, exhausted after an eight-hour trek. Pulling on our jungle-wear, expedition partner Kyle McBurnie and I cautiously head out to investigate.

We find Chenglus, our expert tracker, sitting by the campfire looking dazed and unnerved – his mouth hanging open in shock as he slowly shakes his head. I gently ask what’s happened. Changes tells me that he made a small fire on the beach by the lagoon next to our makeshift camp and slept there until he was woken by a furious snorting sound, as a bull rhino the size of a small car charged out of the darkness towards him.

He believes the rhino had seen the fire from the forest and wanted to take a closer look (perhaps out of territorial defiance, perhaps sheer curiosity), entering the lagoon and wading across its breadth. When the animal was within a few meters of Chenglus, it finally noticed him, turned to flee, and crashed into the forest close to camp.

Chenglus has more experience with Javan rhinos in the wild than perhaps anyone else alive, yet he’d never known anything like this. To put this unlikely event into context, the Javan rhinoceros is the rarest large land mammal on Earth. The global population stands at about 70 individuals, and they all live in one forest on the island of Java, Indonesia.

Stomping ground