First ever wildlife video footage of rare Borneo Sumatran rhinoceros

The video footage below (courtesy of WWF and Sabah Wildlife Department) is the first one captured of the rare Borneo subspecies of the Sumatran rhinoceros which provides the first recorded glimpse of the species in its natural habitat in the jungles of the Sabah interior.

A camera-trap, positioned by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature-Malaysia, caught a 2-minute video of an adult male, estimated to be around 30-40 years old, around midnight a few months back on Feb 16. It showed the animal feeding, walking towards the camera and sniffing the equipment.

This is the first time the animal’s behaviour has been filmed in the wild although it was first photographed for the first time in 2006, also by a camera-trap.

The rhino, which is almost never seen by people, can only be found in the interior forests of Sabah, part of an area known as the "Heart of Borneo". The Sabah Wildlife Department estimated that the number of this subspecies of Borneo rhino, Dicero-rhinus sumatrensis, to be no more than 50 heads at present.