Last of the Javan Rhino

Above: The giant palm jungles of Ujung Kulon (Toby Nowlan)

10 years in the making, my mission is to find one of the rarest animals on Earth, the Javan rhino. I will track this jungle giant to take high-resolution photos and make field sketches, hoping to help in the fight to save the species from extinction.

There are so few images of the Javan rhino that we know less about it than all other rhino species. Poaching for use of their horns in Chinese medicine has driven all rhino species to the edge of existence. There are only 60 Javan rhinos left, surviving in the island’s last true wilderness: Ujung Kulon. 

Rhino horn is almost chemically identical to hair or fingernail, yet gram-for-gram it is now the most valuable commodity on the planet, worth more than gold or cocaine.

With so few animals remaining, their species is teetering on the edge of existence.

By supporting this project you are joining an effort to learn more about one of the most endangered animals on Earth, helping to publicise its plight, and helping to safeguard its future.

The expedition is only possible by collaborating with local trackers, porters and guards. This engagement encourages resistance to poaching, empowers locals to protect rhinos and generates longer term support.

I have dreamt of making this expedition a reality for 20 years. Your support would allow me to realise this dream and to actually contribute to the protection of this incredible species by going in search of it in its last home. I cannot tell you how grateful I would be.

Images of this species tell us so much about the health and habits of individuals and therefore the whole population. They not only provide us with the knowledge we need to keep the Javan rhino on this planet, but they give the rhino worldwide media attention.

Above: There have been no Javan rhinos in captivity for over a century.


MY PLAN

I am planning an expedition to the most remote part of Ujung Kulon, to the Special Protection Area with highly restricted access. Permits to visit this area are extremely hard to obtain and so are extremely expensive. I will trek to this area and camp out for several weeks, using a small canoe to work up through the tangled river channels that wind deep into the rhinos’ remaining core range. My aim is to photograph and sketch the Javan rhino and doing so, bring this rarest of beasts back into the media spotlight.

On many days progress will be painfully slow as I navigate up these tangled channels through curtains of spiny lianas, fallen trees, floating roots and other obstacles.

Images of any individuals may help us assess the health, age and habits of individuals and shed more light on how the rhinos lead their lives. Only with a more complete picture of the rhinos' life history can we effectively protect them.

The expedition is only possible by collaborating with local trackers, porters and guards. This engagement encourages resistance to poaching, empowers locals to protect and generates longer term support. I will be teaming up with two trackers who I met in Java earlier this year. Together they have more experience tracking the Javan rhino in the field than anyone else alive.

Above: Very fresh Javan rhino tracks I found earlier this year (Toby Nowlan)


WHY ME?

Having worked in Indonesia as a film-maker and a zoologist and with a long-standing passion for rhinoceros conservation, I have been hoping to lead this expedition for most of my life. I have grown to know and love Indonesia, learning its language and developing a strong connection with the country (and especially Ujung Kulon).

I am hugely excited by the expedition’s prospective outcomes: establishing a long-running photo-identification catalogue project of the rarest large mammal on Earth, bringing its precarious situation back into the global media spotlight by capturing high quality photographs, publicising the species plight further by widely disseminating the sketches and paintings I create, and perhaps obtaining some of the only existing film of the species.

For anyone who is able to support the project, I would happily give a talk on the expedition and the state of the Javan rhino. I will also offer supporters a large photographic print of the Javan rhino that I will (hopefully) have taken myself on this expedition, a copy of the expedition report, and prints of my detailed sketches.

This rare creature is a true icon of the wild: saving this stronghold stands for so much more than helping a few rhino. For me it stands for protecting the last of the great wild creatures and places on our planet.


The densely forested tributaries of Ujung Kulon

If you're interested in the expedition and would like to know more, please don't hesitate to get in touch.