Sabah's last three rhinos lived their final days at Tabin Wildlife Reserve before the species became locally extinct in 2019. Expect to be moved by how conservationists transformed these empty paddocks into the world's largest living collection of wild fig species.
The Bornean rhinoceros
The Bornean rhinoceros is a physically and genetically distinct subspecies of the Sumatran rhinoceros known as Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni. The mammalian taxonomist Colin Groves described it formally in 1965. He named it to honour the ornithologist and anthropologist Tom Harrisson who conducted extensive zoological work across Borneo in the previous decades. The Bornean rhino has the darkest pigmentation of all the subspecies and a notably smaller head with a narrower nasal boss. It has heavily fringed ears and pronounced wrinkles around the eyes.
Crucially, the Sumatran rhinoceros is the sole surviving member of the subtribe Dicerorhinina. Modern genomic sequencing confirms that Dicerorhinus separated from the ancestors of the Pleistocene woolly rhinoceros roughly 9.5 to 15 million years ago. This evolutionary split makes the hairy coat of the Bornean rhino a direct echo of the Ice Age.
Sabah's last three rhinos
The timeline of Sabah's final on-site rhinoceroses defines the enormous effort local veterinarians and the Sabah Wildlife Department put into trying to save the species. Tam was a male estimated to be 20 years old when he wandered into the Kretam palm oil plantation in August 2008. He was dangerously exposed to plantation workers. Conservationists rescued him and relocated him to Tabin Wildlife Reserve hoping he would help start a breeding programme.
Years of careful monitoring led to the discovery of Puntung. She was a survivor who had previously lost a front foot to an illegal snare. A joint operation captured her on 18 December 2011. Heavy fog delayed her transport but a helicopter eventually airlifted her to Tabin on Christmas morning. Veterinary examinations soon revealed she was unable to reproduce naturally.
Iman was the final wild rhinoceros captured in Malaysia. She fell into a purpose-built pit trap located along a known rhino trail in Danum Valley Conservation Area on 10 March 2014. When she arrived at the sanctuary, veterinarians discovered she suffered from severe reproductive pathology that caused frequent and life-threatening haemorrhaging.
Puntung was diagnosed with terminal squamous cell skin cancer that initially presented as a severe tooth infection. The cancer caused rapid facial swelling and immense pain. International specialists and local authorities agreed to euthanise her on 4 June 2017. Tam died of multiple organ failure linked to severe kidney and liver damage on 27 May 2019 at an estimated age of 30 to 35 years. He died without reproducing because his sperm proved to be of poor quality and the available females were biologically compromised. Iman died at 5:35pm on 23 November 2019 from systemic shock caused by growing tumour pressure on her bladder and massive blood loss.
Why Sabah's rhinos disappeared
Historical hunting devastated the population over a century ago. The final cause of extinction in Sabah was habitat fragmentation. The Tabin Wildlife Reserve and surrounding areas underwent extensive selective logging between 1960 and 1984. The aggressive expansion of palm oil plantations followed this logging. The remaining rhinos were trapped in disparate pockets of jungle. Because they are solitary and slow-breeding animals that require massive home ranges, the chance of a receptive female encountering a fertile male became statistically negligible.
This isolation triggered a catastrophic biological mechanism known as the Allee effect. The Allee effect dictates that when a population falls below a critical density, the reproductive success collapses. Female Sumatran rhinos experience only 1 day of oestrus in a 21- to 27-day cycle. Without the hormonal pause of pregnancy, the reproductive organs of non-breeding females face continuous fluctuations of sex steroids.
Over years of isolation, this constant hormonal bombardment results in asymmetric reproductive ageing. Pathology conducted by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research found that wild-caught females suffered from extensive cystic endometrial hyperplasia and multiple uterine fibroids. These benign tumours decimated the uterine architecture and made natural conception impossible. The Bornean rhinoceros did not die to a poacher's gun in the 21st century. It aged out of existence in the understorey because its reproductive system was destroyed by isolation.
Rhino science and stalled cooperation
The physical deaths of Tam and Iman did not end the scientific effort. Before they died, researchers harvested living cell cultures from Malaysia's last rhinos and preserved them in liquid nitrogen. The international BioRescue consortium includes the Max Delbrück centre for Molecular Medicine and Kyushu University. They successfully used Tam's skin fibroblasts to generate induced pluripotent stem cells. These cells possess the capability to be differentiated into any tissue type including primordial germ cells. The team even cultivated cerebral organoids to study the species' unique neural architecture and genetic lineage.
Disputes between Malaysia and Indonesia held back the use of these scientific advances. As the health of Malaysia's on-site rhinos deteriorated, local conservationists urgently sought cooperation with Indonesia. Malaysia possessed advanced IVF technology and the last Bornean genetics while Indonesia held a small number of on-site breeding rhinos at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. The collaboration stalled completely when Indonesian authorities adopted a strict protectionist stance. Proposals regarding egg transfers faced endless bureaucratic delays that prevented any meaningful exchange of biological resources.
Kalimantan's remaining rhinos
A tiny and highly fragmented population of Bornean rhinos survives in the Indonesian territory of Kalimantan. In 2018, a female named Pahu was rescued from the wild and moved to a secure sanctuary. Remnants exist in the East Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan provinces. Exact locations are classified by the Indonesian government to deter highly organised wildlife trafficking syndicates. Evidence is restricted almost entirely to isolated footprints.
The IUCN Asian Rhino Specialist Group officially estimates the global wild population of Sumatran rhinoceroses at 34 to 47 individuals. It remains scientifically uncertain if the few rhinos left in East Kalimantan form viable breeding pairs or if they are isolated individuals quietly succumbing to the exact same Allee effect that wiped out the Sabah population.
Lessons for Sabah's threatened wildlife
The extinction of the rhino in Sabah is the ultimate cautionary tale for the region's remaining fauna. The Bornean banteng is an endemic species of wild cattle that is currently mirroring the rhino's exact trajectory. With only 300 to 500 individuals left in the wild, they are fragmented into 4 isolated subpopulations across Sabah. Relegated to marginal habitats, they suffer from high calf mortality, severe malnutrition and dangerously low breeding rates.
The history of the rhino also provides a lesson for the critically endangered Sunda pangolin and the helmeted hornbill. The hornbill is a totally protected species under Schedule 1 of the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 and is hunted relentlessly for its solid keratin casque. The rhino proves that once a population is pushed into isolated fragments by poachers, biological collapse becomes inevitable even if the hunting eventually stops.
Habitat restoration at Tabin
Following the extinction of the rhino in Malaysia, the Borneo Rhino Alliance rebranded to Bringing Back Our Rare Animals (BORA). The organisation broadened its work from saving a single species to restoring habitats and food supplies for other wildlife. The massive steel enclosures and veterinary facilities originally constructed for Tam, Puntung and Iman were repurposed. The Sabah Forestry Department entrusted BORA to establish the Sabah Ficus Germplasm Centre directly on the footprint of the old rhino paddocks.
The centre manages up to 95 native fig species and is recognised globally as the largest living collection of wild fig species. Ficus trees are ecologically unparalleled in Borneo because they bear fruit year-round and sustain wildlife during critical periods of famine. BORA maintains living plants, cuttings and a massive seed bank stored in ultra-cold freezers. They propagate thousands of fig seedlings to enrich degraded forests and establish vital riparian wildlife corridors through abandoned sections of oil palm plantations. They also pioneer the propagation of berembang to restore wetland areas. These target species provide a continuous food supply for endangered orangutans, gibbons, bearded pigs and hornbills.
BORA has directly applied the nutritional lessons learned from the rhino to the Bornean banteng. They established an elephant and banteng pasture in Tabin Wildlife Reserve in 2021. By cultivating high-protein grasses, planting legumes and establishing artificial mineral salt licks, they are actively boosting the reproductive health of the banteng. This initiative successfully attracts herds of up to 70 wild elephants away from surrounding commercial plantations. When you walk along the massive steel fences at Tabin Wildlife Reserve, you are witnessing how a tragedy was transformed into an active defence of the surviving ecosystem.
Sabah conservation itineraries
If you want to see the conservation work at Tabin or explore the primary forests of Danum Valley, send the team your dates and group size. Let them know your specific wildlife interests and they will build an itinerary that connects you with the right locations and guides.
--- Sources referenced on this page: IUCN Asian Rhino Specialist Group (2024), Borneo Rhino Alliance (2026), Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Max Delbrück centre for Molecular Medicine, Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Wildlife Department. Facts verified 2 September 2026.