Sumatran Rabbit, the Rarest Animals in the World Looks Back

By using reconnaissance cameras, two researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States, managed to take a picture of Sumatran striped rabbit, which is classified as the world's rarest animals. This animal is likely only to be found in the Kerinci Seblat National Park and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park.

Researchers recently captured photos of a rare striped rabbit in Sumatra with camera traps. (Picture from: http://www.eurekalert.org/)

Photos of rare rabbits and other observations reported by doctoral candidate Jennifer McCarthy and Todd Fuller, professor of environmental conservation in the Oryx, The International Journal of Conservation. The first rabbits photo was taken in Kerinci Seblat in 1998 and almost never seen again since then.

"It is not known whether the rabbit is in other national parks, but not detected," said McCarthy. "The protection of the two 'last bastion' of this species is very important."

McCarthy said that when the human population increases in Sumatra, two national parks were increasingly pressured by the clearing of land for settlements, roads, and infra-structure.

"Conservation efforts should be focused on two areas to prevent the loss of two populations of Sumatran striped rabbit last," he said.

McCarthy plans to continue observations of this rare rabbit and establish cooperation with the University of Delaware and the Indonesia Wildlife Conservation Society Program. "We'd like to contact any researchers around Sumatra who do research with a reconnaissance camera, maybe 20-30 peoples to include this island."

Sumatran striped rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri).
(Picture from: http://asidharta.co.cc/)

The only closest relatives are the Sumatran Striped Rabbit Annamite Striped Rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi) found in the Annamite Mountains (border of Laos and Vietnam) in 1999.

The characteristics and habits. Sumatran Striped Rabbits have a body length of about 40 cm and weighs approximately 1.5 kg. Fur yellowish brown netscheri Nesolagus with a longitudinal black lines along the body. While the fur on the belly is white.

Around the eyes and the head on the back of the eye to the base of the ears are black. The special feature is the size of the Sumatran Striped Rabbit ears are shorter than the other rabbit ear size. Rabbits native to Indonesia this size is also shorter by kemerahanan brown coat color.

Sumatran rabbit is a nocturnal animal that is more often indulge in the evening. What was unique native Indonesia is the habit of hiding in holes or burrows of other animals used instead of dug its own hole. *** [SCIENCEDAILY | TJANDRA | KORAN TEMPO 3897]

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