One wildlife veterinarian's quest to save Sumatran rhinos from extinction
From a young age, Benn Bryant felt that humans should be good custodians of the planet. Now, as an intrepid vet, he works to save Sumatran rhinos, which could be down to as few as seventy left in the world.
One of very few left in the world, a Sumatran rhinoceros wanders the Way Kambas National Park, in southern Sumatra, Indonesia. (Photo: Getty Images/Mark Cowardine)
The way Dr Benn Bryant describes the Sumatran rhinoceros 鈥� 鈥渁 pelt of shaggy orange hair鈥�, 鈥渄agger-like incisors,鈥� 鈥減redisposed to wallowing鈥�, with 鈥渨histling and squeaking vocalisations鈥� 鈥� it sounds more like it romped from the pages of a children鈥檚 book than the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e a very cryptic animal,鈥� the veterinarian says of this most ancient of rhino lineages (it鈥檚 more closely related to the ancient woolly rhino than the others living today). 鈥淭hey鈥檙e solitary and shy, living in very dense forest habitats.鈥�
One of the world鈥檚 five species of rhinoceros, the Sumatran is also the smallest, though it can still weigh up to 800kg (African rhinos go up to 2500kg). It used to range across Southeast Asia and all the way up to China, but the few that are left now take advantage of the remaining habitat in Borneo, Indonesia. And yes, Sumatra.
When he speaks to SAM, Dr Bryant has just returned from the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, a 250-acre complex in Way Kambas National Park. The sanctuary is supported by the International Rhino Foundation, of which Taronga Western Plains Zoo is a founding member, and as Taronga鈥檚 Senior Veterinarian, Dr Bryant is on stand-by for emergencies.
He deals with all creatures great and small, particularly with Taronga Western Plains Zoo being home to many species of large African hoofstock, but it鈥檚 the Sumatran rhino 鈥� thought to be the most endangered large mammal in the world 鈥� that Dr Bryant is most aligned with. Though he鈥檚 had a strong conservationist streak since his days as a veterinary science student, 鈥淐onservation of species is an ethical obligation for humanity,鈥� he says.
Care must be taken because being captured and contained is dangerous for the rhinos. Here Bryant (right), is working at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary through the International Rhino Foundation.
It鈥檚 thought there now could be as few as 70 or 80 Sumatran rhinos left, as a result of poaching and habitat loss. Seven of those are in the sanctuary in a breeding program, because wild population density is so low that the animals will rarely cross paths naturally.
Critics of captive populations argue that genetic diversity and behavioural patterns can be lost, and certainly decades-past attempts to create breeding programs have not been as successful.
鈥淏ack in the 鈥�80s contingency captive population in zoos were established in zoos,鈥� Dr Bryant says. 鈥淏ut that strategy failed abysmally. The feeding ecology and nutritional requirements were poorly understood and Sumatran rhinos are very aggressive toward each other, except when they鈥檙e in breeding condition, so attempts to introduce them were quite disastrous.鈥�
In the mid-鈥�90s the surviving animals were repatriated back to Indonesia, with most of them ending up in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. The difference here is that they aren鈥檛 fed by keepers. Instead they鈥檙e free to browse native trees and shrubs to get their nutritional requirements. Hard-learned lessons around their reproductive physiology have also been taken on board.聽
"It鈥檚 extraordinarily risky to capture a large vertebrate in a remote jungle environment, move it perhaps hundreds of kilometres, unload it into a semi-artificial environment, and impose a human care system on it."
Unlike other rhino species and indeed most mammals, Sumatran rhinos are what鈥檚 called induced ovulators. The females don鈥檛 actually ovulate until after they鈥檝e mated. Scientists were stumped by this in the past, as they would normally look for an ovulated egg to signal the time for mating.
So how do you know whether an animal is ready for mating if it doesn鈥檛 ovulate first? The modern answer for Sumatran rhinos is monitoring by ultrasound, or more specifically, transrectal ultrasonography, which uses sound waves to produce a picture of the key organs. To date, this method has seen five calves born in human care, to two different females. Though it is, in its way, a gamble.
鈥淥f course, it鈥檚 extraordinarily risky to capture a large vertebrate in a remote jungle environment, move it perhaps hundreds of kilometres, unload it into a semi-artificial environment, and impose a human care system on it,鈥� Bryant admits. 鈥淏ut risk-benefit assessments are made, and Sumatran rhinos are on an extinction trajectory.鈥�
Another animal challenge that Bryant has faced, is getting a lion on an operating table because it needed root canal therapy. Of course, in these situations, proper sedation is a priority.
鈥淢any of our animal patients are dangerous and aggressive,鈥� says Dr Bryant. 鈥淭hey are inherently wild and so have a vigorous fight or flight response. Different animals have different behavioural responses and different weapons. Controlling them might mean a brief period of physical restraint of a small mammal or bird and administering anaesthesia in oxygen by facemask. With larger animals like lions, it might be by a dart. Or it might be the animal might happily submit to standing by a fence.鈥�
For the record, Bryant says one of the trickiest animals to fit effectively onto an operating table is an ostrich.
Dr Bryant grew up in suburban Sydney in the 鈥�70s, exploring creeks and wild spots of local bush. His backyard shared a fence with a couple of hectares that were home to dairy cows. 鈥淲e had family friends who had a dairy farm and we would go and milk their cows and run their operations for them when they went on holiday,鈥� he says. 鈥淎ll those experiences consolidated into a conviction that veterinary medicine was the path for me.鈥�
Like many kids of the era, he enjoyed the books of vet James Herriot, best known for the All Creatures Great and Small series, later made into television and films. To this day, the public is fascinated by the life of vets, with no fewer than six reality TV programs dedicated to the profession.
After working in private practice for nine years, dealing with rather less exotic species than he does now, Bryant applied for a wildlife medicine residency at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, and concurrently enrolled in a Masters of Veterinary Studies in Wildlife Medicine and Husbandry through the university.
Taronga now offers a program as an extramural training partner of Sydney University鈥檚 Faculty of Veterinary Science, so he comes into regular contact with young students. 鈥淚 think young people are much more aware now of the challenges that the natural world faces,鈥� he says.
It might be expected that the veterinarian field is one of high burnout from stress, but Dr Bryant is a walking testimony to the benefits of doing a job you love. You wouldn鈥檛 expect someone on the frontline of extinction intervention to be so, well, eternally cheerful.
鈥淚鈥檓 ever the optimist,鈥� he says with a laugh. 鈥淚鈥檓 hoping that we might retrieve the Sumatran rhino from the brink of extinction by the application of ingenuity and science and our human genius for cooperation. I鈥檓 sitting here out on the grass on a beautiful Dubbo day and catastrophe seems very remote in this instance.鈥�
Written By Jenny Valentish
