Kiwi conservationist on save-rhino trip
The Press (Christchurch)
January 3, 2001
A New Zealand conservationist has left local environmental problems
behind in a bid to help save the world's rarest rhinoceros. Auckland
Forest and Bird Society chairman Kit Howden will spend the next
two years at Nam Cat Tien National Park, in southern Vietnam, as
part of a stint with Volunteer Service Abroad.
The 150,000ha park -- about twice the size of Tongariro National
Park -- is one of the world's conservation hot spots and the last
refuge in Vietnam of the critically endangered Javan rhino. According
to the World Wildlife Fund, the rhinoceros is possibly the most
threatened large mammal in the world. Between 10 and 15 live in
a remote part of the park, but they have never been seen by a foreign
scientist or tourist. About 60 of the rhinos are thought to be left
in Indonesia.
Supplied by New Zealand Press Association
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