The Sumatran rhinoceros was extirpated from mainland East Asia by hunting and habitat loss

Abstract

The sequencing and analysis of the Sumatran rhinoceros genome provides vital data for understanding the history of the subspecies in Sumatra [1], but not for reconstructing the history of the population on the mainland after the two were separated by rising seas in the early Holocene. Evidence from zooarchaeology, texts and artifacts makes clear that the Holocene range of the Sumatran rhinoceros extended all the way from the tropics to the temperate Yellow River Valley of North China (35° North), and that humans have extirpated the species from most of its range. While the name 'Sumatran' suggests that these are tropical animals, in fact they are the only extant hairy rhinoceros, which presumably protected them from cold, and are the most closely related of all living rhinoceroses to the extinct cold-adapted woolly rhinoceros [2].