Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 15, 2013

The Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest of the five extant rhinoceroses. Members of the species once inhabited rainforests, swamps, and cloud forests in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. They are now critically endangered, with only six substantial populations in the wild: four on Sumatra, one on Borneo, and one in the Malay Peninsula. Their numbers are difficult to determine because they are solitary animals that are widely scattered across their range, but they are estimated to number fewer than 275, and possibly as low as 200. The decline in numbers is attributed primarily to poaching for their horns, which are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine. The Sumatran rhino is a mostly solitary animal except for courtship and offspring-rearing. Like the African species, it has two horns; the larger is the nasal horn, typically 15–25 centimetres (5.9–9.8 in), while the other horn is typically a stub. A coat of reddish-brown hair covers most of its body. It is the most vocal rhino species and also communicates through marking soil with its feet, twisting saplings into patterns, and leaving excrement. (Full article...)

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