IUCN Species Survival Commission

Asian Rhino Specialist Group

The expert body of the IUCN Species Survival Commission for the greater one-horned, Sumatran and Javan rhinoceros. We inform, guide and catalyse conservation action across the rhino range states.

Meet the three species About the group

4,075

Greater one-horned rhinoceros

34–47

Sumatran rhinoceros

Fewer than 50

Javan rhinoceros

Asia's three rhinoceros species

One species recovering, two on the edge of extinction. All three are the responsibility of a single specialist group, because the science, the expertise and the range states overlap.

Vulnerable · 4,075

Greater one-horned rhinoceros

Rhinoceros unicornis

Critically Endangered · 34–47

Sumatran rhinoceros

Dicerorhinus sumatrensis

Critically Endangered · Fewer than 50

Javan rhinoceros

Rhinoceros sondaicus

Latest news

All news

Close portrait of a greater one-horned rhinoceros

22 September 2026

Save the Rhino profiles the experts behind Asian rhino conservation

Ahead of World Rhino Day, Save the Rhino International has published a feature on the Asian Rhino Specialist Group: who we are, what we do, and where the three species stand.

18 May 2026

Asian Rhinos newsletter returns after twenty-six years

Number 4 of the AsRSG newsletter is published, reviving a series first launched in 1995 and dormant since 2000.

12 May 2026

Seven working groups confirmed for the 2026–2029 quadrennium

The AsRSG's Terms of Reference set out three species working groups and four functional ones, each with a designated Leadership Focal Point.

From the field

A greater one-horned rhinoceros wallowing in a pool, only its head above the water. — Wallowing through the heat of the day

A greater one-horned rhinoceros female grazing in grassland with her young calf beside her. — A calf stays close to its mother for around three years

A newborn Sumatran rhinoceros calf standing in mud at a sanctuary enclosure. — Newborn female calf at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas — courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry

A Javan rhinoceros standing in dense rainforest, photographed in 1980. — One of the finest wild photographs of the species — Ujung Kulon, by Alain Compost, 1980

A mating pair of greater one-horned rhinoceros in tall grass. — A mating pair in tall grassland

Two Sumatran rhinoceros standing head to head in rainforest. — Torgamba and Bina at Way Kambas National Park

Camera-trap image of a Javan rhinoceros calf walking through forest. — A calf born in February 2023, recorded by camera trap in Ujung Kulon — courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry

Get involved

The AsRSG is a volunteer network that depends on its members, partners and supporters. Modest, catalytic funding lets the group convene expertise across India, Nepal and Indonesia and turn it into action on the ground.

Contact the group

Enquiries reach the Chair, the Secretariat or a working group's co-chairs through a single routed form.

Support our work

Working group meetings, year-round coordination, and the technical reviews and action plans that mobilise far larger investment.

Donate