These days, very few of the African and Asian mammals in zoos actually start their lives in Africa or Asia. Most are produced by captive breeding programs. When they are taken from the wild, it is usually for some unusual circumstance - an endangered species found orphaned, or confiscated from poachers and deemed unsuitable for release into the wild, or new bloodlines being desperately sought for a population. What is happening now in Sabah is pretty unusual.
The Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the world's most endangered animals, making the white, black, and Indian rhinos seem downright common (the Javan rhino is even rarer still). Unlike the three aformentioned species, there are also very few Sumatran (and no Javan) rhinos in captivity - at this time, Cincinnati Zoo is the only zoo in the world to display them. Cincinnati is also the only zoo that has successfully bred this species in well over a century. Therefore, (not surprisingly), it is to Cincinnati that the Sabah rhinos will go.
I'll finish this off by admitting a slight selfish bias - when I saw the headline, part of me hoped that the Sumatran rhinos mentioned would be heading somewhere out East - Bronx, National, Philadelphia - that would allow me to see them a little more easily. Oh well... Cincinnati earned them. Guess a road trip it is...
Hopefully, Cincinnati will be able to repeat their past successes and produce more Sumatran rhinos. As more is learned about the needs of this species in captivity, maybe more rhinos can be sent to international zoos, and a sustainable captive population can be created as insurance for the wild one.
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