April 26 (UPI) – With less than 100 animals remaining in the wild, the Sumatran rhino is one of the most endangered mammals on the planet.

The newly acquired genome sequencing data has offered the rhino, and those trying to save them, good news – scientists have found little evidence of inbreeding among the remaining Sumatran rhinos.

According to data, released on Monday in the journal Nature Communications, the declining Sumatran rhino population still harbors surprising genetic diversity.

As previous studies have shown, habitat fragmentation and declining populations can lead to a decline in genetic diversity.

To measure the genetic health of Sumatran rhinos, scientists sequenced the genomes of 16 rhinos, most of them from current populations of Borneo and Sumatra.

The researchers also sequenced the genomes of a few specimens from a recently extinct Malaysian population, as well as a few other historic specimens.

“To our surprise, we found relatively low inbreeding levels and great genetic diversity in current populations of Borneo and Sumatra,” said Johanna von Seth, study co-author, doctoral student at the Center for Palaeogenetics from Stockholm University in Sweden. A press release.

While genomic data collected from recently extinct Malay rhinos has shown declining genetic diversity, the genomes of Borneo and Sumatran rhinos have revealed levels of genetic diversity comparable to those measured among historical specimens.

Scientists suspect that the decline in the Sumatran rhino population is so recent that it has yet to have an effect on genetic health.

This is good news for environmentalists. Genetic health is there to be preserved.

However, scientists have found an increase in the prevalence of a handful of potentially harmful genetic mutations. If inbreeding rates increase, these mutations could proliferate, leading to population-wide health problems.

“Unless populations start to increase in size, there is a high risk that inbreeding levels will start to increase, and therefore genetic diseases will become more common,” said co-author Nicolas Dussex, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Paleogenetics.

In addition to protecting habitat in order to grow local Sumatran rhino populations, the researchers suggest that rhinos from the two islands, Borneo and Sumatra, could be transplanted to help maintain genetic diversity between the two groups. Artificial insemination could offer similar benefits.

The researchers hope their work will inspire other conservation scientists to use genome sequencing to inform efforts to protect species.