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Eastern Himalayas
Counting Rhinos, Saving Rhinos
Portrait of the 2008 rhino count team. The count is a huge undertaking that uses 30 to 40 elephants. Each elephant is mounted by two people: a team member who records rhino information and a mahout – or elephant driver. There is also a logistics team that coordinates the count.
© WWF-Nepal
This March in Nepal's Terai Arc Landscape, WWF, Nepal’s Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, and partners conducted a survey of rhinos living in Chitwan National Park, Bardia National Park and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve.
Rhino Recovery
In the 1960s Nepal's rhinos were found only in Chitwan National Park, and had plummeted from about 1,000 to only 60 individuals. This was mainly because of forest clearing for settlements, agricultural expansion and other development after the eradication of malaria in the Terai Arc region. Subsequent monitoring has revealed that the population has steadily increased as a result of WWF and partners’ work to ensure adequate habitat and protections. This rapid recovery of Nepal’s rhinos is a conservation success story, though there is still much work to be done to save this endangered species.
This extensive survey covers an area of more than 500,000 acres, and used to be done every five years. However, when a sharp drop in Chitwan National Park’s rhino population was recorded during the 2005 count, conservationists felt the need for more frequent counts and decided to conduct them every three years. Rhino count 2008 is the first of the three-year counts. The goals are to assess the current population size of rhinos in the Terai Arc Landscape, determine how poaching has affected populations in Chitwan and Bardia National Park, and recommend strategies for long term conservation and management of this critically endangered species.
This year, the count used digital cameras and Global Positioning System (GPS) units. When a rhino was sighted it was assigned a number, photographed and its GPS location was noted. Identifying characteristics of individual animals include horn shape and size, neck and rump folds, and body marks such as cuts, scars and skin lobes.
Here, the technical team is pictured selecting the “blocks” or segments, for the count.
© WWF-Nepal
To thoroughly survey the area, the recorders’ elephants walked side-by-side in one direction on pre-determined routes so that the data collected would be in continuous segments. The distance between two elephants was about 100 to 200 yards, which also helped calculate the area of rhino habitat surveyed. Special attention was given to note the rhinos’ sex for estimates of the male-to-female ratios. Information on poaching was obtained by cross-checking any carcasses found with official records.
According to the rhino count results, Chitwan National Park and surrounding areas have 408 rhinos, an increase of 36 individuals from 2005. However, the number of rhinos decreased in Bardia National Park and surrounding areas from 31 in 2007 to 22. There were five rhinos counted in Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve.
Greater one horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park
© WWF-Nepal
The population increase in Chitwan is a result of Operation Unicornis, an innovative project that relies on the support of community groups, youths, informers and protected area officials in the surrounding areas of the park. Together, WWF and partners have brought rhino poaching under control and are expanding this project to other rhino habitats in the region. A similar initiative has begun in Bardia National Park to control future poaching of rhinos.
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Rhinos
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