Nepal census shows decline in rare rhino population - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Nepal census shows decline in rare rhino population
31 May 2007 05:55:08 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU, May 31 (Reuters) - Numbers of the great one-horned
rhinoceros have fallen by more than half in one of Asia's few reserves
for the endangered animals, highlighting the threat poaching poses, a
Nepal government census showed.

Experts riding elephants scoured the jungles of Bardiya National Park
for two weeks and discovered skeletons of the rhinos all missing the
horns, which fetch thousands of dollars in China due to their touted
healing and aphrodisiac qualities.

In a conservation drive between 1986 and 2003, Nepal transferred 83
rhinoceroses from its biggest rhino home of Chitwan National Park to
Bardiya, several hours drive southwest of the capital.

The government census this month found only 31 rhinos.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP284984.htm

[David__77]

1. This trend will be reversed.

With the victory of the pro-democracy movement, the new forces of the new republic-in-formation are getting a better handle on all manner of issues in the country. Conservation is one such issue.