How Do You Count Wild Rhinos? Very Carefully. (And With Elephants)

CHITWAN, Nepal—It’s time for the rhino census.

This 7 days, trackers established out for the rely, driving on the backs of 40 elephants. The position: the initial formal tally in 6 years of the rhinos roaming in 1 of Nepal’s biggest character reserves.

The inhabitants was saved from the brink of extinction in the nineteen sixties when quantities dipped under 100. The rhino herd—also identified as a crash—had grown to 605 by the final census in 2015. This time close to, the large issue is how they have fared during the pandemic.

Covid-19 has been a blessing and a curse for the 1-horned rhinos in the lush grasslands of southern Nepal. It retained individuals absent from their habitat, but opened the doorway to poachers and an invasive species that strangles their favourite meals.

The national park, which generally draws in much more than a hundred and fifty,000 readers a yr, was shut for most of final yr.