India shifts rare rhino calves to spur breeding

Monday January 29, 12:21 AM

Two rare one-horned rhino calves made conservation history when they were moved from an overcrowded sanctuary in India's northeast Assam state to another sanctuary to spur breeding efforts.

A wildlife official said Sunday the two female rhinos, aged about 42 months, were taken in separate trucks from the Kaziranga National Park in east Assam, home to the largest concentration of the one-horned rhinoceros in the world.

"The two rhinos from Kaziranga will join another five-year-old female at the Manas National Park in Assam by early Monday," a park warden said.

The two calves were rescued in 2004 during high floods at Kaziranga and were kept at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Care nearby.

The move is the first part of an effort to spread and increase the population through new births in other sanctuaries, wildlife officials said.

Around 1,855 of the world's estimated 2,700 endangered one-horned rhinos lumber around the wilds of Kaziranga making them a prime target for poachers who sell parts such as the horn for use in traditional Chinese medicine as well as to other parts of South Asia.

"A team of doctors and experts are accompanying the two rhinos in the 11-hour road journey from Kaziranga to Manas," Manideepa Ahluwalia, a senior Wildlife Trust of India official, told AFP by telephone from Kaziranga.

The Manas National Park is a World Heritage Site with only about six rhinos surviving at present.

"The three rhinos will eventually be released in the wilds of Manas. By next year we plan to capture a male rhino from Kaziranga and shift it to Manas to help the breeding process," Ahluwalia said.