Nepal Rhinos Disappear

From Reuters:

"Dozens of endangered Great One-horned rhinoceros have mysteriously gone missing from a nature reserve in southwest Nepal over the past few years, a wildlife official said on Wednesday.
"Authorities introduced 72 rhinos, also known as the Indian rhinoceros, in the Babai Valley, 320 km (200 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, as part of a conservation drive that started in 1984.
"'We have records showing 23 rhinos had died due to poaching or other causes. The rest are missing,' Laxmi Prasad Manandhar, a senior official at the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, said.
"But he ruled out the possibility of all the 49 missing rhinos falling prey to poachers.
"'If poachers had killed them they should have left behind the bodies' after taking away the horn, he said, adding that just one rhino skeleton had been found during an extensive search in June.
"'Where did they go? I have no answer. It is a mystery,' Manandhar said." ...
"Nepal began its rhino conservation drive 30 years ago when the population fell to 108 animals from around 800 in 1950. One-horned rhinos are also found in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
"The one-horned species of the rhinoceros has been one of the greatest conservation success stories in South Asia. With strict protection, especially in India, their total numbers have touched around 2,500 from 100 about a century ago."

[Full news posted to StrangeArk archive.]