One-horned rhino count up to 8 at Assam State Zoo

GUWAHATI: The conservation breeding programme for one-horned rhinos at the Assam State Zoo got a boost with three more pachyderms joining the five others already here on Friday.

The Central Zoo Authority (CZA)-funded ex-situ conservation breeding programme (breeding of wild animals for conservation outside their natural habitat) was launched in 2012. The onehorned rhino is one of the species taken up for the conservation breeding programme.

The zoo previously had five one-horned rhinos, of which two were born in the zoo itself since the conservation breeding programme was launched. "With three more rhinos joining the programme, the total count of one-horned rhinos in the zoo has gone up to eight. Of the three, two are female and one is male. The conservation breeding for rhinos in our zoo is already a success, and in coming days we are hopeful of increasing the number of this species under this programme," zoo divisional forest officer Tejas Mariswamy said.

Mariswamy also said one of the five rhinos is expected to give birth in the next five to sixth months.

The three rhinos were brought from the Bokakhatbased Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC). They had been rescued from the Kaziranga National Park during floods in 2015 and 2016 and taken care of at the CWRC, which is run by the Wildlife Trust of India and International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The Assam State Zoo is the nodal zoo for similar conservation breeding programme for rhinos being carried out in Delhi, Kanpur and Patna zoos.

In 2014, during a coordination meeting of four zoos here, it was decided to increase the one-horned pachyderm population under the programme to 100 in the next ten years.

Besides one-horned rhinos, the Assam State Zoo here has also conservation breeding programmes for golden langurs, serow, golden cats and grey peacock pheasant.

"For golden langurs we have already submitted proposal to the CZA. In case of serow, golden cats and grey peacock pheasant, the problem is that we are not getting mates from other zoos," Mariswamy added.