Endangered Rhino Population Grows Thanks to Covid-19 LockdownOfficials say the pandemic helped the one-horned rhino population in a big way.
ByJustin Chan•
Nepal's endangered one-horned rhino population has grown, in part, due to a nationwide, pandemic-related lockdown, theWall Street Journalreports.
Over the past six years, the population has grown from 645 rhinos to 752 across four national parks, according to the country's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.
"It's great news for all of us who care for the conservation of rhinos," Deepak Kumar Kharal, the department's director general, told the publication. "Covid-19 had a small but an important role helping the growth in our rhinos' population."
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Conversation officials believe that the lockdown was especially instrumental in the population's spike, explaining that the shutdown of the nature reserves gave the rhinos more freedom to roam and mate.
In the 1960s, the one-horned rhino population in Nepal fell below 100 at one point before the country carried out initiatives to protect the animals from poaching and keep their habitats in the southern region intact, theJournalnotes. Rhino horns have long been considered prized in both Southeast Asia and China.
According toAFP, the Nepalese government has carried out a rhino census every five years since 1994. That year, just 466 rhinos were counted.
"The overall growth in population size is indicative of ongoing protection and habitat management efforts by protected area authorities despite challenging contexts these past years," World Wildlife Fund's Nepal representative, Ghana Gurung, said in a statement obtained by the outlet.
