Some good(ish) news.
According to it’s government the number of rhinos living wild in Nepal has risen above 500 for the first time since a civil war that led to rampant poaching of the endangered animals.
It said wildlife experts who have spent the past month conducting an exhaustive survey had counted 534 rhinos in Nepal’s southern jungles — 99 more than when the last such study was carried out in 2008.
The new figures show the one-horned rhino population is recovering after a dramatic plunge in numbers during the 1996-2006 civil war, when soldiers deployed to prevent poaching left to fight a guerrilla insurgency.
The animals are poached for their horns, which are prized for their reputed medicinal qualities in China and southeast Asia.
A single horn can sell for tens of thousands of dollars on the international black market, and impoverished Nepal’s porous borders.
So sad.
[Image via WENN.]