Dudhwa National Park’s most prolific rhino has become a father again.

Thanks to Banke – an old male rhino who still loves the ladies – Dudhwa National Park’s greater one-horned rhino population has increased to 29.

According to the Times of India, one of Banke’s partners, a female rhino named Rajeshwari, gave birth to her new calf on September 11.

Dudhwa’s prolific Banke, whose age is described as “30 plus”, is the father of nearly half of the park’s rhino population. The average lifespan for a greater one-horned rhino is around 40 years.

Because Banke has fathered so many of the Dudhwa rhino, wildlife officials are planning to move some of the females to the adjacent Belrayen range – and bring in some outside males to diversify the population. Separating the rhino into two locations also reduces the possibility that all of them could be wiped out at once by an unforeseen disaster.

Dudhwa National Park is currently home to seven male rhino, 15 females, and seven calves. The rhino live in a 27 square kilometre area, and according to the park’s website, the area is surrounded by an electric fence.

Dudhwa’s rhino population is the result of a successful reintroduction program which started in 1984. There had been no rhino in the region since 1878, when the last one was slaughtered.

Sadly, when the rhino reintroduction program began in Dudhwa, the first attempt was marred by tragedy. Of the five rhino from Assam’s Pobitra Wildlife Sanctuary, two females died. The three remaining rhino – two males and a female – did not reproduce.

Fortunately, four female rhino from Nepal were brought in a year later – and they soon gave birth to a new generation of Dudhwa rhino.

Here’s to the continued growth of Dudhwa National Park’s rhino population!

Image source: flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0

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Rhino Calf Born in Dudhwa National Park by Rhishja Larson originally published September 16, 2009 on EcoWorldly.

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