the status and distribution of the greater one-horned rhino in nepal

22
THE STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE GREATER ONE HORNED RHINO IN NEPAL
Table 1: Search eff ort - Bardia Nati onal Park
Month/
Day/Year Day
Block
surveyed
Start
ti me
End
ti me
Number of
elephants
used
Survey
ti me
(hours)
Total eff ort
(elephant
hours)
Area
surveyed
(sq. km.)
Karnali fl ood-plain
3/1/2008
3/1/2008
1 Block – 1
09:00
10:30
15:30
15:30
10
1
6.5
5
65
5
17.75
3/2/2008
3/2/2008
2 Block – 2
07:30
07:30
12:30
13:30
6
3
5
6
30
18
15.72
3/3/2008 3 Block – 3 07:00 11:30 11 4.5 49.5 13.34
3/4/2008 4 Block – 4 06:50 11:50 11 5 55 15.75
3/5/2008
07:00 12:30 5 5.5 27.5
3/5/2008
3/5/2008
5 Block - 5
07:00
07:00
13:30
14:00
2
2
6.5
7
13
14
23.29
3/5/2008 07:00 14:50 2 8 16
Total 293 85.85
Babai valley rapid assessment
3/6/2008 6 07:00 14:00 4 7 28
3/7/2008 7 07:00 13:00 4 6 24
Total 52
4.1.2. Rhino status and distribution
The census operati on revealed 18 rhinos. Seventeen animals were sighted during the census; two
of which were sighted by DNPWC game scouts having moved into India the day before the census
started from Block 1 and subsequently returned to this block aft er it was swept. The remaining
animal was an indirect sighti ng (fresh spoor) in Block 4; there were signs of an animal moving out
of this block into Block 3 duriing the start of Block 4 census (sweeping operati on from Block 1 to
Block 5.)
The 13 up-to-date records in the Rhino ID master fi les were used to carefully check and validate
the completed sighti ng forms and digital photos taken by the observers. These fi les were created
following the May 2007 status monitoring exercise. Table 2 shows the recorded ID animals (in the
rhino master ID fi les) that were confi rmed during the census.