KHAIRAHANI, Nepal — Thousands of tourists from around the world flock to Nepal’s Chitwan National Park every year to get a glimpse of the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). But for 46-year-old Nabin Adhikari, the animals are like colleagues. A wildlife guide for 16 years, Adhikari knows these rare animals and their habitat up close. “Just a few months ago, I saw two rhinos fight for two to three hours,” he saysat the beginning of an early-morning tour. “Eventually, the brawl ended and one of the rhinos was dead.” Adhikari says he reported the incident to the park’s veterinary staff. The rhino whose death Adhikari witnessed was one of at least half a dozen to die of non-human-related causes in the park in the first nine months of 2018. And its death appears to represent a growing trend in the park. Between 2004 and 2014, a total of 81 rhinos died from unknown or natural causes — an average of around seven per year. That number has since shot up: From 2015 to 2017, 60 such deaths were recorded, an average of 20 per year. “Whenever we get a call reporting a death, we have a feeling that it must be a greater one-horned rhino,” says one park staffer. Nepali conservation authorities, who have been lauded for winning the war against poaching and shoring up the country’s rhino population to unprecedented numbers, are now worried that threats to the species persist. Now it’s these “unexplained” or “natural deaths” that are…
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