Indian One horned Rhinoceros - Central Zoo Authority

Population Planning/ Recommendations
The species earlier listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species has shown signs of recovery in the recent past, consequently it has been
assigned to the vulnerable category in the 2009.1 listing. The decline in threat
category is attributed to the recovery of populations in the Kaziranga and Chitwan
National Parks. However, threats in other areas continue unabated also the
population still occurs in fragmented pockets – a miniscule portion of its historic
range. The maintenance of a genetically viable and demographically stable captive
population is still an important component for the recovery of the species.
Table 4 Genetic Summary Table:
Current Potential
Founders 18 14 additional
Founder genome
7.18 26.96
equivalents
Founder genome surviving 11.29 26.96
Gene diversity retained 0.93 0.982
Population mean kinship 0.07 0.018
Mean inbreeding 0.04 0.018
Ne / N 0.33 -----
% of pedigree known 91 -----
The Indian captive population is a part of the global effort towards this end. The
captive population in India has 33 individuals distributed across 12 zoos. PM2000
has a total of 47 (26.21) individuals listed as alive in the studbook as it treats lost to
follow up specimens as alive and a part of the population (14 animals listed as lost to
follow up in table 3) which have been transferred out of the country. The total
number of specimens in captivity across time in India is 135 (76.59.0). Of these 32
specimens are of wild origin and 18 of them have contributed to the gene pool of the
captive population. The present population has high values for the various measures
of genetic variability (Table – 4) and is suitable for further growth.
Management Goals:
Population modeling of the captive Indian one horned rhinoceros was carried out
using PM2000. Based on this analysis, it is envisaged that a population of 100
individuals to be achieved over a span of 10 years for the Indian captive population
would allow the maintenance of a genetically viable and demographically stable
captive population. The demographic and genetic management strategy for the
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