Issues: Disease and natural disasters
Small populations + natural calamities = catastrophic consequences
A danger that the Asian rhinos and elephants face is natural calamities such as droughts, floods, fires, hurricanes and disease.
Natural disasters can potentially wipe out species very quickly An uncontrollable outbreak of disease, such as the one that took the life of several elephants in Sri Lanka's Uda Walawe National Park in May 1994, can have catastrophic consequenences.
The Indian or greater one-horned rhino, which has almost 60% of its population in Kaziranga National Park in India, suffered a loss of over 30 rhinos during the floods of 1998.
From December 1981 to February 1982, at least five rhinoceros died when a viral infection that first hit water buffaloes in villages surrounding Ujung Kulon park (Indonesia) spread to the population of the Javan rhinoceros. Many Javan rhinos also died in 1935 because of anthrax.
The Indian or greater one-horned rhino, which has almost 60% of its population in Kaziranga National Park in India, suffered a loss of over 30 rhinos during the floods of 1998.
From December 1981 to February 1982, at least five rhinoceros died when a viral infection that first hit water buffaloes in villages surrounding Ujung Kulon park (Indonesia) spread to the population of the Javan rhinoceros. Many Javan rhinos also died in 1935 because of anthrax.
