A new-born calf left by mother overnight was found with 6 leeches on it but no blood.
Calf 2 weeks old in Kaziranga, height 1 ft 10 in.
Kaziranga - calf 2 weeks old. It was pinkish colour, had no tushes and no teeth.
Kaziranga. Three days previously, the Range Officer when conducting the American Consul General round the sanctuary, saw the same pair running and playing between themselves and making a whistling like sound, the female passing urine at short and frequent intervals. Both these rhinos rushed towards the elephants and came as close as about 30 ft but stopped in fron of the elephants when the mahouts and range officer made a noise. This pair known as Romeo and Juliet, seen on 1-11-1952 and again 3-1-1953, and 7-2-1953. They were seen together by range officer on 10-4-1953. All this time, some 5 months, they were inseperable. This goes to show that courtship and pairing can be prolonged.
I myself was present at the capture in 1949 of a young female rhino, caught in a pit for the Cairo Zoo. It uttered deafening cries, to be answered by its mother in the distance. During the last cold weather in Kaziranga some interesting obser- vations go to show that a whistling noise is made by rhino at the time of courtship, probably by the female. In the afternoon of 3-2-1953 E. R. Dungan observed for half an hour a pair of rhino at Laodhubi Bheel playing and courting. One was whistling and the other was snorting - he could not be certain which sex was making which noise, but thinks that the male was doing the snorting and the female the whistling. Again at Mihimukh in the early morning of 13-2-1953 he saw another pair chasing each other, whistling and snorting. A theory has been advanced (S. Dillon Ripley, 1952) that when the urge to mate comes on, rhino take to wandering - the whistling sound being a 'recognition' sign between physiologically-attuned members of the opposite sex. But the cases of whistling noises reported to me and described above occurred only during the courting stage, and appear to have been made by only one sex, the other sex making the snorting noises. Further observation on this point is needed.
I am not fully convinced that there is any such fixed mating season, Feb-April, as very few people visit the sanctuary during the monsoon May-Sept. Mating may not be confined to the spring months. Pairs were seen twice in August 1953. I am now inclined to believe that the main mating season is Feb-April, but that mating also occurs in Jan and May, and possibly also occur in June, July and August.
Kaziranga - calf 2 weeks old. It was pinkish colour, had no tushes and no teeth.
The two rhino named Romeo and Juliet were twice involved in an attack against humans. Firstly on 7-2-1953 E. R. Dungan was taking cine shots of these two rhino as they were playing, courting and. chasing one another. With him were two companions, one of was the Assistant Conservator of Forests of the sanctuary. They apparently approached too close, and one of the two rhino started chasing the A.C.F. The A.C.F, a young man, ran as fast as he could over the dry ground, but the rhino put on a sudden burst of speed and easily caught up. With the impact of its nose and mouth on the shoulder of the A.C.F., the latter fell headlong and broke his collar-bone. The rhino then quietly departed without attempting further pursuit. On 7-3-1953, when the Range Officer was taking the American Consul General round the sanctuary, both these (Romeo and Juliet) 'rushed towards the elephants and came as close as about 30 ft. but stopped in front of the elephants when the and Range Officer made a noise'. In another part of the sanctuary recently a villager had placed some fish lines in the shallow stream which forms the so boundary. One day he was inspecting these fish lines. While his dug-out boat was being pushed through the thick water hyacinth it actually struck a rhino which was resting unobserved in the water. The rhino rose up, put its foot through the bottom of the boat and inflicted an injury on the man with one of its lower tushes, causing a gash 6 in. long on the thigh.
In the area of Kohora Grazing and Vasalimari Bheel in Kaziraiiga it has been possible during the cold weather of 1952-53 to observe some ten or twelve rhino, four of which were recognizable and known by name Boorra Goonda, Kan Katta, Romeo and Juliet. These four and others passed and repassed each other within a locality of about 1 ? to 2 miles across. One thing is certain, there is a lot of 'scrapping' going on all the time between rhino, and there are a great number of rhino with scars, torn ears and gashes, the majority of which may be bulls. The possibility of cow rhino also fighting among themselves should not be altogether excluded until further observation has brought more light on the subject. When I first saw Kan Katta (Torn Ear) at Mihimukh on 14-12-952, this bull rhino bad a torn ear, three gashes on its right flank and a scar on its nose - it had evidently been defeated in battle and had retreated to the edge of the sanctuary. Thereupon the Boorra Goonda, an older bull, gave way without opposition and withdrew half a mile upstream to the east.
As for dung heaps belonging to individual rhino and denoting territory, my own observations do not confirm this. It is my personal belief that, although rhino generally remain in one particular part of the sanctuary, they move about freely within that locality according to availability of grazing, mud wallows, water, crops to raid and so on. I believe that dung heaps are used by any rhino which happens to be passing by. On 3-1-1953 while observing Romeo and Juliet, I was following them on elephant-back. As we were all passing a dung heap Romeo noticed it, turned off his course to it and went through the motions of defecating without much result. Then he resumed his journey. On 15-8-1953 I was on elephant-back observing a large bull rhino as it was making its way westwards. After we had gone about a quarter of a mile in this way, the rhino noticed a dung heap in between us. Leaving its course and coming in my direction up to the dung heap, it turned round and deposited its dung. Then it resumed its course. My mahout, who said he had known rhino and their habits since he was a boy, stated that dung heaps are found all along rhino routes and are used by any rhino coming along. In this connection it is interesting to note that another observer (Bengt Berg, 1933) seems to have come to the same conclusion after a six week sojourn in the Jaldapara Sanctuary of Bengal. He says: 'I found that the old assumption that the rhino visits the same place daily to relieve himself is not quite correct. It rather seemed to me that where one rhino had left his dung (the odour is overpowering) another one passing the spot was wont to do the same'.
When monsoon floods invade the sanctuary, the muddy wallows so much sought after by rhino for warding of flies are very few and far between. The few that exist are in great demand, and several rhino sometimes have to share a wallow. For example, on 23-7-53 A. Jairamdas, while visiting Kaziranga in company with the Range Officer, saw no less than seven rhino lying in the same mud wallow, which was so small that the animals were all touching each other.
Kaziranga. Old male ?Boorra Goonda', died June 1953, length from root of tail to tip of nose 10 ft 9 in.
Kaziranga. A fifth case of rhino actually mating was observed in Kaziranga by L. Rynjah, the Divisional Forest Officer, and R. C. Das, the Range Officer. On 10 March 1953, at 4 pm, they came across a pair mating. L. Rynjah has described the incident as follows: 'The female standing as usual and the male on the top of her back like the mating of buffaloes. We first saw them from a distance as the grass all around has been burnt and we approached quite near to them and they did not seem to mind us. We watched them for about half-an-hour. When they finished they separated as other animals do and grazed again together 'nearby'.This probably was the pair which I had christened Romeo and Juliet.
Two week old calf, Kaziranga, length incl tail 3 ft 9 in
Kaziranga. Old male ?Boorra Goonda', died June 1953, horn weight 2 lbs. 6 oz.
Kaziranga. Old male ?Boorra Goonda', died June 1953, horn length 14 in.
