ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) OPEN ACCESS ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 26 July 2018 (Online & Print) Vol. 10 | No. 8 | 11999–12146 10.11609/jott.2018.10.8.11999-12146 www.threatenedtaxa.org Building evidence for conservationJ globally TTJournal of Threatened Taxa What is the first impression that we get when we see a snake? Fear! Art, childhood stories, movies, and mythology have always depicted them as evil, inducing more fear. The reducing population of snakes—from rich green forest due to farming, the industrial revolution, the skin trade for bags, urbanization, road kills and hunting—the animal kingdom’s most persecuted group! Here is an attempt to look at the snake beyond its first impression. The beauty of it, the color, the pattern. The digital art is of the innocent non- venomous Wolf Snake which is usually misunderstood and killed by humans just because it resembles the Common Krait. ISSN 0974-7907 (Online); ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Published by Typeset and printed at Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society Zoo Outreach Organization No. 12, Thiruvannamalai Nagar, Saravanampatti - Kalapatti Road, Saravanampatti, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641035, India Ph: 0 938 533 9863 Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.threatenedtaxa.org EDITORS Christoph Kueffer, Institute of Integrative Biology, Zürich, Switzerland Founder & Chief Editor Christoph Schwitzer, University of the West of England, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 3HA Dr. Sanjay Molur, Coimbatore, India Christopher L. Jenkins, The Orianne Society, Athens, Georgia Cleofas Cervancia, Univ. of Philippines Los Baños College Laguna, Philippines Managing Editor Colin Groves, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Mr. B. Ravichandran, Coimbatore, India Crawford Prentice, Nature Management Services, Jalan, Malaysia C.T. Achuthankutty, Scientist-G (Retd.), CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa Associate Editors Dan Challender, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK Dr. B.A. Daniel, Coimbatore, India D.B. Bastawade, Maharashtra, India Dr. Ulrike Streicher, Wildlife Veterinarian, Danang, Vietnam D.J. Bhat, Retd. Professor, Goa University, Goa, India Ms. Priyanka Iyer, Coimbatore, India Dale R. Calder, Royal Ontaro Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Dr. Manju Siliwal, Dehra Dun, India Daniel Brito, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil Dr. Meena Venkataraman, Mumbai, India David Mallon, Manchester Metropolitan University, Derbyshire, UK David Olson, Zoological Society of London, UK Editorial Advisors Davor Zanella, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia Ms. Sally Walker, Coimbatore, India Deepak Apte, Bombay Natural Hisotry Society, Mumbai, India Dr. Robert C. Lacy, Minnesota, USA Diana Doan-Crider, Texas A&M University, Texas, USA Dr. Russel Mittermeier, Virginia, USA Dietmar Zinner, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany Dr. Thomas Husband, Rhode Island, USA Dunston P.Ambrose, St. Xavier’s College, Palayamkottai, India Dr. Jacob V. Cheeran, Thrissur, India E. Vivekanandan, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India Prof. Dr. Mewa Singh, Mysuru, India Eduard Vives, Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, Terrassa, Spain Mr. Stephen D. Nash, Stony Brook, USA Eric Smith, University of Texas, Arlington, USA Dr. Fred Pluthero, Toronto, Canada Erin Wessling, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany Dr. Martin Fisher, Cambridge, UK Errol Vela, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France Dr. Ulf Gärdenfors, Uppsala, Sweden Farkhanda Manzoor Dugal, Lahore College for Women University, Pakistan Dr. John Fellowes, Hong Kong F.B. Vincent Florens, University of Mauritius, Mauritius Dr. Philip S. Miller, Minnesota, USA Ferdinando Boero, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy Prof. Dr. Mirco Solé, Brazil Francesco Dal Grande, Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt Frederic H. Martini, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hanolulu, Hawaii. Editorial Board George Mathew, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, India Subject Editors 2015–2017 Gernot Vogel, Heidelberg, Germany Aaron Bauer, Villanova University, Villanova, USA Giovanni Amori, CNR - Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Rome, Italy Amazonas Chagas Júnior, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brasil Gombobaatar Sundev, Professor of Ornithology, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Anders G.J. Rhodin, Chelonian Research Foundation, Lunenburg, USA G.P. Mandal, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India A. Biju Kumar, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, India G.P. Sinha, Botanical Survey of India, Allahabad, India A.J. Solomon Raju, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India Hari Balasubramanian, EcoAdvisors, Nova Scotia, Canada A.J.T. Johnsingh, Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysuru, India Hayrünisa Baş Sermenli, Muğla University, Kötekli, Turkey Albert G. Orr, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia H.C. Nagaveni, Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bengaluru, India Alessandre Pereira Colavite, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil H.C. Paulo Corgosinho, Bairro Universitário, Frutal, Brazil Alexi Popov, National Museum of Natural History, Sofia, Bulgaria H.N. Kumara, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikatty, India Alexander Ereskovsky, IMBE, Marseille, France H. Raghuram, The American College, Madurai, India Andreas Köhler, Universidade de Santa Cruz do, Brazil Hector Barrios-Garrido, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia Angela R. Glatston, Rotterdam Zoo, The Netherlands Heidi S. Riddle, Riddle’s Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary, Arkansas, USA Anjana Silva, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Saliyapura, Sri Lanka Hem Sagar Baral, Charles Sturt University, NSW Australia Ankita Gupta, ICAR-NBAIR, Bengaluru, India Hemant V. Ghate, Modern College, Pune, India Annemarie Ohler, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France Heok Hee Ng, National University of Singapore, Science Drive, Singapore Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman, University of Pretoria, Queenswood, South Africa Himender Bharti, Punjabi University, Patiala, India Antonio D. Brescovit, Instituto Butantan, Brasil Hui Xiao, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang, China Antonio A. Mignucci-Giannoni, Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Ian J. Kitching, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, UK Anwaruddin Chowdhury, The Rhino Foundation for nature in North East India, Guwahati, India Ian Redmond, UNEP Convention on Migratory Species, Lansdown, UK Aparna Watve, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Osmanabad, India Indraneil Das, Sarawak, Malaysia Arthur Y.C. Chung, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia Ivana Karanovic, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea Asheesh Shivam, Nehru Gram Bharti University, Allahabad, India J. Jerald Wilson, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Ashwin Naidu, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA J.W. Duckworth, IUCN SSC, Bath, UK B.C. Choudhury (Retd.), Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India. Jack Tordoff, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Arlington, USA B. Ravi Prasad Rao, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantpur, India Jan Zima, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Brno, Czech Republic B. Shivaraju, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India James M. Carpenter, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA B.S. Kholia, Botanical Survey of India, Gangtok, Sikkim, India James Young, Hong Kong Lepidopterists’ Society, Hong Kong Bolívar R. Garcete-Barrett, FACEN, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Paraguay Jean-Pierre Boudot, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France Brett C. Ratcliffe, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA Jeff McNeely, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland Brian Fisher, California Academy of Sciences, USA Jesse Leland, Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia C. Raghunathan, Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Jill Pruetz, Iowa State University, Ames, USA C. Srinivasulu, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India Jim Sanderson, Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation, Hartford, USA Carl Ferraris, Smithsonian Institution, Portland, USA Jodi L. Sedlock, Lawrence University, Appleton, USA Carol Inskipp, Bishop Auckland Co., Durham, UK. John C. Morse, Clemson University, Long Hall, Clemson, USA Cecília Kierulff, Victorville , California John Huber, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ontario, Canada. Cecilia Volkmer Ribeiro, Porto Alegre, Brazil. John Noyes, Natural History Museum, London, UK Chris Bowden, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, UK John Veron, Coral Reef Foundation, Townsville, Australia continued on the back inside cover Caption: Digital art of Wolf Snake and text on cover by Arumugham, S., Mango Education, Coimbatore. Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2018 | 10(8): 11999–12007 Habitat suitability and threat analysis of Greater One-horned Rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Communication Perissodactyla: Rhinocerotidae) in Rautahat District, Nepal ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Saru Rimal 1, Hari Adhikari 2 & Shankar Tripathi 3 OPEN ACCESS 1,3 Faculty of Forestry, Agriculture and Forestry University, Hetauda-10, 44100, Hetauda, Nepal 2 Earth Change Observation Laboratory, Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland 2 Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Finland 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected] Abstract: The Greater One-horned Rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis has been listed as a Vulnerable species on IUCN Red List, Appendix I of CITES, and a protected animal