Zoo animals are often exchanged strategically to create optimal breeding pairs and ensure healthy offspring.

Kiran, a female weighing 1,200 kg, is the daughter of rhinos Maruška and Manas. She was born in Wrocław Zoo three-and-a-half years ago.

Kiran’s departure, for Zoo de la Flèche in northwestern France, allows the Wrocław zoo to introduce a new male, Jakub, thus enhancing genetic diversity.

The Indian rhinoceros species is now found only in eight protected areas in India and four in Nepal. In 2018, there were 3,588 such rhinos: 649 in Nepal and 2,939 in India.

In the late 1960s, Nepal’s rhino population had dwindled to around 65, but conservation efforts boosted it to 649 by 2018.