Nepal Zoo Encourages Platonic Rhino Roommates To Take Their Relationship To The Next Level

A zoo in Kathmandu has built a new enclosure for a pair of rhinoceroses specifically designed to encourage mating. Though they’ve lived together for 18 years, the 20-year-old male rhino, Kancha has apparently never done it with the 22-year-old “cougar” rhino, Kanchi. “As far as we can tell, Kancha and Kanchi have never mated,” said zoo manager Sarita Jnawali, of the two of only 435 one-horned rhinos left in Nepal. “Before, we didn’t have the proper facilities for the rhinos to breed, and we hope this new enclosure will help us to increase species numbers.” While the story conjures images of heart-shaped mud pools and troughs of champagne, the new enclosure is basically just bigger, and furnished with separate areas so Kancha and Kanchi can each have their own space. Their previously closer quarters had led to more quarrels than amorousness over the years. Strangely, no one has thought to just chop off Kancha and Kanchi’s horns, grind them into powder, and feed them back to themselves in a medicine capsule. (This would also help keep Kanchi’s skin, which has a tendency to be leathery and plate-armor-like, as beautiful as that of miraculously young-looking 47-year-old supermodel, Elle Macpherson.)