A rhino was butchered for its single horn and left to die in a pool of it's own blood, in the Kaziranga National Park in India.

Forestry workers discovered the dead animal's lifeless body in the Burapahar range in the north-eastern Assam state.

Illegal rhinoceros horn poaching is one of the major environmental issues in the park, with animal body parts such as the toenails and skin having a high value on the Asian medicinal market.

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A rhino was butchered for its single horn and left to die in a pool of it's own blood, in the Kaziranga National Park in India, where it was later discovered by forestry workers

Indian forestry officials stand near the lifeless body of the one-horned rhinoceros in the park where illegal rhinoceros horn poaching is one of the major environmental issues

Poachers remove animal body parts such as the toenails, skin and horns, to sell to the Asian medicinal market

The Indian rhinoceros, also known as the one-horned rhino, is listed as a vulnerable species. The mammal is mostly found in the Assam state and in protected areas of Nepal.

The one-horned rhino once ranged throughout the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but their numbers were greatly reduced by hunting.

However, more than 3,000 are still thought to live in the wild, of which more than 2,500 are believed to be in Assam alone.

There are five different species of rhinoceros, and all are threatened to some degree. Although poaching drastically reduced their numbers in the 1900s, numbers have steadily increased in recent years.

Meanwhile, an experiment hoped to produce a rhino calf by relocating three endangered rhinos from a Czech Republic Zoo to East Africa, has all but failed.

Keeper Mohamed Doyo pats female northern white rhino Najin in her pen where she is being kept for observation at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya; the keepers of three of the last six northern white rhinos in existence have said the mammals will never produce a calf naturally and that they are now relying on in vitro fertilisation to produce a calf and save the species from extinction

The keepers of three northern white rhinos in Kenya - half of the world's remaining rhinos of that species - have said for the first time that their one male and two female rhinos will certainly not reproduce naturally. This means the species may be doomed to extinction.

However, it is hoped science can play a part and save the species. Scientists will try and use in vitro fertilisation, and work with the rhinos' genetic material, in a budding field known as de-extinction.