Siliguri, Jan. 28: If you head to the picture-postcard Gorumara national park now, four rhino tots might stroll up to your SUV. Beware of their mother and hold back your whoop of delight.

The one-horned giant would definitely not like outsiders, but the quadruplets — born sometime last month — have brought joy to the north Bengal forest, in the heart of which passionate males have taken a heavy toll of each other.

An imbalance in the sex ratio among the rhinos in the sanctuary has led to the death of eight of them in the past few years.

Divisional forest officer Tapas Das today confirmed the birth of the four, which were sighted recently by forest staff members. “It is indeed good news for us as the female-male ratio is far from ideal at Gorumara. It led to infighting among the males,” said Das.

“Since we have been successful in our breeding programme after so many years, we hope that the ratio will return to normal. It should be great news for tourists,” he added.

No one knows, though, whether the little ones are males or females. No one would dare go close to them now. “The calves are staying near the mother, who is overprotective now,” an official said. Gorumara now has 31 rhinos.

According to foresters, the ideal female-male ratio is 3:1. In Gorumara, it is less than 1:1. During the last census, the park had 27 rhinos, of which 13 were female.

In the past, the department had tried to strike a balance by bringing male cubs Madhu and Ratul from Kaziranga in Assam. The experiment failed. Both returned injured. Madhu died at Jaldapara while Ratul was shifted to the Alipore zoo a couple of years ago.

The sex ratio is much better at the Jaldapara sanctuary, Bengal’s largest rhino habitat with over 100 animals, said a forest official.