Happy World Rhino Day! On September 22, we observe our planet's herbivorous horned armored giant!
This day celebrates five species of rhinos around the world. From a conservation perspective, the day raises awareness of the plight of these beautiful beasts.
The five species of rhinoceros include the White and Black rhinos in Africa, and the Greater One-Horned, Javan and Sumatran rhino species in Asia.
At one time, rhinos were found throughout Eurasia and Africa. In the early 20th century, about five hundred thousand rhinos roamed the earth. Today, rhinos have a hard time surviving outside national parks and reserves.
The Javan and Sumatran rhinos in Asia are critically endangered. There are only about fifty-eight to sixty-eight Javan rhinos in the world.
In 2011, a subspecies of the Javan rhino was declared extinct. Today, only eighty Sumatran rhinos remain.
In India, the greater one-horned rhino (also called the Indian rhino) increases in number thanks to conservation efforts. Today, there are more than 3,500 of these rhinos. However, they are still considered vulnerable.
The Black rhino is also critically endangered. Of the five rhino species, white rhinos boast the highest numbers, with more than twenty thousand.
Things that threaten rhinos include poaching, loss of habitat, disease, and natural disasters.
Some people hunt rhinos because they believe the horns have powerful healing properties. They illegally sell the horns to be ground into powder. As a result, poachers hunt the animal only to harvest the horns.
RHINO-FACTS
• A group of rhinos is called a crash
• Their horns are made from keratin, the same substance as our fingernails- • Rhinos have a great sense of hearing and smell but not sight
- • They wallow in the mud to protect their skin from the sun
- • The gestation rate for rhinos is up to sixteen months
- • The greater one-horned rhino (or “Indian rhino”) is the largest of the rhinoceros species. Males can get get as big as five to six feet at the shoulder and a body length of twelve feet!
- • The Sumatran rhino, also known as the hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is the smallest of the rhinoceros species. Males can get as big as three to four feet at the shoulder and have a body length of eight feet.
- • The Javan rhino is the rarest of the world's five remaining rhino species, having lost most of its Asian tropical forest habitat over the last century, as well as having been hunted relentlessly for its horn, which only the males possess.
- • Adult rhinoceros have no real predators in the wild, other than humans. Young rhinos can however fall prey to big cats, crocodiles, African wild dogs, and hyenas. Despite their size, rhinos can run at least thirty-four miles per hour!
Because of their thick skin and deadly horns, rhinos have no natural predators. The Black rhino is the most aggressive of all the species. The White rhino is the largest species and weighs up to five thousand pounds. Some rhinos have two horns.
There is a magnificent beast immediately recognizable to every child in the world, with its heavy grey skin and prominent horn (or horns!) upon its snout the rhinoceros is a much-loved creature.
However, it is deeply endangered in the wild, and is quickly on the road to extinction if something isn’t done.
So it is that World Rhino Day was established to help raise awareness and protect what remains of these magnificent creatures.
There's always the worry of making sure the rhino's lives are not put at risk during the de-horning process - not mention maintaining the respectful wariness that an eight-thousand-pound wall of muscle commands.
To coincide with World Rhino Day, we’d like to invite you to get to know more about this critically endangered species and how they desperately need your help.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has got four simple - and fun - ways to show your support this #WorldRhinoDay; from learning more about this incredible species, to crafting a rhino inspired hat or purchasing one of their striking rhino badges!
An insane demand for rhinoceros horn encourages poachers to kill every last of these giant creatures they can.
And with the death of Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros (1973-2018), the work of the African Wildlife Foundation to save these magnificent species from extinction just got tougher.
"The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives, because there’s a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species of both animals and plants." ~David Attenborough
HOW TO OBSERVE
World Rhino Day is a time to spread awareness on how to save the rhinos. Zoos, reserves, and rhino sanctuaries around the world host a variety of events.
World Rhino Day is especially popular in Africa. Concerts, mountain bike races, art auctions, soccer tournaments, and anti-poaching benefits are just a few of the many kinds of events held.
If you want to participate in World Rhino Day, learn about rhinos. If your zoo has a rhino exhibit, go check it out. Donate to charities that support rhino conservation.
Some of these include the World Wildlife Fund and the International Rhino Fund. Watch a documentary, such as The Last Rhinos, that discusses rhino poaching and extinction.
No matter what you do, be sure to use #WorldRhinoDay when sharing on social media.
Celebrating World Rhino Day starts by educating yourself on the plight of rhinoceros in our modern world, and what you can do to help save those that remain.
Rhinos are such an impressive symbol of strength, resilience, and tenacity that it would be a heartbreaking shame to have those traits disappear as they become a species that used to exist.
Don’t let these magnificent creatures disappear from the world, get together with friends and family and see what you can do to help build funds to protect them.
HISTORY
In 2010, it was apparent that the plight of the rhinoceros wasn’t known to people around the world, and most people didn’t know just how close we were coming to total extinction of this majestic species.
So critical is the condition of the species that less than thirty thousand rhinos were alive in the world at that time.
So it was that the WWF-South Africa announced World Rhino Day in an effort to save the world’s remaining rhinos, an effort that grew to be an unprecedented success.
In 2011, one Lisa Jane Campbell fired off an email to Rhishja, a fellow lover of rhinos who wanted to see the five species of rhinos in the world continue to thrive and be there for future generations to enjoy.
"Being able to see rhino up close and touch them is thrilling and also humbling," says Campbell of the Chishakwe ranch, part of a group of conservation ranches found in the Savé Valley Conservancy.
The task of de-horning these powerfully iconic top-grazers of the veld is one that has, sadly, become all too common.
As poachers step up their remorseless slaughter of rhinos, to satisfy growing demand for rhino horn, strategies such as de-horning have become an essential part of the conservationist's toolkit.
World Rhino Day, at the hands of these two incredible women, has become a phenomenon that spreads across the globe, and is a resounding success.
There’s still work to do though, as there are only about one hundred Sumatran Rhinos left in the world, and between sixty to sixty-five Javan rhinos, so while the rhino populations of Africa are doing well there are still more to save.
In 2010, World Rhino Day was announced by the World Wildlife Fund-South Africa. Just one year later, World Rhino Day became an international success.
Since then, NGOs, zoos, concerned individuals and wildlife organizations around the world unite each year to celebrate this day.
How can you do your part in helping to save rhinoceroses today?
#WorldRhinoDay
#IvoryBan
#BlackRhinosMatter
#FiveRhinoSpeciesForever
@natgeo
@daysoftheyear
@savetherhinointernational
@InternationalRhinoFoundation
@AmericanWildlifeFoundation
@WWFSA
@WWFUnitedKingdom
@Annamiticus
@savevalleyconservancy
@TheEarthTimes
@BlueRhino
@nichecinema
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