Rhino short for Rhinoceros is another of natures wonders known by its huge size, horn/horns above its noses, 1.5cm thick skin. It’s like an amour plated car.

Fierce looking with an expression that goes like ” I will charge at you if you do not get out of my way! ”

Rhinos like all other animals in the wild play their role in the ecosystem and in terms of supporting a country’s tourism sector by attracting hundreds of wildlife tourists. There are 5 different rhino species, 2 of which are native to Africa and the other three to Southern Asia.

The black rhino known for its beak shaped mouth is ranked as critically endangered meaning it faces risk of extinction in the wild. According to the World Wildlife Fund WWF Between 1970 and 1992, 96 percent of Africa’s remaining black rhinos were killed as a result of illegal wildlife trade with their horns being targets for Asian consumers particularly in Vietnam for making folk remedies.

White rhinos are the second largest land mammal and their name comes from the Afrikaan’s, a West Germanic language, word “weit” which means wide and refers to the animal’s muzzle. Also known as the square-lipped rhinoceros, white rhinos have a square upper lip with almost no hair. The majority (98.8%) of white rhinos occur in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.They are the only rhinos that are not endangered.

White-Rhino

Conservationists are doing a lot to protect wildlife and just this month Kenya’s Ol pejeta conservancy announced plans to use unmanned drones to help track poachers and wildlife in a bid to curb the poaching menace that is robbing us of irreplaceable wildlife resources and damaging the ecosystem and in turn the tourism sectors of many African countries.Kenya has the world’s third largest rhino population — around 600 black and 300 white rhinos.

South Africa is home to more than 20,000 rhinos, or about 90% of all the rhinos in Africa, lost 455 rhinos to poachers eclipsing the 448 killed in 2011.

The street value of rhinoceros horns has soared to about $65,000 a kilogramme , making it more expensive than gold. The horns are worth £60,000 a kilo on the black market.

” So does this give us a right to kill them?”

Dead South African rhino — Rhino in South Africa

Disheartening is what this is , senseless,

wreck-less and selfish destruction of nature.

What can I do about this you might wonder?

1) Do not buy jewellery or items made from wildlife parts. Look at it this way, if there is no market for this items then less and less wildlife will be poached.

2) Support initiatives like this and many others that work towards ending wildlife trade. It can be as simple as sharing this post with a friend thus letting more and more people know of this killings.