World Rhino Day

Celebrated each year on September 22nd, World Rhino Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of this critically endangered species.

Poaching of rhinos for their horns and habitat loss are huge threats to both white and black rhinos. Most wild African rhinos are now found in just four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Rhinos mainly roam grassland and open savannah.

Rhino poaching has soared over the past decade, driven by demand for their horns, mostly in Vietnam. Their horn is believed to have medicinal qualities by some people, even though it’s just keratin. 

Sadly there are no ‘northern’ white rhinos left in the wild, and only a handful in captivity. The ‘southern’ white rhino is a conservation success story as its population has bounced back from under a 100 in 1895 to over 20 000 in the wild today. As for the black rhino, only 5000 are left in the wild today as they have suffered from wide-scale poaching.  

Rhinos are listed as Critically Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red list of Endangered species. 

Hashtag #WorldRhinoDay

For more information