Africa's Unicorns
Africa’s Unicorns
Rhinos were once found throughout Africa but as a result of human activities including poaching and hunting, populations across Africa have plummeted to the brink of extinction. - David Sheldrick Widllife Trust
To witness an elephant in the wild is thrilling. To witness a giraffe in the wild is enchanting. To witness a rhino in the wild is to be catapulted back to prehistoric times. Africa has the most diverse assortment of large mammals in the world. They come in amazing shapes and sizes from the tallest, 18’ giraffes, the biggest, 6-ton bull elephants, and the fastest, the cheetah’s top speed is over 110 kph. The rhino, known as the unicorn of Africa, is unique.
Birds hitch a ride and eat parasites on this white rhino’s skin.
Rhinos are BIG, second only in size to elephants. They weigh up to 2,500 kg and despite their massive size can run up to 55 kms/hour. There are two species of rhinos in Africa, the white and the black. This has nothing to do with their colour, both herbivores are grey skinned. White rhinos are the largest, 1.8m at the shoulder and 4m long. They are grazers and have a wide mouth for eating grass. The black rhino is primarily a browser. Their narrow mouth and pointed upper lip enables them to munch on shrubs and branches.
Black rhinos are browsers and and smaller than white rhinos.
You don’t want to mess with black rhinos, they are known to be aggressive. Below is an image of Weywey, a female black rhino from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. She was nicknamed Weywey which means “grumpy” in Maa due to her cranky disposition. I was grateful my telephoto lens enabled me to get close without getting in her "way". Her long horn and massive size could inflict serious damage!
Weywey and calf in the early morning light
Rhinos once roamed Africa but poaching and hunting have taken the species to the brink of extinction. They are ruthlessly slaughtered for their horn which is falsely believed to have medicinal value. Their horns are made of keratin, the same material as our fingernails. The Asian black-market touts powdered rhino horn as a cure for everything from hangovers to erectile dysfunction. None of this is true.
A group of rhinos is called a “crash”.
In the 1960s, Kenya was home to an estimated 20,000 black rhinos, but just two decades later, poaching had reduced the population to less than 300. Thanks to conservation efforts there are now over 600 black rhinos in Kenya. However, even with marked progress, the black rhino remains critically endangered. Today, the survival of rhinos rests on long-term solutions that involve local people securing its habitat and reducing demand for its horn.
White Rhinos graze peacefully under the protection of rangers in Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
South African film maker Leon Schuster’s film Til You’re Free Again, delivers a strong message against the unnecessary cruelty of rhino poaching. Music and photography are powerful ways to tell the rest of the world about the threat to Africa’s unicorn. The idea that rhinos could be erased from the face of the Earth because of a MYTH is inconceivable. The only one who needs rhino horn is a rhino!
Watch and share Til You’re Free Again by Don Clarke and the Drakondale Girls Choir here.
Sleeping Rhino