SANParks Honorary Rangers
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Purpose, Mission, Vision
    • Code of Ethics
    • How We Work
    • Our Background
    • Governance
    • Stakeholders
    • Reports
    • Legal Notices
  • Our Work
    • What We Do
    • National Projects
    • Regional Projects
    • Video Gallery
  • News
    • World Rhino Day
    • Conserving our Oceans on World Oceans Day
    • SANParks Environmental & Corporate Investigations
  • National Projects
  • Volunteer
  • Donate
    • Donations Form
  • Support an Event
  • Contact Us
  • Menu Menu

World Rhino Day – Dedicated to Conserving the World’s Rhinos.

World Rhino Day is an international observance celebrated on September 22 every year. Inaugurated by WWF South Africa in 2010, its purpose is to raise awareness of the need to protect the five existing species of rhinoceros: white rhino, black rhino, Indian rhino, Javan rhino and Sumatran rhino.

All rhino species are threatened by poachers for the illegal trade in rhino horn. The horn, made up of keratin (a protein found in hair, fingernails and animal hooves), is perceived by certain Asian cultures to have medicinal properties. In fact, no scientific studies support this belief.

At the beginning of the 20th century, 500,000 rhinos roamed Africa and Asia. By 1970, rhino numbers dropped to 70,000, and today, around 27,000 rhinos remain in the wild. Very few rhinos survive outside national parks and reserves due to persistent poaching and habitat loss over many decades. Black, Javan, and Sumatran rhinos are classified as Critically Endangered. White rhinos are classified as Near Threatened globally.

#WorldRhinoDay gives NGOs, conservation bodies, businesses and concerned members of the public an opportunity to raise awareness of the plight of these unique and threatened species.

Why Rhinos are Important in Africa

Rhinos have been around for millions of years (10 – 20 million years) and have evolved as an intrinsic part of their natural ecosystems. The white rhino’s extensive grazing habits have helped to shape the African savanna.

As one of Africa’s ‘big five’, rhinos are a popular sighting for tourists and an important ecotourism drawcard, which, in turn, benefits local communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on the tourist industry.

It is essential that we protect rhinos, not only for future generations, but also for the future of our wild animals and wild places. Rhinos are an integral part of our ecosystems and our heritage.

How You Can Help

Working under constant pressure can take its toll on rangers, the frontline of protection for rhinos in South Africa. For many rangers, this war has been relentless, requiring the skills of a battle-honed soldier.

For the SANParks Honorary Rangers, every day is rhino day. Here’s how you can help us to help them.

For World Rhino Day, why not add SANParks Honorary Rangers as a beneficiary on your  MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet Card

Our Conservation Services National Project raises funds and provides support and equipment for rangers and counter-poaching initiatives in our national parks.

Our K9 Project Watchdog supports rhino conservation by supporting the K9 anti-poaching units. Using well-trained dogs for anti-poaching initiatives in the Kruger National Park has been considered a game-changer in the fight against poaching.

To donate to K9 Project Watchdog


Sources:

https://www.worldrhinoday.org/

https://rhinos.org/

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/rhino

https://www.iucnredlist.org/

BACK TO NEWS SHARE TO FACEBOOK

Visit the SANParks Website

Visit the SANParks Website

Connect with us:

connect@honoraryrangers.org
Join Today
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Work
  • News
  • Donate
  • Volunteer
  • Support an Event
  • Contact Us

Latest Tweets

Tweets by SANParksHR

  • Hide
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Accept settingsHide notification only