Life with Dylan

Category: Northern White Rhino

  • And Then There Were Six …

    Today our world changed.
    Not just the world for Dylan and myself, but “our world” in a sense of all mankind.

    I knew this day would come sooner or later, but I wasn’t expecting it so soon.
    While scrolling through my twitter feed this morning I saw this “We are one step closer to the extinction of the northern white rhino. The remaining 6 animals are older as well.”

    What? There must be a typo because I know for a fact that there are 7 northern white rhinos left. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Opened them and clicked the link that accompanied these words. 

    Tears began to roll down my face. “Damn it. No. Damn it.” I said these words over and over out loud. As if saying them would make it all go away. 
    There was no typo in the tweet from my friend.
    There are now only six remaining northern white rhinos on the Earth. 

    The heading read … Breaking News: Ol Pejeta Conservancy loses one of its northern white rhinos – It is with great sadness that we announce the death of one of our northern white rhinos, Suni.

    Rest In Peace Suni … you are now eternally free from any harm.

    According to the press release, rangers found him on the morning of October 17th, 2014, dead in his boma. Suni was not a victim of poaching and we have yet to establish the cause of his sudden death. The Kenya Wildlife Service vets will conduct a post mortem as soon as possible. In 2006, his father Saút died in the Dvur Kralove Zoo by natural causes at the same age as Suni was now.

    Through the tears and the sadness I read aloud the entire press release to Dylan. All I could say when I finished reading was, “at least he didn’t die from poachers”. Dylan dealt with the situation better than I thought he would; however, I knew what we were both thinking. Thankful this wasn’t Nola. One day this would be Nola though and that is a day I am not looking forward to.

    When Dylan and I met Dr. Ryder earlier this year, he told us of plans using genetics and frozen DNA from his lab to possibly help save the northern white rhinos from extinction. These animals are truly on the brink of extinction and will most likely go extinct in our lifetime.

    Last year I symbolically adopted one of the northern white rhinos living at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy for Dylan. Adopting Fatu was different from our other animal adoptions because these animals are so critically endangered. I hear people talking about extinction and how they don’t think it will ever happen because “Science” will step in and save the day. Well, people … it is happening.

    Nola, resting by the waters edge at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

    With only six left in the world, two (Nola and Angilfu) at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, one (Nabire) at the Dvůr Králové Zoo, and three (Sudan, Najin, and Fatu) living at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya where they are protected from poachers, this subspecies is tragically coming to an end.

    Although it is difficult to write about these subjects, it is my hope that sharing Suni’s story with others will help create more awareness about the plight of the northern white rhino.

    *Photo of Suni courtesy of Ol Pejeta Conservancy

  • Update on our adopted Northern White Rhino, Fatu

    The other day we received an email from Helping Rhinos with a subject line of An update on Fatu – Your Adopted Rhino. An update? Did something happen to Fatu? 
    Upon opening the email we were pleasantly surprised to see a new picture of Fatu and some fun information about her favorite things to eat. She loves carrots and bananas!

    We love symbolically adopting all animals and will continue to adopt more.

    However, Fatu will always hold a special place in our heart because she is 1 of only 7 Northern White Rhinos left in the world.

    Fatu is, in a sense, our last hope for the species to survive beyond these last seven.

    For more information an how you can help save the Northern White Rhinos, visit helpingrhinos.org today.

  • The day we helped save the Northern White Rhinos

    It is no big secret that we love wildlife and want to do everything we can to help save all endangered species. While choosing just one is not an easy task, we do have favorites – animals that have touched our hearts and will forever have a special place within them. For Dylan and I these animals are the tigers and rhinos because we have connected with them on a personal level.

    One of the ways we love helping save endangered animals and creating awareness about the animal is to symbolically adopt them. We have adopted many animals from the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, as well as some from World Wildlife Fund. We consider the adopted animals part of our family and carefully select who will be adopted next. One animal in particular that we want desperately to help is the Northern White Rhino. Every time we visit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and see Nola, I can’t help but feel a sadness that one day she won’t be there anymore – yet at the same time I feel blessed to have known her since many people will never have the opportunity to see a Northern White Rhino in person.

    Imagine my surprise and my joy when I saw a post on Facebook telling me that I could adopt a Northern White Rhino from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Africa.

    Not just any rhino, but I could choose which rhino I wanted to symbolically adopt and help care for. As much as I wanted to adopt a rhino in my name, I knew that this would mean so much to Dylan – and it would make the perfect Valentine’s Day present.

    I chose to adopt Fatu who is a 12 year old female living at the conservancy with her mother Najin. Fatu is one of the four Northern White Rhinos who was translocated from the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic on December 20, 2009 to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

    Fatu has been observed mating, which gives us all hope for the future of Northern White Rhinos.

    I gave Dylan the adoption certificate before school on Valentine’s Day and I don’t think I have ever seen him so excited. Knowing that there are only 7 Northern White Rhinos left in the world today, we are now directly helping to care for one of them. We are making a difference.

    Helping Rhinos is based in the United Kingdom and is proud to say that 100% of every donation received ends up where it is needed most – in the field protecting the rhinos! Along with the adoption certificate we received this picture of Fatu and several fact sheets about the rhinos.

    Fatu’s horns were cut down to ensure she remained safe during the translocation and to hopefully deter poachers. Her horns will grow back because they are made from keratin – just like our fingernails. They have no medicinal value.

    Today is the day to make a difference because tomorrow may be too late. 

    If you would like to help care for these beautiful animals, you can adopt a Northern White Rhino from HelpingRhinos.org just like we did. I can’t tell you how important it is to keep hope alive and continue to spread awareness about the plight of the rhinos. 2012 was a very bad year for the rhinos and I’m praying that 2013 will be better. This chart from Helping Rhinos shows the most current numbers.

    Want to learn more about the Ol Pejeta Conservancy? Did you know they are famous for their conservation work with endangered species and are the largest Black Rhino sanctuary in East Africa? For more information about Ol Pejeta, including how you can visit the conservancy, please visit www.olpejetaconservancy.org