Life with Dylan

Category: rhino

  • Baby Black Rhino Charges Into Our Hearts

    Once again, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is doing their part to bring species back from the brink extinction. Last week a critically endangered black rhino calf was born at the Safari Park and has quickly charged into the hearts of rhino lovers all over the world.

    The unnamed male calf was born on Saturday July 12, 2014. This is the fifth calf for Lembe and father Jambia and the 15th black rhino born at the Safari Park.

    Last Wednesday I was at the Safari Park and knew the chances of seeing the baby rhino were slim. Lembe is very protective and has been keeping him hidden among the rocks. Nevertheless, I got on the tram  … I just wanted a glimpse of the then 4-day-old baby rhino. Well, I got more than a glimpse.

    The tram driver was just as excited as we were. She said that we were very lucky because nobody had seen Lembe walk the calf across the exhibit. All I could do was start clicking my camera in hopes of getting something that resembled a rhino. I was so honored that the Safari Park used my photo to announce the birth of the black rhino calf on social media.

    In a press release from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, keepers stated that Lembe runs around her exhibit with her tail pointed up, a cue that lets her calf know she is on alert and watching over him. The young calf trots closely behind, sometimes fumbling over his footing, as he is still getting comfortable keeping up with his mother.

    We have been watching Lembe has she grew bigger and bigger, anticipating the birth of this precious black rhino. Words cannot explain the excitement or the joy Dylan and I felt when we saw him running through the exhibit. Both mother and calf are visible to guests taking the Safari Park’s Africa Tram tour, so get out there and see this little guy for yourself. The cuteness factor is off the charts!

    Black Rhino Calf – Photo taken on July 18, 2014, by Ken Bohn, San Diego Zoo Safari Park

  • Dylan shares his love of Southern White Rhinos through writing

    Last spring Dylan was given a writing assignment in school and told that he had to write a paper about his favorite animal. He had to do research about his chosen animal and then write a seven paragraph paper, which he would read aloud to the class. I have never seen him so excited to write a school paper. 

    He said other kids were writing about cats, dogs, bunnies, horses … the usual stuff, but he was going to figure out a way to write about conservation. Yep, he saw an opportunity to bring awareness to the plight of the rhinos and he ran with it. 
    Today I am sharing his paper with you in hopes that he can make one more person aware. 

    Southern White Rhinos
    by: Dylan Fryer
    The White Rhino is one of the most beautiful animals in Africa. It is endangered. That means there are not many left in the wild. They are all dying because poachers are hunting them for their horns. The Southern White Rhino is the least endangered of the living rhino species. 
    The scientific name for the Southern White Rhino is Ceratotherium simum. It means “horned wild beast with a flat nose” in Greek. White Rhinos are native to the African savannah. They are found in Botswana, Nambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Uganda. 
    The Southern White Rhino is unique because of its two sharp horns. The front horn is about 40 inches, but can grow to 79 inches. The back horn can be 22 inches. Their horns are made of keratin. Poachers think the horns have medicinal value, but they do not. Rhino horn is not medicine. It is keratin, just like our fingernails and hair. 
    The White Rhino is a grazer. It is identified by its square lip. White Rhinos feed mostly on short grasses and like to wallow in the mud. Like all rhinos they are ungulates, which is a hooved animal. They have excellent hearing and good sense of smell, but very bad eye sight. 
    Next to the elephant, the White Rhino is the largest land mammal. Male White Rhinos weigh up to 4,400 lbs. to 7,920 lbs. and females weigh up to 3.080 lbs. to 3,740 lbs. White Rhinos can grow up to 11-14 feet long and 5-6 feet high at shoulder height. Even though White Rhinos are big, they can run at 30 m.p.h. for short distances. That is an impressive animal.
    White Rhinos can live up to 50 years. With a lifespan like that people think that there would be a lot of them left. There’s actually not many because over the past three years poachers have killed an average of two rhinos a day. With a gestation period of sixteen months, they will never catch up. This is why rhino conservation is important. 
    Not many people know that Southern White Rhinos are endangered. In 1895 the Southern White Rhino was thought to be extinct until a small population was discovered. Now there are 20,600 Southern White Rhinos left. That’s the power of rhino conservation! 

  • 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

  • Dylan’s essay on Conservation

    Dylan came home the other day with an essay that he wrote in class. The assignment was to write an essay on any topic and turn in the final draft on Friday. I was so proud when I read it and asked Dylan if I could post it on the blog. He asked if this meant he was published again – I said yes it does. I think that sealed the deal. This is Dylan’s essay.

    Conservation

    Conservation is very important. If nobody helped with conservation, then the world would end because people would hunt animals to extinction. The California condor went extinct in the wild in the 1900’s, but zoos worldwide bred all the California condors and released their babies into the wild. So now they’re back in the wild. That’s the power of conservation.

    Greater One-Horned Rhino – Photo by Dylan Fryer

    The tragedy in poaching history is poachers killing hundreds of rhinos for their horns. When they lose their horn, they bleed to death. That’s why conservationists cut part of the horn off so poachers won’t hunt them. For some rhinos it’s too late; like the Northern White rhino. There’s only 7 left in the world and they are too old to breed so they will go extinct, but for some rhinos it’s not too late. The most endangered rhino, except for the Northern White, is the Javan rhino. There are only 50 left in the wild. There are no Javan rhinos in captivity because they are so rare.

    Tigers are also very endangered. Poachers kill them for their fur bones, and teeth. Some people take tiger cubs from their mother to keep as pets. When people do that the tiger is traumatized. Usually the person goes in with the tiger and gets killed by the tiger. The only reason the person gets killed is because of the tiger’s instinct of hunting. They are wild animals. Many zoos have tigers and they breed them to keep the species going.

    So many people poach animals. From small rabbits to giant elephants, but the worst part about poaching is that if something tries to protect the animal, then it dies too. Sometimes people take the baby and keep as a pet. Orangutans and other apes are kept as pets. Sadly, poachers will never stop. That’s why conservationists protect them.

    Cinta our favorite Orangutan – Photo by Dylan Fryer

    Everyone, no matter how old or young you are you, can always be a conservationists. So please help conservation. You can give money to help. Help stop poaching.

    -Dylan Fryer

    These are all Dylan’s words. He wrote the essay at school, brought it home for proof reading, and then typed it on the computer for his final draft. I may be biased, in fact I know I am, but this is a pretty darn good essay. Especially for a 4th grader.

    Knowing that he could write about anything he wanted and chose to write about conservation shows just how much he cares about saving these animals and the habitats they live in. When Dylan reads his essay in class he will be creating awareness and spreading the word about conservation to all of his classmates.

    That’s called Making A Difference!

    You can read Dylan’s other published work over on our friend Rebecca’s blog – Remember Wildlife – where he wrote about the Giant Pandas.

  • Endangered Species Monday – Let’s Save the Rhinos in 2013

    I could never choose just one animal. I mean really, let’s face it, if I could save all the endangered species I would. To say that one is more important than another is not right because they are all equally important and needed on this planet. However, sometimes one animal stands out among the rest. For me that animal was a rhino. A special connection was made the moment that I touched and fed the rhino brothers at the San Diego Zoo. I had looked into the eye of an endangered species and I would never be the same.

    In December I made a decision to make 2013 the year that I personally made a difference for the rhinos. After reading recent news articles, I have never been more sure of a decision.

    A record 668 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2012 – that is a 50% increase over 2011. This figure astounds me. I shed a tear for each one of the rhinos lost when I read articles about the killings. We must put a stop to poaching and educate people about what rhino horn really is – keratin – the same thing as out hair and fingernails. Rhino horn is not medicine!

    Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I saw this headline on twitter the other day Poachers hack baby rhino with axe … Wait, was I reading this right? This couldn’t possibly be true. What good is killing a baby rhino? There is no horn to take from a 2 month old baby rhino – this is uncalled for and made me so angry. So angry and so sad that all I could do was cry. This poor defenseless rhino was being attacked because she got in the way of the poachers who were cutting off her mother’s horn.

    2013 is not getting off to a very good start for the rhinos. As of January 11th, the death toll is already up to eight and if this baby doesn’t survive it will be nine. I have no time to spare. The number one way for me to help the rhinos is to create awareness. I will also share stories, photographs and raise as much money as I possibly can. So far I have two ways of raising money for the rhinos …

    San Diego Zoo Safari Park Half Marathon – I will not be able to run the half marathon because I am volunteering to help with the race and with Cinco de Rhino that evening. However, I can still virtually run the race and raise money for the greater one-horned rhinos. Your tax-deductible donation on my fundraising page will help make a difference. $5 or $10 or $25 it doesn’t matter – every little bit helps.

    I have also written a letter addressed to President Zuma as part of the One More Generation letter writing campaign. (Our letters are #557 and #558 – letters are listed alphabetically so scroll down to Fryer) These letters are a way of creating worldwide awareness and bringing our pleas to stop the poaching to President Zuma himself. I would love it if you would write a letter too!

    Something has to change. This needs to be the year that wildlife poachers are stopped before it’s too late. There is not much left that we can do for the Northern White Rhinos and the Javan and Sumatran rhinos are not far behind. If the numbers keep climbing at 50% increases, then we will be that much closer to another animal facing extinction.

  • Endangered Species Monday – Saving rhinos one letter at a time

    I am a firm believer that the fate of our planet is in the hands of our children. My generation is trying to right the wrongs of my parents generation, but there isn’t enough time to do it all. Today’s children have the power and the desire to save this world and change things for the better. The more issues about conservation, wildlife poaching, and global warming that make the news and social media outlets, the more children become aware of what must be done.

    Since my son decided to raise money for the tigers, in lieu of his birthday a few months ago, I have become more aware of other children making a difference too. Children are fearless and believe that they can take on anyone – even the President.

    I came across an article today while reading Mother Nature Network that touched me and I was shocked that I hadn’t heard about this before. After doing some further reading, I realized that the campaign started shortly after my son was raising money for the tigers. Maybe I was so caught up in tigers at the time that I didn’t notice the work Carter and Olivia Ries of One More Generation (OMG) were doing for the rhinos.

    This brother and sister duo have teamed up with SPOTS (Strategic Protection of Threatened Species) and set a goal to collect 1,000 letters and or drawings addressed to South African President Jacob Zuma. How inspirational is that? And what a great way to get people of all ages from all over the world involved in saving the rhinos from extinction. Carter and Olivia plan on personally delivering the letters to President Zuma when they visit South Africa in 2013. The idea is to show him and his staff how much we in America (and all over the world) care for these animals.

    Your letter can be as long or as short as you like. Maybe you want to draw a picture or send a photograph showing how beautiful rhinos are. If you can’t think of what to say, you can use one of the form letters on the One More Generation website.
    Instructions on where to send your letters are detailed in the post Dear President Zuma, or you can even email your letter to info@onemoregeneration.org

    Dylan and I will be writing two letters this week to help Carter and Olivia reach their goal of 1,000 letters and I ask you to do the same.

    Make it a Christmas gift to the rhinos – the gift of your time to write a letter could save hundreds if not thousands of rhinos. Everyone can make a difference.

  • Endangered Species Monday – There is always hope

    Sometimes reading about endangered species can be difficult. Doing research to write about them is even more difficult. Oh, who am I kidding, it can be down right depressing. The word endangered “seriously at risk of extinction” alone breaks my heart. However, part of making a difference in this world is creating awareness; so I keep reading, I keep researching, and I keep writing.

    Every now and then I come across a success story or read about how a species, like the mountain gorilla is showing an upward climb in population. This my friends makes all the difference. Then there are the stories that bring me so much joy and hope that I can’t help but smile for hours.

    This is one of those stories.

    According to the Albuquerque BioPark Zoo, the rhino was born at Florida’s White Oak Conservation Center on October 30 and weighed 132 pounds. Born on an unusually cold night, the calf struggled – he was slow to start nursing and did not establish a strong bond with his mother. When White Oak staff saw he wasn’t thriving, they decided to hand rear him. BioPark animal care staff traveled with the rhino from Florida and moved the now 169-pound baby into a behind-the-scenes area at the Zoo on the evening of Nov. 14.

    The Southern White Rhino almost went extinct in the early 1900’s with numbers dwindling down to 100, but thanks to conservation efforts, captive breeding programs at accredited zoos and conservation centers, and reserves, the Southern White Rhino population has climbed to over 20,000 individuals today.

    The fight to end rhino poaching isn’t over and there are still five other rhino species who need saving (seven if you count the Borneo and Northern White), but seeing this little guy walk out of a crate reminds me that there is always hope when dealing with endangered species.

  • Happy World Rhino Day!

    Touch a rhino. Look into a rhinos eyes. Talk to a rhino and have them respond to you.

    Do this and I promise you will fight for them too.

    Today is the 3rd Annual World Rhino Day – create some awareness and remember – Rhino horn is NOT medicine, it’s keratin just like your fingernails.

    Some rhino population stats for you:

    • Javan rhino – fewer than 50
    • Vietnamese Javan rhino (extinct 2010)
    • Sumatran rhino – fewer than 200
    • Borneo rhino – perhaps 30
    • Greater one-horned rhino – 2,949
    • Black rhino – 4,860
    • Southern White rhino – 20,600
    • Northern White rhino – 7 (these will be extinct within the next 20 years)
    For more inforamtion on what is being done to stop the killing of rhinos visit SavingRhinos.org and YaoMingBlog.com 

    *Statistics taken from SavingRhinos.org

  • Endangered Species Monday: Black Rhinoceros

    Sticking with the theme of rhinos this month, today’s featured endangered species is the Black Rhinoceros. As one of the five remaining rhino species, the black rhino is one of three classified as critically endangered by the IUCN.

    According to the International Rhino Foundation, the black rhino (Diceros bicornis) has suffered from the most drastic decline in total numbers of all rhino species. The poaching epidemic ran rampant from 1970 to 1992 and the species decreased by 96% – from 65,000 down to 2,300 in the wild – that is a huge amount of rhinos killed.

    Illegal hunting and poaching of the black rhino for its horn have devastated the population over the last three decades. Its range has been reduced to scattered pockets in remote areas and reserves that are patrolled. In areas where poaching is common and not easily controlled, game wardens with the help of organizations like WWF will tranquilize the animals before moving them to sanctuaries. Dehorning the rhinos in some regions has helped to protect them from poachers, but there are mixed feelings about this form of conservation.




    Did you know?

    • The black rhino can’t see objects in detail beyond a range of about 100 feet.
    • The rhino’s horn is used in Asia as a medicinal ingredient and ounce for ounce costs more than gold.
    • The black rhinos prehensile upper lip helps it to grasp and eat vegetation
    • Black rhinos live 30-35 years in the wild, but 45 years or more in captivity. 
    • In 2011 the Western Black Rhino subspecies was declared extinct. 
    • The Black Rhino has two horns made of compressed keratin – basically hair and fingernail material. (Not medicine)

    To date there are approximately 4,800 black rhinos left in the world. Thanks to conservation efforts the species is slowly coming back from the brink of extinction, but the black rhino is not out of the woods yet. Stand up for rhinos on September 22 – World Rhino Day – and spread the word that rhino horn is not medicine.

    Find out what you can do to help save the black rhino by visiting these websites.

    WWF
    International Rhino Foundation
    Saving Rhinos