Back in February, my family rode the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. We’ve been on this attraction before, but this time had the unique experience of getting an up close look at the rare white rhino! To celebrate Endangered Species Day (May 18th), I thought it’d be fun to take an in depth look at the White Rhino as well as some other animals we spotted on this wild ride. Check out this short video from our safari, and then continue reading for more info!

 

Here are some fascinating facts about the White Rhino which we learned during our safari from our Disney guide:

 

A group of White Rhinos is called a “crash.”

I mean, how appropriate is that! After witnessing one of them stampede away, I can understand how that name came about. Just imagine how a big group of them galloping towards you would make you feel!

 

This is stating the obvious, but they are BIG and HEAVY.

An adult White Rhino can weigh up to 6,000 pounds and grow as tall as 6 feet. That makes them the second largest land mammal after the elephant! When one ran in front of our safari vehicle we could feel the ground shake. That was no sprinkle of Disney imagineering magic. It felt like a small earthquake!

A pregnancy cycle is about 16 months. Oh man! And I thought 10 months was a drag. Their average lifespan is 50 years, though many don’t live that long due to poaching.

 

There are only about 20,000 White Rhinos left in the world.

There are two subsets of this species, which is native to Africa. The Northern White Rhino is entirely extinct in the wild. In fact, the last remaining male in captivity just died in March. There are now only TWO female Northern White Rhinos remaining, and they live at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

The only White Rhinos left living outside of a zoo or manmade safari setting like this one are in southern Africa. I can’t even properly express how sad it is that this happened within our lifetimes. This is why I wanted to recognize that it’s Endangered Species Day and hope you will spread awareness as well. 

 

Their only natural predator is the human.

White rhinos are poached for their horns which contain Keratin. We humans have this in our hair and nails. So they are being poached for something we don’t even need from them exclusively. Some cultures believe Keratin has medicinal properties, but there is very little evidence that it does. This PBS article on the history of white rhino poaching says it best:

“Overall there isn’t much evidence to support the plethora of claims about the healing properties of the horns. In 1990, researchers at Chinese University in Hong Kong found that large doses of rhino horn extract could slightly lower fever in rats (as could extracts from Saiga antelope and water buffalo horn), but the concentration of horn given by a traditional Chinese medicine specialist are many many times lower than used in those experiments. In short, says Amin, you’d do just as well chewing on your fingernails.”

 

They are not actually white.

The White Rhino gets its name from the Afrikaans word “wyd” which means wide and refers to their mouth shape. When the early English settlers arrived to Africa, they misunderstood this name, and interpreted it as white. But as you can see from my video, they most definitely are not! I’d say they’re more grey than anything else.

 

What can we do to help the White Rhino?

As with everything related to being eco-conscious, the first step is awareness. You’ve made progress just by reading this far into my Endangered Species Day post! (You can read more about the importance of eco awareness in 3 Easy Ways To Be More Eco-Friendly…Right Now.)

The next step is to talk about it. Tweet about it. Share this post. Educate your children on the plight of endangered animals. Dedicate May 18th on your calendar each year to learning one new fact about an animal or visiting your local zoo at the very least. One day out of 365 doesn’t feel like too much to do, does it?

Also, make sure you’re not buying products that are derived from White Rhino horns. Vietnam, for example, is one of the largest markets for these illegally poached horns. If you are pretty sure none of your products contain White Rhino horn, consider switching some or all of your consumer goods to ones that are not tested on animals. If you can’t directly reduce the demand for White Rhino horns, perhaps you can reduce the demand for lab monkeys. Look for this Leaping Bunny symbol on the back of your shampoo bottle, make-up, toothpaste, and more!

If you can afford to make a donation, there are several non-profit animal conservation organizations that are actively working to save the White Rhino. Here are just a few:

 

International Rhino Foundation

Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Save The Rhino

 

Aside of the White Rhino, we saw many other beautiful wild animals on our safari ride. My toddler was enthralled to see the animals from her picture books in real life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the giraffe might be my toddler’s favorite animal, I think the Okapi is mine, at least of the ones on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. With a reddish front half and a zebra-striped back half, I feel the dual-toned Okapi is a bit like my spirit animal. I too know what it feels like to be two halves of two very different-seeming things, being half Korean and half Jewish. The Okapi is also mistaken a lot for being closely related to the zebra because of its black and white stripes, while it actually is not. I’ve been mistaken for lots of other ethnicities too, from Eskimo to Egyptian and everything in between. So I really feel for this creature. And I guess, after all, that is the whole point of learning a little more about wild animals.

 

Happy Endangered Species Day!

• Disney
• Disney's Animal Kingdom
• Endangered-Species-Day
• Walt-Disney-World
• White-Rhino