A new Chapter

In 2017, you helped us send appoximately $1500 usd to HESC (Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center) and $1000 to OPC (Ol Pejeta Conservancy) toward the funding of their APU canines.

We appreciate all you’ve done!

2018 will be a year of transition for Fight for Rhinos.

We have gone through some personal changes in the last months and I will now be soley responsible for Fight for Rhinos.  This means I will still be advocating for our rhinos, but will temporarily suspend active fundraising endeavors.

And donations received via PayPal from January 2018 on, will be forwarded to HESC, as I strongly believe in the progress and direction of their program.

I am extremely grateful and inspired  to work with you all the last several years in having made such a difference for so many rhinos, and the people protecting them. Most especially, it has instilled in me hope for their future!

Please continue to support conservation efforts and go to HESC to follow their progess.

So proud of Bullet, one of the first APU dogs at HESC!!

World Rhino Day: Support the Black Rhino

 

In the last 50 years black rhinos have declined by 97%

                          Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty

To put it in perspective: If 97% of the human population were wiped out, only Australia and Brazil would be left.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of conservation groups, there are approximately 4000-5000 black rhinos left.

You can be a part of that effort. Your donation helps us support the canine APU’s that protect rhinos in Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre. 

Please go to Paypal to make a monthly or one time donation.

If Jackson Pollock were a rhino

What creative genius lies behind these eyes? More than just beauty, Doppsee’s got artistic flair!

Doppsee, resident black rhino and hopeful future mom at Potter Park Zoo, has graciously lent her artistic genius toward Fight for Rhinos Art Auction.

“Doppsee’s Garden” by Doppsee

“In the Mood for Blue” by Doppsee

Don’t miss your chance to own one of these gorgeous originals from the up and coming artist! Auction begins Aug 28th! All proceeds benefit canine APUs.

About the Artist: Doppsee is a ten-year old striking black rhino. Rather sweet-tempered (as far as black rhinos go), when she is not creating art, her interests include dining, mudbaths, and unabashedly seeking out attention from her caregivers.

Dops’ latest hobby involves her love interest, Phinneas. Her new neighbor just moved in from Texas, and they’ve taken quite the liking to one another. The next project for this talented lady? With any luck-motherhood!

Phinneas

Saving rhinos with Art

True colors by Angela Casey

Want to save rhinos?

When Rhinos Fly by Julie Keeney

Need a gift idea?

 

Majestic Ele by David Small

Or just want to treat yourself?

Affordable, unique artwork can be yours.

When: Aug 28 through Sept 4

Where: Online through Bidding Owl

How: Each piece will have a minimum start price, simply choose the piece that catches your eye, and place your bid. At the end of the final day (Sunday, Sept 4) the winning bids will be contacted. You will have 24 hrs to respond. If you do not, the second highest bid will be contacted.

*ALL proceeds will benefit our projects at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya and Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center in South Africa.

 

 

 

Kenya keeps hope alive for the black rhino

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In 2013, after a trip to Samburu, Nakuru, Amboseli and Masaai Mara, the one disturbing theme was “There used to be rhinos here.” Aside from an occasional siting on the Mara, rhinos had vanished, wiped from what used to be their home.

In contrast Ol Pejeta was maintaining a safe haven for both white and black rhinos within the sanctuary.

Black rhino at Ol Pejeta.

But today, there is something stirring in the bush that wasn’t there on my trip-hope.

In 2015, with combined efforts of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) and Lewa Conservancy, several black rhinos were reintroduced to Samburu. They have been relocated to a 21,000 acre sanctuary in Sera Community Conservancy  with hopes they will slowly reestablish a population in the area.

Inside Sera’s translocation, photo courtesy of Lewa Wildlife Conservancy

This is the first time in Kenya, a community is responsible for the protection and management of black rhino, as it is usually a goverment led initiative.

In February of 2017, the  Sera conservancy will launch a black rhino tracking safari to further their investment in tourism.

Additionally, both Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy have been successful in maintaining a healthy, breeding population of black rhinos. In fact, so much so, they have run into the situation of reaching maximum capacity.

The success of both sanctuaries stems from their surrounding areas; it is a symbiotic relationship when communities see the financial benefit from tourism, and ultimately the key to keeping the rhino alive.

 

 

 

Breeding is no easy feat for rhinos

photo: Andrew Batchelor

Arguably one of the most awkward breeding pairs in all of nature…females reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years of age, and males not until 7 years.

If it’s a successful coupling, 15 months later a new baby rhino will make his way into the world!

If Sudan could speak..

Sudan is THE LAST male northern white rhino on our planet. One of his caregivers at Ol Pejeta Conservancy has some wise words from the majestic, soon to be extinct rhino in his care:

Sudan you are ok and healthy,though you spend many days alone,I wish you can tell the story more than i do; tell them how life was in southern Sudan, before that finger pulled the trigger and saw your brothers, sisters and cousins brought down,helplessly bleeding with their God given horns hacked..

..before humans reproduced and took the land meant for you and your colleagues,tell them what it feels to be last of your kind in the whole world! And tell them that you are the way you are because of them.

Right, let me help you, and I will be straight:  their lust for sex , I mean to satisfy their craving for it, have used your horn as an aphrodisiac, as well as to prove their social status and make them beautiful; yes, their immature beliefs in the medicinal value of your horns.

Tell them that the most stupid man is the one who lives, eats sumptuous food, wears well at the expense of your life, yes….And the most ugliest woman and lady is one who catwalks with ornaments made of rhino horns at the expense of your own natural beauty. Its shame: from the greed of power to the greed of social status quo and boost of immorality.

You are you, just you alone in the world! The truth is that you deserve equal rights with all human beings. Anyway I will stop but I will remind the human race that there is no grief in life as great as denying the truth until it is too late.

The big question is where are you within the circle of conservation my friends- food for thought.🤔

Sudan, photo: James Mwenda

 

Survivor and Mom..twice

Survivor of a brutal poaching

from Kariega Reserve 2012

Bringer of hope and life, becoming a mom

with daughter Thembi, Kariega Reserve, 2015

 

Defying the odds, birthing a second calf

with son, Colin, April 2017

Is there anyone who embodies what it means to be a mom more than the infamous Thandi? Happy Mother’s Day!

For some, poaching is a “second job”

In a 2015 study of admitted poachers in the largest park in Tanzania, 4 out of 5 admitted to poaching for food or income. But not all of them poached due to extreme poverty (in need of food and shelter) .  For many it was a means of supplemental  income. In fact only 8% used poaching as their only source of income. by Conservation and Society

                                                                                                                   Out of 171 poachers, 60 had some form of employment.

The poachers with other means of income were using poaching as a means to advance their families out of day to day living.

“While our poachers and their households had adequate food and shelter, most lacked abilities to send children to school, or advance themselves in any meaningful way,” said Eli Knapp, lead author of the study.

 

This changes the popular assumption that people only poach out of absolute need.

For more on the study by Conservation and Society, see: Probing Rural Poachers in Africa: why do they poach?

Ruaha National Park, largest park in Tanzania, photo: Lonely Planet

 

Clash of the Titans

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Check out these amazing photos of a black rhino brawl. A younger male confronted the older bull. Both endured battle wounds, but walked away in one piece, with the youngster eventually submitting to the more seasoned veteran.

Photos: Richard de Lange/Africa Geographic