The white rhinoceros, a species of rhinoceros that we managed to turn back from the brink of extinction. At the end of the nineteenth century, there were only 50 of these rhinos, today the population of white rhinos is about 20 thousand pieces.
White rhino is he largest of the rhinos, the weight of the male can reach up to 2.5 tons. It has two horns, the larger one can reach a height of up to 1.5 meters. They are not as aggressive as black rhinos, so they are easier to kill. The 1.5-meter horn is still an object of desire especially in Asia, where it is considered an aphrodisiac, a remedy for potency problems, liver and heart diseases.
The white rhino is not white – the natives called this species of rhino wyd rhino, meaning the broad rhino. English-speaking settlers heard white rhino and it stayed that way.
We watched white rhinos in the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, a kind of small reserve or farm where rhinos are closely protected. The property is surrounded by a fence and each of the rhinos has its own armed bodyguard. Most of the day, rhinos lie in the shade, and so do their keepers. Initially, 6 rhinos were placed in the guarded area, today there are about 32 of them. Monkeys, antelopes and crocodiles also live on the farm.
The white rhino species bred in the reserve is an endangered southern rhinoceros. The northern white rhinoceros is practically extinct, in 2018 the last male was put to sleep. The last hope for the restoration of the species is in vitro fertilization of a surrogate mother from two embryos created from frozen sperm.
Ziwa Sanctuary is worth supporting financially, it is a non-profit organization. Despite the precautions, rhinos and their bodyguards are still dying. Precautions are tightened (weapons, electric fencing), we were asked not to take pictures, especially with the phone, so that we could not trace the animals from the metadata of the photo. As requested – I do not post photos of rhinos.
