World Rhino Day Kenya 2015

White Rhinos roaming wild and free but under surveillance by the Kenya Wildlife Service. Their Location remains secret.

Every year the number of rhinos remaining across the planet dwindle as they are being relentlessly hunted by more and more poachers for their horns. In an attempt to create global awareness about this crisis, a World Rhino Day was announced by the WWF in 2010 with September 22nd being designated as the conservation awareness day for rhinos.

Hundreds of rangers in Kenya put their lives on the line regularly by trying to protect these critically endangered species. These wildlife guardians risk life and limb trying to safe guard the country's rhinos not only for the people of Kenya, but for the rhinos themselves and for the whole of humanity. 

Here are some things that just about anyone can do to help protect the rhinos too: 

Supporting Rangers: The surest way to help rhinos is to help those that are currently in the field protecting them. Your extra pair of binoculars, cammo T-shirts, bandages or other small pieces of equipment can go a long way in making their jobs easier and safer to do.

Donate to the right Charities: Find a charity that actively supports anti poaching and wildlife veterinary assistance. Do a little homework by taking a look at their earlier accomplishments and current projects to assess their success rate and genuineness. By donating to the Kenya Wildlife Service for example, your hard earned money directly helps with the up keep of the rhino national parks and its rangers.

Be Vocal and Social: Sharing posts, liking and commenting on rhino conservation topics in social media helps create a buzz that can help to internationally spotlight the crisis. 

Keep Photo Locations Secret: Its wonderful to see great photographs of rhinos taken by park visitors and wildlife photographers during their safaris. The down side to this however is that poachers and wildlife traffickers are also anonymously watching out for these photos to try and figure out the locations of rhinos. Posting live photos and videos on the internet with locations puts these animals lives in real danger. If possible, avoid mentioning the park altogether, if the park being visited is obvious then avoid mentioning the location where the animal was photographed. Also remember to disable the location tracking on your camera phones on your digital camera as this stores the GPS coordinates of your image. 

Education: Educating the public to finally understand that there is absolutely no medicinal value in rhino horn can help to reduce its demand. Educating local schools and communities surrounding the national parks is also very beneficial and can work wonders especially if this is reinforced by supporting them financially or with social projects.

So this World Rhino Day 2015, let's all do our best to save the rhino by trying to accomplish the above suggestions until next years event.