All tag results for 'rhinos'

Leonardo DiCaprio is a HUGE animal lover.

He's a total eco warrior!

We just know if he wasn't off making our favorite movies, he'd be in Africa, riding rhinos, chasing off poachers.

But because he can't hang out in Africa all the time, he helped launch the World Wildlife Fund's new campaign "Hands Off My Parts."

Tags: campaign, elephant, elephants, illegal trade, ivory, leonardo dicaprio, rhino, rhinos, tiger, tigers, tusks, world wildlife fund

Zoo keepers at Burgers' Zoo in The Netherlands were surprised when a baby rhino decided to enter the world earlier than expected.

The baby rhino may be a preemie but he's stable and healthy!

Even though he was born 6 weeks early and no zoo keepers were around to see it!

His 12-year-old mother is healthy too!

They are white rhinos and they are listed as Near Threatened which means that as a species in the wild, they're not doing too well. Mainly because of poaching.

That's so sad because they're so CUTE!

Check out the video (above) to see the little guy walking around just being adorbz.

Tags: adorbz, baby, cute, endangered, healthy, poaching, preemie, rhino, rhinos, so cute, surprise, threatened, white rhino, wild, zoo, zoo keeper

The animals of Africa are running out of time and running out of options.

And the World Wildlife Fund is turning to religious leaders to help the conservation cause.

Poachers are escalating in their attacks against rhinos and elephants as the Asian market explodes for ivory and rhino horn.

Dekila Chungyalpa, director of WWF's Sacred Earth program believes conservationists aren't getting the job done.

She says the following on the matter:

Tags: conservation, elephants, endangered, religion, rhinos, world wildlife fund, wwf

Some good(ish) news.

According to it's government the number of rhinos living wild in Nepal has risen above 500 for the first time since a civil war that led to rampant poaching of the endangered animals.

It said wildlife experts who have spent the past month conducting an exhaustive survey had counted 534 rhinos in Nepal's southern jungles — 99 more than when the last such study was carried out in 2008.

The new figures show the one-horned rhino population is recovering after a dramatic plunge in numbers during the 1996-2006 civil war, when soldiers deployed to prevent poaching left to fight a guerrilla insurgency.

The animals are poached for their horns, which are prized for their reputed medicinal qualities in China and southeast Asia.

A single horn can sell for tens of thousands of dollars on the international black market, and impoverished Nepal's porous borders.

So sad.

[Image via WENN.]

Tags: animals, asia, conservation, endangered, poaching, population, rhinos, study, wildlife

This is Disgusting!

Ounce for ounce, rhino horns sell for more than gold – one reason why conservationists say Africa's rhinos are facing their worst poaching crisis in decades.

Organized crime syndicates have killed than 800 African rhinos in the past three years alone, the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature said Friday.

Rhino horns are in great demand globally, particularly in Southeast Asia, ground up for use as alleged aphrodisiacs and in traditional medicines or turned into decorative dagger handles.

Poachers are now using helicopters, night-vision goggles and high-powered rifles to hunt and kill the plant-eating, poor-sighted rhinos – equipment even African wildlife officials can't afford.

Poaching of the two different species of African rhinos is on the rise in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, due to well-equipped and sophisticated crime gangs, and has also decimated the three other rhino species that inhabit Asia, the group said.

"Although good biological management and anti-poaching efforts have led to modest population gains for both species of African rhino, we are still very concerned about the increasing involvement of organized criminal poaching networks,"

a scientific officer with IUCN said.

South Africa has more than 90 percent of the world's rhino population. White rhinos are the biggest of the rhino family, weighing as much as 6,000 pounds.

[Image via WENN.]

Tags: conservation, crime, family, international, killed, nature, population, rhinos, species, teddy, wild, wildlife

Check out the Javan rhino!

Deep in Indonesia, motion-activated cameras have recorded two critically endangered Javan rhinoceroses with their calves.

Though the footage is "great news," only 40 individuals remain—with none in captivity, conservationists say.

They look like something out of a Gaga video!

Tags: animals, conservation, endangered, footage, rhinos, video, wwf

OMG!

No, we're not just excited, that is the name of a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the preservation of endangered species founded by brother and sister team of Carter and Olivia.

What's more impressive than two children founding an animal protection organization? How about that both are under the age of ten (Carter is 9 while Olivia is 7)! Way to go you two!

It all began when they started adopting cheetahs in Africa. Soon they learned 1,000 other species were endangered and wanted to do something about it.

They've done some great things already, such as collecting supplies needed to help the seabirds and other animals caught up in the BP oil spill, raising funds to help pay for the security forces needed to protect the last remaining Black Rhinos, purchasing of materials to continue the efforts of the Ann Van Dyke Cheetah Center in South Africa, and funding the OMG Student Educational Outreach Program.

These two are a great example of what ALL of us can do! This has to be a team effort! The animals of the world have just as much right to be here as we do!

We're proud of you Carter and Olivia! Keep it up!

Tags: animals, charity, endagered, oil spill, preservation, protection, rhinos, south africa