World Rhino Day

So Sunday was Peanut Butter Fudge Day and today is Buy Nothing Day as well as Shopping Reminder Day (and Black Friday but never mind). You can tell a great amount of thought and logic goes into defining those special days of the year. There is literally a day for anything. However, not all of them are nonsense. Each year on the 22nd of September is World Rhino Day. I know we're in November but to me that day seems worth writing about - even though I guess Peanut Butter Fudge Day might be a huge deal for quite a few people as well.

I guess by now most people have heard about how rhinos are endangered animals. If you haven't then I am glad you are reading this. If you have, keep reading, you might still learn something new.

Rhinos have been around for 55 million years. They have evolved from Tapir-like Perissodactyls to giant Paraceratherium. And by giant I mean 5m tall at the shoulder and weighing 20 tons - the largest land mammal to ever live. When elephants appeared the Giant Rhino had kind of a hard time cause these smug elephants had such a versatile trunk and were just that extra bit more efficient at their calorie intake. Still, at that time rhinos roamed the planet - even in what is now France. There were rhinos with two horns beside each other and hippo-like buoyant rhinos. With temperatures cooling down the woolly Elasmotherium evolved - which would basically be a poacher's  wild fantasy with a horn of an estimated length of 1 meter. Then, ca. 3 million years ago the humans appeared. And within the last 100 years we have managed to reduce the number of rhinos by more than 95% - with now approx. 28.000 rhinos left worldwide -  compare that to what giant crocodiles, prehistoric hyenas and the ice age didn't manage in 55 million years.

As we do not get rhino steak in the meat section of our supermarkets, the reasons behind hunting rhinos now are much more vain than a few million years ago when they were partly used as a food source. Apart from that we were a few billion less people. Nowadays rhinos are hunted purely for their horn. This horn is either used as luxury decoration, to supposedly "treat cancer" or processed into powder and turned into rhino horn wine that is seen as a "millionaires drink", a virility enhancer and hang-over cure. Now take a second and realise that rhino horn consists of calcium, melanin and mainly of keratin - which is exactly what your nails and hair are made of. So would one still feel sophisticated with a glass of toenail-powder-infused Malbec? Can you imagine telling your fatally ill aunt to cure her cancer by chewing her fingernails more regularly?

Well, these are the sad misconceptions about rhino horn. Especially the misbelief of rhino horn as a cancer treatment has skyrocketed  the demand for it. I understand that when facing cancer you might cling on to any possible cure. But rhino horn does not cure cancer. It was spread as a rumour and there is no scientific proof whatsoever (just remember fingernails!). Aside from that it does not make you high or more energetic either and there are certainly better ways to decorate your flat. Still it has become a multimillion dollar industry, alongside drug, arms and human trafficking. It is worth more per kilo than gold and the fact that there is less and less rhinos around makes it even worse. There have been phases of heavy poaching during the 1970ies - 1990ies due to a high rhino horn demand from countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Yemen. Through international pressure, trade bans and public awareness campaigns illegal trade was decreased. However since 2005, poaching has increased dramatically again with Vietnam rapidly grown to be the world’s largest recipient of rhino horn.

Impressions from my  stay in Kenya. The last picture was taken at Ol Pejeta where you can see 1 of the last 3 Northern White Rhinos remaining on this planet - they are huge! Looking at those photos now makes me wonder if the rhinos and elephants are still alive today or have been killed for their horn/tusks.

I only really got into the poaching topic a few years ago. I had heard about the problem of poaching before but it wasn't until I travelled to see friends in Kenya when I truly realised. I was at a conservancy called Ol Pejeta where I saw the last 3 remaining Northern White Rhinos on this planet. While it was something very special for me to see them at all, the realisation of this noteworthyness left me feeling sad and frustrated. They were fenced off, observed 24/7 by armed guards and had their horns already taken off to deter any potential poachers. So while those last 3 rhinos are fairly safe, this is not possible in all parks, especially in community-owned or private conservancies whether it is due to the sheer size of the parks (Tsavo is about the size of Slovenia) or simply financing. Taking a rhinos horn off is also no guarantee to save it from poachers as a wildlife monitor guide told me with tears in his eyes after the night before one of their rhinos had just been killed. Why? When taking rhino horn off as a precaution, anti-poaching rangers have to leave a few centimeters of horn because otherwise they would injure the rhino. But with rhino horn being so expensive poachers will kill a rhino even if they only get a few centimeters of horn. They will ruthlessly cut big parts of the rhinos face off, often letting it bleed to death.

To me it is shocking to see how such a beautiful and old animal is hunted to the verge of extinction for something so useless. There are different incentives to tackle this problem such as creating artificial rhino horn, or poisoning it. To me the most powerful tool still seems to be to enlighten people that rhino powder is a complete and utter waste of money.

So how can you help?

I do not just want to write about this topic, I would like to contribute with my own humble possibilities. As you know I love painting and illustrating and therefore I created a special rhino print which you can purchase here or in my etsy store. The painting depicts a Black Rhino with various native African plants and flowers such as Usambara Violet, Acacia Tree, Tapinanthus, Flame of the Woods and Lobelia Keniensis. The artwork is hand-painted (the stippling of the fine dots left me feeling crazy) with a fineliner ink pen and printed with the highest quality inks on Hahnemühle Fine Art Paper in 21x30cm. On top of that, each print will be signed and numbered.

I will donate the profits to Ol Pejeta Conversancy. They are the largest Black Rhino conservancy in East Africa and they do amazing conservation work.  They are currently working on a project called Make a Rhino - aiming to develop assisted methods of reproduction to allow new Northern White Rhino calves to be born. If you are interested you can find out more about them here - of course you can also donate to them directly.

I understand that art is very subjective and not everybody might want to buy or be able to buy this print. Nevertheless, you can help by simply sharing this article - facebook, twitter, generally social media, email, anything that brings some attention to this topic is great.

Buy this artwork - help a Rhino

Lastly, I would love to hear what you think about this topic or the article itself, feel free to comment below or contact me directly.

Thank you for having the patience to read through my first and very long blog post! ( And thank you to my friend Zia for letting me use the photos of the rhino calf and lion - he clearly is the better photographer)

Petra