Past, present and future of the Southern white rhinoceros || Lake Nakuru || Aug 2017

White rhinos are the second largest land mammal after the elephant. Southern white rhinos were thought to be extinct in the late 19th century, but in 1895 a small population of less than 100 individuals was discovered in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. After more than a century of successful protection and management, they are now classified as Near Threatened and over 20,000 animals exist in protected areas and private game reserves. Rhinos are slow to reproduce and have a built in defence mechanism to not have babies if it feels the environment is unsafe. For decades the wildlife of Africa has been decimated by hunters, so for decades, rhinos rarely reproduced. Rhinos aren’t native to Nakuru, They were brought in as part of a rehabilitation project. This young rhino calf along with its mother is a testament to the Lake Nakuru project and its success story, the rhinos have been flourishing here and they have been donated to 23 other parks to help rebuild the rhino numbers in Africa.