Black Rhinoceros

Sept. 22 is World Rhino Day. And, boy, do they need the attention.

Photo By: naturepl.com / Mark Carwardine / WWF

September 22 is World Rhino Day. After several years of record poaching for rhinoceros, it's an awareness day that matters.

Rhinos, both black rhinoceros (pictured here), which are critically endangered, and white rhinoceros, which are gentler and somewhat more common, are being killed in record numbers in South Africa. The animals are shot, often by commando-style hunters using equipment like helicopters and high-powered rifles, are stripped of their horns and left to die. The horns, which are made of nothing more precious than the stuff our own fingernails are made of, are ground up and sold as elixirs in Asian markets. The record poaching has been driven in great part by claims the salves can cure cancer.

World Wildlife Fund is among the organizations working to protect the rhino.

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