Activists celebrate World Rhino Day across the globe

Conservationists across the globe are marking World Rhino Day on Monday, a day focused on five species of rhino, including black, white and Sumatran rhinos.

First announced by WWF-South Africa in 2010, the event aims to “unite NGOs, zoos, cause-related organizations, businesses and concerned individuals” around Rhino conservation, according to the World Rhino Day website.

NewsHour Weekend reported in May on whether cross-border cooperation between South Africa and neighboring Mozambique could save the endangered rhino. You can watch the video in full in the player above.

The Kruger National Park in South Africa is enormous — as big as the state of New Jersey — and is home to the largest population of rhinos on the planet. At Kruger Park, rhinos are being poached at an alarming rate for their horns.

At the park last year, 606 rhinos were killed for their horns. As of May, 2014 the figure stood at 235.

“Animal populations are disappearing at an alarming rate,” Matt Lewis, a senior program officer in African species with the World Wildlife Fund’s Wildlife Conservation Program told NewsHour in April.

“Protecting species contributes to a thriving, healthy planet for people’s health and well-being from forests that slow climate change and filter water to oceans that provide more than one-sixth of the world’s food.”

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