One of Save the Rhino’s supporters has been particularly generous over the years. Malcolm Stathers, a sculptor who exhibits at the Tryon Gallery in Bury Street, and who made the bust of Queen Elizabeth I recently installed in the entrance to Westminster School, offered four years ago to create and donate to us a bronze of each of the five rhino species. This year, it was the turn of the Javan rhino, and Malcolm brought with him to the Rhino Mayday a beautiful sculpture, number one of a limited edition of nine, ready to be auctioned at the event.
We had already decided that proceeds from the sale would be donated towards the Rhino Protection Unit programme in Indonesia, one of the projects chosen to benefit from the EAZA Rhino Campaign. We were delighted when a member of the audience came forward with an offer of £2,000 for the bronze, provided that it would go into the collection of Nico van Strien, the SE Asia Coordinator for the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) and co-chair for SE Asia of the IUCN/SSC Asian Rhino Specialist Group. Nico, unsurprisingly, happily accepted the gift!
Our thanks to Malcolm for his extremely generous support of Save the Rhino, and to the bidder for making possible this grant of £2,000.
To read about the EAZA Rhino Campaign's beneficiary projects, click here.
After the Global Captive Action Plan (GCAP) meeting in Whipsnade, organised by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) in association with the International Rhino Foundation and attended by rhino experts from all over the world, the Rhino Mayday was held on Thursday 1 June at London Zoo.
Organised by Save the Rhino International, ZSL and the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria, and chaired by Nick Lindsay, the main goal of the Mayday was to give an overview of some of the projects selected by the EAZA Rhino Campaign. The Mayday was attended by an audience of rhino specialists, zoo staff, members of conservation organisations and the general public.
Thanks to the GCAP meeting, some of the world’s leading rhino experts were present at the Mayday, and the presentations all cast light on the crisis facing the world’s rhinos. Talks by Richard Emslie and Nico van Strien, from (respectively) the African and Asian Rhino Specialist groups and Tariq Aziz of WWF India introduced species-wide strategies. Nan Schaffer of SOS Rhino brought us up to date with the plight of the Sumatran rhino in Sabah, while Lucie Vigne spoke about combating the illegal horn trade in Yemen. Maggie Esson from Chester Zoo talked about education in Laikipia in Kenya; John Gripper gave an update on black rhino conservation in Zimbabwe. There was a talk on wildlife crime-scene investigations by Ian Maxwell. Finally, Evan Blumer, Chair of the Rhino Taxon Advisory Group in the USA, gave a presentation on rhinos in captivity and summarised conclusions from the GCAP meeting.
The talks were followed by some very interesting questions from the public. The day ended with prizes given to the happy raffle winners.
Thanks to the zoos who kindly offered free tickets or “keeper for the day” certificates, and to some of the EAZA Rhino Campaign’s suppliers for providing a lot of rhino items for our raffle.
Renaud FulconisEAZA Rhino Campaign Manager