Dear Kid,
It’s May Day! And in honor of the first day of the month, we have Julie Andrews (love!) singing The Lusty Month of May. Extra points if you know that it’s from Camelot (since you’re in the middle of finals, I thought I’d spare you the brain power of having to remember).
It is also Save the Rhino Day. And since rhinoceroses are having a hard time of things, having a day to encourage them is the least we can do. The very least.
There are five species of Rhinos: Black Rhino (2,400 left in the world), White Rhino (7.500 left in the world), Sumatran Rhino (400 left in the world), Javan Rhino (less than 100 left in the world), and Indian Rhino (Latin name: Rhinoceros unicornis. Over 2,000 left in the world). For the record, white rhinos aren’t white, black rhinos aren’t black, and Indian rhinos aren’t magical.
The African species (the white and black rhinos) have two horns as does the Asian Sumatran rhino. The Indian and Javan each have one horn. No matter how many horns they have, someone wants it/them, making rhinos super endangered.
The rhinos themselves don’t exactly help matters a lot, seeing as how they are solitary critters who prefer staying home and needle pointing to going out to the local watering hole to catch up on the news. Rhinos fight over just about anything: territories, use of the family car, you name it. This is undoubtedly why a group of rhinos is called a crash (seriously). They also fight during courtship, having refused to take lessons from Eddie’s father (ancient TV show reference. Don’t sweat it. Just smile and nod like you appreciate the wink to US culture in a rhino post).
The word rhinoceros is a combination of two greek words: rhino (nose) and ceros (horn). This is unfortunate, because it is much more fun to say rhino-SAUR-us and pretend they are closely related to dino-SAUR-us-es.
Rhinos do not make good house pets. White rhinos can weigh more than 5,000 pounds. And if you thought zebras produced a lot of dung…well, let’s just say shoveling rhino poop is not for the weak of heart or the weak of arm.
Happy May Day. Happy Save a Rhino Day. Happy Today.
Love, Mom
Recent Comments