The Innocent
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At the start of Operation Rhino, the final novel in my White Giraffe children's book series, the 11-year-old heroine, Martine, is unsure how she feels about rhinos. As far as she can tell, they're short-tempered and short-sighted and if they have a personality, it's well hidden behind their suits of armor. Growing up in Africa, I felt a bit the same way. It was only after my sister took me walking with wild rhinos in Zimbabwe and I got close enough to see the beautiful, intelligent spirit that lives inside them that I fell in love with them. They're among the most amazing, special creatures on earth. Using infrasonic sound, inaudible to the human ear, Sumatran rhinos have been proven to communicate across distances exceeding 12 miles.
I photographed this rhino at a South African game reserve. To begin with, she and her mate were bristling and agitated, kicking up dust to warn us off. They were stereotypically aggressive and myopic. Gradually, they realized we were not a threat. One remained on its feet, looking out for its mate, while the other lay down. Her eyelids drooped. To my amazement, she fell asleep. I could not get over how vulnerable she seemed. In her battleworn suit of armor, she resembled a sleeping gladiator. At that moment, she seemed almost nakedly innocent and exposed.
Tragically, that's how poachers see rhinos too -- as easy pickings. They dart them, hack off their horns and leave them to bleed to death or regain consciousness with half their face missing. In the Asian market, where rhino horn is marketed to the superstitious and ignorant as a cure for everything from cancer to drought, it is worth more than gold. In 2014, over 1,215 rhinos were killed in South Africa -- one every eight hours. The ICUN Red List classes them as Critically Endangered. To me, it is the sacred duty of every one of us to save these precious animals from man's greed and stupidity. Do you really want them to become extinct on your watch?
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