World Rhino Day at National Zoo and Aquarium

National Zoo and Aquarium are celebrating World Rhino Day on Friday September 22 with Canberra's two 13-year-old rhinos Eco and Ubuntu

Transcript

00:00 Amazing. So what are we celebrating today?

00:02 Yeah, so Friday the 22nd of September every year is World Rhino Day.

00:06 So here at the Zoo we are celebrating our beautiful white rhinos behind us.

00:10 We have Ubuntu and Eco and they are raising awareness and funds for rhinos all over the world.

00:16 There are five species of rhinos and they're all very vulnerable to extinction due to humans mostly.

00:22 So we're using these guys as fantastic ambassadors and really encouraging people to come in and see

00:28 and learn a little bit more about the rhinos this weekend and get involved in our activities that

00:33 we'll be holding. How many rhinos are at the Zoo in Canberra and can you tell us a little bit about

00:38 them? Yeah, so we have two boys. They are southern white rhinos. They're the most populated number of

00:43 rhinos that we have in the world today and these two boys were born in New Zealand. They aren't

00:48 related and they are part of the regional breeding program. So what that means is at some point in

00:52 their lifespan they could be called upon in other zoos to breed elsewhere but these guys are 13

00:58 years old which means they're just over being teenagers now. So they're mature bulls and they

01:04 could be used for breeding somewhere along the line but it's really important that when they're

01:09 not breeding that we are using them as ambassadors for their cousins out in the wild. So on Saturday

01:14 and Sunday we'll have a special Keeper Talk 4 World Rhino Day at 2.30 every day and that will

01:19 really focus on the five species of rhinos that we have in the wild today and a little bit more

01:24 about what these boys are like to look after as well and we'll have a social media competition

01:29 that people can get involved in to go into the running to win a special rhino experience that

01:34 we've put together for one lucky person. Yeah look I think with this beautiful spring weather

01:39 it's obviously a perfect time to get out and about. Our rhinos are very visible. They're located

01:44 in our big open range part of the Zoo and the boys are generally active you know up until kind of

01:50 mid to late morning and then they'll have a bit of a snooze during the warmer part of the day and

01:54 then by about three o'clock they're getting up and ready for their evening dinner and stuff. So

01:58 yeah definitely a good animal to come and see. You'll always see the rhinos

02:02 and you might be lucky enough to see them up and about with the Keeper Talk this weekend.