Khama Rhino Sanctuary

White rhinos

Last weekend I went up to a rhinoceros sanctuary. There is a sanctuary because lots of people hunted rhinos to get the medicine that is in their horns and left the meat to rot. The rhinos were almost extinct before people made the sanctuary. Now there's like twenty-seven white rhinos and three black ones.

White rhino

White rhino resting when it gets hot

The difference between them is that the white rhinos are whiter and the black rhinos are darker grey and black rhinos eat leaves and twigs from trees and white rhinos eat grass.  So if you see rhino poop, you can pick it up and break it to see if there is grass or twigs in it.  If it has twigs and leaves in the poop, then it is a black rhino.  If it has grass in the poop, then it is a white rhino. White rhinos are stronger than black rhinos, but black rhinos are faster.  White rhinos can run 45 kilometers per hour, but black rhinos can run 55 kilometers per hour, I think.  When the rhinos poop, they scatter it around to mark their territory.

White rhino poop and dung beetles

The beetles you see in the rhino poop are called dung beetles and they like to eat the pieces of grass in the rhino poop.  They have little wings that come out of their body and when they fly they make a buzzing sound like a humming bird.

A dung beetle in my hand!

Our camp site under a baobab tree