Imperiled Rhino

Imperiled Rhino

Photograph by Richard Young

This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Photo Contest Images

Zimbabwe's Matopos National Park had 86 white and 36 black rhinos ten years ago. Poachers have reduced these numbers to only 9 white 17 black rhinos today. These numbers say it all. The park's oldest white rhino, Gumboot, was killed by poachers just two weeks before I took this picture of Swazi 2, his horn cut off to help protect him from poaching. If we do not act now to save them from poaching, we will be the generation responsible for the extinction of the rhino in the wild.