Busch Gardens Tampa Celebrates "World Rhino Day"

Busch Gardens Tampa will be celebrating "World Rhino Day" on Saturday, September 19, 2015. World Rhino Day is an international event that celebrates all five species of rhinoceros and draws attention to their current plight in Africa and Asia. In celebrating World Rhino Day, the park will raise awareness about the current status of the five rhino species, and help end poaching by debunking myths about their horns and by sharing some interesting facts about them.

Members of the Rhino Animal Care Team will be celebrating with guests from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. near the Nairobi train station with a World Rhino Day tent. There will be fun crafts, trivia, rhino artifacts and educational activities for the whole family. Plus, some games will have small rhino-inspired prizes! Guests can even help create a large paper mache globe that will be given to the rhinos as enrichment.

Busch Gardens is home to two species of rhino – white rhinoceros and black rhinoceros. The park's white rhinos live in a group called a “crash” on the North Veldt area of the Serengeti Plain. The black rhinoceros has a lakeside habitat in the middle of the Serengeti Plain.

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, three of the five species of rhino are listed as critically endangered – which means they are under the greatest threat of becoming extinct in the wild. The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund currently supports the International Rhino Foundation, Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, and the Wilderness Foundation. Through these conservation groups, the Fund assists translocations of rhinos from high-risk areas, facilitates genetic mapping of rhinos to enhance population management and anti-poaching efforts, expands effectively-managed conservation areas, and combats poaching and wildlife-related crime.

Be sure to visit buschgardens.com for more information about this special event. Plus, stay up-to-date with events and announcements by following the park’s blog at BuschGardensTampaBlog.com.

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