308 Rhino Lost… What Nikela’s Doing About It

2010 turned out to be the deadliest year for the rhino’s living in South Africa. Only a couple of weeks before we met with Will and Carol in early October one of their four rhino was savagely dehorned and left to die.

According to, Robin, my young anti-poaching friend in South Africa the final death toll for 2010 stands at 308. A staggering loss, almost triple of the number from the previous year, and that’s not counting the orphaned calves that died from personal injuries, starvation or trauma.

Amongst all this tragedy there are glimmers of hope for the rhino’s survival as locals band together to ward of poachers and trained anti-poaching professionals are brought in.

Les, is one such anti-poaching professional. This coming February he is travelling to the USA to strategize with us. Together we plan to launch an awareness and fund raising campaign to assist anti-poaching efforts to do our part to make 2011 a much safer year for the rhino.

One way you can help right now is put me in touch with the person who can introduce me to Marc Ecko. Marc is the founder of the Ecko clothing retail stores head quartered in New York. What does Marc have to do with rhinos? The rhino is the clothier’s mascot or logo. Why? Because, according to the young store clerk I spoke to at Grapevine Mills in Dallas, the rhino is the only animal that runs only forward. Marc sees only one direction for his company… forward.

So, if you know someone who knows someone who knows Marc, please email me as I’d love to invite Marc to meet with Les while he is here.

Animal and Human Behavior

"It's the IRS!" I whisper to Russ as I almost drop my cell phone with excitement.

Here we are with our daughter and husband walking along a brushy creek looking for another blue heron when my almost out of battery phone rings.

Now, not too many people get excited by a call from the IRS, neither do I, normally, but this was about our pending 501 (c)(3) tax exempt status. It was mid July when we sent off our huge application packet to the IRS. It was two months later that we got an acknowledgement of receipt letter. Since late October Russ has called twice for an update. "It's waiting to be assigned an agent" was the reply both times. Just before Christmas they had gotten to the June submittals... we were getting closer!

The herons are forgotten and I literally skipped along the path like a young school girl. Only four relatively simple matters needed to be addressed, all to be clearly outlined in Karen's communiqué due to be mailed right away. That coveted letter is almost within our grasp! Whoooopeeeee!

What's that bird doing in the zebra's ear?

Then, later that same day Frank emailed me that a CD with the great photos he took at the Bird of Prey Sanctuary were on their way. Now Frank lives in the Netherlands, we connected via LinkedIn. We both love wildlife and are dedicated to its protection and conservation, so he totally donated his time and expertise to Nikela, for which we are very grateful.

Soon we'll have a slideshow of his fabulous photos depicting Shannon at work, her amazing birds of prey, and the kids who are privileged to visit the sanctuary. In the meantime please take a look at this short animal behavior slide show of Frank's.

Oh and do visit our new website at http://www.nikela.org/