How You and Your Family Can Help Rhinoceros in 'De-Spare'

Sumatran rhinoceros are still critically endangered, but some herds are bouncing back as a result of conservation efforts supported by “Bowling for Rhinos” events sponsored by zookeepers in Detroit and across the country. (Photo via World Wildlife Fund)

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Once widespread in Africa’s vast savannas and Asia’s tropical forests, rhinoceros are quickly disappearing in the wild.

In southeast Michigan, area zookeepers are sponsoring a bowling event later this month to raise money to help conservation efforts to save endangered rhinos.

The Detroit chapter of the American Association of Zookeepers (AAZK) invites bowlers to help save rhinoceroses “one pin at a time” at Bowling for Rhinos., which will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 30 at Thunderbird Lanes, 400 W. Maple Road, Troy.

Bowlers may register individually or form a team of four to five for the event, which features bowling, a silent auction, 50/50 raffle and children’s games and crafts.

The $25 registration fee for adults includes shoe rental, two games, pizza, soft drinks and a requisite $15 donation. The registration fee is $20 for children 12 years old and under. Participants who raise $50 or more will receive a Bowling for Rhinos T-shirt.

Registration forms are available online at www.aazkdetroit.org. Forms and fees should be received by May 22 as space is limited. Anyone who is unable to attend the event but would like to support rhino conservation can visit the AAZK website to make a donation.

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The metro Detroit effort is one of more than 80 held by AAZK chapters throughout the United States and Canada. More than $5 million has been raised since 1990, and the Detroit Zoo chapter alone has raised more than $202,622 to date.

All proceeds directly benefit three rhino conservation projects in Africa and Asia, where few rhinos are found outside of national parks and reserves, according to the World Wildlife Fund, which states:

Two species of rhino in Asia – Javan and Sumatran – are critically endangered. A subspecies of the Javan rhino was declared extinct in Vietnam in 2011. A small population of the Javan rhino still clings for survival on the Indonesian island of Java.

Successful conservation efforts have helped the third Asian species, the greater one-horned (or Indian) rhino, to increase in number. Their status was changed from endangered to vulnerable, but the species is still poached for its horn.

In Africa, Southern white rhinos, once thought to be extinct, now thrive in protected sanctuaries and are classified as near threatened.

But the Northern white rhino subspecies is believed to be extinct in the wild and only a few captive individuals remain in a sanctuary in Kenya. Black rhinos have doubled in number over the past two decades from their low point of 2,480 individuals, but total numbers are still a fraction of the estimated 100,000 that existed in the early part of the 20th century.