MY BOOK ON RHINOS AND ELEPHANTS

Name ___________________________________

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Welcome to the Helping Rhinos booklet on rhinos and other endangered species! This book form part of the wider Helping Rhinos Rhinocation programme. We hope you enjoy reading about rhinos and elephants, and doing the activities. Helping Rhinos is a charity which is trying to help look after the world’s rhinos, before they become extinct! That means there won’t be any left in the world anymore, which would be very sad. We love all animals – especially rhinos, and think they are fascinating and beautiful. We hope that you will learn a lot about them and feel the same, after reading this booklet and doing the activities.

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THE RHINOCEROS

Rhinos live in Africa and Asia. They are very big and have long horns.

Where do you live? What is your address? ________________________________

Have you ever seen a rhino? Where?

A group of rhinos is called a CRASH of rhinos.

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Although rhinos are very big, they can run very fast!

Can you run fast? ____________

Can you think of any other animals which can run very fast? ____________________

Rhinos like to lie in rivers and pools, and cover their skin with mud. This stops the strong sun from burning their skin. This is called wallowing.

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Here is a picture of a baby rhino.

They stay with their mother until they are about 3 years old.

They make squeaky noises and are very playful!

Baby rhinos don’t have a long horn until they are grown up.

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Some people called poachers hunt and kill rhinos, and sell their horns.

They think that the horn is a medicine, but it is not.

Now there are not many rhino left in Africa. Soon they might become EXTINCT. This means there won’t be any of them left living in the wild.

This rhino had to be guarded all day and all night to keep him safe. He was called Sudan and was the last male northern white rhino in the world. Sudan lived in Kenya until he died of old age in March 2018.

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Sometimes a mother is killed and her baby left all alone. If it is lucky, some people who care about animals will find it and look after it, or take it to an orphanage.

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THE ELEPHANT

Elephants also live in Africa, and are the biggest land animals in the world!

They don’t have horns, they have tusks made of ivory.

They also have trunks, which they use to feed themselves and pick things up with.

Have you ever seen an elephant? If you have, where did you see it? __________________

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Here is a picture of a baby elephant.

Its mother has to teach it how to use its trunk to pick things up and feed itself. They also use it to scoop water into their mouths.

They can also smell water from 10km away using their trunks. It is a very powerful nose!

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Elephants like to cover their skins with mud and dust to protect them from the sun and from biting insects. They love to splash in rivers and pools too, just like rhinos do!

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NOW IT IS YOUR TURN....

Why do rhinos and elephants need to use mud to cover their skin? Choose the correct word to fill in the gap in the sentence.

Then copy the sentence out underneath.

You can choose 3 words from the following list.

Snowy, chilly, hot, pretty, red, burn, smell, cold, strong, weak, ugly, yellow, slow, fast

1. Because they live in ______ countries.

2. Because the sun is very ______ in those countries.

3. Because their skin might ______ if they don’t protect it.

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WHY ARE THEY HUNTED

Poachers hunt and kill elephants as well as rhinos, because they want to take away their ivory tusks.

They sell the tusks and horns to people to make things like cups or boxes from them.

There are not many elephants or rhinos left in Africa now.

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Rhinos and elephants are now

ENDANGERED !

This means that if we in the world don’t try to look after them, soon there won’t be any left!

How does that make you feel and why?

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Throughout the world, people are using up land and water too fast.

There are just too many people on our planet!

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Colour in the picture.

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Can you draw a path through the maze, starting at the small rhino, and ending at the green bush? You must do this without crossing any lines!

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Can you join the dots to make a picture. Start at number one, which is just above the red star, and draw a line to join one to two, two to three and continue to the end at number 64.

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Now can you draw your own rhino? Give it a name. You might want to draw it munching on some grass or trees? Or wallowing in some water?

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Can you write down 3 things you have learnt from reading this book?

1.

2.

3.

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Can you colour some plants and flowers around this African elephant?

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WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP RHINOS AND OTHER ENDANGERED SPECIES?

• Tell your friends and family what you have learnt.

• Be an active supporter of rhinos and other endangered species.