molly-b0o:

toaarcan:

bunjywunjy:

yes, there are many things cursed, rhino-ways!

for instance! rhino hearing?

EXCELLENT

rhino sense of smell?

FANTASTIC

rhino vision?

ABSOLUTE DOGSHIT

rhino eyesight is is so short-range that they can’t really make out any objects more than about ninety feet away, and details just straight-up elude them!

that’s okay though, because if you’re a rhino you can always just put your head down and charge any suspicious blurs in your vicinity, and as long as they’re smaller than an elephant, you’re good :)

oh FUCK

If rhinos need to be airlifted, they generally need to be suspended by the feet, and they look really silly

This guy in the photo wandered into known poaching areas, and they had to airlift him to safety ASAP

They need to be transported upside down because were they in a harness, the pressure on their rib cage would crush and damage the lungs (potentially fatally). The alternative is to put them on stretchers like this:

However it takes ~30 minutes to secure a rhino to a stretcher, meaning they need to be knocked out for far longer, and the anaesthetics used can cause either respiratory depression (breathing suppression - less common) or hypoxemia (low blood oxygen - more common) - this is where being suspended upside down actually helps!

A study was done in 2015 to compare sideways lying (like on the stretcher) to upside-down suspension that showed that being upside down actually increases blood oxygen levels as it stretches open the airways, making it the safest, easiest way to transport these 1-3 ton beasts

You can read more about upside-down rhinos here!

Why airlifting rhinos upside down is critical to conservation

For the past decade, conservationists have been airlifting black rhinos upside down. It's faster, cheaper and easier than other airlifting m

CNN