Javan rhinoceros

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But two recent, very significant developments across the world offer a glimmer of hope for animals endangered by the illegal wildlife trade.

Stunning images of an elusive Javan rhino were captured by photographer Stephen Belcher in Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National Park—a first in nearly 15 years of only capturing blurry camera trap images of the animal. Javan rhinos are extremely difficult to photograph because they are very shy and live in dense, often impenetrable rain forests.

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Kaziranga National park is home to five famed mammals – the Asiatic Elephants, Swamp Deer, Indian Rhino, Royal Bengal Tigers and Water Buffalo. The national park also shelters some of the rarest bird species making it a popular ecological destination in the country. Located in the state of Assam, Kaziranga National park is a World Heritage Site of UNESCO with a population of 2,500 rhinos – it is the 2/3rd of the total world population of Rhinos. Not only this, it also houses a large…

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This guest post was written by Benjamin Hannesson, a 13-years-old resident of Alberta, Canada. The International Rhino Foundation thanks him for his adoption and his story. In the 1990s the species of the black rhino dropped