The two famous rhino conservationists of Makhado (Louis Trichardt) couldn’t believe their eyes and ears when a nursery school presented them with a checque of R50 000 for rhino horn sniffer dog, Rico. 

The two 12-year-olds, Casper John Venter and Marco Marcos of Ridgeway Independent School, were invited by the Piccoli Nursery School in Pretoria as guests of honour at a function last Friday. The school saw the two with Rico on SABC2’s conservation programme 50/50, which aired in February this year, and decided to end their Environmental Week from 2 to 6 September on a high note with a function to present their large amount to the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and Rico. The deputy president of Wildlife Ranching South Africa, Dr Peter Oberem, and Ms Rynette Coetzee of EWT also attended the function. Former pupils of Piccoli were invited to participate in the opening of the day.

“The best part of the function was when Rico was crowned as Ambassador of Conservation. It was such an honour for us to have been invited and enjoy their hospitality,” said Marco.

Piccoli, a nursery school with about 200 children, hosts a large charity project or project for a good cause approximately every three years. “I felt very excited about meeting the children. I was pleased that we were able to inspire other children to raise money for Rico. It has made all our efforts worthwhile,” said Casper John.

Marco said that he was very proud of the children, staff and parents of Piccoli. “It was unbelievable to see that such small children could raise an amount of R50 000. We say, ‘WOW, Piccoli, you are amazing!’” said Marco.

Ms Marinda Marcos explained that each child had a ‘rhinoceros’ to sell. It was in the form of a picture, divided into segments and the segments were sold. When they had sold the whole rhino, they could colour the picture.

Casper John said that it was lovely to see Rico, the mascot of Ridgeway Independent School, and his handlers again. They will be seeing more of them this week when Rico, Etienne (Rico’s handler), Casper John and Marco will visit several schools in town to create awareness about the dire position in which rhinos find themselves and what is done by Rico and what can be done by children to help conserve rhinos. During the weekend, Rico will show his competence when he will sniff out illegal rhino horn that will be hidden on purpose.

The illegal rhino horn trade fuels the slaughtering of rhinos. In South Africa,  668 rhinos were killed for their horns last year. This year’s statistics show that 553 rhinos had been lost to poaching up to 7 August.

Casper John and Marco started their Rhino Peace project in 2011, with Ridgeway Independent School supporting them every inch of the way. Their project received a tremendous boost with Piccolo’s generous donation which will go towards their clever sniffer dog, Rico.