CityNews – Did you know that today is world rhino day? Well, neither did we, but the Chiang Mai Zoo did. Students and tourists joined in the festivities with zoo authorities today to prepare a Rhino kantoke (we suspect that this may be the first time those words have ever been put together) for the zoo’s only Indian rhino’s dining pleasure. Fruits, vegetables, grass and an assortment of rhino goodies were put up kantoke style for Gali, the 30 year old female Indian rhinoceros, and the only one of her species in Thailand.
The activity was done to raise awareness of the plight of these animals, which are being threatened with extinction. Gali is of a rare species already listed by CITES as an endangered species. She moved to Chiang Mai Zoo in 1994 with Nadi her male partner who sadly died in 2002. Indian rhinoceros are found in India and Nepal, they have only one horn which is valued in north Africa and the Middle East as a dagger and there are only 2,000 of them left in the wild.