Park Rangers Go Naked to Protect Rhinos

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/11/13/park-rangers-go-naked-protect-rhinos?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-11-13


These wildlife officers stripped for a calendar to raise money to save the endangered animal.



(Photo: Josie Borain)

November 13, 2014 By John R. Platt

John R. Platt covers the environment, technology, philanthropy, and more for Scientific American, Conservation, Lion, and other publications.

A dozen park rangers from South Africa and Botswana who already devote their lives to protecting their countries’ wildlife have gone one step further: They have taken off their clothes to pose for a calendar to help save the rhinoceros from poachers.

The “Rangers for Rhinos” calendar, published by a new company called Natural Causes to benefit the Game Rangers Association of Africa and conservation group Resource Africa, has already sold out its first two printings of 3,500 copies and is now shipping its third.

The calendar is the brainchild of Nicola Monro, who was inspired by the movie Calendar Girls, in which several women from Yorkshire pose nude to benefit leukemia research. A friend of hers produced a similar calendar with the Warwick University rowing club to fight homophobia. Monro decided a similar calendar could do a lot to benefit rhinos.

“Rhinos are a good cause, and one that requires a lot of very out-of-the-box solutions and fund-raising ideas to keep the public engaged,” she said.



FULL story at link.