" PRAIRIE EVENING SHORT-EARED OWL "
Robert Bateman

950 s/n Paper
18" x 26.875"
$159

"Rhinos are one of the most impressive and massive land mammals, and they do not usually fool around.
If they were to play, their only games would be power plays. A charging bull elephant is often bluffing
-- not so the rhino. A rhino will make a pretty serious mess out of any vehicle, which has not helped
their fight for survival. Rhinos can handle any natural threat but not modern man and his high-power bullets.

Rhinos were never hunted by native African tribes, and even the early white trophy hunters were
not a serious threat. In 1970 there were about 20,000 black rhinos in Kenya; today there are
fewer than 500. This devastation has been caused by the senseless, frivolous beliefs of people
in countries thousands of miles away from the black rhino's domain: in the Orient, rhinoceros horn
(consumed in powdered form) is believed to be an aphrodisiac; in the last 15 years, the price of a
kilo of rhino horn has risen from $35 to $500. In North Yemen, to be considered a virile young
man requires owning a dagger with a handle made of rhinoceros horn; such a dagger now
costs more than $15,000.

To keep this magnificent beast from extinction, we need a global power play to abolish rhino
poaching and the money that supports it. I painted Power Play to raise funds to abolish illegal
rhino horn trade and to save this 70-million-year-old species from extinction."
Robert Bateman

 

  

1987 - acrylic - 36” x 48” - Powerplay Rhinoceras - Robert Bateman

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