Steph Gilmore Joins The Australian Rhino Project

Steph Gilmore really can do it all. She’s a world champ, a favourite of high fashion publications (who else better bridges the gap between chic and surf?), and most recently, a friend to the African rhinos targeted by poachers. See, in case you’re unaware, rhino horns are believed in some parts of the world to be of medicinal value… despite the fact they’re made of keratin (yeah, the same shit as hair and nails). So, poachers mow them down and hack off their horns (343 horns would be worth more than $67 million on the black market). More than 5000 have been killed since 2010, and if those numbers persist, rhinos will be extinct by 2024. It’s an awful, shitty game.

Instead of breezing around Indo or the Gold Coast while waiting for Rio to start, Steph instead chose to head to South Africa to lend her support to the Australian Rhino Project, whose main aim is to take 80 of the animals to Australia ($60k each) to create an “insurance population.” They’ll be bred in Oz, with the intention of reintroducing them to South Africa if the threat of poaching ever fades.

“I’m truly honoured to be here in South Africa with the Australian Rhino Project,” Steph said on Instagram. “Three Rhinos are poached every single day in South Africa purely for their horns, unfortunately leading them on the path to extinction within the near future. Meeting these young orphaned Rhinos, whose mothers were so cruelly taken from them at the hands of poachers, was incredibly moving and has inspired my proud support to establish an insurance population of Rhinos in Australia. Learn more and show your support TheAustralianRhinoProject.org.”