Playful Baby Rhino Adorably Pesters His Mom

September 22 is World Rhino Day and we’re pretty sure this is the only video you’ll need to see that will get your heart flutter with love for this majestic beast.Show more

The Chester Zoo in Cheshire, England captured this adorable footage just in time to celebrate the big day, showing rhino mom Zuri and her uncooperative calf Ike in their enclosure. The <a href="https://rumble.com/v3e3he-baby-rhino-serenaded-to-sleep-by-sounds-of-carers-guitar.html" target="_blank">baby rhino</a> playfully jumps around and on his mom, seeking attention, but mom simply brushes him off because, well, it is World Rhino Day and she deserves some downtime.

Ike is one of two endangered <a href="https://rumble.com/v3fcxq-rare-eastern-black-rhino-gives-birth-at-cincinnati-zoo.html" target="_blank">Eastern black rhino</a> calves born only weeks apart at this ZOO earlier this year and, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), it is believed that less than 650 of these animals now remain in the wild across their native Africa. The whipe out of around 95% of the world’s rhino population can be accredited to the surge in illegal poaching, driven by a global increase in demand for rhino horn to supply the traditional Asian medicine market.

The ZOO’s Africa Field Programmes Coordinator Stuart Nixon said: “The IUCN estimates that, on average, almost two rhinos have been killed every day in Africa for nine straight years and they could be extinct in as little 10 years."

“Rhinos need protecting, not poaching," says Nixon.

Credit to 'Chester Zoo'.