It’s a nightmare-come-true.  Jeffrey’s mother is his fifth-grade teacher!  She’s turning the classroom upside-down:  taking mug shots of students, piling on homework, even giving Jeffrey’s best friends a hard time.  Of course, everyone takes it out on him.

Jeffrey is sure his school life is doomed. But when his fellow fifth graders start a club called KAPUT (Kids Against Perfectly Unbearable Teachers), and Jeffrey is forbidden to join, he concocts a desperate plan.  A plan to force his mother to quit her job and win back his friends.  A plan called:  Operation Rhinoceros.

RANDOM RHINO FACTS

Pucker up, baby!

There are five species of rhinos:  Black, Indian, Javan, Sumatran and White.

The rhino featured Operation Rhinoceros is a White Rhino.

White Rhinos have poor eyesight but a keen sense of hearing and smell.

A birth, a baby White Rhino weights about 150 pounds.  It soon grows to be the largest of all rhinoceroses, weighing 8,000 pounds. That’s four tons – or the same weight as 50 average-sized men!

The White Rhino has two horns.  The fore horn can reach five feet in length and is made of compressed kerotin fibers, similar to our fingernails. If a horn is cut or broken, it can grow back within a couple of years.

Many cultures believe that rhino horns have strong medicinal powers. Poachers have killed thousands of rhinos for their horns, bringing the White Rhino species to the brink of extinction.

Rhinos are vegetarians, which means they do not eat meat.  The White Rhino has a wide mouth and is a grazer, eating grass like a lawn mower.  White Rhinos are able to eat plants that are poisonous to other animals.  This helps keep the African plains weed-free!

Rhinos are closely related to horses because they have hooves.

Rhinos can run up to 40 miles per hour.

Rhinos can live up to age 50.

Rhinos communicate using their nostrils, ears and posture.  They also express themselves using a Morse-Code-like system of blowing through their nose and mouth.

A rhino’s favorite pastime?  Soaking in cool mud on hot days!

RHINO LINKS

International Rhino Foundation

African Wildlife Foundation

S.O.S. Rhino

Adopt a Rhino Programs:

International Rhino Foundation

World Wildlife Fund

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