By Patti Miles, BFR Committee

Bowling for Rhinos (BFR) is an annual bowling event hosted by AAZK/Detroit, the zookeepers' professional organization, where we raise money for conservation projects in Africa and Asia. Over 40 AAZK chapters participate throughout the US and Canada, raising over $200,000 annually. This year, our event will be held on Saturday, May 31 at 3 p.m. (Family Event) or 7 p.m. (Classic Event) at Cloverlanes Bowl in Livonia. We will offer an afternoon event specifically for families and our traditional evening event.

Our focus this year is to "green up" our event. We've taken a few steps already, even though BFR is several months away! Here are some examples:

• Creating an environmentally-friendly brochure that can be recycled.
• Selling organic (Newman's Own) candy bars. (For sale in the Administration Building, Docent Office and the vet hospital. Yummy!)
• Looking into organic T-shirts for the event.
• Planning to reduce the amount of materials that we use the day of the event.

Rhinos have lived on earth for over 50 million years but whether they survive even 50 more years is open to speculation. Only 5 species of rhino exist today when once there were over 100 species. All 5 species, white, black, Indian, Sumatran and Javan are endangered. Today, there are about 11,300 white rhinos in Africa but only 3,600 black rhinos remain in isolated populations. On the Asian continent, there are 2,500 Indian rhinos, 300 Sumatrans and only 60 Javans.

BFR brochures are available throughout the Zoo or can be downloaded at www.aazkdetroit.org. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at aazk@dzs.org or (248) 541-5717 ext. 3000.

We hope you will join us on May 31 for an afternoon/evening of bowling, fun, and most importantly, conservation. Please help us to save the endangered rhinoceros.