Monarto Safari Park

Monarto Safari Park is a non-government conservation charity, every visit, adoption, donation and ticket helps to save species from extinction.

Man touching Southern White Rhino during Rhino Express experience
Women touching Southern White Rhino during Rhino Express experience

‘Did I tell you about the time I patted a rhino?..’

Get up close to magnificent Black Rhinos and Southern White Rhinos on our Black and White Rhino Interactive tour!

Ever wondered what a rhino feels like? Wonder no more. Our unique tour is your chance to touch, feed and learn all about these horned and humungous creatures and even put some of them to bed for the night!

As part of your tour, you’ll journey through Monarto Safari Park to come face-to-horn with a crash of truly impressive Southern White Rhinos. You’ll discover that despite their size and stature, these gentle giants often enjoy a tickle behind the ears and a rub between their armoured folds.

Travelling deeper into the park, you’ll find Black Rhinos are an entirely different species in both looks and temperament…

Regardless of these differences, both species are sadly threatened with extinction. Your visit helps to fight for their future in the wild and provide a home for them in Australia’s first ever rhino quarantine and management centre right here at Monarto Safari Park.

Please note the minimum age for this experience is 10 years.

Highlights of this experience

  • Pat a Southern White Rhino
  • Assist a keeper by delivering dinner to the Black Rhinos
  • Put the Black Rhinos to bed – ssshhhh!
  • Learn all about rhinos in the wild, our conservation efforts and how YOU can help

The Southern White Rhino is one of the largest land animals on earth and has the biggest horn of all rhinos’!

A rhino’s physiology closely resembles that of zebras and horses, having the same basic digestive tract (single-chambered stomach).

How your ticket helps our conservation efforts

Worth more than gold and cocaine on the illegal black market, rhino horn is incorrectly thought to have medicinal properties which is leading to the species being killed at an alarming rate. The heartbreaking reality is one rhino is killed every six hours. Unless we act now, experts are predicting rhinos will be extinct in the next ten years.

We’re proud to have successfully bred many Southern White Rhinos, an important contribution to securing the future of this near-threatened species. We’re also working with The Australian Rhino Project to build a rhino sanctuary at Monarto Safari Park, to relocate up to thirty threatened Southern White Rhinos from South Africa to Monarto where they will be protected from poaching.

Since 2011, we have been supporting rhinos in Africa through our work with The Northern Rangelands Trust. During this time, Black Rhinos have been reintroduced back into Sera after previously being poached to extinction in the community lands of northern Kenya. We have donated more than $156,000 to support a community-led ranger program that patrols the Sera Conservancy to prevent poaching and livestock theft. We also estimate that we have contributed over $60,000 to support the Honorary Rangers in Kruger National Park in their fight against rhino poaching.

By purchasing a ticket to the Rhino Interactive experience, you are helping us actively fight to ensure these powerful giants stay a stampede ahead of extinction. To support us even further you can also adopt our Rhinos or make a tax deductible donation.

Want to get involved? You can help!

Adopt or donate

About Zoos SA

Zoos SA is a not-for-profit conservation charity that exists to connect people with nature and save species from extinction.

Zoos SA acknowledges the Country on which we stand always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land and we pay our deepest respect and gratitude to Kaurna (Adelaide Zoo) and Ngarrindjeri (Monarto Safari Park) Elders, past, present and emerging.

We undertake critical conservation work throughout Australia and acknowledge the traditional custodians of these lands.

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