Players of online MMORPG, RuneScape, can win a virtual rhino pet, as the game teams up with United for Wildlife to highlight the plight of the endagered species. Over a two-week period, players will be asked to answer a series of questions, which will bring attention to the threats the rhino is under, including a loss of habitat and poachers killing animals to sell their horns on the black market.
Players that answer three questions correctly will get a white rhino pet, while answering 10 questions correctly will net them a rare black rhino pet. During the two-week initial period, and for two weeks following this, rhino pets will give players an experience boost.
United for Wildlife is part of the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, and is a collaboration between seven of the world's biggest conservation groups, including the WWF and London Zoo. Its latest campaign is designed to highlight the massive threat that the Rhino us under. It's now estimated that there are fewer than 5,000 black rhino and fewer than 20,000 white rhino left in Africa, while the Asian rhinos (Sumatran, Javan and greater one-horned) suffer a similar threat level.
For the societies involved in United for Wildlife, they see RuneScape as a new way to reach out to a different audience, particularly one comprised of younger people. The hope is to give people an interest and understanding of conservation as early as possible and reverse the decline of endagered species. To get involved in the latest campaign, you can visit the United for Wildlife website, while RuneScape players will encounter the questions and opportunity to win their rhino pet from now.
