UAE pupils who swam 5km in a school challenge and campaigned to save rhinos from poachers were given a chance to see and feed rhinos in person on World Environment Day.

The Ajman Academy and Uptown School-Mirdif pupils were rewarded with an exclusive visit and interaction with not one but three Greater one-horned rhinos or Indian rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) at the privately owned Al Bustan Zoological Centre in Sharjah.

The pupils got to meet and feed Thulie, a 32-month old Indian rhino, believed to be the first Indian rhino born in the Middle East in 2013. His birth came as a glimmer of hope for the Indian rhino population, which was estimated to be less than 4,000 as of 2013. The pupils also met Asha, Thulie's mom, and Girjah, Asha's mate. The Indian rhinoceros once ranged throughout the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but excessive hunting and agricultural development reduced their range drastically to 11 sites in northern India and southern Nepal. In the early 1990s, between 1,870 and 1,895 rhinos were estimated to have been alive. In 2015, a total of 3,555 Indian rhinoceros are estimated to live in the wild.

Their cousins, the African rhinos in South Africa, are being massacred for their horns across Africa. In 2015 alone, poachers killed 1,338 rhinos — that's roughly four rhinos killed in a day. Since 2008, poachers have killed at least 5,940 rhinos, according to Save The Rhino International.

"Rhinos are actually dying faster than they are being born which is, if you look at it, really, really scary," Kate Burns, assistant manager and veterinary nurse at Al Bustan Zoological Centre, told Gulf News.

Burns lauded the pupils for their efforts in raising awareness among their schoolmates about the importance of rhino conservation.