{"id":124681,"date":"2025-09-07T03:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T03:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124681\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T03:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T03:55:08","slug":"blind-rhino-and-his-baby-elephant-bestie-share-extra-special-daily-greeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124681\/","title":{"rendered":"Blind Rhino and His Baby Elephant Bestie Share Extra-Special Daily Greeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone needs friends\u2014even extra-large mammals love having others around. Maxwell is a 19-year-old Black Rhinoceros<\/a> who lives at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a special guy\u2014not just because his species is at risk of extinction, but because he is completely blind.<\/p>\n

Being blind doesn\u2019t stop this rhino from enjoying life to the fullest. He has been a permanent resident of the nursery at the Trust for over 18 years. Although rhinos are typically solitary animals, Max loves his daily visits from the baby elephant<\/a>\u2014and they absolutely adore him too.<\/p>\n

As we see in the video shared by @sheldricktrust, each morning the baby elephants visit Maxwell\u2019s stockade gate. They make noise to let him know they\u2019re there. One special friend<\/a>, Kerrio, even has her own custom signal\u2014she kicks the fence with her back leg\u2014as if she\u2019s saying, \u201cGood Morning, Maxwell!\u201d<\/p>\n

If the baby elephant secret code weren\u2019t adorable enough, Max gets so excited when they arrive that he does zoomies<\/a> around his habitat. In the video clip, the rhino takes a quick trip around the tree in the center of his play yard\u2014with some serious pep in his step.<\/p>\n

Related: Baby Black Rhino Zoomies Are Wildly Adorable and We’re Obsessed<\/a><\/p>\n

The Trust rescued this amazing creature when he was a year old. It\u2019s unclear why he was alone in the wild, but shortly after saving him, the keepers and veterinary staff determined that Max was blind due to a congenital eye disease. He was promised permanent residency and has truly flourished in the safe, nurturing environment.<\/p>\n

What Are Instagram Followers Saying?<\/p>\n

With over 30K views, followers flooded the comment section with love:<\/p>\n

\u201cKnock knock. Who\u2019s there? Kerrio and Taroha!! Come to play!\u201d \ud83d\udc93\ud83d\udc93<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the spirited Morse code signal taps from Kerrio! \u2018Max, three taps mean we ride at dawn.\u2019 \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02 Love these babies!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTapping the gate to let the friend know you are visiting\u2014just incredible \ud83d\ude0d Elephant are truly amazing!\u201d \u2764\ufe0f\ud83d\udc18<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond amazed at how intelligent and intuitive these animals are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKicking the gate for the visually impaired for the win! \ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6<\/p>\n

\u201cNot the elephant version of ding-dong ditch!\u201d \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n

Maxwell may not be able to see his friends, but he sure knows they\u2019re there. Kerrio and Taroha are just two of the many baby pachyderms who have befriended him over the years\u2014and with an average life expectancy of 35-50 years, there will be many more friendships<\/a> to come. According to the Trust, Max is one of their most popular animals\u2014and honestly, we can see why.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by PetHelpful<\/a> on Sep 6, 2025, where it first appeared in the Pet News<\/a> section. Add PetHelpful as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone needs friends\u2014even extra-large mammals love having others around. Maxwell is a 19-year-old Black Rhinoceros who lives at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,20234,9176,87563,34534,50516,61950,128,14563,87562,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-124681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-baby-elephant","11":"tag-baby-elephants","12":"tag-black-rhinoceros","13":"tag-kenya","14":"tag-maxwell","15":"tag-nairobi","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-sheldrick-wildlife-trust","18":"tag-solitary-animals","19":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}