World javelin champion Julius Yego on Thursday joined Kenyans to celebrate World Rhino Day.
"I'm standing up for rhinos to make people understand we can't keep killing them," Yego said in a statement to newsrooms.
Yego is a silver medalist in Javelin at Rio Olympics and nicknamed YouTube Man for learning to throw by watching videos online.
"I learned to throw the javelin from watching videos on YouTube, but I don't want this to be the only place where people can see rhinos in the future," he said.
According to UNEP, remaining rhino populations are under threat from poachers looking to sell their horns on international black markets.
About 96 per cent of black rhinos were lost to poaching between 1970 and 1992. In 2015, poachers killed at least 1,338 rhinos in Africa with only 4,800 black rhinos left.
Early this month, the Great Elephant Census said poaching has driven a 30 per cent decrease in African savanna elephants over four years.
Pangolins, scaly anteaters, are the most illegally trafficked mammal in the world. Great Apes are already locally extinct in several African nations.
Through #WildForLife, the World javelin champion joined a huge global campaign to conserve endangered species.
#WildforLife aims to mobilise the world to make commitments and take action to end the illegal trade.
The campaign is run by UN Environment, the UN Development Programme, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
In April 30, President Uhuru Kenyatta
lit ivory saying the ceremony will show
"to fighting wildlife crime and putting wildlife products beyond any economic use."
The incineration was the world's biggest after Kenya staged its first such burning in 1989.
The ivory came both from tusks seized from poachers or traders and others gathered from elephants that died of natural causes.