APPLE VALLEY — The Minnesota Zoo wants a couple of rhinoceroses, of the sculpted variety.

The zoo said it wants the sculptures to put outside the entrance to its Tropics Trail. The zoo posted a solicitation in this week’s State Register that seeks responses by Jan. 20.

Officials are planning to install life-size sculptures of an adult and a calf.

It’s part of a broader campaign from the zoo’s conservation department. The department is involved in a campaign to save black rhinos in Namibia. The Minnesota Zoo has a partnership arrangement with conservation organizations working in the rugged northwestern part of the African nation.

According to the zoo, the black rhino is critically endangered and only about 4,000 remain in the wild. Their numbers plummeted amid demand for their horns.