Rhinoceros, often abbreviated to rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to Southern Asia.
The African species are the white and black rhinoceroses, and both species have two horns. Asian rhinos include the Indian (or great one-horned rhinoceros) and the Javan, each with one horn, and the Sumatran, which has two.
The largest rhino species is the white rhino. It grows to 3.7 to 4 meters (12 to 13 feet) long and up to 1.8 meters (6 feet) from hoof to shoulder. It weighs around 2,300 kilograms (5,000 lbs).
The smallest rhino species is the Sumatran rhino. It grows to 2.5 to 3 meters (8 to 10 feet) long and up to 1.5 meters (4.8 feet) from hoof to shoulder. The Sumatran rhino weighs around 800 kg (1,765 lbs.).
Rhinoceroses are herbivores, which means they eat only vegetation. The type of vegetation they eat varies by species. This is because their snouts are different shapes to accommodate different types of food. For example, the black rhino eats trees or bushes because its long lips allow it to pick leaves and fruit from up high. The white rhino has a flat-shaped snout that lets it get closer to the ground for eating grass.
Rhinos live up to 35 – 40 years in the wild and up to 50 years in captivity.
It is a solitary animal, active mainly at night.
There is about 5,000 Black Rhino , 20,000 White Rhino , 150 – 200 Sumatran Rhino, 35 – 45 Javan Rhino, 3,600 Indian Rhino.
Every two and a half to five years, a female rhino will reproduce. Female rhinos carry their young for a gestation period of 15 to 16 months. Although they nurse for a year, calves are able to begin eating vegetation one week after birth. At around 3 years old, the calf will set out on its own.
A rhino has very few predators, although a lion may try to take a calf. A spotted hyena is a more serious threat, but man is the deadliest of all.
Because the animals’ horns are used in folk medicine for their supposed healing properties, rhinos have been hunted nearly to extinction. Their horns are sometimes sold as trophies or decorations, but more often they are ground up and used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Rhinos rank among the most endangered species on Earth.
The black rhinoceros is in fact grey in color. They often assume the colour of the local soil in which they wallow.
When rhinos are happy, they make a loud “mmwonk” sound with their mouths.
Though rhinos don’t often hang out with each other, they do hang out with birds. The oxpecker will sit on a rhino’s back and eat the bugs that crawl on the rhino’s skin. That’s not the only thing this bird is good for. When danger approaches, the bird will call out, warning the rhino.
Rhino horns are made of keratin, which is also the key component of human hair and fingernails. But the horns are not just dense clumps of hair. CT scans have shown dense mineral deposits of calcium and melanin in the core of the horn.
The woolly rhino died out about 10,000 years ago. Fossils have been discovered throughout Europe and Asia.Early humans hunted these animals, and they were depicted in paintings on cave walls in France 30,000 years ago.
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