RHINO -- Update 28 March, 2015

UPDATE: 28 March, 2015 --  A new report came out that Rhinos heading for extinction. At Kruger Park in South Africa they are losing about three a day to poachers. They are well organised gun syndicates. Unfortunately, the horn has a higher price than gold. Last year they lost 800 in this park alone. Now, they plan to bring some Rhinos to Australia and let them breed in the outback. Eventually they will be reintroduced in South Africa again. It had been done before and it is hoped it will be just as successful.

BLACK RHINO

The Rhino exists for 40 million years.   
Hunters and  poachers almost wiped it out 
in the last 80-100 years.  
A record to be proud of.

Rhinos existed about 40 million years ago, evolving from the tapirs, and were with the tapirs the most wide-spread hoofed mammals. They belong to the family of equids which also include horses, asses and zebras.

Rhinos are not known for running long-distance like the other members of the family but with the armour-like skin, which is extremely tough, it withstands most attacks. The skin is hairless or nearly hairless but for the Sumatra rhino. The large head is to counterbalancing when the large body pivots over the front legs. The front legs support most of the weight of the large body. The push comes from the hind legs when moving. The rhinoceros has developed more ribs to carry the great body.

It has a highly developed sense of smell and can discover danger from a far distance. Scents also are a way to communicate between one and another. Each dominant male stakes out his territory with invisible scent marks. It is done by spraying urine on bushes or ground, putting dung heaps, rubbing skins on the trees so the flakes come off and after rolling in mud.

The tube-like ears can swivel round to catch any suspicious sounds and they have an acute sense of hearing. However, it is short-sighted and cannot see an object further than 30m.

Their horns are not bones like the ones of cattle or sheep. Their horns are made of a mass of hollow keratin fibres, like hairs. They are attached loosely to a roughened area of the skull. It will grow again when it does break off. The Sumatra rhino, black and white rhino of Africa have two horns. The front one is the biggest. The Indian and Javan rhinos have only one horn at the end of their nose.

SUMATRA  RHINO

Of the five species of rhinos, two live in Africa and three in Asia. From that there are distinct groups but distantly related. The Asian rhinos are the oldest from the evolution. The first species to evolve was the Sumatra rhino and it is the only one still in existence of that group. The woolly rhino which belonged to that group is extinct. 

WOOLLY RHINO -- EXTINCT

The Sumatran rhino is the most primitive of all of them because it has not changed in 40 million years. It is also the smallest of the rhinos and has two rather small horns. The skin is hairy especially when young. Its home is in the mountain rainforests.

JAVA RHINO

The one-horned Asian rhinos have two surviving members. The Java rhino is smaller and more primitive.  It looks like the species living 10 million years ago. The neck plate is separate and the skin has a mosaic pattern. It lives in lowland rainforests. The Indian rhino is almost the size of the white rhinoceros. It has wart-like bumps on its skin, on the shoulder and upper leg. Its territories are tall swampy grasslands and spend its time wallowing in water.

WHITE RHINO

The third group are the African rhinos. The white rhino has a square lip and is more docile than the black rhino. It is much larger and the largest of them all. The body length can measure up to 4m. The front horn can measure up to 1.2m.  It evolved from the more primitive black rhino. It grazes on the great African grassland.

BLACK RHINO

The black rhino has a hook lip and existed 4-5 million years ago. It browses in thick bush. The front horn of the black rhino is slightly longer.

All the rhinos are only eating vegetation and eat a large amount to keep up their large body. Sumatra and Javan species feed on leave, tips of shoots and fruits. The Indian rhino feeds mainly on short grass but also eats tall grass and shrubs with it super lip. The black rhino can with its longer pointed upper lip feed on a great variety of shrubs, breaking off twigs and leaves. When the grass is long enough it twist off bundles and eats fruits. The white rhino is a pure grazer with its square lips which enables it a large area of bite and this gives it enough grass all year round.

The disadvantage of the rhino's body is that it can't sweat. Therefore it has to be near water or mud where it can wallow. The thick coat of mud helps to absorb the body heat and kills the flies and parasites like ticks and lice which fall The time span between births varies from two to four years. The single baby looks so small next to its great bodied mother. The calf of an Indian and white rhino runs in front of its mother but closely. The calf of the black rhino follows at the back. The calves stay with their mothers even after weaning and leave just before the next one is born.

The male rhino becomes sexual active when it is seven or eight years old but starts breeding when it is ten years. It has to be strong and powerful to challenge older males to establish its territory. The female, white and Indian, rhino have their first calves when they are six or eight years old. The black female rhino give birth one year less. They give birth all year round.

In the 19th century the three Asian species were hunted to the point of extinction. This also counted for the southern race of the white rhino which was almost extinct by the end of the 19th century. White settlers in the Cape wiped out the black rhino completely.  In the 1970s and 1980s a massive number of rhinos were killed by poachers. The price of the rhino horn rose so dramatically and is now higher than gold.

Only a fraction of rhinos remain in India and there are mostly living in nature reserves, the Assam province, India and Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Although poaching is on the increase and they kill the rhinos with wires from the overhead power lines or poison their food but it is amazing that the numbers are increasing.

The Sumatra rhino has a wide range of territory and yet only 799 survived and there are isolated populations in Indonesia and Malaysia. It is also assumed that a very small number lives in Thailand and Burma. It is very hard to protect them and save them from poachers because they spread over such a wide area. Their numbers are declining and the loss of habitat doesn't help. The rainforest in Sumatra and Borneo are reduced at an alarming rate.

JAVAN RHINO

JAVAN RHINO

The most threatened specie of rhino and rarest of the world's large mammals, is the Javan rhino. The population of only 50 lives in a small national park, Udjong Kulong, in western Java. They discovered 12-15 in Vietnam but they are on the brink of extinction.

The black rhino used to be the most widespread of them all. From the 1970s to 1980s their number were reduced from 65,000 to 3,000 in 1987. 98% were killed in Kenya alone till 1985. Kenya now has a protected sanctuary and their numbers increase a steady five per cent a year.

WHITE RHINO GUARDED
IT IS NOW THE LAST 
MALE WHITE RHINO

The southern race of white rhino was down to 50 at the turn of the century but now with protection, which they benefited from their numbers is now 4,800. It also had been reintroduced in countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique after it was hunted to extinction there.  Once wide spread, the northern race was almost wiped out by poachers in 1970s and 1980s. In the Garamba National Park, Zaire only exist just 28 rhinos.

EXTINCT 
GIRAFFE SIZED RHINO