Fact About Rhinos
Rhinoceroses are large,
herbivorous mammals identified by their characteristic horned snouts. The word
"rhinoceros" comes from the Greek "rhino" (nose) and
"ceros" (horn). There are five species and 11 subspecies of rhino;
some have two horns, while others have one.
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. The powder is often added to food or brewed in a
tea in the belief that the horns are a powerful aphrodisiac, a hangover cure
and treatment for fever, rheumatism, gout and other disorders, according to the
International Rhino Foundation.
Conservation status
Save the Rhino
estimates that there were 500,000 rhinos across Africa and Asia at the
beginning of the 20th century. Today, the group says, there are 29,000 rhinos
in the wild. Poaching and loss of habitat have put all rhino species in danger
of extinction. [Related: 2013 Was Record Year for Rhino Poaching in South
Africa]
According to
International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened
Species:
Black rhinos, Sumatran
rhinos and Javan rhinos are "critically endangered," which is the
list's highest risk category. There are 5,055 black rhinos, fewer than 100
Sumatran rhinos and only 35 to 44 Javan rhinos.
Greater one-horned
rhinos are "vulnerable," which means they may become endangered
unless circumstances improve. Fortunately, their population is increasing;
there are 3,333 greater one-horned rhinos in the world. The total population
estimate in 2007 was 2,575 individuals, according to the IUCN.
White rhinos are
"near threatened," which means they may be considered threatened by
extinction in the near future. Southern white rhinos have an increasing
population; there are 20,405 southern white rhinos. However, the northern white
rhino is considered "extinct" in the wild.
In 2009, four northern
white rhinos were moved from a zoo in the Czech Republic to a private
conservancy in Kenya in the hope that they would breed, according to the IUCN.
On Oct. 18, 2014, Ol Pejeta Conservancy announced that one of them, one of the
last two breeding males, had died. He was not a victim of poaching, however,
and the conservancy was investigating the cause of death. On March 20, 2018,
the conservancy announced the death of the last male northern white rhino,
Sudan.
There are now only two
northern white rhinos left in the world, both living in captivity, according to
the World Wildlife Fund. The captive northern white rhinos are two females —
Najin, Sudan's daughter, and Fatu, Najin's daughter — which live in the Ol
Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The two females are incapable of a successful
pregnancy: Najin is too old and issues with her legs make it impossible for her
to support the weight of a mounting male; Fatu has a uterine condition that
will likely keep her from breeding, according to experts.
With natural breeding
attempts nixed for the northern white rhinos, conservationists have turned to
in vitro fertilization. However, IVF in these rhinoceroses comes with its own set
of challenges, including figuring out how to get immature eggs to develop
outside of the female's body and also how to inject sperm into these eggs.
As for the Sumatran
rhinos, they are hanging on by a thread as well. Along with the Javan rhino,
Sumatran rhinos are barely hanging on in the wild. They went extinct in Vietnam
in 2010 and in Malaysia in 2015, according to the International Rhino
Foundation. Small populations of the subspecies survive in three national parks
in Sumatra. And in March 2016, conservationists captured a live Sumatran
rhinoceros in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo for the first time.
Though a camera-trap image snapped in 2013 revealed Sumatran rhinos did survive
in this region called Kalimantan, the capture of the female marked the first
time in 40 years that humans had physically contacted a live Sumatran rhino
there.
Rhino horns
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 calcium makes the
horn stronger, and the melanin protects it from the sun's UV rays, according to
scientists at Ohio University.
The horns are similar
to horse hooves, turtle beaks and cockatoo bills, said Tobin Hieronymus, an OU
doctoral student. Rhino horns tend to curve backward, toward the head, because
the keratin in front grows faster than the keratin in the back, Hieronymus told
Live Science. The outside of the horn is rather soft and can be worn down or
sharpened after years of use, according to the San Diego Zoo. If a horn breaks
off, it can gradually grow back.
Black rhinos, white
rhinos and Sumatran rhinos have two horns. Javan rhinos and greater one-horned
rhinos have one. On the black rhino, the front horn can grow to 20 to 51 inches
(51 to 130 centimeters), while the rear horn can grow to about 20 inches,
according to the International Rhino Foundation. A white rhino's horns are
slightly smaller, and a Sumatran rhinos horns are about 10 to 31 inches (25 to
79 cm) for the front and less than 3 inches (7 cm) for the rear. The greater
one-horned rhino's horn is 8 to 24 inches (20 to 61 cm), and Javan rhinos have
a horn that is about 10 inches (25 cm) long.
How big are rhinos?
The largest rhino
species is the white rhino, according to the San Diego Zoo. It grows to 12 to
13 feet (3.7 to 4 meters) long and up to 6 feet (1.8 m) from hoof to shoulder.
It weighs around 5,000 lbs. (2,300 kilograms).
The smallest rhino
species is the Sumatran rhino. It grows to 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 m) long and
up to 4.8 feet (1.5 m) from hoof to shoulder. The Sumatran rhino weighs around
1,765 lbs. (800 kg).
Habitat
White rhinos and black
rhinos live in the grasslands and floodplains of eastern and southern Africa.
Greater one-horned rhinos can be found in the swamps and rain forests of
northern India and southern Nepal. Sumatran and Javan rhinos are found only in
small areas of Malaysian and Indonesian swamps and rain forests.
Rhinos spend their days
and nights grazing and only sleep during the hottest parts of the day. During
the rare times when they aren't eating, they can be found enjoying a cooling
mud soak. These soaks also help to protect the animals from bugs, and the mud
is a natural sunblock, according to National Geographic.
Though rhinos are often
solitary, they do occasionally form groups. Called crashes, these groups are
made up of a female and her offspring. A dominant male rules over an area of
land. The male will allow some sub-dominate males to live on his territory. Females
roam freely around several different territories.
Diet
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, according to National Geographic. 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.
Offspring
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. They usually only have one baby at a
time, though they do sometimes have twins. At birth, baby rhinos, which are
called calves, are still quite big, at 88 to 140 lbs. (40 to 64 kg), according
to the San Diego Zoo.
At around 3 years old,
the calf will set out on its own. A rhino can live up to 45 years.
Classification/taxonomy
According to the Integrated
Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), the taxonomy of rhinos is:
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom:
Bilateria
Infrakingdom:
Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum:
Gnathostomata
Superclass:
Tetrapoda
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Theria
Infraclass: Eutheria
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Genera & species:
White rhinos:
Ceratotherium simum (southern white rhinoceros), Ceratotherium cottoni
(northern white rhinoceros). IUCN lists these as subspecies of Ceratotherium
simum.
Sumatran rhinos:
Dicerorhinus sumatrensis (also called hairy rhino, Asian two-horned rhino).
Subspecies: Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrisoni, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis
lasiotis, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatransis
Black rhinos: Diceros
bicornis (black rhino).Subspecies: Diceros bicornis bicornis, Diceros bicornis
brucii, Diceros bicornis chobiensis, Diceros bicornis ladoensis, Diceros
bicornis longipes, Diceros bicornis michaeli, Diceros bicornis minor, Diceros
bicornis occidentalis
Javan rhinos:
Rhinoceros unicornis
Greater one-horned
rhinos: Rhinoceros sondaicus (also called Indian rhino). Subspecies: Rhinoceros
sondaicus annamiticus, Rhinoceros sondaicus inermis, Rhinoceros sondaicus
sondaicus
Other facts
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.
When rhinos are happy,
they make a loud "mmwonk" sound with their mouths.
Black rhinos are not
actually black, according to the International Rhino Foundation. They probably
got that name from the dark, muddy soil they like to wallow in or to
distinguish them from white rhinos.
Poachers also value
rhino horns for making ornamental dagger handles called jambiyas, according to
Save the Rhino. This type of handle became a status symbol in Yemen in the
1970s and '80s, fueled by the oil boom, when more people could afford luxury
items. Jambiyas can be made from precious metal, buffalo hide or plastic, but
those made from rhino horn were considered the "Rolex" version. Save
the Rhino reports that this use of rhino horn has accounted for fewer poaching
incidents in recent years.
The woolly rhino died
out about 10,000 years ago. Fossils have been discovered throughout Europe and
Asia, according to the International Rhino Foundation. Early humans hunted
these animals, and they were depicted in paintings on cave walls in France
30,000 years ago.
source:
https://www.livescience.com/27439-rhinos.html
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