White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground. Both black and white rhinoceroses are actually gray. They are
different not in color but in lip shape. The black rhino has a pointed
upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip. The difference in
lip shape is related to the animals' diets. Black rhinos are browsers
that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use
their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos
graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips
lowered to the ground.
White rhinos live on Africa's grassy
plains, where they sometimes gather in groups of as many as a dozen
individuals. Females reproduce only every two and a half to five years.
Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years
old.
Under the hot African sun, white rhinos take cover by lying
in the shade. Rhinos are also wallowers. They find a suitable water hole
and roll in its mud, coating their skin with a natural bug repellent
and sun block.
Rhinos have sharp hearing and a keen sense of
smell. They may find one another by following the trail of scent each
enormous animal leaves behind it on the landscape.
White rhinos
have two horns, the foremost more prominent than the other. Rhino horns
grow as much as three inches (eight centimeters) a year, and have been
known to grow up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. Females use their horns to
protect their young, while males use them to battle attackers.
The
prominent horn for which rhinos are so well known has been their
downfall. Many animals have been killed for this hard, hair-like growth,
which is revered for medicinal use in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and
Singapore. The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East
as an ornamental dagger handle.
The white rhino once roamed much
of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction due to
poaching fueled by these commercial uses. Only about 11,000 white rhinos
survive in the wild, and many organizations are working to protect this
much loved animal.
Fast Facts
- Type:
- Mammal
- Diet:
- Herbivore
- Size:
- Head and body, 11 to 13.75 ft (3.4 to 4.2 m); tail, 20 to 27.5 in (50 to 70 cm)
- Weight:
- 3,168 to 7,920 lbs (1,440 to 3,600 kg)
- Protection status:
- Endangered
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