![]() White rhinos are the largest rhino and the fourth largest land animal. ![]() Rhinos have been around for over 20 million years.No predators, although young rhinos can be predated on by big cats and crocodiles.Rhinos have relatively small brains at around 500g.There has also been calls in recent years to open up the trade of rhino horn in order to combat poaching, however this is a contentious issue. Some managed populations in parks and reserves are routinely stripped of their horns in order to reduce their value to poachers. A good deal of the reduction in population sizes is due to poaching for horn, with the dead or dying rhinos stripped of their horns. The major threat to wild rhinos is the illegal trade in rhino horn which is sold on the black market, commonly east Asia, for use in traditional medicines or fashioned into ornaments. Of the other two species the Indian rhino is declared vulnerable, while the white rhino is now listed as near threatened, having made a come-back in recent years. Of these one sub-species of black rhino was declared extinct in 2011, there are now less than 60 Javan rhinos are still alive and Sumatran rhinos, the smallest of the rhinos, are down to only 275 individuals. Three species of rhino are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, black, Javan and Sumatran rhinos. In contrast the black rhinos have a pointed, prehensile top lip which they use for grasping foliage, displaying their very different feeding habits. It is a common belief that the white rhino (seen at the very top of the page) is so-named because "white" is a distortion of either the Afrikaans word "wyd", meaning "wide", corresponding to their square lips which they use for grazing on grass. White and black rhinos aren't as contrasting in shade as you may imagine - both are a similar shade of grey. The Indian rhino's binomial name, Rhinoceros unicornis, points to this single horn, although this is about all it shares with the mythical unicorn. Black rhinoceros with distinctive lip Speciesīoth the African white and black rhinos and the Sumatran species have two horns, while Indian and Javan rhinos have a single horn.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |