WHITE RHINO
NAME: The scientific name for the white rhinoceros is
Ceratotherium simum. It means "flat nosed wild beast with horns". The
white rhino is believed to have received its name from a
mistranslation of the Afrikaans word for "wide," referring to its lips, rather than to its color,
which varies from brown to gray.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: The white rhino is neutral gray, almost hairless. They are large mammals with large heads, small eyes, 1 or 2 horns on the snout, and 3 toes on each foot. White rhinos weigh 4,000-5,000 pounds (1,800-2,200 kilograms). They are 5-6 feet tall at the shoulder. White rhinos are the largest land mammals (after elephants), along with the greater one-horned rhino.
HABITAT: The white rhino inhabits long and short grass savannahs. Its current distribution is in southern and central Africa.
HUNTING CHARACTERISTICS: White rhinos graze for their food.
INTERESTING FACTS: White rhinos are semi-social and territorial. The female and subadult rhinos are rarely solitary. Bulls are typically solitary, though satellite males may reside within one another's territories. Females sexually mature at 6-7 years; males at 0-12 years. Gestation period is approximately 16 months; interbirth interval of 1 calf is every 2-3 years. The life span is approximately 40-60 years.
The southern white rhino was one of the first kinds of rhino to be at the brink of extinction. At the start of this century, there were perhaps only 50 southern white rhino surviving. The southern white rhino has recently been persecuted by poachers, who sell its horn for medicinal or ornamental purposes in the Far East and Middle East. At the end of the 19th century, southern white rhinos were killed by farmers and hunters much as the American bison was in the United States. However, conservationists, researchers and concerned individuals (especially in South Africa) have helped bring the southern white rhino population to about 7,500. They are now the most abundant kind of rhino in the world.
The northern white rhino is probably the most endangered large mammal in ironic contrast to the status of its relative, the southern white rhino. The northern white rhino in captivity have not been reproducing well. In fact, no offspring have been produced since 1989. Intensive efforts are in progress at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Dvur Kralove to evaluate and manipulate their rhino to induce breeding.