Black Rhinoceros
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Facts and Knowledge:
The black rhinoceros is in fact gray and often assumes the color of the soil in which it wallows. It now is threatened with extinction since poachers continue to hunt for it horn. The black Rhino is the most aggressive species of its family, and despite its massive bulk, it can charge with great speed at an unwary observer. Still, it is usually a peaceful animals if it is not disturbed, preferring instead to browse the low trees of its wooded habitat or simply doze in the cool shade.
Habits: The black rhino lives in hilly areas on the edges of woodlands. Although the male, called the bull, is solitary, his home range overlaps with those other bulls, and he comes into contact with them at their water hole. The bulls tolerate each other. Their group, known as a clan, is led by a dominant bull. The clan members challenge any unknown rhino that visits the water hole. Snorting loudly, they paw the ground and may charge, but they rarely make contact. The intruder usually retreats. The rhino uses scent to mark territory. It urinates along paths and scrapes the ground with s it in feet after defecating to collect and carry the scent away with it.
Breeding: To show his interest in a female, the bull rhino brushes his horn over the ground, charges at bushes, rushes back and forth, and frequently sprays urine. The female may reject him at first and then allow him to mate to her. Fifteen months after mating, the female retreats into dense cover to give birth. Although the calf can walk then it is barely 10 matures old, the mother keeps it hidden for the next few weeks, defending it from predators. The male black rhino stops growing at seven years of age. The female matures earlier at two to five years.
Food & Feeding: The black rhino browses on trees and shrubs. It pulls down branches from shrubs with it horn and strips the leaves and shoots from them with its prehensile (capable of grasping) upper lip. Its also pulls up small seeding trees and eats fruit off tress or fruit that has fallen to the ground, It cannot graze easily, but it does tear up and eat grass clumps. since it needs to drink once a day, the rhino stays near water,.
It uses regular traveled paths to reach its water hole. The paths are clearly visible in the undergrowth. During drought it digs for water with its forefeet. The black rhino feeds at dawn and dusk, sleeping in the shade or n the mud wallow during the hottest hours. Since it cannot sweat, its rolls in mud or dust to keep[ cool and to give itself a protective coating or insect repelling mud.
Key Facts: Sizes, Weight, breeding, lifestyle, related Species
Length: Head mad body, 10 -12 ft.
Height: To shoulder, 4 - 6 ft
Weight: 1,000 - 3,000 lbs
Breeding:
Sexual maturity: Males 7 years, Females
4 or 5 years
Mating: year round
Gestation: 15 months
No of young: 1 calf
Lifestyle:
Call: Snort and puff, Calf bleats if it
loses its mother.
Habit: Solitary, nocturnal
Diet: Branches and leaves from shrubs
and trees, some fruit, long grass, and herbs.
Life span: 40 years in captivity
Related Species: The white rhino, the large
Indian rhino, the smaller Javan rhino, and the Sumatran rhino.
Distribution: The black rhino now exists
only in small pockets in eastern and southern Africa free. There
are however a few breeding in zoos around the world.
Conservation: In 1984 there were 8,80-0
black rhinos, but at the end of the 1989 the number had fallen to 3,300.
Now 1998 there is less than 3,000. In the world. Plans are
being made to protect and manage the black rhino in the southern part of
its range before reintroducing it into the rest of its range.
Features of the Black Rhino
Coat: Thick, hairless, gray. The
rhino wallows in order to keep cool and to coat skin with mud for protection
against biting insects.
Horns: Made of the same substance as the
hoofs and fixed to a bump on the nasal bone. The longer horn may
grow over four feet long.
Senses: The rhino has poor eyesight
but good hearing. Its keen smell detects both predators and other
rhino's.
Upper Lip: Pointed and prehensile (capable
of grasping). The black rhino uses it to strip vegetation for eating, as
an elephant would use it trunk.
Did you know:
A black rhino can charge at 30 miles per hour
and is capable of killing a human being.
A female black rhino was once seen wallowing
with six turtles, who were feeding on ticks as they climbed over her body.
Oxpeckers travel on the rhino's back and provide
a dual service: they pick off ticks and screech loudly when humans
approach.
A black rhino calf follows its mother while she
clears a path through dense cover, but a young white rhino is more likely
to run ahead.
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