Rhinoceros (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain everything about rhinos, what they eat, their reproduction and other characteristics. Also, why it is in danger of extinction.

What is a rhinoceros?

Certain animals are known as rhinoceroses or abadas. species of large quadrupedal and herbivorous mammals equipped with thick and hard skin, crowned by a single keratin horn in the middle of the snout.

In fact, Its horn is its most distinctive feature to the point that it appears in the origin of his name (coming from the Greek voices rhino, “nose”, and kera“horn”) and has constituted a prized hunting trophy, throughout the decades that it has taken humans to bring this animal to the brink of extinction.

They are solitary and very territorial animals, especially the males, whose horns are used to confront each other when competing for the right to mate or for control of a certain habitat.

There are five species of rhinos all classified zoologically within the family Rhinocerontidae:

The white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum)
The Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)
The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus)
The Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis)
The black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis).

An extinct species of woolly rhinoceros is also known (Coelodonta antiquitatis), which was common in Europe and northern Asia during the last glacial period.

It is estimated that these animals evolved evolutionarily at the end of the Eocene, about 56 million years ago, somewhere in Eurasia. Over the centuries they went from being small and numerous animals to becoming the true colossi that they are today, the only living representatives (along with elephants and hippos) of the megafauna of the Pleistocene or Holocene.

Characteristics of rhinos

rhinoceros skin characteristics — Rhino skin is composed of overlapping layers of collagen, without hair.

In general, rhinos are characterized by the following:

They are large quadrupedal animals, which range between one and four tons in weight and have an average body length of 1.70 meters. Their skin is particularly thick, between 1.5 and 5 cm thick, and is composed of overlapping layers of collagen, without hair.
The horn on the animal's snout is made of keratin without bone components. African rhinos have two horns, while Indian and Javan rhinos have only one. These bumps are highly sought after commercially as an aphrodisiac or traditional remedy.
have relatively small brains for their immense size (barely between 400 and 600 g of brain mass), and they are very unsociable animals, which only get together during youth (especially between mothers and offspring), and during the mating season.
have a very keen sense of smell and hearing to compensate for rather poor vision, with their eyes located on the sides of the head. Instead, their ears are tube-shaped and can move independently towards sound sources.
Its color tends to vary in shades of gray and brown.

Where do rhinos live?

In prehistoric times, rhinos spread throughout much of the world, and lived in North America and Europe until around 10,000 years ago when many species were hunted to near extinction by early humanity.

Currently they can only be seen in Africa. (South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Tanzania, depending on the species) and in some regions of South Asia (India, Nepal, Assam, Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma, Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo, depending on the species).

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What do rhinos eat?

rhino feeding — Rhinos eat leaves, but they can also feed on roots, stems and branches.

The rhinos They are entirely herbivorous animals. Their diet is made up mostly of leaves, but they can also subsist on roots, stems and branches that ferment effectively in their colon. They have powerful molars and premolars with which to crush plant fiber and some species have a more or less prehensile frontal region of the snout.

How do rhinos reproduce?

rhinoceros reproduction — Rhinos have only one calf per birth.

Like other mammals, rhinos they reproduce sexually and viviparously. Males compete for females by clashing their horns and often injuring each other in the process, until one wins the right to the female. Pregnancies usually last a year and a half and release a single calf per birth, which weighs about 65 to 40 kilograms at birth. This can occur at any time of the year.

How long do rhinos live?

The life expectancy of a rhino It can vary depending on its species, but it is estimated that in the wild it ranges between 40 and 50 years although there have been cases of greater longevity, although not by much.

Is the rhino in danger of extinction?

According to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), most Asian species of rhinoceros (Java, Sumatra and black rhinoceros) are in critical danger of extinction while the Indian rhinoceros is on the previous rung, that is, in danger of extinction. Hunting is prohibited and significant efforts are made to preserve existing populations of the species.

For its part, The white rhinoceros presents very different conservation states depending on which of its two subspecies one is referring to. The northern subspecies, Ceratotherium simum cottonian inhabitant exclusively of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other nearby regions such as Sudan, is in critical danger of extinction, since of the three specimens that remained in custody in 2015, the only male died in 2018.