Scientific Name: Ceratotherium simum
Class: Animalia
Family Name: Rhinocerotidae
Trophic Level: Herbivore Grazers Head to Body Length: Males: 3.7m – 4m (12.1 – 13.1ft)
Females: 3.4m – 3.65m (11.2 – 12ft)
Weight: Males: 2,300kg
Females: 1,700kg
Shoulder Height: Males: 170 – 186 cm (5.58 – 6.10 ft)
Females: 160 – 177 cm (5.25 – 5.81 ft)
IUCN Red List: Near Threatened (NT)
Life Span: 40 – 50 years
Diet: grass and the shortest grains
Habitat: Grasslands and Savannah habitat.
Description: The white rhinoceros is the largest of the five species of rhinoceros. The mean body mass, the white rhinoceros falls behind the only three extant of the elephant as the largest land animal and terrestrial mammal alive today. It weighs slightly more on average than a hippopotamus despite a considerable mass overlap between these two species. It has a massive body and large head, a short neck and broad chest. On its snout it has two-horn like growths, one behind the other. These are made up of solid keratin.
- It is also known as square-lipped rhinoceros and is the largest extant species of rhinoceros.
- The white rhinoceros consists of two subspecies: the southern white rhinoceros, with an estimated 19,682–21,077 wild-living animals in the year 2015, and the much rarer northern white rhinoceros.
- The northern subspecies has very few remaining individuals, with only two confirmed left in 2018 (two females; Fatu, 18 and Najin, 29), both in captivity.
- Sudan, the world's last known male northern white rhinoceros, died in Kenya on 19 March 2018.
- The English word “white” is said to have been derived by mistranslation of the Dutch word “wijd”, which means “wide” in English.
- The word “wide” refers to the width of the rhinoceros’smouth.
- So early English-speaking settlers in South Africa misinterpreted the “wijd” for “white” and the rhino with the wide mouth ended up being called the white rhino and the other one, with the narrow pointed mouth, was called the black rhinoceros.
- An alternative name for the white rhinoceros, more accurate but rarely used, is the square-lipped rhinoceros.
- The white rhinoceros' generic name, Ceratotherium, given by the zoologist John Edward Gray in 1868, is derived from the Greek terms keras (κέρας)”horn”and thērion (θηρίον) “beast”.
- Simum, is derived from the Greek term simos (σιμός), meaning “flat nosed”.
- The white rhinoceros of today was said to be likely descended from Ceratotherium praecox which lived around 7 million years ago.
- Remains of this white rhino have been found at Langebaanweg near Cape Town.
- A review of fossil rhinos in Africa by Denis Geraads has however suggested that the species from Langebaanweg is of the genus Ceratotherium, but not Ceratotherium praecox as the type specimen of Ceratotherium praecox should, in fact, be Diceros praecox, as it shows closer affinities with the black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis.
- It has been suggested that the modern white rhino has a longer skull than Ceratotherium praecox to facilitate consumption of shorter grasses which resulted from the long-term trend to drier conditions in Africa.
- However, if Ceratotherium praecox is in fact Diceros praecox, then the shorter skull could indicate a browsing species.
- Teeth of fossils assigned to Ceratotherium found at Makapansgat in South Africa were analysed for carbon isotopes and the researchersconcluded that these animals consumed more than 30% browse in their diet, suggesting that these are not the fossils of the extant Ceratotherium simum which only eats grass.
- It is suggested that the real lineage of the white rhino should be; Ceratotherium neumayri → Ceratotherium mauritanicum → C. Simum with the Langebaanweg rhinos being Ceratotherium sp. (as yet unnamed), with black rhinos being descended from C. neumayri via Diceros praecox.
The front horn is larger and averages 60 cm (24 in) in length, reaching as much as 150 cm (59 in) but only in females.- The white rhinoceros also has a noticeable hump on the back of its neck.
- Each of the four stumpy feet has three toes.
The colour of the body ranges from yellowish brown to slate grey.- Its only hair is the ear fringes and tail bristles.
- White rhinos have a distinctive broad, straight mouth which is used for grazing.
Its ears can move independently to pick up sounds, but it depends most of all on its sense of smell.- The olfactory passages that are responsible for smell are larger than their entire brain.
- The white rhinoceros has the widest set of nostrils of any land-based animal.
- The genome size of the white rhinoceros is 2666.62 Mbp.
- The diploid cell has 2 x 40 autosomals and 2 sex chromosomes (XX or XY)
- The white rhinoceros is one of the largest pure grazers.
- It drinks water twice a day if water is available, but if conditions are dry it can live four or five days without water.
- It spends about half of the day eating, one-third resting and the rest of the day doing various other things.
- White rhinoceros like wallowing in mud holes to cool down.
- White rhinoceroses produce sounds which include a panting contact call, grunts and snorts during courtship, squeals of distress, and deep bellows or growls when threatened.
- Threat displays (in males mostly) include wiping its horn on the ground and a head-low posture with ears back, combined with snarl threats and shrieking if attacked.
- The vocalizations of the two species differ between each other, and the panting contact calls between individual white rhinoceroses in each species can var as well.
- The differences in these calls aid the white rhinoceroses in identifying each other and communicating over long distances.
- The white rhinoceros is quick and agile and can run 50 km/h (31 mph).
- White rhinoceroses live in crashes or herds of up to 14 animals (usually mostly female).
- Sub-adult males will congregate, often in association with an adult female.
- Most adult bulls are solitary.
- Dominant bulls mark their territory with excrement and urine.
- The dung is laid in well-defined piles.
- It may have 20 to 30 of these piles to alert passing rhinoceroses that it is his territory.
- Another way of marking their territory is wiping their horns on bushes or the ground and scrapes with its feet before urine spraying.
- They do this around ten times an hour while patrolling territory.
- The same ritual as urine marking except without spraying is also commonly used.
- The territorial male will scrape-mark every 30 m (98 ft) or so around its territory boundary.
- Subordinate males do not mark territory.
- The most serious fights break out over mating rights with a female.
- Female territory overlaps extensively, and they do not defend it.
- Females reach sexual maturity at 6–7 years of age while males reach sexual maturity between 10 and 12 years of age.
- Courtship is often a difficult affair.
- The male stays beyond the point where the female acts aggressively and will give out a call when approaching her.
- The male chases and or blocks the way of the female while squealing or wailing loudly if the female tries to leave his territory.
- When ready to mate the female curls her tail and gets into a stiff stance during the half-hour copulation.
- Breeding pairs stay together between 5–20 days before they part their separate ways.
- The gestation period of a white rhino is 16 months.
- A single calf is born and usually weighs between 40 and 65 kg (88 and 143 lb).
- Calves are unsteady for their first two to three days of life.
- When threatened, the baby will run in front of the mother, which is very protective of her calf and will fight for it vigorously.
- Weaning starts at two months, but the calf may continue suckling for over 12 months.
- The birth interval for the white rhino is between two and three years.
- Before giving birth, the mother will chase off her current calf.
- Adult white rhinos have no natural predators (other than humans) due to their size, and even young rhinos are rarely attacked or preyed on due to the mother’s presence and their tough skin.
- One exceptional successful attack was perpetrated by a lion pride on a roughly half-grown white rhinoceros, which weighed 1,055 kg (2,326 lb), and occurred in Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa.
- About 98.5% of white rhinos live in just five countries (South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda).
- Almost at the edge of extinction in the early 20th century, the southern subspecies has made a tremendous comeback.
- In 2001 it was estimated that there were 11,670 white rhinos in the wild with a further 777 in captivity worldwide, making it the most
common rhino in the world. - By the end of 2007 wild-living southern white rhinos had increased to an estimated 17,480 animals (IUCN 2008).
- Like the black rhino, the white rhino is under threat from habitat loss and poaching, most recently by Janjaweed.
- Although there are no measurable health benefits, the horn is sought after for traditional medicine and jewellery.
- Poaching of their horn is the primary threat.
- The white rhino is particularly vulnerable to hunting, because it is a large and relatively unaggressive animal with very poor eye sight and
generally lives in herds. - Despite the lack of scientific evidence, the rhino horn is highly prized in traditional Asian medicine, where it is ground into a fine powder or
manufactured into tablets to be used as a treatment for a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds, strokes, convulsions, and fevers. - Due to this demand, several highly organized and very profitable international poaching syndicates came into being and would carry out
their poaching missions with advanced technologies ranging from night vision scopes, silenced weapons, darting equipment and even
helicopters. - In 2013, poaching rates for white rhinos nearly doubled from the previous year.
- As a result, the white rhino has now received Near Threatened status as its total population tops out at 20,000 members.
- Poaching of the animal has gone virtually unchecked in most of Africa, and the non-violent nature of the rhinoceros makes it susceptible to poaching.
- Mozambique, one of the four main countries the white rhino lives in, is used by poachers as a passageway to South Africa, which holds a fairly large number of white rhinos.
- Here, rhinos are regularly killed and their horns are smuggled out of
the country.
- As of 2014, Mozambique labels white rhino poaching as a misdemeanour.
- In March, 2017 the Thoiry Zoo, located in France, was broken into by poachers.
- A Southern white rhinoceros named Vince was found shot dead in his enclosure; the poachers had removed one of his horns and had attempted to remove his second horn.
- This is believed to be the first time a rhinoceros had been killed in a European zoo.
- Even with increased anti-poaching efforts in many African countries, many poachers are still willing to risk death or prison time because of the tremendous amount of money that they stand to make.
- Rhino horn can fetch tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram on the black market in Asia and, depending on the exact price, can be worth more than its weight in gold.
- Poachers are also starting to use social media sites for obtaining information on the location of rhino in popular tourist attractions (such as Kruger National Park) by searching for geotagged photographs posted online by unsuspecting tourists.
- By using GPS coordinates of rhino in recent photographs, poachers are able to more easily find and kill their targets.
- Several conservation tactics have been taken to prevent this subspecies from disappearing from the planet.
- Perhaps the most notable type of conservation efforts for these rhinos is having moved them from Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic to Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy on 20 December 2009, where they have been under constant watch every day, and have been given favourable climate and diet, to which they have adapted well, in order to boost their chances of reproducing.
- Most white rhinos in zoos are southern white rhinos; in 2001 it was estimated that there were 777 white rhinos in captivity worldwide.
- The San Diego Zoo Safari Park in San Diego, California, US had two northern white rhinos, one of which was wild-caught.
- On 22 November 2015, a 41-year-old female named Nola (born in 1974), which had been on loan from the Dvur Králové Zoo in Dvůr Králové, Czech Republic) since 1989, was euthanized after experiencing a downturn in health.
- On 14 December 2014, a 44-year-old male named Angalifu died of old age at the San Diego Zoo.
- The other four captive northern white rhinos were loaned to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, and only two remain alive. Females Najin and Fatu are still living, while males Suni and Sudan died in 2014 and 2018, respectively.
- The northern white rhinos had been transferred to Ol Pejeta Conservancy from the Dvůr Králové Zoo in 2009 in an attempt to protect the taxa in their natural habitat.
- The only two northern white rhinos left are maintained under 24-hour armed guard in Kenya.