physical description western black rhinoceros

Our website incorporates technologies that enhance accessibility at all times. By following these guidelines, we ensure that our website is accessible to individuals with visual impairments, motor impairments, cognitive disabilities, and more. These guidelines provide instructions on how to make web content accessible to people with various disabilities. To achieve this goal, we strive to adhere closely to the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. Therefore, we are dedicated to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of their circumstances or abilities. We strongly believe in the importance of making the Internet available and accessible to everyone. Spread the word about rhino conservation!Īccessibility Statement Compliance status:.Consider donating to conservation organizations and programs like the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project and 96 Elephants.Don’t support illegal trade by purchasing anything made from rhino horn.The Zoo manages its black rhinos under the Association of Zoo and Aquarium’s Species Survival Plan for Black Rhinos. Rhinoceros populations have also come under pressure as a consequence of bush clearing for agriculture and firewood. As a result, the black rhino has been hunted nearly to extinction. Rhinoceros horns are highly valued by some cultures for traditional medicines and for decorative dagger handles. There are more than 5,000 wild black rhinos alive today, an increase from low numbers due to aggressive conservation efforts, and many of those are protected by armed guards. Due to large-scale poaching, 90% of the rhinos in existence have now been killed. Before 1960, the population of black rhinos throughout the eastern and southern parts of Africa was approximately 200,000. Status In The Wildīlack rhinos are Critically Endangered. Calves will stay with the mother for up to three years, with weaning beginning around two months. One calf is born after a gestational period of 419-478 days.

Breeding occurs throughout the year although males do not reach sexual maturity until 10-12 years of age and females 6-7. Rhinos are often accompanied by tick birds and cattle egrets, which feed on insects stirred up by the rhinos’ feet.īlack rhinos are solitary animals, only coming together to mate.

Wallowing in mud helps to keep them cool, and gives them protection from flies and biting insects. These rhinos feed in the morning and evening and sleep in the shade or in a wallow during the hottest part of the day. By urine-spraying shrubs and rocks and also using communal dung heaps rhinos mark their trails and territory borders. Social BehaviorĪlthough black rhinos use several different vocalizations, they typically rely more on scent marking to communicate. At the Zoo, the rhinos are fed a diet of alfalfa, hay, fruits, vegetables, browse and acacia. In the wild, they eat bushes and shrubs, preferring acacia, twigs and new growth. Nearby access to water is essential as they often spent part of the day resting in water.īlack rhinos are herbivores and are browsers, not grazers. Habitat/Dietīlack rhinoceros range in eastern and southern parts of Africa (South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe), inhabiting bushy plains, dense brush, open forests, grassy plains and sometimes semi-arid regions. They have prominent, erect ears that can swivel to pick up even the quietest sounds. However, their excellent sense of smell gives them information about their surroundings and helps them detect danger. They have small eyes and are extremely nearsighted, making the rhino dangerous and unpredictable, and likely to charge unfamiliar sounds and smells. These horns can measure up to 50 inches in length and are made of hardened compressed hair-like fibers on a bony base. The black rhinoceros is distinguished by two large horns on its nose, the front one being the largest. The rhino uses its prehensile upper lip to strip nutritious leaves off tough branches. A thick, wrinkled, tough hide protects the rhino as it pushes its way through the thorny acacia trees and bushes it likes to eat.

Both the black rhino and white rhino are grey in color color can vary as rhinos take on whatever color mud they happen to have rolled in.Īn adult black rhinoceros can weigh up to 3,000 pounds with a body length of 10 to 12.5 feet.

Like horses, rhinos run and walk on their toes.

Black rhinos can move at speeds up to 40 miles per hour for short distances!.

The Zoo’s male black rhino is named “Boone,” after the San Francisco 49ers’ former right tackle, Alex Boone. Our black rhino can be found across from Cat Kingdom, and next to the pygmy hippopotamus.

Physical description western black rhinoceros