Rhino Species >> Black Rhinoceros

The Black Rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis colloquially Black Rhino is a mammal in the order Perissodactyla, native to the eastern and central areas of Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Although the Rhino is referred to as a "Black" creature, it is actually more of a grey-white color in appearance. The name of the species was chosen to distinguish it from the White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). This is very misleading, as those two species are not really distinguishable by colour. The word "White" in name "White Rhinoceros" deriving from the Afrikaans word for "wide" rather than the color white. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) announced on 7 July 2006 that one of the four subspecies, the West African Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis longipes), has been tentatively declared as extinct.

An adult Black Rhinoceros stands 143 – 160 cm (56-63 inches) high at the shoulder and is 2.86-3.05 m (9.3-10 feet) in length. An adult weighs from 800 to 1400 kg (1,760 to 3,080 lb), exceptionally to 1820 kg (4,000 lb), with the females being smaller than the males. Two horns on the skull are made of keratin with the larger front horn typically 50 cm long, exceptionally up to 140 cm. A third smaller horn may develop. These horns are used for defense, intimidation and diggings up roots and break branches during feeding. Skin color depends more on local soil conditions and their wallowing behavior than anything else, so many black rhinos are typically not truly black in color. The Black Rhinoceros is much smaller than the White Rhinoceros, and has a pointed mouth, which they use to grasp leaves and twigs when feeding. White Rhinoceros have square used for eating leaves. The Black Rhinoceros can also be recognized from the White Rhinoceros by its smaller skull and ears. Black Rhinoceros also do not have a distinguishing shoulder hump like the White Rhinoceros. Their thick layered skin protects the rhino from thorns and sharp grasses. Although their skin harbors many external parasites, such as crabs, which are eaten by ox peckers and egrets that live with the rhino. They have terrible eyesight relying more on hearing and smell. It has large ears that rotate much like satellite dishes to detect any sound and a large nose that has an excellent sense of smell to detect predators.

The adults are solitary in nature, coming together only for mating. Mating does not have a seasonal pattern but births tend to be towards the end of the rainy season in drier environments. Spraying can identify a female that is receptive. Another common behavior of locating a mate is a called "Making Flehman". It's when the males lip curl, nose wrinkle, and head lift to better smell female pheromones. When in season the females will scrape more vigorously at dung piles. Males following females that are in season will follow her and when she defecates he will scrape and spread the dung making it more difficult for any other adult males to pick up her scent trail. There are courtship behaviors before mating which includes snorting and sparring with the horns. Another courtship behavior called bluffs and bluster where the rhino will snort and swing its head side to side aggressively and then run away. It will repeatedly do this behavior. Breeding pairs stay together for 2-3 days and sometimes even weeks.

They mate several times a day over this time and copulation lasts for a half an hour. They are polygamous and mate with more than one rhino. The gestation period is 15 – 16 months. The single calf weighs about 35 – 50 kg at birth, and can follow its mother around after just three days. Weaning occurs at around 2 years of age for the offspring. The mother and calf stay together for 2 – 3 years until the next calf is born; female calves may stay longer, forming small groups. The young are occasionally taken by hyenas and lions. Sexual maturity is reached from 5 years old for females, from 7 years for males, and the life expectancy in natural conditions (without poaching pressure) is from 35 – 50 years.

For most of the 20th century, the continental black rhino was the most numerous of all rhino species. Around 1900 there were probably several hundred thousand living in Africa. During the latter half of the 20th century their number severely reduced from an estimated 70,000 in the late 1960s to only 10,000 to 15,000 in 1981. In the early 1990s the number dipped below 2500, and in 1995 it was reported that only 2,410 black rhinos remained. According to the International Rhino Foundation, the total African population has since then slightly recovered to 3,610 by 2003. According to a July 2006 report by the World Conservation Union, a recent survey of the West African Black Rhino, which once ranged across the savannahs of western Africa but had dropped to just 10, concluded the subspecies to be extinct. The northern white is soon to join the western black rhino on the extinction list as its last noted numbers were as few as 4. The only rhino that has recovered somewhat from the brink of extinction is the southern white whose numbers now are estimated around 14,500, up from only 50 a century ago. The Black Rhinoceros has been pushed to the brink of extinction by illegal poaching for their horn and by loss of habitat. The horn is used in Asia in traditional medicine even though it has been proven to have no medicinal value. It is used in the Middle East to make ornately carved handles for ceremonial daggers called jamiyas. Demand for these exploded in the 1970s and sadly the Black Rhinoceros population declined 96% between 1970 and 1992.