kenyaView

◀kenyaView_Kenya_Wildlife_Rhinoceros_2.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0
kenyaView_Lodge_Kenya_Animal_Birds_Safari.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
◀kenyaView_Kenya_Wildlife_Zebra_2.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0
 

White Rhinoceros and Black Rhinoceros 1/3

Square-lipped and Hook-lipped Rhinoceros

The White Rhinoceros is a huge animal, second only to the elephant in size among mammals, as can be seen in the photograph of one with zebras. Males can weigh over 2,000kg. The wide, flat-bottomed lip allows the animal to graze, while the round-bottomed lip of the Black Rhinoceros enables it to  browse on leguminous herbs and shrubs. The Black Rhinoceros is much smaller than the White, at about 1,000kg for a large male.


The animals here were seen in the Nakuru NP. Seeing the Black Rhino was very lucky, as there is said to be only one left in the park, due to poaching for the horn, which is popular as a dagger handle among the Arabs of the Yemen, and as a supposed cure-all among Chinese. The notches in the ears of the animals are made by park rangers as a means of identifying individual animals.

'White' is actually a mistake from the Dutch word for 'wide', referring to the lip, and the 'Black' rhinoceros was named to make a pair. Actually, they are both pretty much the same shade of grey, although the local mud in which they wallow causes colour variation.

These pictures are White Rhino