Standing six feet tall at the shoulder and weighing almost 8,000 pounds, a fully grown white rhino is larger than any other land animal on earth — except for the elephant. All rhinos have large heads, short necks, broad chests, and very thick legs. But their most exceptional feature is their horns.

The word rhinoceros is made up of two Greek words that mean ‘nose’ (rhino) and ‘horn’ (ceros). All other animals with horns have them on top of their heads. Rhinos are the only animals to have a horn growing from its nose.

Hunting style:

For all their power and strength, rhinos are vegetarians. They never touch meat. This probably helps other plains animals rest easier: with their seemingly armour-plated skin, Javan rhinos, in particular, look like living tanks.

Big rhinos may reach speeds of 35 miles per hour — as fast as most horses can run, although a horse can keep running at this speed much longer than a rhino can. They are famous for their bad tempers.

Favourite food:

All rhinos are strictly vegetarian. Black rhinos prefer to eat bushes and trees instead of grass. To do this, a black rhino has a prehensile lip that works like a large finger. The lip grabs twigs and shoves them into the mouth so the teeth can bite them off. A white rhino prefers grass, and will also use its horn to plow up the ground for mineral salts to eat.

Baby rhinos:

Newborn rhinos are not helpless like human babies. Within an hour of birth, they are up on their feet and trotting around after their mothers. A baby rhino is about two feet tall and weighs between 80 and 125 pounds, but its horn does not begin to grow until after birth.

Rhino mothers are very devoted. They teach their young everything they will need to know to survive. Usually, the young don’t leave their mothers until the mothers give birth to new babies. By that time, the young rhinos are nearly fully grown.

Their homes:

At one time, rhinos lived on every continent except South America, Australia, and Antarctica. Today, rhinos live only in Africa and Asia. African rhinos prefer the open plains, but most Asian rhinos are found in dense jungle. Indian rhinos prefer swampy areas.

Rhinos have experienced what biologists call a population ‘crash.’ The number of rhinos is going down faster and faster. There are between 420 and 780 Sumatran rhinos left; in 1984, there were just over 50 Javan rhinos, but there have been few sightings since then. Northern white rhinos number only 32 in the wild. Recent conservation efforts have resulted in the increase of the Southern white rhino population to nearly 7,000, but rhinos will continue to be in danger so long as their horns are in demand in Asian markets. More valuable than gold, rhino horns are wrongly thought to cure a variety of human ailments. Education is one of the keys to saving the rhino.

Standing six feet tall at the shoulder and weighing almost 8,000 pounds, a fully grown white rhino is larger than any other land animal on earth — except for the elephant. All rhinos have large heads, short necks, broad chests, and very thick legs. But their most exceptional feature is their horns.

The word rhinoceros is made up of two Greek words that mean ‘nose’ (rhino) and ‘horn’ (ceros). All other animals with horns have them on top of their heads. Rhinos are the only animals to have a horn growing from its nose.

Hunting style:

For all their power and strength, rhinos are vegetarians. They never touch meat. This probably helps other plains animals rest easier: with their seemingly armour-plated skin, Javan rhinos, in particular, look like living tanks.

Big rhinos may reach speeds of 35 miles per hour — as fast as most horses can run, although a horse can keep running at this speed much longer than a rhino can. They are famous for their bad tempers.

Favourite food:

All rhinos are strictly vegetarian. Black rhinos prefer to eat bushes and trees instead of grass. To do this, a black rhino has a prehensile lip that works like a large finger. The lip grabs twigs and shoves them into the mouth so the teeth can bite them off. A white rhino prefers grass, and will also use its horn to plow up the ground for mineral salts to eat.

Baby rhinos:

Newborn rhinos are not helpless like human babies. Within an hour of birth, they are up on their feet and trotting around after their mothers. A baby rhino is about two feet tall and weighs between 80 and 125 pounds, but its horn does not begin to grow until after birth.

Rhino mothers are very devoted. They teach their young everything they will need to know to survive. Usually, the young don’t leave their mothers until the mothers give birth to new babies. By that time, the young rhinos are nearly fully grown.

Their homes:

At one time, rhinos lived on every continent except South America, Australia, and Antarctica. Today, rhinos live only in Africa and Asia. African rhinos prefer the open plains, but most Asian rhinos are found in dense jungle. Indian rhinos prefer swampy areas.

Rhinos have experienced what biologists call a population ‘crash.’ The number of rhinos is going down faster and faster. There are between 420 and 780 Sumatran rhinos left; in 1984, there were just over 50 Javan rhinos, but there have been few sightings since then. Northern white rhinos number only 32 in the wild. Recent conservation efforts have resulted in the increase of the Southern white rhino population to nearly 7,000, but rhinos will continue to be in danger so long as their horns are in demand in Asian markets. More valuable than gold, rhino horns are wrongly thought to cure a variety of human ailments. Education is one of the keys to saving the rhino.

Fact file:

• The word rhinoceros is made up of two Greek words — ‘nose’ (rhino) and ‘horn’ (ceros).

• Rhinos are the only animals to have a horn growing from its nose.

• Standing six feet tall at the shoulder and weighing almost 8,000 pounds, a fully grown white rhino is larger than any other land animal on earth — except for the elephant.

• Big rhinos may reach speeds of 35 miles per hour

• Rhinos are famous for their bad tempers.

• Rhinos are strictly vegetarian.

• A black rhino has a prehensile lip that works like a large finger helping it to eat. The lip grabs twigs and shoves them into the mouth so the teeth can bite them off.

• A white rhino prefers grass and uses its horn to plow up the ground for mineral salts.

• A baby rhino is about two feet tall and weighs between 80 and 125 pounds.

• Within an hour of birth, baby rhinos are up on their feet and trotting around.