• Home • Information • Books • Photo Gallery • Places to see White Rhinoceros •

The White Rhinoceros is not white in colour; its name is derived from the Afrikaans / Dutch word "weit", meaning wide, and its manner of feeding has adapted to grazing short grass with a mouth similar to that of the business end of a lawnmower. This animal, with its territorial behaviour and rather slow rate of breeding, make it a poor colonist, and it is very slow to expand its range. White rhinos have a barrel-shaped body and short, thick-set limbs. The head is elongated, and the horns are continuously growing: one horn in front, and a shorter one behind. The skin is thick, grey, and prominantly folded on the front of the shoulders and on the upper part of the hind limbs.

White rhinos require areas of short grass, water for drinking and in which to wallow, adequate bush cover, and relatively flat terrain. These conditions are usually met in wooded grasslands. They do not have incisor teeth and instead use their hard lips to crop grass. They drink regularly and are dependant on its availability.

Bookmarks for this page • Habits • Horns • Communication • Reproduction • Status • Operation Rhino •

Habits

White rhino occur in small groups consisting of a single dominant or territorial bull, subordinate bulls, cows and their offspring. Territorial bulls occupy clearly defined territories which they defend against other bulls: these territories often have natural features which form their boundaries, and sometimes have narrow common zones. Territories are marked by urine spraying and defecating along the boundaries, and although territorial males rarely fight and tend to avoid one another, they do indulge in trials of strength, which may include horn clashing, to settle disputes and confirm social position. After a dispute, the defeated male may stay and feed in the defended area as long as he displays submissiveness, ceases to spray urine or scatter dung, and stays out of the proprietor's way.

The quality of food and the density of animals will establish the size of a feeding territory, especially in restricted areas such as a park or reserve. During full population density, a male's feeding territory is approximately 2 sq. km (¾ sq. mile). Males remain subsidiary in society from when they mature sexually, at the age of around seven, for about another three years until they are able to displace an existing bull and inherit his territory and females.

Females too, have clearly defined feeding areas, that are much larger than those of the males. The boundaries overlap freely, and mothers with calves are very tolerant of each other's presence. They can range 10 sq. km (4 sq. miles) and pass through a male's territory without being challenged.

White rhino rest and feed alternatively for a few hours at a time, day and night, in cool weather. Rhinoceroses need to wallow and drink at least every two to four days and if the water in the vicinity has dried up, they will walk as far as 10 km (6 miles) from their home range to find it. Water often gathers in the hollows on a hardpan surface, and the short grass turf around it sustains grazing.

Flies become particularly troublesome at certain times of the year and rhino will tend to avoid damp, shady places which would otherwise attract them, and seek out exposed, breezy areas in an attempt to keep the insects at bay. When water is in short supply and wallowing and grooming are kept at a minimum, they will roll in the dust and rub themselves against posts, partly to control skin parasites, but also as a means of marking territory by leaving flakes of skin bearing individual odour.

Whether walking, trotting or grazing, white rhinoceros keep their heads down in the same position and will only raise it when they become alarmed. They are able to maintain speeds of 40 km (25 miles) per hour over short distances and they are surprisingly agile; one apparently climbed a gate 2 metres (6 ft) high to escape from temporary captivity.

Horns

The record is 2 m (6 ft 6 in) but such huge horns are very rare nowadays. A front horn measuring 108 cm (3 ft 7 in) is considered unusual, and few rhinoceroses reach a sufficient age to grow horns of this size. The female has a longer, thinner horn than the male. From regular contact with the ground during grazing, the front horn usually has a smoothly polished and slightly flattened leading surface. Horns are also used for digging and they do sometimes get torn off: if so they will regenerate.

Rhino horn actually consists of very tightly compacted tubular filaments, which are very similar to hair, and is the cause of the near-extinction of the species, largely because it is considered an aphrodisiac by certain cultures.

Bookmarks for this page • Habits • Horns • Communication • Reproduction • Status • Operation Rhino •

Communication

Communication depends heavily on olfactory signals, such as the spraying of dung and urine to mark territories, as rhinos have a good sense of smell. Urine-spraying is restricted to the boundaries of territories, and is the principal indication of ownership. The sprays are emitted in two or three short bursts and a male patrolling his borders will produce such markers every five to six minutes. An intruder will become immediately aware that he has crossed a boundary and will be subject to confrontation by the proprietor of the territory.

Although primarily a territorial function, dung piles have another significance. It seems that a passing animal is stimulated to defaecate by the sight or scent of a mound of dung, as if it were a specific social duty. These trailside mounds can become quite tall because they are not kicked about by their contributors: dung-kicking is a privilege reserved for the dominant male in the territory. Also, the mounds serve as an indication of the population density in the area and they are distributed all over the territory until there are about 15 every 1 sq. km (0.4 sq. miles).

Vocalisations are used for direct communication, and the white rhino makes a wide range of sounds. Territorial males are usually silent, occassionally snorting when another moves nearby. They also pant, as a sign to join up or to maintain contact, shriek to prevent attack, or puff when alarmed. Rhino calves squeal when they want protection.

On the very rare occasions when fighting breaks out, it becomes a rather noisy affair as the threats and submissions rise through their various levels of intensity. The wails of a courting male are often accompanied by a sound called 'hic-throbbing' and although its significance is unclear, it is thought to have something in common with the very deep abdominal growls of elephants, which are known to be transmitted for long distances through the ground and are detected by other elephants through their feet.

In addition to vocalizations, rhinos communicate using a variety of signals via body language, such as a flattening of the ears as a warning, advancing, which in its most serious form is a full charge, as well as staring and horn-prodding. Side-rubbing may help cement bonds within the group. Head-flinging amongst the young is an invitation to play.

White rhino have poor sight but acute smell, and can rotate their ears independenly to locate sound. They respond readily to moving objects.

Reproduction

Females mature sexually at the age of around seven. After coming into oestrus, they will pass through male-held territories and spray urine, advertising their condition and inviting courtship from the dominant males. Mating takes place all year round and a female with a calf will come into oestrus six to eight months after giving birth.

Bulls can detect when a female is pro-oestrus, will actively prevent females from leaving their territories during this time, and will drive off any subordinate males that appear to show interest in the female.

Courtship takes between five and twenty days to complete, and is a slow and cautious ritual. Males have been reported to attack young calves who at six months or more, are distinctly possessive as they are still nursing and will continue to do so for at least another six months. Copulation takes between 30 to 35 minutes, several times a day. The gestation period of the white rhinoceros is 16 months and although twins have been seen, a single calf is the rule. The mother will spend a few days in solitude with her calf before the close presence of other rhino will be tolerated: during this time the calf is very unsteady on its feet. When the mother and calf move together, the calf usually walks in front: this is in contrast to the black rhino, where the calf walks behind its mother. The calf is weaned at about a year old, and separates from its mother when it is 2 or 3 years old.

A number of options will be open to the young rhino. Some will attach themselves to a childless female whilst others will find a companion, usually of the same age and sex, sometimes forming a group of up to five young rhino.

Female white rhinoceros breed at two or three year intervals and their life span is between 40 and 50 years. A female can produce ten or eleven calves if allowed to live out her natural life: compared with other ungulates, this is a very slow rate of reproduction. However, in the natural state, the white rhinoceros is immune to predation and this immunity produces a very low natural mortality.

Status

There was a rapid decline in numbers of the white rhino between the years 1872 and 1877 in southern Africa. No trace was found of the white rhino in the region of the Upper Chobe River in 1879, although a few were later found between the Umniati and the Hanyane Rivers, in what was then known as north eastern Mashuna Land, and is now western Zimbabwe. The White Rhinoceros was thought to be extinct in 1892, just 75 years after the explorer Burchell had discovered it.

However, a few individuals had survived in the valley of the Umfolozi River in Natal. They were re-discovered in 1897 and the South African government went on to declare the valley a preserve, which later became joined as the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi game reserve: these, along with St Lucia, are therefore the oldest game reserves in Africa. The population increased steadily, and the first offical white rhino census in 1930 revealed that there were only 120 individuals in the Umfolozi Reserve, and 30 on adjacent ground: by 1960 the number had increased to 700.

Operation Rhino

Since then rhino numbers in the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi areas have increased substantially, and in 1989 1 240 were relocated out of South Africa, and 2 199 were translocated within South Africa.

After the first 500 individuals had been shipped out to other parks and zoos around the world, the decision was taken to move some of the rhino to Whipsnade Park in England to form a breeding herd, under the aegis of the Zoological Society of London.

The Natal Parks Board carried out the operation and their original plan was to dart 40 rhino and transport them by truck and by ship, halfway across the world. In the event, only 20 animals were moved, eight males and twelve females, and the herd went on to help establish captive breeding herds in nine different countries.

The white rhino in southern Africa has moved from endangered status to fairly plentiful, over a period of 50 years, and is thereby no longer in need of protective management.

White rhino in the north had an almost exactly opposite fate: since its discovery in 1907, it has suffered at the hands of sport hunters, and later, commercial poachers, until virtually extinct throughout their range. The civil war in the Congo did not aid matters and that country's population of rhinoceroses was reduced from over 1 000 to less than 100.

Between 1961 and 1964, white rhino from Uganda and Kenya were darted and collected together in Murchison Falls National Park, but the upheavals in Uganda, during and after the reign of Idi Amin, effectively wiped out the population of white rhinoceros in that country. In 1986, there remained 17 individuals in Zaire and the Garamba National Park was the subject of a major rehabilitation programme under the guidance of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). There is, however, very little hope that they will ever re-occupy their once extensive range in northern Africa.

Bookmarks for this page • Habits • Horns • Communication • Reproduction • Status • Operation Rhino •