| The Rhinoceros:
After elephants, the Rhinoceros is the next largest terrestrial animal. The Rhinoceros belongs to solid-hoofed rhinoceroses (Rhinocerotidae). The body length of the rhinoceros varies from 2.5 to 4 m.
The height at the shoulder of a rhinoceros can attain up to 1.8m. The Rhinoceros is a giant and weighs somewhere between 2 to 4 tons.
Its body is covered with an off-grey colored skin and is an almost hair-less animal. In Asian rhinoceroses, the skin is lined by a deep pattern which on the animal looks like a shell made from separate large sheets.
Many of them are Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). The Javanese rhinoceros (R. sondaicus) was preserved only on the island Java in a reserve specially created for it. The worst state of rhinoceroses is on the island Sumatra. Only 2040 rhinoceros are left on the island. The other two kinds of rhinoceroses are the black (Diceros bicornis) and the white (Ceratotherium simum) and they inhabit Central and Western Africa. They were preserved even though the white rhinoceros were declared extinct many times. The famous horn of the rhinoceros is the main attraction. It is located on the middle section of the muzzle on nose or forehead. The Rhinoceroses of Sumatra and Africa have two horns. The horn, which is located near to the nose, is always bigger than the second horn. According to its structure the horn is a layered formation from keratin and is similar to the hoof with regards to its composition.
Depending upon the usage of the horn the size of the horn in Indian rhinoceroses fluctuates from a tiny large protuberance to an impressive ledge with a height of 0.6 m and can reach up to 1m in African rhinoceros. The record is 1.61m. Extended sharp cutting teeth are found on the bottom jaw in black and Indian rhinoceroses. To defend, the Indian rhinoceros uses them to hit and the horn is used very often.
The horn though an excellent weapon, found on the head is insufficiently strong. However, this weapon has not only helped rhinoceroses to survive but also was the main reason of extermination. According to legends widely circulating in the East, the horn possesses unique medicinal properties. From ancient times rhinoceroses were killed since the prices for the medicines made from the horn were always extremely high. European medicine has proved that the horns do not possess medicinal properties, but legends are still believed and the rhinoceroses continue to be exterminated. It is considered that a powder is made from the horn which is capable of reviving youth.
Long-living rhinoceros: In zoos a rhinoceros can live up to 40 - 50 years. They are strict vegetarians and their staple food is grass. Only black and Indian rhinoceroses prefer branches and leaves. Rhinoceros like to pull out acacia sprouts with roots and destroy them.
The mouth design gives rhinoceros a chance to tear away separately especially tasty branches. The upper lip in these rhinoceroses, looking like a small wedge-shaped appendix or snout, hangs down onto the lower lip; this is an adaptation for clutching branches and leaves. It is convenient to nibble the grass with the rounded mouth and snout and is not found in other kinds of rhinoceroses.
It is very difficult to satiate the gigantic rhinoceros. The white rhinoceroses are fond of open spaces and start grazing in the evenings.
The family RHINOCEROSES (Rhinocerotidae) are heavy framed animals, with three-fingered limbs and a thick skin, almost deprived of hair, one or two (sometimes more) horns, positioned on the nasal and frontal bones. The horn is a layered formation, as if consisting of patched hair. However, according to their structure, these horns are not similar to hair or the horns of horned ungulates but to the horned portion of hoofed-animals. Modern rhinoceroses have a body length from 2 to 4 m, a height of 1-2 m and weigh around 1 – 3.6 tons. The Rhinoceros inhabits Southeast Asia and Africa; they inhabit savannas and rainforests and eat grassy and scrub vegetation. Pregnancy lasts 419-550 days. Females give birth to one cub. Present rhinoceroses are combined into 5 kinds, belonging to 4 kinds and represent remnants of the solid-hoofed animal group. The paleontologic history of this family is very difficult. Rhinoceroses originate from the early Tertiary group of cursorial rhinoceroses (Hyrachyidae) of America, similar to ancient horses. Both light-framed as well as heavy-framed short-legged animals were found amongst these rhinoceros. Present rhinoceroses have appeared in Eocene and formed large numbers of kinds and genus by Oligocene. Various groups of rhinoceroses were especially found in Eurasia. Rather recently, in early Quaternary, a gigantic rhinoceros Diceros merki lived in the forests of Eurasia. Holocene and woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), covered with long wool, became extinct very recently, the carcasses of which are found in many places in Europe and Siberia. The food it ate was found and the following have been identified: needles of spruces, firs, larches, leaves of the willow, birch, cowberry and cereal crops. The woolly rhinoceros has become extinct only in the 20th century as a result of victimization by human being. All rhinoceroses, especially Asian, probably more than any other family of hoofed animals, for a long time experienced victimization by human beings due to legends about the curative properties of their horns. And now the rhinoceroses are an endangered species and therefore are kept under protection. |
