White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum)

Genus: Ceratotherium
Species: C. simum
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae

The White Rhinoceros or Square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is one of the five species of rhinoceros that still exists and is one of the few megafauna species left. A mature white rhino weighs about 4000-6000 lbs. It is native to north-eastern and southern Africa. The rhinos tend to group in herds of one to seven animals, though they are solitary animals. On its snout it has two horns made of keratin fibers (not bone, as in deer antlers).

The White Rhinoceros also has a noticeable hump on the back of its neck which supports its large head. Each of the rhino's four feet has three toes. It is capable of going four or five days without water

Name

The name White Rhino originated in South Africa where the Afrikaans language developed from the Dutch language. The Afrikaans word "weit" (derived from the Dutch word "wijd"), which means "wide", referred to the width of the Rhinoceros mouth. Early English settlers in South Africa misinterpreted the "weit" for "white". So the rhino with the wide mouth ended up being called the White Rhino and the other one, with the narrow pointed mouth, was called the Black Rhinoceros. The wide mouth was adapted to cropping large swaths of grass, while the narrow mouth was adapted to eating leaves on bushes. A White Rhino's skin color is quite similar to that of the Black Rhino. An alternative common name for the white rhinoceros, more accurate but rarely used, is the square-lipped rhinoceros. The White Rhinoceros' genus, Ceratotherium, appropriately means "horned beast".

Legends

There are a number of legends about rhinoceroses stamping out fire. The story seems to have been common in Malaysia and Burma.

This type of rhinoceros even had a special name in Malay, badak api, where badak means rhinoceros and api means fire. The animal would come when a fire is lit in the forest and stamp it out.

Whether or not there is any truth to this has not yet been proven, as there has been no documented sighting of this phenomenon in recent history. This lack of evidence may stem from the fact that rhinoceros sightings overall in Southeast Asia have become very rare, largely due to widespread illegal poaching of the critically endangered animal.

The idea of rhinos stamping out fire featured prominently in the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy and also in an episode of The Simpson’s.

Also in James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, James' parents are swallowed by a rhinoceros but rhinoceros are, in fact, herbivores.

Rhinoceros Horn

The most obvious distinguishing characteristic of the rhinos is a large horn above the nose. The word rhinoceros comes from the Greek words rhino (nose) and keros (horn). Rhinoceros horns, unlike those of other horned mammals, consist of keratin.

Rhinoceros horns are used in traditional Asian medicine, and for dagger handles in Yemen and Oman. None of the five rhinoceros species have secure futures; the White Rhinoceros is perhaps the least endangered, the Javan Rhinoceros survives in only tiny numbers (estimated at 60 animals in 2002) and is one of the two or three most endangered large mammals anywhere in the world.

Rhino protection campaigns began in the 1970s, but rhino populations have continued to decline dramatically. Trade in rhinoceros parts is forbidden under the CITES agreements, but poaching is a severe threat to all rhinoceros species.