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Black rhino
photo: WWF-Canon /
Frederick J. WEYERHAEUSER |
The black rhino is brownish-gray, hairless, and has two horns. It weighs from 1,750 to 3,000 pounds, ranges from 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet tall at its shoulder, and is between 10 and 12 1/2 feet long. The black rhino is a browser and it uses its prehensile lip to grasp twigs, branches and leaves. The black rhino feeds morning and evening, resting in shade during the hottest part of the day. Since it cannot sweat, a part of its day is spent wallowing in mud and standing in open water to lower its body temperature and to keep down skin pests. The estimated life span of a black rhino is 50 to 60 years. A female's pregnancy lasts about 15 months, and newborn infants (55-85 pounds at birth) replace older calves in the den, which can be two to five years old. There are four subspecies of black rhino: the southern, the southwestern, the eastern, and the western. All four subspecies are listed as critically endangered on IUCN's Red List.
Southern black rhino
The most numerous of the black rhino subspecies, the southern black rhino historically occurred from western and southern Tanzania down through Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique to the northern and eastern parts of South Africa and probably in the southern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Angola, and eastern Botswana. Zimbabwe and South Africa hold 96 percent of this subspecies with South Africa being the stronghold. As of 2001, the IUCN red list count stands at 1,651.
Southwestern black rhino
Namibia, southern Angola, western Botswana, and western South Africa comprised the range of this larger, straighter-horned, and more arid-adapted subspecies. Populations have remained primarily in the desert and arid savannas of Namibia, although small populations have been reestablished in the southwestern part of South Africa. Namibia now holds more than 95 percent of the remaining numbers, which in 2001 stood at 943 (IUCN).
Eastern black rhino
This subspecies was distributed from southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia through Kenya and into Rwanda and north-central Tanzania. It has longer, more slender and more curved horns than the southern species. Its current stronghold is in Kenya and as of 2001 the count was around 498 (IUCN). A few individuals may be left in Ethiopia and Rwanda.
Western black rhino
The western black rhino once ranged throughout the savanna zones of West Africa, but today only a few scattered animals remain in Cameroon. This rarest and most endangered subspecies of black rhino hovered at around eight individuals in 2001 (IUCN).
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