Rhinos

How many horns? 1 or 2?

Indian rhinos have got only a single nasal horn. Both males and females have got a single horn, baby rhinos are born without a horn. The horn of Indian rhinos in captivity is often worn down to a thick knob.

They have a thick skin and large skin folds . Their upper legs and shoulders are cover edwith wart-like bumps. Indian rhinos have very little body hair, aside from eyelashes, ear-fringes and tail-brush. Males develop thick neck-folds. They live in protected areas in Northern India and Nepal. Indian rhinos are also known as Greater one-horned rhinoceros, Asian one-horned rhinoceros and Rhinoceros unicornis.

You can find rhinos in Africa, too. They are called Black rhinos and White rhinos.  They have no large skin folds and no wart-like bumps. They have got two horns on their nose. White rhinos are also called Ceratotherium simum. Black rhinos are also known as Diceros bicornis.

Vocalization

Indian rhinos have a wide variety of vocalizations like rumbling, honking, bleating and snorting. They “talk” to other rhinos this way but also to their keepers. At Zoo Vienna you can hear Sundari often snorting and bleating around.

Listen to Sundari at Zoo Vienna (MP3, recorded at Zoo Vienna 2011):

You can also download this MP3 for free: Rhino sounds

Indian rhinos in zoos

Have you ever seen an Indian rhino in a zoo? Find a list of all zoos in Europe where you can see Indian rhinos on the website –> Rhinos-in-Europe

Rhino horn is no medicin!

Some humans think rhino horn might be some very special medicin. They are wrong. Rhino horn consists of pure keratin like your finger nails! You can’t just cut off the horn, you have to kill the rhino to get its horn. Lots of rhinos are killed because of their horn every year in Africa. Many baby rhinos get orphaned.
Please, don’t buy any products made of rhino horn!

© Fotos: Jola Belik; Mag Cornelia Belik; MP3: Jola Belik