Rhino (lat. Rhinocerotidae) is a huge animal that belongs to the mammalian class, unit unimportant. Chief representative of the nasor. The name translated from Latin means “nose” and “horn”, which is quite logical and due to the appearance of the animal.
Appearance
At the moment, the largest of living creatures is considered an elephant, and the second place among the giants of the world fauna is without a doubt the rhino occupies. This is a land animal, which in its size can reach five meters in length, a height of one and a half to three meters and a mass of up to 4 tons. Mistakenly people believe that the skin color is known in the name of the species white or black rhino, but here the situation is not entirely true. Both representatives of the family have about one color these are different shades of gray. And they received the difference in the name because of the features of the lifestyle, since this huge mammals likes to wallow in the mud, which gives coloring, based on which two different names appeared.
The head of this animal has a very steep descent in the forehead area, the shape is quite narrow and the head takes about a quarter from the entire length of the body. Between the nose, on which a huge horn and forehead flaunts, with which the giant is able to break through the walls, there is a small hollow resembling a saddle or something so. The eyes of the animal look awkward, because they are very small compared to its arrays, the pupils are black, and the shape of the oval. Over the eyelids there are barely prominent eyelashes.
Black and Indian rhinos have a feature their upper lip is very mobile, as a result of which it hangs and almost completely closes the lower lip. Other counterparts have not noticed this. The jaws are massive, have a strong bite and are able to crush any animal that will fall into them. Some teeth often fall out or are completely absent, for example, the African look does not have several incisors at once on both jaws. Klykov does not have mammals, but seven indigenous teeth erased during life allow you to grind food no worse than other herbivores are able to do it. On the lower jaw are also more sharp and long incisors with which the animal cuts the grass.
On the entire skin, the giants are almost completely absent wool. It can only be found at the tips of the ears or at the end of a thin tail, the length of which varies from 60 to 80 centimeters. It is because of the absence of any wool that rhinos has to be always smeared with dirt so that small parasites or midges do not bother them. They have so many skin that it gathers in numerous folds and the animal thanks to them looks like a certain knight in lance armor.
The hoofs of the rhino have three fingers, and their fingerprint is very similar to the sheets of clover, because because of the mass the animal rests on all its limbs, never climbing the socks.
The largest amount of wool is observed in the Sumatran species.
Structure
As follows from the name, the key feature of the structure of the rhino is a horn located on the frontal or nasal bone. This is usually solitary, but there may be steam growth. Unlike other animals, in the structure of which there are also horns or other outgrowths, for example, antelopes or bulls, the horn of a giant mammal consists not of bone tissue, but of keratin protein. It also consists of needles of hedgehogs, porcupines, nails and hairline of a person, and even a shell of turtles with battleships. In their composition, these horns are very similar to their hooves. Development comes from the epidermis, so growth is not a separate part of the skeleton. Upon wounded or complete destruction, the horn is restored, but if it is repulsed with the root, then an adult will forever lose its main weapon. No matter how much time a person spends studying the role of horns in the life of the animal, their main function was not able to find out. But you can notice that females after removing the horn do not want to engage in relations with the opposite sex and completely forget about the offspring. At the moment, the most likely theory is the convenience of the rhino, which, using its outgrowth, pushes trees and grass to find better and nutritious food. This version is confirmed by the agerelated change in the structure of the horns, which are compacted over time, but become more smooth.
Types of rhinos
Now in the world there are quite a few subfamily and other relatives of rhinos, but of the species there are only five basic ones that belong to four childbirths:
Sumatran rhino is the rarest representatives, a distinctive feature of which is a huge and unusual for other brothers the amount of hair. It is literally covered with hair, so it has a specific appearance for the family. At the moment, this is the last survivor from the most ancient species.
Habitat: East India, Burma and Bangladesh. Unconfirmed data indicate the finding of animals on the territory of the Malay Peninsula, as well as in Cambodia and in Vietnam.
Sumatran rhino
Indian rhino, as well as Javanese in the classification they are not related and represent separate categories, but are related to the general family of Indian rhinos. They are also on the verge of extinction, are strictly protected and from distinctive features have one big horn. Previously they were a single species, but several tens of millions of years ago were divided, although they did not acquire some significant differences from each other.
Habitat: as follows from the name, the main population of the mammal is located in India, as well as in Nepal. According to some reports, you can find out that some part of the population has been preserved in Bangladesh. The largest number of individuals are in the Kaziuralga Park, which is located in the state of Assam. About a third of the entire world population lives there.
Indian rhino
White rhino is the owner of the largest horn, the length of which can reach almost 170 centimeters in length. It practically does not differ from its brother, the black rhino, in external signs and most other parameters, together with it belongs to a single African species. Of the distinctive features, the diet can be called, which is mostly consists of grass growing on the ground, as well as mud in which the animal prefers to swim.
Habitat: the main number of individuals are located in South Africa.
White rhino
Black rhino is a type similar to a white rhino, which differs only in the mobility of the upper lip and the power supply method. It eats vegetation, which is located on branches of trees or shrubs, and the grass from the ground categorically avoids and eats only in extreme cases.
Habitat: the same as the white.
Black rhino
Sexual dimorphism
As such, this family does not have this family, since there is no significant difference between the female and the male, but in some situations the latter can reach several larger sizes and mass.
Lifestyle
Unlike most other greenhouse huge sizes, this family prefers to settle alone, not going to herds even during migration. Of all types, only white rhinos can unite in small groups under some conditions to find food faster, as well as protect themselves from predators. In addition, the cubs also live together for some time and are brought up at once by several females in the district. But even love for loneliness and detachment does not cancel the fact that representatives of the rhinoceros are very friendly to some other families. For example, Volokhoki birds accompanying most of the largest mammals, for example, buffaloes, giraffes and elephants, are also often near the rhino. They enter into some mutually beneficial relationships, since the absence of wool on the body does not allow the giant to fully protect themselves from insects and other parasites, and birds, as everyone knows, eat them. Therefore, Volokloki eat due to a lack of rhinos, and they calmly live and do not get sick with various diseases whose carriers are often insects. Smooth skin contribute to the simple attachment of ticks to the body, and mud baths are far from always able to cleanse the animal of pests. But they find mud turtles that help giants and gnaw from their skin illwishers.
The protection of the territory on which mammals lives is very strict for this family. The individual distinguishes a whole area on which there is a pasture and a reservoir, after which it does not even miss its own brothers into the territory. Over time, they trample the boundaries, beyond which others can categorically stand up, and also allocates their own places in mud baths, for which even fights can arrange. Noteworthy can be called the fact that the African clan even creates a territory for littering. During her life, huge mountains of manure gather in it, which allocates the smell and makes it possible to clearly understand that this place is already occupied, you should not approach it. Not only feces can serve as a way to mark their boundaries, but also the urine, which the animal sprayers of shrubs and grass.
The activity of black rhinos falls at night. During this period, they stock up food to lie somewhere in the shade and sleep off. The dream, by the way, takes place on the stomach or side, because if the giant lies on his back, he is unlikely to be able to rise on his own. These insistence actually have a very strong dream, which can not even break the roar of an approaching predator they are absolutely anyway to what and where they go, because they sleep. At this time, some fearless tourists can run to the lying body and grab it by the tail, but it will not even react, because sleep and food for rhinos are above all. Other species do not have such a strong indifference to danger, so their dream is more sensitive, and their activity may also fall out in the daytime.
Rhinos are inherently very careful, despite their sizes that could endow them with high conceit. They hold from people detached, because they see a potential threat in them, they also try to avoid the danger. But, if a predator or another illwisher appears on the horizon, instead of escape they attack the first, demonstrating their fearlessness and showing that they have no equal in strength. The speed of a running rhino, even given its size, is quite large and can reach fifty kilometers per hour. Black-looking representatives are more aggressive, so they can even attack themselves, regardless of whether they are facing something or not. This giant is actually not able to stop any other inhabitant of the fauna, and their blow from the run almost always carries the death for the enemy. White species is more peaceful, so it is often bred for sale to lovers of exotic or zoos, because the baby, brought up by man, will not even mind that people communicate with him. Some mature females can allow themselves to be highlighted, but this is extremely rare, so it’s better not to take risks.
The spectrum of sounds that the rhino is able to make is actually very extensive. They grunt, squeal, scream, snort, sniff and even moo. If the mammal is disturbed or frightened, it begins to snore loudly and grumble, and then it may even attack if it feels a threat. The females who call their kids emit grunts, and they begin to squeak squeakly if they do not find a mother next to them. During a wound or battle, this mammal is satisfied with a loud roar, and mating is accompanied by a little comical whistle from the female.
During forced migration, a rather large number of individuals die when trying to overcome the reservoir. This is the biggest obstacle to giants, because they can either bypass the wall, wood or stone, or simply demolished, but their swimming skill is almost not developed this is facilitated by a mass that does not allow animals to stay on the water, as a result of which they immediately go to the bottom and drown. But Indian rhinos during evolution acquired the ability to swim well, so only they and the Sumatran look are able to survive when overcoming some deep river.
How many rhinos live
The lifespan of the rhino is actually very different from sight to species, but one can confidently say one thing they are able to live for a long time. In captivity, for example, in zoos or reserves, the average duration of existence is about fifty years, and in the wild, black and white rhinos die without living even up to 45. Sumatransky is considered the most not longlived, since its main feature is the presence of a plentiful amount of wool, contributes to great attention from the poachers who want to get bait not sorry for the animal. Indian and Javanese species are considered longlivers, which is facilitated by climate and nutrition, as well as the lack of natural enemies and careful protection from man. Their average life expectancy is about 65 years old.
Where they live
Once upon a time, the family included a huge number of species, but climatic changes, as well as human activities, destroyed almost all of them, leaving only five main types. They all prefer to live in warm or even hot conditions, so on cold continents they simply cannot be found. The main habitat is considered to be Southeast Asia and the Southern African Republic. Some parts of the population of any of the species can be detected in the steppe zones and in the savannah in the territory of the Congo, Mozambique or several other arid countries. In extreme cases, rhinos begin to live in the tropics, even despite the presence of rains and a wet climate there.
What they eat
Since rhinos are attributed to herbivores, they are exceptional vegetarians, and meat or other flesh is not eaten even in extreme cases. It is logical that in connection with some mutations and deviations, some individual individuals are able to attack another animal in order to eat it, but similar only an exception to the rules.
To maintain such a huge weight and size, mammals have to eat daily up to hundreds of kilograms of plant food per day, which seems completely impossible numbers. The diet depends on the type, for example, white rhinos in their food is selective and do not eat anything except the grass growing on the ground. But black rhinos eat quite the opposite, although these two species are almost no different and live in the neighborhood. They, together with Indian rhinos, eat shrubs, as well as foliage and branches of trees growing near pastures. They do not eat grass, because they consider it tasteless. To tear off food from a height allows them to be a special structure of the upper lip, which more resembles a small proboscis, covering branches and tearing off all vegetation from them. In addition, the Indian rhino especially likes to eat the shoots of sugarcane, which is quite a lot of habitats of this mammal. Representatives of the black species, in turn, love to eat the socalled elephant grass, as well as water shoots and fruits of trees. Sumatran giants are especially different from the rest, since their habitat allows them to eat abundant amounts of fruits and berries, for example, figs or mangoostan. The Javanese Ulyan is the most unacceptable and eats what will find.
Reproduction
Sexual maturity of giant mammals occurs only in the seventh or eighth years of life, which is relatively late compared to many other giants. But the search for the female and, accordingly, the reproduction will not begin until the male will mark its own territory, and after several times it protects it from the encroachments of other male representatives to prove your strength and readiness. This usually takes up to five years of life, and by the age of eleven, the animal can finally move on to propagation. The marriage time falls at the beginning of spring, but most species do not have any particular season, since their ruts come every 1-2 months. Males arrange very cruel fights among themselves, but the features do not end there. Having fought and defended his strength, the male finally becomes interesting for females, but before mating, both sexes arrange a small race among themselves, during which they can even have a small brawl.
The duration of pregnancy in females is an average of one and a half years, so only one baby with a frequency of 2-3 years is born. The mass of a newborn baby can reach 60 kilograms, and the cubs of white rhinos at birth have a large amount of hair that soon falls out. For several minutes the baby comes to his senses, and then rises to his feet and the very next day follows the mother. After three or four months, a very young individual is already ready to get food for itself, but lactation still takes place for some time.
When a new baby has a new baby, an adult is driven away and forget about him, but he soon returns, which is why his mother can arrange a fight with him in order to explain in a more understandable language why he should leave.
Population
The cost of the horns of this mammal in the black market is one of the most expensive in principle. By the beginning of the two thousandths from the former population there were not ten percent left, since the poachers destroyed almost all. Humanity finally noticed the problem and decided to create reserves, laws and other measures to protect, as well as the salvation of the species, but the reduction of the population is still taking place. Alas, the current world is not adapted to full-fledged measures that can at least somehow stop ruthless murders. Recently, some subspecies have simply disappeared, although, it would seem, the bills have already been created and other measures to protect.
In 2011, the species of black rhinos living in the West was recognized as extinct, and from the white northern rhinos all over the world, only one individual survived.
Despite a limited number of individuals, in China or Vietnam there are full traditions and workshops in which there is a carvings on the horns of the rhino, and they are also used for medical purposes.
Natural enemies
In principle, adults have no enemies except a person. Braciers are not able to stop any laws and protection measures, since these people for money are able to bypass any means of protection.
Elephants and giraffes, which are the same giants of the fauna and make up the top three largest creatures on planet Earth, belong to the rhinos with respect. But sometimes a battle for food can take place between them, if none of the individuals wants to yield.
But the cub was not lucky, since their strength is not as great as in adults or at least young animals. If the baby fought off the female, then he is most likely to eat a crocodile, a lion or a tiger. But if the female notices the predator, then he is more likely to die from only one blow, because her horn is very powerful and is able to demolish any obstacle on its way.
Parasites and other pests are the most dangerous creatures for rhinos, since they have no way to protect themselves, as a result of which they just need to endure and try to take mud baths more often.
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