BIAZA Public Access

Rhino Information

Resources

Threat to rhino's survival

	Poaching for traditional Chinese medicine
	Poaching for luxury products
	Habitat loss
	Political conflict


	Campaigns Home Page

	2005/6 Save The Rhino

	Save The Rhino Campaign Details

	Save The Rhino Campaign results

The work of in situ rhino conservation projects:

	Managing a rhino programme
	Translocations
	Environmental education programmes
	Community-based conservation programmes

Fund raising activities

Debate

	Rhino hunting
	A legal trade in rhino horn?

Species: White rhinoceros, or square-lipped rhino

Scientific name:	Ceratotherium simum from the Greek ‘cerato’ meaning horn, ‘therium’ meaning wild beast and ‘simus’ meaning flat nosed.

Two subspecies	northern C. s. simum and southern C. s. cottoni.

Location:	widespread through out the grassland/woodland mosaics of most of southern, central and eastern Africa.

A fact:	White rhinos are grazers, eating grasses, to which their broad upper lip has become adapted (hence synonym square-lipped).

Under threat:	Today the southern white rhino is the most abundant in the world, but this species was brought back from the brink of extinction thanks to the co-operation of conservationists, researchers and the general public in South Africa. The Northern white rhino is not so lucky, numbering more than 2,000 individuals in Uganda, Sudan, Zaire-Congo and Central African Republic in the 1960s, numbers fell to 700 in the 1970s and 10 years later, only 100 were left.

White Rhino [A&S Toon]

Species:Black rhinoceros or hook-lipped rhino

Scientific name:	Diceros bicornis from the Greek ‘Di’ meaning two,, ‘cerato’ meaning horn and from the Latin ‘bi’ meaning two and ‘cornis’ meaning horn.

Four/five subspecies;	Western D. b. longipes, the eastern D. b. michaeli, the southwestern D. b. bicornis, the southcentral D. b. minor and possibly D. b. bruceii

Location:	Widespread over most of Africa

A fact:	Black rhinos are browsers using their top lip to grasp small branches (hence the synonym hook-lipped rhino). It is impossible to outrun a black rhino (the speed of Olympic 100m sprinters is 40 km/h!!)

Under threat:	The most numerous of the rhino species, with several 100,000, the black rhino was hunted relentlessly across most of Africa in the 19th Century. By 1970 there were an estimated 65,000 animals left. Poachers remain the biggest threat to black rhino. Numbers are slowly recovering due to effective biological management and strict protection.

[Renauld Fulcon]

Species: Greater one-horned rhinoceros or Indian rhino

Scientific name:	Rhinoceros unicornis from the Latin ‘uni’ meaning one and ‘cornis’ meaning horn.

Location:	Nepal and northern India

A fact:	The single horn is not used for fighting but for searching for food and roots. It is made of the same stuff as horses’ hooves and regrows if broken off. They are very good swimmers and can dive and feed underwater.

Under threat	:Greater one-horned rhinos have been hunted for sport and their horn for centuries. By the early 19th Century the species was almost extinct, only surviving in a few reserves. Strict protection from Indian and Nepalese wildlife authorities in these reserves has increased numbers from under 200 to around 2,400 today. However poaching, habitat destruction and habitat loss continue to be major threats to this species

[A&S Toon]

Species: Sumatran rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhino, or the hairy rhino

Scientific name:	Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, from the Greek ‘di’, meaning two, ‘cero’, meaning horn and ‘rhinos’ meaning nose; “sumatrensis”, from Sumatra.

Location:	Sumatra, Indonesia

A fact:	Sumatran rhinos have reddish-brown skin covered in short bristly hair. In captivity this hair looks like shaggy fur because of less abrasion from vegetation. It is considered the most primitive rhino species and is the closest relative alive of the famous woolly rhinoceros that lived in the frigid lands of Europe and Asia during the past ice-ages

Under threat	The biggest threats are poaching for their horn and loss of habitat for agriculture and development. Although officially all rhino habitats are strictly protected by legislation, in practice many areas are subject to large-scale encroachment by poor and landless masses and National Park management have little means or political support to counter this pillage.

Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
© Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

Species: Javan rhinoceros or lesser one-horned rhino

Scientific name:	Rhinoceros sondaicus from the Greek ‘rhino’ meaning nose, and ‘ceros’ meaning ‘horn’. Sondaicus derives from ‘Sunda’, the name for the western part of Java, but the word is also used to indicate the main chain of Indonesian islands, the “Sunda islands”

Location:	Sumatra, Indonesia

A fact:	Like all Asian rhinos, Javan rhinos have long dagger-shapped lower incisor teeth. They are very sharp and used in fighting and can inflict deep wounds. The single horn is never very long or massive. Males have larger horns and many females lack the horn or just have a small knob on the nose

Under threat	Poaching for their horn and very small population sizes are this species greatest threat. As well as small numbers, inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity all result in a greater susceptibility to extinction

Alain Compost

Additional Resources

Threats to rhinos’ survival:

The work of in situ rhino conservation projects:

Debate: