The Black Rhinoceros
General information
- Weight: 800 - 1,350 kg (1,750 – 3,000 lbs)
- Height (at shoulder): 1,4 – 1,7 m (4,5 -5,5 ft)
- Length (head and body): 3,0 – 3,8 m (10 – 12,5 ft)
- Anterior Horn length: 0,5 – 1,3 m (1 ft; 8 in – 4 ft; 4 in)
- Posterior Horn length: 0,02 – 0,55 m (1-22 in)
- Lifespan in wild: 30 to 40 years
- Lifespan in captivity: 35 years. The oldest recorded animal lived 44 years 9 months in a zoo.
- Characterisitcs: pointed hooked upper lip (prehensile lip)
- Black Rhinos may reach speeds of 50 km/h (28 m/h)
- Black Rhinos are usually portrayed as the most aggressive of all Rhino Species
- Males are mainly solitary and probably territorial.
- Female home ranges overlap and are less solitary
- Home range size dependent on habitat, sex and age and varies greatly
- Black Rhinos browse for food in the morning and evening and sleep or wallow during the hottest part of the day.
- Gestation period: around 15 to 16 months.
- Birth intervals per calf: 2.5 to 4 years.
- Female sexual maturity: at 4 to 7 years
- Male sexual maturity: at 7 to 10 years
- Newborn weaned: at 2 years
- Pre 20th century numbers: several hundred thousand.
- Current numbers in wild: 3,610
- Current numbers in captivity: At the end of 2004, there were 277 black rhinos in captivity. Through the past 200 years (until 1998), there have been 775 animals recorded in zoos, of which 292 were born in captivity
- Habitat: grasslands, savannahs and tropical bushland.
- Historic Natural Range: Southern and Eastern Africa (from Namibia, through Zambia up to Ethiopia, and all countries to the East) and in a East to west running belt from Ethiopia to Guinea (Southern edge of Sahara)
- Current Range: In several National Parks primarily located in Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania & Kenya.
- Black Rhinos are browsers and primarily feed on leafy plants, branches & shoots
- Black Rhinos are known to eat up to 220 different species of plant.
- Black Rhinos can live up to 5 days without water.