Currently nearly 78% of the worlds surviving rhino population are located
in Namibia and South Africa. Due to extreme poaching, their numbers has
reached critical stages.
For thousands of years, Rhinos have been widely spread throughout Africa,
and was a wonderful part of the natural wildlife balance of Africa.
There are two kinds of African rhino – the white and the black rhino. There
are around 20,000 white rhino and 4,800 black rhino remaining in isolated
pockets in the African wilderness. These numbers are dwindling at a
tremendous rate, as in 2012, about 450 rhino has been killed by poachers in
South Africa alone.
Often people think the difference between the black and white rhino got
some-thing to do with colour. Not at all! Both are grey in colour.
The Differences between a Black and White rhino
- Black rhino has a pointed upper lip, which they use to snap-off low-growing soft branches of brush, Acacia bush and small scrubs.
- Both Rhinos have good hearing and sense of smell, but their eyesight is poor.
- Black rhino could reach speeds of up to 55 km per hour, and the 'white' is much slower due to its bigger size.
- The old Dutch name of “wyde” (Wide) lip rhino got changed through the years into “white”.
- The white rhino is the second heaviest African land animal after the African elephant.
- Where the black rhino is a browser, the white rhino is a grazer and
eat basically grass. It also prefer open grass savannah, as to the black
rhino prefer more bush areas.