How many horns does a rhino have

Rhinos have an interesting social system. The dominant male, or bull, occupies a small, exclusive territory, allowing only one or two subordinate males to share the territory with him.

Neighboring dominant bulls show unusual respect for the territory boundaries and rarely trespass except to get water during the dry season. Dominant bulls invest a great deal of time and energy just patrolling their territory, marking it with urine and defecating in dung heaps that serve as a community bulletin board. Subordinate bulls put little effort into such communication with scent, always deferring to the dominant bull when they meet up.

The three Asian rhinos have tusks, and they use these enlarged incisors rather than their stubby horns when fighting or defending their territory. Greater one-horned rhino bulls develop longer tusks than the females. A bull may confront a rival by opening his mouth to show off his tusks. The two African rhinos lack these tusks and so use their horns for defense or fights. Fights among rhinos can sometimes led to death; 50 percent of black rhino bulls and 30 percent of females die from wounds received during a fight.

No other mammal has such a high death rate from this type of combat. Females are not territorial and move through large home ranges that overlap with many other females. Adult white rhino females are more social than black rhinos and often stay in small groups of up to a dozen or so that include calves and subadults.

He may rest his chin on her rump to test whether she will tolerate a mating. If successful, a calf is born 15 to 16 months later.

Although wobbly at first, the newborn is soon able to stand on its feet and starts to nurse two to three hours after birth. The mother guards her calf carefully from predators such as large cats, hyenas, and crocodiles, as well as from adult male rhinos.

Calves and subadults often play, practicing their sparring and head-tossing techniques. A rhino mother may tend to her calf for up to four years unless she has another baby, in which case she pushes her older calf into independence to make way for the new arrival.

The exception is the Sumatran rhino: calves stay with the mother for two to three years, but it may be two years more before she gives birth again. The San Diego Zoo's first rhinoceros arrived in —a two-year-old black rhino calf from Kenya. Named Sally, she was an immediate hit with zoogoers.

However, despite two mates, she failed to breed. He is a good example of what one person can do to make a difference!

Greater one-horned rhinos first came to the Zoo in , and they were among the original wildlife at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park when it opened to the public in Just three years later, the Park welcomed its first greater one-horned rhino calf and has had breeding success ever since. As of July , a total of 73 greater one-horned rhinos have been born at the Safari Park. Since then, more than southern white rhinos have been born at the Safari Park. Most of these have moved on to live in other facilities around the world.

Today, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park has the largest crash of rhinos and the most successful managed-care breeding program for rhinos anywhere in the world. The Safari Park holds the record for the most rhinos born in a zoo: from 3 species, including 5 generations of black rhinos and 7 generations of greater one-horned rhinos. One of our youngest calves is a fifth-generation greater one-horned rhino, the first such birth in the world! For centuries, the rhino existed largely unchallenged.

But the advent of high-powered weapons brought a new and deadly enemy: humans. Over the ages, rhino horn has been used to treat illnesses, especially fevers.

Yet like our fingernails and hair, rhino horn is made of keratin and has no healing properties. In Africa, thousands of rhinos were slaughtered each year just for their horn, used for traditional medicines in Asia and dagger handles in the Middle East. By the early s, the population of black rhinos had been reduced by 96 percent and today stands at just over 5, To try to stop the slaughter, African countries began working to protect their rhinos, China no longer approved the use of rhino horn for traditional medicines, and countries in the Middle East promoted dagger handles made of synthetic materials.

These efforts reduced rhino poaching measurably. Today, however, that has all changed, and the increasing price paid for rhino horn encourages greedy folks, eager for quick cash and now often affiliated with criminal syndicates, to kill rhinos just for their horns.

Intensive anti-poaching and habitat protection efforts have helped some rhinos make a comeback. And there are fears that the Javan rhino may soon become extinct, as so few of them can be found. Adopt an animal today and help protect some of our most endangered wildlife and support other vital work around our planet. We need your help to give rangers the strength and safety they need, and to tackle poaching and demand for products like ivory. Join us and you can help stop the illegal wildlife trade and tackle other threats facing our natural world.

Two African — black and white rhinos — and three Asian — greater one-horned, Sumatran and Javan rhinos. And white rhinos are the largest, weighing up to 3,kg over stone, or well over 3 tonnes! The names of black and white rhinos are misleading — as both are actually grey. Females tend to be more sociable than the more solitary, territorial males.

Javan and greater one-horned rhinos only have one horn, whereas all the other rhino species have two horns. Their horns grow continuously during their lifetime — the white rhino's horn can grow 7cm every year — and the record length is cm long! But this is a precarious place to live. An active volcano is just 50km away. That's why establishing a safe site for another population of Javan rhinos in Indonesia is a priority.

The difference in lip shape is related to the animals' diets. Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground. Except for females and their offspring, black rhinos are solitary. Females reproduce only every two and a half to five years. Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years old.

Black rhinos feed at night and during the gloaming hours of dawn and dusk. Under the hot African sun, they take cover by lying in the shade. Rhinos are also wallowers. They often find a suitable water hole and roll in its mud, coating their skin with a natural bug repellent and sun block.

Rhinos have sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell. They may find one another by following the trail of scent each enormous animal leaves behind it on the landscape. Black rhinos boast two horns, the foremost more prominent than the other. Rhino horns grow as much as three inches a year, and have been known to grow up to five feet long.

Females use their horns to protect their young, while males use them to battle attackers. The prominent horn for which rhinos are so well known has also been their downfall.

Many animals have been killed for the hard, hairlike growth, which is revered for medicinal uses in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle. The black rhino once roamed most of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction due to poaching fueled by commercial demand for its horn.