The Black Rhino population of Africa is just one of the many
wildlife species whose very existence is greatly threatened. The
continent has seen a drop in Black Rhino numbers from 65,000 in
1970 to around 2,000 at present due overwhelmingly to poaching (Voyage Publishing, 1996). See Exhibit 1 below for a graphic representation of Black Rhino population drop off.
The etymological description of the Rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, is drawn from Greek and Latin roots. Diceros is from the Greek di, meaning "two" and ceros, meaning "horn". Bicornis is from the Latin bi, again meaning "two" and cornis, again meaning
(Source: Sebakwe Black Rhino Trust, 1998)
"horn". It is this aspect of the Rhino=s physicality, the Rhino=s horn, which has added the words Aendangered species@ to almost any description of Rhinoceri.
Five species of Rhino exist today the white (or square lipped) and Black (or hooked lip) rhinos in Africa, each with two horns, and Sumatran (hairy and two horned), and the
greater (Indian) one horned and lesser one horned, or Javan, rhinos in Asia. All still have a prehistoric look with their great bulk, rugged features and their distinctive prominent horns. But their ancestor, who lived 50 million years ago in the Oligocene, looked more like a miniature horse and had a flat, hornless head (Stuart, C. & T).
The first traces of horned rhinos were found in North America, where they lived between 25 and 40 million years ago. In later periods, horned species were found in Eurasia, some with two
horns placed side by side, and others with single or multiple horns in a variety of shapes (Stuart, C. & T).
The Sumatran Rhino, the smallest of today's rhinos, is considered a descendent of the prehistoric woolly rhinoceros, depicted in Stone Age cave drawings in Europe and of which
complete carcasses have been found in Siberian permafrost.
Relatives of the woolly rhinoceros are believed to have mov...