ed into Africa and evolved into the two present species. The white rhinoceros is not white in color: the name is probably a
corruption of the Dutch "wijd" for "wide", which describes its lips. Weighing up to 3.5 tons, the white Rhino is second only to the African bush elephant in the scale of land mammals. It is a grazer and lives in social groups. The Black (actually grey) rhinoceros has a prehensile upper lip, which serves like a miniature elephant trunk when the Rhino browses on bushes. Like the rhinos in Asia it is solitary(Stuart, C. & T).
Only 13,565 of these marvelous creatures survive in the wild with another 1,000 in captivity. Of these rhinos, over half are of a single species the white Rhino. There are fewer than 5,000 of the other four species combined (SOS for the Black Rhino. 1999)
The Rhino is being exterminated by poachers who sell the horn for medicinal or ornamental purposes in Asia and the Middle East. For many years the relative remoteness of the Rhino=s native habitat rendered it=s exploitation a minor matter, resigned to folk medicine and greed. Most wild habitats while remote, are no longer unapproachable. The brute physicality of the Rhino which has allowed it=s lineage to survive through millions of years is no longer enough to protect it.
Poaching for horn is largely responsible for this massive decline. The southern African countries of Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where 90% of Africa's remaining Black rhinos and white rhinos are conserved, are coming under increasing pressure. These animals provide the only means of satisfying the illegal trade in Rhino hor
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