Some Facts and What You Need to Know About Rhinos

Rhinoceroses or Rhinos are big herbivorous mammals, which you can identify them with their characteristics snouts with a horn. Their name came from the Greek words “rhino,” which means nose and “ceros,” which means horns. There are also five species and eleven subspecies of rhino; some have a couple of horns, while some only have one.

Some people use rhinos horns in local medicine because of their healing properties, people hunt them, and rhinos are almost extinct. Sometimes their horns are being sold as decorations or trophies, but more frequently, they are used and ground up in Chinese traditional medicine.

The horn powders are sometimes added to brewed tea or food in their belief that it has a powerful aphrodisiac, a cure for a hangover and fever treatment, gout, rheumatism, and some disorders according to the IRF or International Rhino Foundation. While there is more information to know from them, you might want to learn more. Besides these facts, there are more if you check out rhino facts.

White Rhinos Have Two Subspecies

The southern and northern rhinos that are white reflects their name’s locations of their habitats in Africa. The southern white rhinos are living in South Africa, while the northern white rhinos are living in Central and East Africa. One of the heart-breaking rhino facts is that the northern white rhinos are nearly extinct, there are two female rhinos left of this subspecies. On the contrary, there are above 20,000 white rhinos in the southern part the are still living in the wild.

The Colors of Black and White Rhinos are The Same

The facts are those black rhinos have less or more similar coloration with the white rhinos. Instead of its color, the name of the white rhinos came from wyd, an Afrikaan word that describes the square upper lip of this animal.  Black rhinos have pointy upper lips, and they are named in the opposite color to identify them from the white rhinos quickly. Now that is an example of interesting rhino facts.

The Javan Rhino is The Former Most Common Rhinos

Javan Rhinos lives in Indonesia and even in Southeast Asia in the past. But they also spread into China and even in India. The destroying of their habitats and poaching caused a decreasing population to just 58 to 68 rhinos on the island of Java in Indonesia. In respecting the solitude of these animals, scientists these days limit themselves to fecal samples and video footage to study them. While hoping that the species will recover in the future, the remaining small population worries the scientists on the possibility that there will be excessive inbreeding among these Javan rhinos.

Sumatran Rhinos are The Smallest of All Rhinos

Despite being the tinniest rhino species, many still consider them as large animals because of their height, which is 4 feet, and they are 11 feet long, weighing an average of 800 kg. They have two horns, one of those two naturally grows up to 10 inches, while the other one is commonly a stub only.

Sumatran rhino distinctions are their hair, red coat fur that covers almost their entire body. Calves have more hair than adults, but it might be hard to see their fur in their habitat because of the thick muds around. Today, there are about 80 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild, living in Borneo and Sumatra.

Takeaway

Now that rhinos are almost extinct, people should not be killing or hunting them. Instead, we should all take care of them as all other animals in the world. We should not make them our trophies or decorations because their lives should always matter, and they are God’s creations.