#HABITAT OF ONE HORNED RHINOCEROS SKIN#
#HABITAT OF ONE HORNED RHINOCEROS FULL#

Black rhinos have evolved a smaller head that is easier to lift and support, since they eat from bushes and trees up to two metres tall.

#HABITAT OF ONE HORNED RHINOCEROS FULL#

They have a pointed, prehensile upper lip, meaning they have full control over its movements and can use it to grasp twigs and branches. what they eatīlack rhinos are browsers, meaning they eat a variety of woody vegetation, shrubs, and shoots, but they do not eat grass.

#HABITAT OF ONE HORNED RHINOCEROS SKIN#

Although they look formidable, the plates are just thick folds of skin with more flexible segments of skin in between that allow the plates to shift as the rhino moves. However, greater one-horned rhinos have distinctive armour-like plates that cover their bodies. appearanceīoth greater one-horned and black rhinos have grey skin that is very tough and thick. They weigh between 1,600-2,700 kilograms, almost double the weight of a black rhino, and they reach 1.8-2.0 metres at the shoulder. Greater one-horned rhinos are the second largest of the rhino species, smaller only than the African white rhino.

They also use their horns to search for food and to forage for fresh, tasty roots.īlack rhinos are much smaller than greater one-horned rhinos, weighing (on average) between 800-1,400 kilograms and reaching 1.5-1.75 metres at the shoulder. During a fight, males will instead use their long lower incisor teeth (which can grow up to eight centimeters long) to inflict deep wounds. Greater one-horned rhinos also use their horns for defense, but unlike black rhinos, they do not use their horn for fighting. They also use their horns for communication, social interactions with other rhinos, and to mark their territories by gouging marks into trees and the ground. Black rhinos use their horns for self-defense if attacked by a predator and to fight other males to establish dominance during the mating season. Rhinos use their horns for a variety of reasons. Black rhinos have two horns, whereas the greater one-horned rhino, as the name suggests, has only one horn. The horn is the most recognizable feature for all rhino species, and it is the most obvious difference between greater one-horned rhinos and black rhinos. On a visit to India, I met two greater one-horned rhino calves in the care of expert keepers at the IFAW and Wildlife Trust India Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (IFAW-WTI CWRC), who plan to release them back into the wild.Īside from living on different continents, there are several differences between the greater one-horned rhino and the black rhino. Though I’ve spent most of my career studying the black rhino, I recently had the opportunity to observe the greater one-horned rhino. As a conservation biologist, I have spent months in Kenya following the feeding pathway of black rhinos to research and better understand their dietary preferences. Rhinos are arguably one of the most iconic mammals in the animal kingdom, and they’ve captured the hearts of wildlife lovers around the world, including me. Written by Lara Jackson, conservation biologist

Habitat of one horned rhinoceros