Facts about the Rhinoceros

Welcome to another episode of Natural World Facts!
This fact file is all about the Rhinoceros in the series Mammals.

Join Leo, our presenter, as he tells you all about the Rhinoceros and it's appearance, diet, habitat, breeding facts and conservation status.

Natural World Facts is a channel dedicated to bringing you fascinating facts about our natural world, and the wonderful animals that we share it with.

Brief Overview:
The Rhinoceros is a large, herbivorous mammal. Their name comes from the Greek words "rhino" (nose) and "ceros" (horn).
Rhinos spend their days and nights grazing and only sleep during the hottest parts of the day.
Though rhinos are usually solitary, they sometimes form groups called crashes, these groups are made up of one dominant male, a female and her offspring. The dominant male rules over an area of land. The male will allow some sub-dominate males to live on his territory. The females will roam freely around several different territories.
The average lifespan of a rhino is 45 years.

Appearance:
All rhino species have a long pointed horn on their snout. Their bodies are short and stocky and they hang low above the ground. Their colouring can range from yellowish brown to grey.

Diet:
Rhinoceroses are herbivores, which means they only eat vegetation. The type of vegetation they eat varies by species. This is due to the fact their snouts are different shapes. The black rhino has long lips to allow it to pick leaves and fruit from high up. The white rhino has a flat-shaped snout that allows it to graze on the ground.

Habitat:
White rhinos and black rhinos inhabit in the grasslands and floodplains of eastern and southern Africa. Greater one-horned rhinos can be found in the swamps and rain forests of northern India and southern Nepal. Sumatran and Javan rhinos are found only in small areas of Malaysian and Indonesian swamps and rain forests.

Breeding:
Every two and a half to five years, a female rhino will reproduce. Female rhinos have a gestation period of around 15 to 16 months. They usually only have one calf at a time, though they can have twins. At birth, baby rhinos can weigh up to 88 to 140 pounds (40 to 64 kg).
At around 3 years old, the calf will be mature enough to set out on its own.

Status:
According to the IUCN red list of threatened species, most species of rhino are listed as critically endangered with fewer than 100 sumatran rhinos left in the wild.

It is estimated that there were 500,000 rhinos across Africa and Asia at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, there are 29,000 rhinos in the wild. Poaching and loss of habitat have put all rhino species in danger of extinction.

The Rhinoceroses horns are often used in folk medicine for their supposed healing properties, leading to rhinos being hunted nearly to extinction.

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Видео Facts about the Rhinoceros канала Natural World Facts