WHITE RHINOS

• Ceratotherium simus

• Southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simus simum) 

• Northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simus cottoni)

• Southern: near threatened (IUCN Redlist - last updated 2012)

• Northern: functionally extinct

• Southern: 15,942 individuals (estimated)

• Northern: 2 females (Najin & her daughter Fatu live at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya)

• The southern white rhino population has plummeted approximately 24% since 2014

• 4 northern white rhinos have died in the last 9 years.  Suni and Sudan, the last 2 northern males died in 2015 and 2018 respectively at Ol ejeta Conservancy, Kenya.  In 2015 females Nabire and Nola died in zoos in the Czech Republic and San Diego

• SANParks' annual report 2021/22 shows a 79% loss of white rhinos in Kruger National Park, South Africa since 2011.  According to National Geographic the estimated number of white rhinos in the park is 2250

• Current range: Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Eswatini, Botswana, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa, which has the largest concentration and is also  one of the only countries in the world which allows private ownership of rhinos. 

- In November 2021, 30 white rhinos were translocated to Rwanda by African Parks in the largest ever single translocation

- As of 2022, 19 southern whites were reintroduced to Zinave National Park, Mozambique.  Translocations (of white and black rhinos) are proving successful, as the park welcomed its fourth rhino calf in September 2023

- In 2023, 76 white rhinos will be relocated from South africa to the Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

- In September 2023, non-profit African parks acquired 2000 rhinos from controversial breeder John Hume for the purpose of rewilding them

• Habitat: Long and short grass savannah and shrubland

• Diet: More efficient at shearing grass than an electric lawnmower, white rhinos spend most of their days grazing.  They can eat up to 55kg of food (almost exclusively grass) each day and draw enough water from their diets to forgo drinking for 4-5 days

• Southern white rhinos roamed large swathes of southern Africa, including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, where they became extinct around 40 years ago before being reintroduced in 2022.  They could also be found in north African countries including Kenya and Uganda

• Northern white rhinos were once found in southern Chad, southwestern Sudan, Central African Republic, northwestern Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the last known sighting of 4 individuals was in the Garamba National Park in 2006

• 35 - 40 years in the wild or 50 years in captivity. Toby, the oldest captive southern white rhino, died at the age of 54 in 2021 at Parco Natura Viva zoo, Verona, southern Italy

• Their vision is poor.  About a 10th as good as the average person

• They have a well developed sense of hearing and can hear noise frequencies lower than the average human

• Average walking speed: 1.9-2.4 mph

• Average trotting speed: 18 mph

• Males can charge up to 24.8 mph (for short distances)

• Female weight: 1,800-2,000 kg

• Female height (to shoulder): 1.6-1.8 m

• Female body length: 300-400 cm

• Tail length: 70-100 cm

• Male weight: 1,800-2,500 kg

• Male height (to shoulder): 1.7-1.9 m

• Male body length: 360-420 cm

• Tail length: 70-100 cm

• First birth: 6.5-7 years

• Gestation: Approximately 16 months

• Birth numbers: Single calf

• Calf birth weight: 40-70 kg

• Eating solids: 2 weeks to 1 month

• Weaned: 12-16 months

• Birth interval: 2-3 years

• Female sexual maturity: 4-5 years

• Male sexual maturity: 10-12 years

• White rhinos are the most socialable of the five rhino species and have complex social structures

• Although not unusual to see lone individuals, females often live in social groups up to 15

• Although adults have no natural predators, their young are vulnerable to attacks.  Females can often be witnessed, grouped in a circle to protect their young.  

• Males can be social, but spend the majority of their time alone

• Rhinos have a complex range of visual, audible and olfactory communication, including snorts, wheezes, squeals and pants, foot pounding, horn prodding and ritualised defecation in the form of middens which are communal dung heaps used like a social network 

• Unlike tusks, which are teeth, and antlers, which are bone, rhino horn is made of keratin

• Horns grow approximately 7cm a year

• Rhino horns are worn through general wear and tear or by an intervention known as de-horning (the partial removal of horns as a deterrent to poaching)

• Front horn length: 94-101cm

• Rear horn length: Up to 55 cm