Ceratotherium simum
SUBFAMILY
Dicerotinae
TAXONOMY
Ceratotherium simum (Burchell, 1817), Cape Province, South Africa. Two subspecies: C. s. simum in southern Africa and C. s. cottoni in northeast Africa.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Square-lipped rhinoceros; French: Rhinoceros blanc; German: Breitmaul-Nashorn.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The largest rhinoceros, with males weighing to 5,000 lb (2,300 kg), females to 3,800 lb (1,700 kg); shoulder height for males 65–73 in (165–185 cm), females 61–70 in (155–177 cm); head and body length for males 140–150 in (360–380 cm), females 118–143 in (300–363 cm); anterior horn length males 20–47 in (50–120 cm), females 20–62 in (50–158 cm); posterior horn length 6.6–15 in (16–40 cm) in both sexes. The skin is battle-ship gray, with very sparse hairs on the body in the southern form, and none in the northern form, apart from fringes to the ears and the tip of the tail. The head is lengthened, and the lips broad, as adaptations for grazing. The ligament supporting the enormous weight of the head, and associated tissues, causes a hump on the back of the neck to form. The northern sub-species is slightly smaller, appears somewhat longer legged, and has the dorsal profile of the skull slightly less concave than the southern form.
DISTRIBUTION
Historically distributed in two discrete areas, separated by a gap of more than 1,240 mi (2,000 km). In southern Africa, they occurred south of the Zambezi to northern KwaZulu-Natal in the east, and westwards through Botswana and Northern Cape into the northern part of Namibia. The northern subspecies was distributed west of the Nile River, from northern Uganda into southern Sudan, and westwards through northeast Congo and the Central African Republic as far as the southern edge of Chad. However, teeth and rock art indicate that it formerly occurred through much of East Africa until quite recently, and extended as far north as Algeria. Hunting eliminated the southern subspecies over its entire range, except in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi region, but subsequently animals have been reintroduced to parts of the former range. In northeast Africa, the species persists only in the Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
HABITAT
Associated drier forms of savanna in southern Africa, but in the northern range occupies moist savanna, with tall grass prevalent except around termite mounds.
BEHAVIOR
Female home ranges extend over 8–16 mi2 (10–20 km2), including a smaller core area, in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi, but encompass 20 mi2 (50 km2) or more in low-density populations, or where habitat conditions are less favorable. Northern white rhinos cover 20–40 mi 2 (50–100 km2) in Uganda and 80–200 mi2 (200–500 km2) in Garamba. Adult males restrict their movements to somewhat smaller areas, which constitute breeding territories. Active for about 50% of the time, both day and night, with most of this time taken up with feeding. There is generally a midday slumbering period, for which animals commonly resort to shady areas on ridge-crests. Wallowing in muddy hollows is a favorite activity, and they emerge coated with mud, which helps remove ticks and reduces the number of biting flies, and may also serve a cooling function. They sometimes lie in pools of water.
The typical group is a mother-offspring pair, but larger groups, including several subadults as well as one or more adult females, are also formed. Subadults almost invariably team up with one or more subadults of similar age, of the same or opposite sex, or with an adult female lacking a calf. Adult males are solitary, except when accompanying females.
Dominant males occupy clearly defined territories from which they exclude other dominant males, but share these with one or more subordinate adult males as well as with cows and sub-adults. These territories cover only 0.4–1 mi2 (0.8–2.5 km2) in the dense Hluhluwe-Umfolozi population, but may expand hugely when there is less pressure, with territories of 20–40 mi2 (50-100 km2) being patrolled in some sparsely populated localities. Males are dominant only within the boundaries of their own territory. Adult males manifest their subordinate status by uttering loud roars and shrieks when confronted by a territory holder, with curled tails indicating their nervousness. Adult females also use loud roars or snorts to deter a bull from a close approach. Occasional fights among males may lead to a change in territorial dominance. Interestingly, the defeated male may remain on in his former territory, provided he behaves submissively when challenged, and foregoes scent marking.
They largely ignore lions, even when a calf is present, although there are occasional records of lions preying on young white rhinos. Hyenas seem less a threat to calves than in the case of the black rhino, perhaps because white rhino calves run ahead of the mother and thus seem to be better protected. The longer but more slender horns of females seem designed to ward off predators.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
The southern form is strictly a grazer, with herbs generally constituting no more than 1% of the diet, and only occasional records of munching on woody browse. Short grasses are the favored food source for most of the year. The grass can be cropped as short as 1 in (25 mm) above soil level. During the later dry season, animals turn to taller grasses, including buffalo grass (Panicum maximum) and red oats grass (Themeda triandra). The northern subspecies favors areas of short grass on termite mounds and after fires, but includes a range of medium-tall grass species in its diet.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Calves can be born throughout the year, but in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi there is a peak in the number of cows on heat following the first rains in early summer, and a corresponding peak in the number of calves born during the late summer/early winter period. Copulation lasts 15–30 minutes, with multiple ejaculations. The cow comes into heat again after about 30 days if the mating was not successful. Almost all matings are by territory holders. Cows seek seclusion before giving birth, either in dense bush or up on hillsides where few other rhinos travel. The gestation period is 16 months, and the newborn infant weighs about 145 lb (65 kg). The older calf is driven away shortly before the birth. Weaning is completed by 15–24 months, and cows come on heat again while the calf is still being suckled. The mean inter-birth interval is 2.5 years for Hluhluwe-Umfolozi (range 1.9–3.5 years), although somewhat longer in some introduced populations. Subadults are itinerants, living in one area for a period, later shifting somewhere else. Females begin estrous cycling around four years of age, and the sub-adult period terminates with the birth of their first calf around 6.5–7.5 years of age. Young males start showing solitary tendencies around eight years of age, and reach the stage when they can challenge successfully for a territory around 10–12 years of age. The maximum life span for a white rhino is about 40 years.
CONSERVATION STATUS
By 2000, more than 10,000 white rhinos existed in the wild, including 1,700 in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi, over 3,000 in the Kruger National Park, and about 2,300 on private land in southern Africa. However, the ease with which animals can be tracked down, coupled with the high value of their horns, has led to the elimination of some reintroduced populations. Some hunting of the species is now allowed under strictly controlled conditions, as well as a limited trade in live white rhinos, but not in their horns. A strange new threat in some protected areas is the killing of white rhinos by young male elephants that have reached sexual maturity at an early stage in the absence of older bulls. The future of the northern subspecies is especially precarious, with a total population of only 30 animals in the wild, all in Garamba Park. The species is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
A whiff of human scent, even at ranges of up to 2,625 ft (800 m), sends rhinos running away. The terror that humans inspire in these animals is a clear indication of the past hunting pressure that almost wiped out the species, not only during the era of guns but much earlier in East Africa. White rhino meat was highly regarded by early European hunters, and other body parts had many uses. Once guns became widely available across southern Africa, white rhinos changed from an abundant and widespread species to the brink of extinction within a few decades. The subsequent recovery of the southern subspecies, from a few score animals to the stage when populations could be reestablished in many parts of their former range, and even in East Africa, is one of the great success stories of conservation.




