The White Rhinoceros

It is the second largest land mammal after the elephant: it can weigh up to 3 tons and measure 4 meters long. It mainly lives in the savannas of Southern Africa, as the subspecies of Central Africa has almost disappeared.

Its skin is gray, but if it is called “white”, it is because of a mistranslation! The lips of this animal are wide, which is called “wijd” in Dutch-Afrikaans or “wide” in English: the adjective has been confused with “wit” or “white”!

Baby rhinos are born after a long gestation of 18 months and already weigh 30 kg!

The two horns of the African rhinoceros grow about ½ cm per month and mainly serve to clear vegetation to allow them to graze. These horns are made of keratin, like our nails and hair, and have none of the healing qualities that are wrongly attributed to them in traditional Asian medicine, which is the cause of their rampant poaching (hundreds of individuals per year…).

That is why our rhinos, coming from a breeding farm in South Africa, had their horns sawn off there to save them: here they are slowly regrowing…