ETYM Latin, from Greek rhino the nose + keras a horn: cf. French rhinocéros. Related to Horn.
Massive powerful herbivorous odd-toed ungulate of southeast Asia and Africa having very thick skin and one or two horns on the snout; SYN. rhino.
Odd-toed hoofed mammal of the family Rhinocerotidae. The one-horned Indian rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis is up to 2 m/6 ft high at the shoulder, with a tubercled skin, folded into shieldlike pieces; the African rhinoceroses are smooth-skinned and two-horned. All are in danger of becoming extinct.
The African black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis is 1.5 m/5 ft high, with a prehensile upper lip for feeding on shrubs; the broad-lipped or “white” rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum is actually slaty-gray, with a squarish mouth for browsing grass. They are solitary and vegetarian, with poor eyesight but excellent hearing and smell. An extinct hornless species, the baluchithere (genus Baluchitherium), reached 4.5 m/15 ft high.
Needless slaughter has led to the near extinction of all species of rhinoceros, particularly R. sondaicus, the related species of Javan rhinoceros and Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, the two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros.
The Javan rhino is now one of the world's rarest mammals, with a population of only about 50 in Java's Ujong Kulon National Park, and a small number, perhaps 15, in Vietnam. + prikaži više