Trivia question for Jul-24-2011

Olivia loves these guys and since she did her research, she now knows the differences between the various species.  Lets see how well you do with this.

These guys have fearsome horns and a thick hide which means they have no natural predators outside on humans.  They prefer to wallow in water and mud to keep cool.  The long front horn averages 2-feet in length but can actually reach up to 5-feet in length.  These guys usually move at about 15-mph in a graceful trot, but can gallop at up to 25 mph for shorter distances.  These guys are almost matched with the hippo for the title of the second largest land mammal after the elephant.  While the hippo may out weigh this rhino species, they are not as tall as the rhino.

So here are Olivia’s questions.  Tell us what type of Rhino this is and how you can tell them apart from other species of Rhino that live in their range?  Also, tell us what their horn is made of and as a bonus, tell us how they got their name?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations to Sandra Sallee from Cairo, Georgia for being the first with the correct answers. The Rhino we featured is the White Rhino. The White Rhinoceros or Square-lipped rhinoceros is one of the five species of rhinoceros that still exist and is one of the few megafaunal species left. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The White Rhino consists of two subspecies: the Southern White Rhino, with an estimated 17,460 wild-living animals at the end of 2007 (IUCN 2008), and the much rarer Northern White Rhino. The northern subspecies may have seven remaining worldwide — all in captivity.

Here are a few ways you can tell the White Rhino apart from the Black Rhino: The Black Rhino is smaller than the White Rhino, and has a long, pointed, and prehensile upper lip, which it uses to grasp leaves and twigs when feeding. White Rhinoceros have square lips used for eating grass. The Black Rhinoceros can also be recognized from the White Rhinoceros by its smaller skull and ears.

Their horns are made of hard, fibrous keratin (like human nails).  A popular theory of the origins of the name “White Rhinoceros” is a mistranslation from Dutch to English. The English word “white” is said to have been derived by mistranslation of the Dutch word “wijd”, which means “wide” in English. The word “wide” refers to the width of the rhinoceros’ mouth. So early English-speaking settlers in South Africa misinterpreted the “wijd” for “white” and the rhino with the wide mouth ended up being called the White Rhino and the other one, with the narrow pointed mouth, was called the Black Rhinoceros. Ironically, Dutch (and Afrikaans) later used a calque of the English word, and now also call it a white rhino.  Here is more on these mighty rhino’s: White Rhino

Thanks for playing along 😉