White rhinoceros: description. White northern rhinoceros on the brink of extinction

On Earth there are many interesting animals, the world of nature is fascinating and mysterious. It is very sad to realize that many species are endangered and listed in the Red Book. It is even sadder to understand that animals suffer, to a greater extent, through the fault of man. White rhinos also experienced such human "care" on their own skin. White northern rhinoceros Already now in need of artificial restoration of the family. Last year, the last male died of old age, only 5 females remained. Scientists have saved the seed of the animal and hope that they will be able to achieve the birth of small northern rhinos. To the same fate is not overtaken by black and white rhinos, you need to take measures to protect these animals. Let's get acquainted with these large representatives of the animal world, how they look and how they behave in the natural environment.

White rhinoceros: description

Elephants are considered to be the largest animals on Earth, the white rhino takes the second place in honor after this huge eared one. This is a tremendous land mammal. Adult males usually weigh about 2 tons, in old age can reach a weight of up to 5 tons. The body length is about 4 m, the height in the shoulders is up to 2 m. These are the giants!

White rhinoceros differ from black in the main structure of the upper lip. White is trebled so that they eat, plucking the grass from the ground, their upper lip is absolutely even. Black with his bulging upper lip is grasped, pulls in itself branches of trees, leaves and tall grass.

In the color of this animal there is nothing white, it is believed that they called it that because of the distortion of the Boer word wijde, which means - wide, the English sounded translated - "white". And they began to call in all countries - a white rhinoceros. In fact, the animal is a slate-gray color, a bit lighter than a black rhinoceros. These two species are very similar, they have 2 horns, the front is very long, the rear horn is almost not developed. The length of the anterior horn in some cases can reach 1.5 m. With it, the animal spreads the bush when it feeds, and, of course, such a powerful weapon serves as a defense against enemies.

Animal-rhinoceros in nature

Rhinos live in small communities, only sometimes there are groups of 15-20 animals. The white northern rhinoceros behaves in such a family as well as its kinsman - a white rhinoceros. Usually, only females with babies and grown-up children gather together, the males are admitted to themselves with great displeasure, since they pose a threat to the young. If the male is guilty, then the females gather together and expel him from the family, sometimes reaching the point that the male dies from the horns of the raging "women." They suffer "men" only during the rut, at the rest of the time their courtship is only annoying and not accepted.

White northern rhinoceros - the male is very aggressive, much more evil than the black representative of this genus. He does not tolerate rivals, these huge beasts fight in many cases until the loser's death. The grown up children accompanying their mother are in constant danger when a jealous male lives in the group. Very often babies die or cripple because of the nasty nature of a careless "daddy".

The territory on which the herd is grazed, old males are labeled with "fragrant" labels, spraying the grass and bushes with urine. If the community is in danger from an external enemy, then the group gets into the defensive circle, heads out. Young people, unable to defend themselves, hide in the middle of the circle. At such moments, the entire family, forgetting the turmoil, acts as one.

Continuation of the genus

In life, the white and white northern rhinoceros store many more secrets and mysteries, not yet studied, for example, their reproduction is under a lowered curtain. This is annoying, because their numbers on the Earth are decreasing, you need to help this species, so as not to lose it completely.

To reproduction, rhinoceroses are ready at the age of about 8-9 years. The mating season falls between July and September. The young female bore for a year and a half, leads only one baby at a time. At the end of the day, the baby is already running after their mother, after seven days of eating the grass, but in addition to the green food, the milk sucks for a whole year. The female of childbearing age leads the offspring every 3 years.

White rhinoceroses. How many of them are left on Earth?

Now on the planet there are about 10 thousand white rhinoceroses. I am glad that this number is much larger than 25 years ago, when animals were exterminated in large quantities. Such joyful statistics, unfortunately, does not apply to the white northern rhinoceros. On Earth there are only a few individuals of these giants. It may even be that in the coming years it will be officially announced that the northern subspecies of the white rhinoceros has disappeared. There was still hope for the work of geneticists, they were busy with restoring a unique subspecies. The effectiveness of their research is still in question.

The influence of man on the life of white rhinoceroses

The man made a lot of efforts to ensure that these animals were on the verge of extinction. It's good that we recovered in time and made sure that there was a white rhinoceros in the Red Book.

African tribes even hunted rhinoceroses, but did it rarely. Without guns, they could not do as much damage as the Europeans brought with their weapons. In the nineteenth century hunting for these huge animals had no control and no boundaries. Now rhinoceroses are under protection, strict control of their numbers is conducted.