White Rhinoceros


(Jrt)

White Rhinoceros
The white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is the only species of the genus Ceratotherium, one of the four types of rhinos. The white rhino are actually gray, a little clearer than the only black rhinoceros, but their name is a fault curious. In the seventeenth century, the first Dutch settlers arrived in South Africa have called this animal wijde, either in their own language "broad", alluding to their lip, straight and wide, quite different from the lip beaked of the other African Rhino . The British, who settled in Cape Town from 1806, mistakenly believed they were saying white (white), which the English word pronunciation is close. It is piquant to note that the error was taken over by the Dutch and Afrikaners. The Dutch talk of white rhino (witte neushoorn) and the Afrikaners witrenoster talk about.

Description
In fact, white rhino and black rhinos are the same gray coloration. The length of white rhino (excluding tail) can be up to 4 m, its height at is approximately 1.90 metres and weight ranges from 2 to 3 tons, making it the largest of all species of rhinos. It is distinguished from the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) by its large pointed ears, his nose and wide and a shortcut feature protuberance on the neck. It is also distinguished by the fact that graze in the grass, while the black rhino feeds on leaves and tree seedlings, and the two species can coexist within the same ecosystem.

Smell is home to the largest sense, the eyes and ears instead play a secondary role. As the black rhino, it's just whether he can recognize something more than twenty meters.

His horn is the longest of all rhinoceros, reaching an average of 65 cm (1.50 unusually m). Its main function is to clear the obstacles in the quest for food.

Geographic location
The white rhino can be found in the African savanna in two sub-species:

* The white rhino South (Ceratotherium simum simum). Previously, he lived in a belt ranging from Angola and Namibia to Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal through Zimbabwe and Botswana. Today, we encounter many reservations in South Africa. There are said to be in 2005 11,320 in the wild and 740 in captivity (or it recurs).
* A northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) was widespread in Congo and Uganda to Chad and Sudan. In ancient times the Egyptians remained in the wild in the Nile valley. Today, it is likely that he does not even have 25 copies in the Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). We are still in Dvur Kralove zoo in the Czech Republic (six individuals) and the wild animal park in San Diego, California (three individuals). Unfortunately they breed easily in captivity since 1995 one birth took place, that of a female in Dvur Kralove.

Behavior and Reproduction
Herbivore, the white rhinoceros prefer places where he found the grass and small brush. The upper lip has a horny board, which replaces the missing incisors and aid to graze. Generally it is active at dusk and sleep during the day.

The white rhino did not behave as lonely as other species of rhinoceros. However, the older males live alone in a field of 1 to 8 square kilometers, they defend against other males and they continually monitor the limits by marking with their droppings and urine, they also rub their bodies and their horns against the trees and large rocks. But serious battles are rare and occur at most compete for the favors of a female. In addition to their field they often tolerate the young and females. Mating does not happen in a fixed period of the year but when the females have come to raise their small, which occurs every four or five years. The gestation lasts for about seventeen months and the female is generally low one small, rarely both.

Young people gather in groups and precautionary move sometimes with females, if they have not yet small, but in recent normally have one with them. The gestation period of 16 months, then comes a small, devoid of horns, approximately 40 kg, which is always moved to the mother. Although two months when it can begin to graze, she is breast-feeding for approximately one year and then the hunt for the birth of a new one. In five years, the white rhino reach sexual maturity, it is at this age that females begin to mate, but it is only over a decade that young males have become strong enough to prevail against Older males and conquer in turn females.

Men and white rhino
As the white rhinoceros is less aggressive than the black rhino, you can approach him up to 10 m without attack. That is why it is fairly easy to hunt.

In 1893 it was believed the species South exterminated before they trouvât in Natal a small residual caseload of 10 to 20 animals (20 in 1885, according to the IUCN). All current white rhino are descended. Since then, the population of the reserve Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game grew steadily from 1000 warheads in 1970 to 2000 in 1980, 4000 in 1990 to reach the 2001 figure of 11000. Also IUCN she now ranked Southern white rhino species among almost saved. 95% of all white rhinos living in freedom are on the territory of South Africa, moreover, a group came to Kenya, where there had never been any white rhino.

It was in 1903 that, for the first time, it was a scientifically described the northern white rhino. They were still numerous. Poachers have succeeded in a few decades to exterminate the population everywhere, except in the Garamba National Park in 1963, where people still lived miles, severely protected. Unfortunately at that time the demand for horns has increased sharply because of the alleged medicinal qualities attributed to him that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the Popular daggers in rhino horn in the upper classes of Yemen, as a mark of standing and symbol virility. As buyers in the Far East and Yemen were willing to pay crazy amounts for the horns exported illegally, poaching has become a lucrative business despite the risk of being condemned. The relative political stability of South Africa that has allowed white rhino were adequately protected against poaching, but Zaire (later Democratic Republic of Congo) could do nothing effective. The civil war that since 1997 there has been raging rendered almost impossible protection measures. A count in 2002 had found more than 27 white rhino in the Garamba reserve. According to the IUCN, the area is no longer under threat currently (2004) by civil war and the hunting guards may again take action against poachers, but this situation may change in an instant Furthermore, this subspecies is considered to be in great danger (critically endangered) and is on the brink of extinction.

As the northern white rhino is threatened by the reduction of habitat and poaching, and more recently by the janjaweed rebellion in Darfur, environmentalists have proposed in January 2005 by bringing in Kenya airlift white rhinoceroses still to Garamba. Despite official approval obtained first, we wanted to see foreign interference in the Congo, which has postponed the operation until early 2006.

The white rhino is classified by the CITES Appendix I (maximum protection), except the people of South Africa and Swaziland, which are classified in Appendix II.

Read also White Rhinoceros

wikipedia

No comments:

Custom Search