Description

Adopt a Rhino

Rhinoceros belong to the group known as the perissodactyls, or odd-toed ungulates, which includes horses and tapirs. Characterised by their large size – all species can weigh more than a tonne – rhinos have one or two horns, a thick skin made of collagen arranged in a lattice structure and a relatively small brain.
African rhinos are divided into two species—the black rhino and the white rhino—living in open savanna and threatened by the illegal trade of their horn. Southern white rhinos, once thought to be extinct, now thrive in protected sanctuaries and are classified as Near Threatened. But the Northern white rhino subspecies is believed to be extinct in the wild and only a few captive individuals remain in a sanctuary in Kenya. Black rhinos have doubled in number over the past two decades from their low point of 2,480 individuals, but total numbers are still a fraction of the estimated 100,000 that existed in the early part of the 20th century.