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How to pat a rhinoceros



The rhinoceros – or rhino – is from Africa and Asia. Rhino means nose and ceros means horn. There are three species in Southern Asia: the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), the Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), and the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus). There are two species of rhinoceros in Africa: the black rhino (Diceros bicornis) and the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum).

Black rhinos – 98% of them – live in four countries in Africa: South Africa (about 40% of the total black rhinoceros population), Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. White rhinos live mainly in South Africa, but they have also been introduced into Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. Southern white rhinos have been introduced into Kenya, Zambia, and the Ivory Coast.

Poaching and killing of the rhinoceros (to sell their horns on the black market for ornaments and medicinal properties) increased 3,000% between 2007 and 2011. The horns are made of keratin (like human hair and fingernails). The African rhinos and the Sumatran rhino have two horns, while the Indian and Javan rhinocerus have a single horn. In the early 1900s there were 500,000 black rhinos in Africa. Today the population is aboout 29,000. They usually live up to 35-40 years.

I saw my first two white rhinos in Kenya. I saw my second two white rhinos in my hometown of Canberra, the capital of Australia. How did they get there?

Kifaru and Ubuntu are two white rhinos (from different parents) at the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra. They arrived in Canberra in 2014 as five-year-olds from the Hamilton Zoo in New Zealand as part of a breeding program to protect genetic diversity. They are currently housed in the new 10-hectare extension of the zoo, that was not yet open to the public when I visited in February 2015. I met Kifaru and Ubuntu as part of a private tour.

Kifaru and Ubuntu were friendly and walked to the metal fencing for an up close and personal meeting with their visitors, and for a back scratch. The thick skin (1.5 to 5 centimetres thick) is formed from layers and layers of collagen positioned in a lattice structure. Since they are herbivores (plant eating) they are not interested in human meat, but they will attack if provoked. They predominantly placed their rear to the visitors for a rub against the fence. Patting them releases fine dust and dirt into the air that they’ve been rolling in.

With a quick pat on the rump, the rhinos happily trot around their large enclosure to talk to each other about their experience with humans. They do this by touching their horns together gently in a low-head position.
















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