Black Rhinos at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya

The Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) is also called the Hook-Lipped Rhinoceros. It lives in eastern and southern Africa and it is critically endangered.

It is not actually black: it is grey or dark grey.

It has two horn-like keratin growths, one behind the other. The front horn is larger than the second horn. The front horn is about 50-140 centimetres (2 to 4.5 feet) long, which is longer than the horn of White Rhinoceroses. Sometimes, a third, smaller horn may develop.

They can grow to about 1.8 metres (6 feet), which is about half the size of a White Rhinoceros.

It has a pointed and prehensile upper lip, which it uses to grasp leaves and twigs from trees when feeding. Therefore it is a herbivorous browser. White Rhinos are grazers because they eat grass. Because the Black Rhino eats from trees, it prefers habitats with thick scrub and bushland.

Black Rhinoceros can also distinguished from the White Rhinoceros by its size, smaller skull, smaller ears, and by the position of the head, which is held higher than the White Rhinoceros. Black Rhinos have longer horns and are hook lipped (for browsing) instead of square lipped (for grazing).

They are very fast and can reach speeds of 55 kilometres per hour (34 miles per hour) running on their toes.

White Rhino (left) and Black Rhino (right)

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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