Indian rhinoceros: Difference between revisions

Indian Rhinoceros[1]
Indian rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Rhinocerotidae
Genus:	Rhinoceros
Species:	R. unicornis
Binomial name
Rhinoceros unicornis Linnaeus, 1758
Indian rhinoceros range

The Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is also called Greater One-horned Rhinoceros and Asian One-horned Rhinoceros and belongs to the

The Indian rhinoceros once ranged throughout the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic Plain but excessive hunting reduced their natural habitat drastically. Today, about 3,000 rhinos live in the wild, 2,000 of which are found in India's Assam alone.^[3]

Description

In size, one-horned rhinos are equal to the African

The Indian rhinos single horn is present in both males and females, but not on newborn young. The black horn, like human fingernails, is pure keratin and starts to show after about 6 years. In most adults, the horn reaches a length of about 25 cm (9.8 in),^[4] but have been recorded up to 57.2 cm (22.5 in) in length. The nasal horn curves backwards from the nose. In captive animals, the horn is frequently worn down to a thick knob.^[5]

This prehistoric-looking rhinoceros has thick, silver-brown skin which becomes pinkish near the large skin folds that cover its body. Males develop thick neck-folds. Its upper legs and shoulders are covered in wart-like bumps. It has very little body hair, aside from eyelashes, ear-fringes and tail-brush.^[5]

In captivity, four are known to have lived over 40 years, the oldest living to be 47.^[5]

Distribution and habitat

One-horned rhinos once ranged across the entire northern part of the

On the former abundance of the species, Thomas C. Jerdon wrote in 1867:^[8]

This huge rhinoceros is found in the Terai at the foot of the Himalayas, from Bhotan to Nepal. It is more common in the eastern portion of the Terai than the west, and is most abundant in Assam and the Bhotan Dooars. I have heard from sportsmen of its occurrence as far west as Rohilcund, but it is certainly rare there now, and indeed along the greater part of the Nepal Terai; ... Jelpigoree, a small military station near the Teesta River, was a favourite locality whence to hunt the Rhinoceros and it was from that station Captain Fortescue, of the late 73rd N.I., got his skulls, which were, strange to say, the first that Mr. Blyth had seen of this species, of which there were no specimens in the Museum of the Asiatic Society at the time when he wrote his Memoir on this group.

Today, their range has further shrunk to a few pockets in southern Nepal, northern Bengal and the Brahmaputra Valley. In the 1980s, rhinos were frequently seen in the narrow plain area of Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan. Today, they are restricted to habitats surrounded by human-dominated landscapes, so that they often occur in adjacent cultivated areas, pastures, and secondary forests.^[7]

Populations

In 2007, the total population was estimated to be 2,575 individuals, of which 2,200 lived in Indian protected areas:^[9]

• in Kaziranga National Park: 1,855
• in
  Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary
  : 108 — increased from 84 in 2002
• in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary: 81 — increased from 74 in 1999
• in Orang National Park: 68 — increased from 46 in 1999
• in Gorumara: 27 — increased from 22 in 2002
• in Dudhwa National Park: 21
• in Manas National Park: 3
• in Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary: 2

Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary shelters the highest density of Indian rhinos in the world — with 84 individuals in 2009 in an area of 38.80 km² (14.98 sq mi).^[10]

In Nepal, a total of 378 individuals were estimated to live by 2007, most of them in

Ecology and behavior

Rhinos are mostly solitary creatures, with the exception of mothers and calves and breeding pairs, although they sometimes congregate at bathing areas. They have home ranges, the home ranges of males being usually 2 to 8 km² (0.77 to 3.09 sq mi) large and overlapping each other. Dominant males tolerate males passing through their territory except when they are in mating season, when dangerous fights break out. They are active at night and early morning. They spend the middle of the day wallowing in lakes, rivers, ponds, and puddles to cool down. They are very good swimmers. Over 10 distinct vocalizations have been recorded.

Indian rhinos have few natural enemies, except for

The Indian rhinoceros is a grazer. Their diet consists almost entirely of grasses, but the rhino is also known to eat leaves, branches of shrubs and trees, fruits and submerged and floating aquatic plants.^[5]

Feeding occurs during the morning and evening. The rhino uses its prehensile lip to grasp grass stems, bend the stem down, bite off the top, and then eat the grass. With very tall grasses or saplings, the rhino will often walk over the plant, with its legs on both sides, using the weight of its body to push the end of the plant down to the level of the mouth. Mothers also use this technique to make food edible for their calves. They drink for a minute or two at a time, often imbibing water filled with rhinoceros urine.^[5]

Social life

The Indian rhinoceros forms a variety of social groupings. Adult males are generally solitary, except for mating and fighting. Adult females are largely solitary when they are without calves. Mothers will stay close to their calves for up to four years after their birth, sometimes allowing an older calf to continue to accompany her once a newborn calf arrives. Subadult males and females form consistent groupings as well. Groups of two or three young males will often form on the edge of the home ranges of dominant males, presumably for protection in numbers. Young females are slightly less social than the males. Indian Rhinos also form short-term groupings, particularly at forest wallows during the

The Indian rhinoceros makes a wide variety of vocalizations. At least ten distinct vocalizations have been identified: snorting, honking, bleating, roaring, squeak-panting, moo-grunting, shrieking, groaning, rumbling and humphing. In addition to noises, the rhino uses olfactory communication. Adult males urinate backwards, as far as 3–4 meters behind them, often in response to being disturbed by observers. Like all rhinos, the Indian rhinoceros often defecates near other large dung piles. The Indian Rhino has pedal scent glands which are used to mark their presence at these rhino latrines. Males have been observed walking with their heads to the ground as if sniffing, presumably following the scent of females.[12]

In aggregations, Indian Rhinos are often friendly. They will often greet each other by waving or bobbing their heads, mounting flanks, nuzzling noses, or licking. Rhinos will playfully spar, run around, and play with twigs in their mouth. Adult males are the primary instigators in fights. Fights between dominant males are the most common cause of rhino mortality and males are also very aggressive toward females during courtship. Males will chase females over long distances and even attack them face-to-face.^[12] Unlike African Rhinos, the Indian Rhino fights with its incisors, rather than its horns.^[13]

Reproduction

In zoos, females may breed as young as four, but in the wild females are usually six before breeding begins.^[14] The higher age in the wild may reflect that females need to be large enough to avoid being killed by the aggressive males. The Indian rhinoceros has a very lengthy gestation period of around 15.7 months. The interval between births ranges from 34–51 months.^[14] In captivity, males may breed at five years. But in the wild, dominant males do the breeding and rhinos do not attain dominance until they are older and larger. In one five-year field study, only one rhino who achieved mating success was estimated to be younger than 15.^[15]

Threats

Sport hunting became common in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Poaching for rhinoceros horn became the single most important reason for the decline of the Indian rhino after conservation measures were put in place from the beginning of the 20th century, when legal hunting ended. In India, 692 rhinos were poached from 1980 to 1993. In India's Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary, 41 rhinos were killed in 1983, virtually the entire population of the sanctuary.^[16] By the mid-1990s, poaching had rendered the species extinct there.^[6]

In 1950, Chitwan’s forest and grasslands extended over more than 2,600 km² (1,000 sq mi) and were home to about 800 rhinos. When poor farmers from the mid-hills moved to the Chitwan Valley in search of arable land, the area was subsequently opened for settlement, and poaching of wildlife became rampant. The Chitwan population has repeatedly been jeopardized by poaching: in 2002 alone, poachers have killed 37 animals cruelly in order to saw off and sell their valuable horns.^[17]

There are six recorded ways of killing rhinos:

• Shooting is by far the most common method used; rhino horn traders hire sharpshooters and often supply them with rifles and ammunition.
• Trapping in a pit depends largely on the terrain and availability of grass to cover it; pits are dug out in such a way that a fallen animal has little room to manoeuvre with its head slightly above the pit, so that it is easy to saw off the horn.
• Electrocuting is used where high voltage powerlines pass through or near a protected area, to which poachers hook a long insulated rod connected to a wire, which is suspended above a rhino path.
• Poisoning by smearing zinc-phosphide rat poison or pesticides on salt licks frequently used by rhinos.
• Spearing has only been recorded in Chitwan National Park.
• With a noose, which cuts through the rhino's skin and kills it by strangulation.^[16]

Poaching, mainly for the use of the horn in

• severe invasion by alien plants into grasslands affecting some populations;
• demonstrated reductions in the extent of grasslands and wetland habitats due to woodland encroachment and silting up of beels;
• grazing by domestic livestock.^[2]

The species is inherently at risk because over 70% of its population occurs at a single site, Kaziranga National Park. Any catastrophic event such as disease, civil disorder, poaching, habitat loss would have a devastating impact on the Indian rhino's status. On the other hand, small population of rhinos may be prone to in-breeding depression.^[2]

Conservation

The species has been included on

In 1910, all rhino hunting in India became prohibited.[5] In 1984, five rhinos were relocated to Dudhwa National Park — four from the fields outside the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary and one from Goalpara.^[7]

In Nepal

In 1957, the country's first conservation law inured to the protection of rhinos and their

The Indian rhinoceros was initially difficult to breed in captivity. The first recorded captive birth of a rhinoceros was in Kathmandu in 1826, but another successful birth did not occur for nearly 100 years; in 1925 a rhino was born in Kolkata. No rhinoceros was successfully bred in Europe until 1956. On September 14, 1956 Rudra was born in Zoo Basel, Switzerland.

In the second half of the 20th century, zoos became adept at breeding Indian rhinoceros. By 1983, nearly 40 had been born in captivity.

The modern scientific designation Rhinoceros unicornis is adopted from the Greek: ρινό- ("rhino-" — a certain nasal condition) and -κερος ("-keros" — horn of an animal) and Latin: "uni-" meaning single and "-cornis" meaning horn.

Ancestral rhinoceroses first diverged from other

Cultural depictions

The Rhinoceros
Artist	Albrecht Dürer
Year	1515
Type	woodcut

The Indian rhinoceros was the first rhino widely known outside its range. The first rhinoceros to reach Europe in modern times arrived in Lisbon on May 20, 1515. King Manuel I of Portugal planned to send the rhinoceros to Pope Leo X, but the rhino perished in a shipwreck. Before dying, however, the rhino had been sketched by an unknown artist. A German artist, Albrecht Dürer, saw the sketches and descriptions and created a woodcut of the rhino, known ever after as Dürer's Rhinoceros. Though the drawing had some anatomical inaccuracies (notably the hornlet protruding from the rhino's shoulder), his sketch became the enduring image of a rhinoceros in western culture for centuries.

The British public had their first chance to view a rhinoceros ( presumably this species) in 1683; it unknowingly caused a political row when the notorious Judge Jeffreys, in one of his lighter moments, spread a rumour that his chief rival, Lord Guildford, had been seen riding on it.

Assam state of India has one-horned rhino as the official state animal. It is also the organizational logo for Assam Oil Company Ltd.

Footnotes

References

• Dinerstein, Eric (2003). The Return of the Unicorns; The Natural History and Conservation of the Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros.
  ISBN 0-231-08450-1
  .
• Foose, Thomas J. and van Strien, Nico (1997). Asian Rhinos – Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, and Cambridge, UK.
  ISBN 2-8317-0336-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Fulconis, R. (ed.) (2005). Save the rhinos: EAZA Rhino Campaign 2005/6. London: European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)

See also

• The Soul of the Rhino (book)

External links

Wikispecies has information related to Rhinoceros unicornis.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rhinoceros unicornis.

• The Rhino Resource Center
• Indian Rhino on Kaziranga National Park Official website
• Indian Rhino page at International Rhino Foundation website
• Greater Indian Rhinoceros page at TheBigZoo.com
• Indian Rhino page at AnimalInfo.org
• Indian Rhino page at AmericaZoo.com
• Indian Rhinoceros page at nature.ca
• Page Rhinocéros indien à nature.ca
• Indian Rhinoceros page at UltimateUngulate.com
• Population of Indian one-horned rhinoceros in India and Nepal
• Short narrated video about the Indian Rhinoceros
• Images, videos and information on the Indian Rhinoceros
• Asian Rhino Foundation
• Indian Rhino photo gallery
• Indian army to help prevent rhino poaching

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