You’ll love all these amazing black rhino facts for kids. The black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) is a native species of Africa where it lives in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Kenya. The black rhino has eight recognized subspecies. Let’s get on with many more black rhino facts and information to know all about black rhino.
Black Rhino 🦏Facts for Kids
Adult rhinos have a shoulder height of 140–180 cm with the length measuring at 9.8–12.3 feet. Black rhinos weigh as much as 1,760 to 3,090 pounds. Males are larger than the females. Black rhinos are smaller than the white rhinoceros. Black rhinos have 50 cm long horns.
Where do Black Rhinos Live? They will make homes in a variety of habitats such as acacia bushlands, grasslands, marshes, dense euclea bushland, woodland, and scrubland.
What do Black Rhinos Eat? Black rhinos are herbivores. They are most likely to eat branches, wood bushes, fruit, shoots, leafy plants, and thorny bushes. Black rhinoceroses will consume as much as 220 species of plants but they are not pure browsers. They will less likely to feed on stems of trees, herbs, leaves, and shrubs.
Black rhinoceros are known to survive for 5 days without water.
Like most other rhinoceroses, black rhinos live alone. The female stays with its calves while the male goes away. Black rhinos do not appear to maintain strong territories. They have a varied home range too which almost entirely depends on the availability of food. The home range in the Serengeti is about 70 – 100 square kilometers.
Adult males sleep a lot as compared to the females—nearly twice the time. At times, they do become aggressive so much so that rhinos will charge even the termite mounds. Black rhinos often fight each other. Studies indicate that half of the adult males die from fight-related injuries.
The female rhino gives birth to one calf after a gestation period of 15 months. The newborn calf weighs only 80 – 110 pounds. Males attain maturity at 7 – 8 years of age while females become mature at 5 – 7 years age.
Black Rhino Lifespan: Black rhinos can live as long as 35 to 50 years in the wild.
What Eats Black Rhinos? While black rhinoceroses do not appear to have natural predators, young rhinos can fall prey to crocodiles or lions.
There are only 4,240 black rhinos remaining in the wild. The IUCN has listed it as a critically endangered species.
