Tanzania - Black Rhino

Rhinos have been poached and hunted for a very long time for their horns and their numbers have been declining. A Sub species of the White Rhinos, the Northern White rhinos, are all but extinct. Only two individuals are remaining in Kenya and both are females. Since there are no males left for these rhinos to mate with, scientists have declared the northern white rhinos functionally extinct. 

The fate of Rhinos, as a result of this, is that we do not see them in the parks. The government of Tanzania started the Rhino Repatriation Project which is seen as a conservation success story due to the fact that the population of the Eastern Black Rhino has gone up. 

To take the conservation efforts further, a small population of the Eastern Black Rhino has been reintroduced in the Mkomazi National Park on Tanzania’s northern border. They are taken care of in the Park’s new Rhino Sanctuary where their population is slowly but definitely growing. We could not sight rhinos in the other parks but saw them in the Mkomazi National Park, in the Rhino Sanctuary. 

The name, ‘Rhinoceros’ has been derived from two Greek words, ‘rhino’ meaning nose and ‘ceros’ meaning horn. They are one of the oldest living animals and have been around for about 50 million years. They are herbivores and can run at a speed of about 50 kph. After elephants, they are the second largest land animals on planet earth. Average life of a Rhino in the wild is around 35 to 40 years. 

There are 5 species of Rhinoceros. 

1. White Rhinos

2. Black Rhinos

3. Indian Rhinos 

4. Javan Rhinos

5. Sumatran Rhinos

Rhinos are mammals and can weigh about 2,500 kgs and have a thick skin which can be upto 5 cms. They have been poached and killed for their horns which are made of Keratin, which also makes our fingernails and hair. From a population of around 500,000 across Africa and Asia at the turn of the 20th century, they have dwindled to around 27,000 in the wild.