What are the Big 5?
Part 4- Southern White and Black Rhino
What is the difference between the Black and White Rhino, and which one is incorporated in the Big 5 and why?
“What are the Big 5”, I began this short series of blog posts by thinking of myself as visiting South Africa for the first time or Africa for an African Safari Tour.
I would want to know what on earth this term “Big 5” is all about.
This is an exciting post as there are two species of Rhino in Southern Africa which are very different to one another, so let’s begin to unpack this.
What is the Difference between the Black and White Rhino, is it not the colour? No!
There is NO difference in colour between the two species they are both Grey/Black unless they mud-wallow in Iron rich red clay bases soil… Then they are Red in Colour!
Just a bit of the history behind the name “Black Rhino vs White Rhino”.
Black Rhino
White Rhino
When the Dutch settlers moved into the area of Durban or Kwa-Zulu Natal roughly 1838, they came across these beasts and named the White Rhino – WEID Rhinoster basically meaning WIDE Rhino referring to the Lip(mouth) being Wide.
The English then heard this and misinterpreted what the Dutch were saying and ended up calling the “Weid” Rhinoster – White, “Weid” of course sounding like “White”.
Of course, from here all meaning was lost and to keep things simple the other Rhino, was called Black.
As scene in the diagram Black Rhino has a prehensile hooked lip for feeding on leaves and twigs. It is smaller is stature, rarer and its head is fixed higher up as it is a browser.
It is also found in thicker habitats usually: Riverine Forest where their food is readily available. Black Rhino also has much rounder ears and there second horn is larger in comparison to the White Rhinos Second Horn. One of the bushes Black Rhino will browse on is the “Buffalo Thorn/Ziziphus Mucronanta” which is you have been following my “Who are the Big 5” you will know it’s a great bush to hide in waiting for a hunter to get close before charging.
On the contrary,
White Rhino being larger feeds on Grass only like a lawn mower, it has a wide or square lip, and its head is fixed low to the ground but a gristly muscular section behind the head.
Their ears are cone shaped and move independently so they can hear things all around them in the open areas where they feed.
In closing they are two distinct species, and it is the Black Rhino which is the one which features as one of the BIG 5, but due to its difficulty in spotting we all have reverted to including White Rhino as one of the Big 5 even though it is not as dangerous as the Black Rhino.
After looking at Black Rhino’s habitat being in thicker bush and Riverine environments as a hunter it would be far more dangerous to hunt than the White Rhino which loves open grassland.
Remember the Big 5 are the five most dangerous animals to hunt on foot!
We now know why Black Rhino are one of the most difficult animals to hunt on foot the next question is, why would people hunt them?
In the past just like with Elephant tusks, Rhino horns and head being a Trophy on the wall in your bar was cool…
Demand has increased probably because when western medicine fails of course it’s expected that you will try whatever you can to extend your life at any cost.
Rhino horn has a rough estimated Black-market value of $50 000 to $60 000 per kilogram.
Rhino numbers sit at an estimated 14 000 left in the wild! Hluhluwe Imfolozi has less than 2000 of these great animals left which is a special on our tours.
More recently the problem has been the Chinese and some other Asian markets who use the Rhino’s horn in a crushed form in their traditional medicine believing it would cure Cancer and the general cold a flu! Traditionally the Horn is also used in many Arab countries particularly Oman/Yemen as a handle for a special dagger called a Jambiya which is given to a 12-year-old boy symbolising a welcome into the adult world.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Just to show you how strong Rhino can be, check out my video below where two White Rhino were fighting over territory.
