subject: The Kenyan Rhino [print this page] The Kenyan Rhino The Kenyan Rhino
The black rhino is the one mostly found in Kenya. The name black is derived from how it looks after wallowing in muddy pools. This is a very solitary animal especially the bull rhino. They only socialize during the mating period. They are members of the big five community. The other members are the elephant, the leopard, the buffalo and the lion also known as the King of the Jungle. They are purely grazers. They do not have many predators as the buffaloes. There skin is very hard and the horn very sharp so that no animal would want to come near it.
The Kenyan rhino was threatened by poachers in the mid sixties and seventies. There numbers decreased drastically but today, most of them are in captivity in different national parks in the country. The poachers would hunt them for the horns that were believed to have some medicinal values. This though is not scientifically proven yet. It was sold to the Asian countries. Today the trade is illegal.
In the wild, the rhino has a life span of 30-35 years. In captivity, it lives for more than 45 years. The gestation period takes about sixteen months and it gives birth once every three years. They reach maturity between the age of 4 and 7. The white rhino is the second largest mammal after the elephant. It has two horns on its snout and color ranges from yellow to grey. The horn is made of keratin. It has a hump and a massive head.
