White and Black rhinos

We are fortunate to live a few hours’ drive from Imfolozi-Hluhluwe Game Reserve, the oldest established game reserve in South Africa and the park responsible for saving the rhinos from extinction.

There are two types of rhinos – the white and black, but they are the same colour.

That’s where the similarity ends as they are physically and temperamentally very different.

The early hunters gave the white rhino the name as they tended as grazers to be in open areas where the waterholes had light-coloured mud and when it dried on their skin, it gave it a light colour.

The black rhino is a browser and likes heavy vegetation and gullies where the soil is dark even black clay, so that when they take a mudbath and it dries on their skin, it makes them appear much darker.

The photos give a clear indication of this distinction. There are many other differences, such as the fact that the black rhino is one of the few animals where the females are bigger than males (this is the case with spotted hyenas too).

The neck and mouth is another difference – with a long neck and wide mouths for the white and short neck and hook lip for the black.

Babies of the white rhino move and run in front of the mother whereas the black rhino baby runs behind the mother.

White rhino males weigh up to 2,300kgs and females 1,600kgs, their lifespans are 45 years and gestation period is 16 months.

Black rhino males weigh up to 970kgs, females weigh 1,000kgs, their lifespan is 40 years and gestation period is 15 months.

The Zulus have the names more accurate, with the black rhino known as bejane (vicious one) and the white as inkombi (or placid one).