White Rhino South Africa
by Heidi Fickinger
Title
White Rhino South Africa
Artist
Heidi Fickinger
Medium
Photograph - Photographic Print
Description
The Southern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) has a very confusing name. It is not white, it is grey. It is said that the animal's name comes from the Afrikaans word 'wyd', which means 'wide' and is referring to it's wide, square lip. The other species of rhino is the Black Rhinoceros, which has a pointed lip. The White Rhino has evolved to have a wide lower jaw and lip from grazing and the Black Rhino has a pointed lip from browsing on leaves of trees and fruit. When you see these animals the first thing you notice is that they are very large and somewhat nervous if approached too closely. They are well known for charging humans and the vehicles that humans drive. This particular male was by himself and although he was at a relatively safe distance, he moved around nervously when we stopped to observe him and pointedly pawed the ground agressively multiple times.
Rhinos are one of the few remaining megafauna species from the Pliocene and Pleistocene Epochs, where multiple massive species of mammals roamed the earth. One of the megafauna was the giant Wooly Rhino (ancestor to modern rhinos) which is thought to have gone extinct around 14,000 years ago. There are drawings of giant two-horned and single-horned rhinos in the ancient human dwellng caves of France.
Although Rhinos look like dinosaurs, or what we think dinosaurs looked like, they are mammals that have live births of young, versus dinos that are related to birds and lay eggs.
Uploaded
September 16th, 2020
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Comments (7)
Bob Christopher
Aloha Heidi...l like your image...Wow, what a massive and totally impressive animal. No doubt a thrill to see and photograph...Well done... Cheers Bob fv