The 2021 Africa Journals, Ch. 20, In Which Vive La Difference!

 

Chapter 20

In Which Vive la Difference

I have learned that a bitter experience can make you stronger. I now boastfully say that I have a hide like a rhinoceros... and I'm smiling. -- Mel Gibson

 

Well, about that hide, Mel.  I imagine you are referring to the imagined thickness of your rhino hide.   Indeed, the skin on an African rhino is thick--almost two inches.

It is, however, sensitive to sunburn and insect bites.  That is why you see rhinos  looking like they rolled in a mud wallow.   They did. 

The hide of a black rhino is a bit thinner, which leads me to say that in this post I will be discussing only the white and black rhinos of Africa.

 Why are they called "white" and "black" when they are all a brownish gray?

The name "white" comes from the Afrikaans word "wyd", meaning wide, which came from the Dutch "wid."   English settlers mistook it for "white,"   because you know how things get messed up in translations.

So, that explains the "white rhino."   Just remember "wide."

How to explain the black rhino?  Sources differ.   Some say it's simply the opposite of white.   Some say it's because black rhinos were seen after wallowing in dark mud.   Well, if that were the case, maybe in Kenya they should be called red rhinos because the Kenyan soil is rich in iron oxide, the same thing that makes Sedona, Arizona, so scenic.

And what does iron do when exposed to weather?   It rusts.   

And what color is rust?

The same color as Maxwell in the photo below that I took in 2017.   He's an orphaned black rhino, rejected at birth because he is blind.   Rhinos don't have very good eyesight anyway, but blindness is a very dangerous handicap.

 Maxwell was rescued by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and is being raised in the Orphaned Elephant compound in Nairobi.  He's very friendly, not at all like his aggressive wild mates.

 

In the photo below, orphaned elephants are wallowing at the Sheldrick orphanage.  Some will stop at Maxwell's corral to greet him as they are on their way to the forest in the morning after their morning bottle of milk..

 Anyway, rhinos and elephants are gray but sometimes take on the color of the mud and dust they cover themselves in for protection.

The other  difference between the two, now that we have settled the name thing,  is the shape of the black rhino's upper lip.   It is triangular, something of a prehensile beak.

 

White rhinos graze in short grass savannahs while black rhinos prefer to nibble on bushes and leaves.   Thus, the upper life is perfectly shaped to grasp leaves.

The link below will take you to a short video of Maxwell showing off his upper lip.  

 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=510195280187042

 

What else distinguishes the two?    Well, the white rhino has a massive hump of muscles on the neck.   That's because their heads can weigh 800 pounds.  They also have a hump on tgheir back just ahead of the hips.   Black rhinos do not.

 Don't think rhino hides and mud baths fully protect them from insects.   Filarial worms attack both white and black rhinos, causing open wounds, sometimes clear down to the underlying tissue.   These wounds weep, attracting any number of pests.

In the photo below are two black rhinos and a white rhino.   You can clearly see the lesions.

 These are two black rhinos we found in the grassland savannah one day.   You can see the lesions on them.

Okay, one last thing about rhinos.  They use social media.

With all that grazing going on by all  those rhinos, doesn't the grass eventually get covered by dung? 

No, because rhinos choose specific places to deposit their dung.

 

Here's a white rhino checking out the dung dump  for messages.   He can tell who has been there, their sex and age, and a number of other indicators.   

 

 

 

He deposits his own messages....

And then posts it to social media.   Clever, no?

Then other rhinos come to see what's on the bulletin board.

 

Incidentally, I count thirteen more rhinos other than the group in front in this photo.   We saw so many rhinos one day that I didn't know where to point my camera.   It was overwhelming.

Okay, now for some more rhino photos.

 

 

The below are the two black rhinos.

Note the hump on the back in front of the hips.

Resting that heavy head.

The photo below is of an adult rhino's foot.   It is three-toes with the center toe bearing most of the weight.   Speaking of weight, an African white rhino stands five feet at the shoulder and weighs between 3000 and 8000 pounds!

Don't even think about trying to outrun a rhino.   The fastest human ran 28 mph.   Rhinos run 30 mph.   You'd need a big head start and something bomb-proof to duck into.

You will often see a number of different birds foraging around the feet of rhinos, grabbing up whatever insects were disturbed.   This is a yellow wagtail, about six inches long.

This white rhino (see the square lip?) seemed to want to be as close to us as we would let him get.  I leaned back in the vehicle to take this photo, which is why you see the window opening bars.

He followed us for some time until we left the area.   There are a lot more photos in this sequence but I think you've seen enough rhino shots for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 Next:    The Birds and the Bees