The Indian Rhinoceros
also called the one-horned Rhino (Rhinoceros
unicornis) is primarily found in the north-eastern India. The
Indian rhinoceros gets it's common name from the fact that it only has one horn
rather than two. The Indian Rhinoceros is second in size only to the Asian
elephant. It is found mainly in Assam and in protected areas of Terai of Nepal,
where population are confined to the riverine grasslands in the foothills of
Himalayas. The one-horned Rhino once ranged throughout the entire stretch of
the Indo-Gangetic Plan but now it has reduced due to excessive hunting. The
rhinos are also vulnerable to diseases spread by parasites such as leeches,
ticks, and nematodes. Due to it's large size, the Indian rhino's only real
predator in the wild are large wild cats such as tigers that will prey on the
Indian rhino calves and weak individuals.
The Indian Rhinoceros
can run at speed up to 25 mph (40 km/h) for short period of time and is also an
excellent swimmer. It has excellent sense of smell and hearing but their
eyesight are poor. The Indian Rhinoceros are brownish-gray in colour and are
hairless. They have knobby skin that appears to be armour-plated and a single
horn sits on top of their snout. The rhino’s single horn is present in both
males and females, but not on newborn young. The horn of the Indian rhinoceros
is made from a substance called keratin like human fingernails and is therefore
very strong and starts to show after about six years. In most adults, the horn
reaches a length of about 25 cm, but has been recorded up to 57.2 cm in length.
It has very little body hair, aside from eyelashes, ear fringes and tail brush.
Males develop thick neck folds.
The Indian rhinoceros
are grazers and their diets consist almost entirely of grasses, but they also
eat leaves, branches of shrubs and trees and even some floating aquatic plants.
These animals forage in the cooler temperature in the morning and afternoon to
avoid debilitating midday heat. When the sun is high, they often wallow or
submerge themselves in water.
The Indian rhinoceros
is solitary animal and only comes together with other Indian rhinos to mate.
The female Indian rhinoceros gives birth to a single calf after a gestation
period that is over a year long. The Indian rhinoceros calf remains with it's
mother until it is at least 2 years old and big enough to become independent.
Captive males breed at five years of age, but wild males attain dominance much
later when they are larger. Captive females breed as young as four years of
age, but in the wild, they usually start breeding only when six years old,
which likely indicates they need to be large enough to avoid being killed by
aggressive males. Their gestation period is around 15.7 months, and birth
interval ranges from 34–51 months.
The prominent horn for
which these rhinos are well known has also been their downfall. Many animals
have been killed for this hard, hair like growth, which is revered for
medicinal use in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The horn is also
valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle. The
one-horned rhinoceros has been regarded as a vulnerable species as their
population is extremely low due to hunting and poaching.
Today, the Indian rhinoceros is an
endangered animal and has been pushed into only a small fraction of its historical
territory by human hunters and deforestation. Humans are the biggest threat to
the Indian rhinoceros as they have been hunted to the brink of extinction for
their horns. There are thought to be around 3,000 Indian rhinoceros individuals
left in the wild, two thirds of which are believed to be in the Assam region of
India.
