15 Enormous, Ungulating Facts About Rhinos

Rhinos. The horned thunder lizards of the savannah. Or are they? In The Untold, a series documenting the extraordinary stories of modern Britain, we meet Astrid, a young Rhino born at Cotswold Wildlife Park.

If you’re under the misapprehension that a Rhinoceros is merely a big cow that someone has blu-tacked a horn to the front of - then we have some amazing, some would say fascinating, facts about the creature that will set you straight.

1. The name rhinoceros comes from the Ancient Greek ‘rhino’, meaning nose and ‘ceros’, meaning horn. Probably because they have a ‘horn’ on their ‘nose’. Old timey animal namers were notoriously lazy.

2. When Homer was attacked by rhinos in episode 15, season 10 of The Simpsons he appeared to defeat them by throwing popcorn at the animals. But in reality, this probably wouldn’t work.

3. Weighing more than 3,500kg, the White rhino is the second largest land mammal on the planet. The name of the largest, tusk-laden, trunk-bearing mammal will be revealed at the end of this feature.

4. Rather than bone, rhino horns are made from keratin, the same substance that forms human fingernails and hair. If you allow your fingernails to grow unchecked they will eventually resemble a rhino horn in no way at all.

5. Black and White rhinos are neither black nor white but rather the same dark grey colour. So that was a complete waste of time, wasn’t it?

6. Just as there were woolly mammoths, there were once woolly rhinos that became extinct around 10,000 years ago and were much like the rhinos of today except fairly woollier.

7. There are five different varieties of rhino. The names of them can be easily found by Googling.

8. German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer created a famous woodcut of a rhinoceros in 1515 without ever seeing the actual animal, which may be why he was known as Albrecht ‘The man who could draw rhinoceroses without seeing them’ Dürer.

9. As well as removing pests and parasites from their skin, the Oxpecker bird will sit on the rhino’s back and alert them if danger approaches. A bit like the ‘lookout urchin’ so favoured in the novels of Charles Dickens with their cries of ‘Cor blimey! Here comes the rozzers’ or ‘Strike a light, I do believe there be a Beadle approaching’ a bit like Russell Brand.

10. Baby Black rhinos gestate for 15 months and can walk just 10 minutes after they are born. But stick them in front of an ATM or ask them to handle an orbital sander and they‘d be all over the shop.

11. In the Babar the Elephant books, Lord Rataxes is the ruler of Rhinoland, which sounds good but I bet it’s not as good as Monkey World, which is ace, but not as good as Diggerland, which is brill.

12. Each rhino’s midden (or dung) has its own unique odour and is used to communicate with other members of the herd. A bit like a fecal version of WhatsApp.

13. Rhinos have poor eyesight, but do have very acute hearing and a masterful sense of smell - which is unfortunate as I just found out they use poo to communicate.

14. The mighty hump on the back of the White Rhino is the nuchal ligament which helps to support the massive weight of the animal’s head when it is running. I have a cravat that serves a similar purpose.

15. Though they can stampede when startled, rhino attacks on humans are rare, numbering only 2 or 3 per year. In comparison there are 400 to 500 elephant attacks while hippos kill about 2,900 people every year, hence their name ‘the peg-toothed murderer of the waterhole’.

Listen to The Untold: The Man the Lions Love to Hate, which follows the story of Astrid and her keeper, Mark Godwin, as he prepares for her journey to her new home.