The Largest one Horn Rhino on the Planet

The Indian rhinoceros or the Great One-horned Rhinoceros is a massive creature that weighs about 2200-3000 kg, but despite its weight, it can run up to 40 kilometers per hour for short periods of time. It’s the largest 1 horn rhino on the planet.

The Great One-Horned Rhinoceros has a single horn which is present on both males and females. The horn is pure keratin, much like the matter that makes up our own fingernails. It starts to show after about 6 years of age. The Indian rhino is illegally poached for sports or for the use of its horn. Some people believe that the rhino’s horn has healing and potency properties and therefore its utilized for Traditional Chinese Medicine and other Oriental medicines, a belief that has resulted to the rhino’s mere extinction. They once wandered by the thousands in a huge area of southern Asia. In the early 1900s there were less than 200 rhinos existing in the wild. There population has increased to more or less 2500 in the last century, but even so the species is still endangered. With the aid of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Indian and Nepalese governments have taken major steps towards Indian Rhinoceros conservation - protective reserves in Nepal and India have been made homes for this endangered creature.

The Indian rhinos are grazers, they feed mostly on grass, but they are also known to eat leaves, fruit and tender plants. During the dry season when food supplies are scares, the rhino tends to leave the protected park and consume farmer’s crops. Wandering from protected land further exposes them to poachers. Ranges try to divert the rhinos back into the park, but they must be careful because rhinos can be unpredictable and aggressive. However, dominant males are more threatening to each other when they are in mating season, these dangerous encounters can turn very bloody…
The rhino rarely attacks and usually flees from danger, it has little to fear, except from its greatest enemy which is man.