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Adam Cox - Have you ever heard of a Greater One Horned Rhino?
Date:19/06/2009
What a behemoth! This is the largest species of Rhino on the planet!
Dora the explo- no wait…Dora the RHINO is who I had the pleasure of meeting just recently at Taronga Western Plains Zoo. Don't let the name fool you, Dora is a male Greater One Horned Rhino and whoo-wee is he big!!
Greater One Horned Rhinos are an Asian species and can stand up to six feet tall and weigh over two tonnes (that's heavier than some cars!). Despite the size I had no fear of Dora for a few reasons. One is that he is a vegetarian and two because there was a fence between us! On top of that he was very placid; in fact he acted a lot like a cow. He just cruised on over and happily munched the grass that I gave him. He ate fast so I had to be on my toes or else my hand would have wound up getting munched on too!
Some may call it strange but I thought this Rhino's uhh 'hind quarters' were really cool. Well, look for yourself - do you see the rivet like bumps it has? These are called tubercles; I think it gives the skin a really cool texture and appearance. Not that I would like it on my 'hind quarters'… But hey. I'm sure Dora doesn't mind.
Way back in 1975 there were only 600 of these amazing animals left, but now thanks to strict conservation efforts their numbers have jumped to over 2000 which is a big relief. Even so, at this stage they still remain an endangered species.
Did you know that Dora is the only one of his kind in the Australia? Kind of sad I guess but he does get a lot of attention from his keepers and they told me that a female friend may not be out of the question…so I'll keep my eyes open for that – Baby Rhinos? Yes please!
Want to know more? Email the show at totallywild@networkten.com.au
See you soon!
Adam
