Totally Wild - White Rhino

White Rhino

Date:12/12/2008

Adam discovers that this white rhino is far more scared of him than he is of them!

It's hard to appreciate the size of a Rhinoceros, until you meet one face to face…WOW are they big. With their large barrel chest and bucket sized feet they make you feel like your meeting a modern day dinosaur.

Mind you, you know what's funny? Despite their great size they can still be really shy and easily frightened! I even spooked one simply by scuffing my boot on the gravel! I guess you could call them gentle giants, however you wouldn't want to get in their bad books. With that big horn and massive hide they could give you a decent wallop, especially if you got too close to one of their calves.

I'll tell you something really interesting; their horn is made of keratin. It's the same substance that makes up your fingernails or your hair. I took a close look at the horn and yep, it had short thick hair sprouting from it! Very bizarre indeed.

The Rhino in the pictures has a red tinge but don't be fooled, it's just the remains from its mud bath. White Rhinos are naturally grey. Pretty confusing huh? It's the same with the Black Rhinos…their not black but grey as well! What's that all about?

Still, any animal that can weigh over 3000kg gets no arguments from me!

Adam