![]() ![]() Therefore, both the Black Rhino species and the Eastern Black Rhino subspecies remain categorised as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.īetween 91-100% of the Eastern Black Rhino population exists in protected areas. Although the population has increased, so too has poaching. Most rhino horn ends up in Asia, especially China for use in traditional Chinese medicine, and Vietnam where rhino horn is regarded by some wealthy urban Vietnamese as a symbol of high social status, often carved into ornaments such as bowls and bangles and frequently gifted to family members, friends, and business colleagues. Poaching for the illegal international rhino horn trade, banned since 1977 under CITES, remains the biggest threat to the Black Rhino. The decline was initially caused by culling to make way for agriculture and made worse by poaching inside and outside protected areas. The number of Eastern Black Rhino, the rarest of the three remaining subspecies, also declined dramatically, from 14,231 in 1973 to less than 400 in the late 1980s, before increasing to 1,002 in 2017, a total made up of 745 in Kenya, 155 in Tanzania, 19 in Uganda, and a further 83 introduced animals in South Africa. In 1960 there was an estimated 100,000 Black Rhino (of all subspecies) in Africa, but due to poaching the population fell to around 65,000 by 1970. They are herbivores, using their pointed prehensile upper lip to browse on leaves, fruit, and twigs taken from trees and bushes, rather than grazing on grasses like their big-headed, square-lipped White Rhino relatives do.ĭuring the day they shelter from the sun in the shade, or wallow and roll around at a water hole, coating their skin with mud that acts as both an insect repellent and sunblock. They are weaned after two months but will stay with their mother for 2-4 years before the female is ready to calve again.īlack Rhinos forage mainly during the night or at dawn and dusk. Calves weigh 30-45 kg at birth and are usually able to stand within a few hours. ![]() The gestation period is 15-17 months and females give birth alone. Adult females are most often in the company of their latest calf.īlack Rhinos have extremely poor eyesight and communicate primarily through scent-marking, such as leaving dung piles known as ‘middens’ throughout their territory, rubbing a scent gland on their head against trees or rocks, or urine spraying, which is how females let bulls know when they are in oestrus.įemales reach sexual maturity at 3.5-4 years old. Adult males have a territory of 3.9-4.7 km, with older animals usually dominant and younger males subordinate. This species is mainly solitary, although it was recently discovered that adult males can be semi-social at water holes.
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