Black rhinoceros

“ The black rhinoceros, although much, smaller than the white, and seldom having a horn over eighteen inches long, is far more ferocious than the white species, and possesses a wonderful degree of strength.
The form of the rhinoceros is clumsy, and its appearance dull and heavy. The limbs are thick and powerful, and each, foot has three toes, which are covered with broad, hoof-like nails.
The tail is small; the head very long and large. Taken altogether, there are few—if any—animals that compare with the rhinoceros in ugliness. ”

“ In death a black rhinoceros will often sink down on its knees, and remain in that position, looking as if it were simply resting. When dying, it often gives vent to a pitiful squeal, the sound seeming very small and thin for so large a beast. The meat of the black rhinoceros is not ill-flavoured, and, if fat, very palatable ”

“ Both species far exceed in size the two kinds of black rhinoceros, and are fully equal to their great Asiatic congener—he with the curious shield-like skin, so well known in picture-books, museums, and zoological gardens. In other words, the white rhinoceroses of South Africa are in point of magnitude, after the elephant, the largest quadrupeds in the world. In point of habits they differ altogether from the black species. They are grass-feeders, as the shape of their muzzle testifies ”

“ There are several species of the rhinoceros, some of which are found in Asia, and others in different parts of Africa.
In the latter country there are four varieties—the black rhinoceros, having a single horn; the black species having two horns; the long-horned white rhinoceros; and the common white species, which has a short, stubby horn.
The largest of the African species is the long-horned, white, or square-nosed rhinoceros. When full-grown, it sometimes measures eighteen feet in length, and about the same around the body. Its horn frequently reaches a length of thirty inches. ”

“ The rhinoceros, like the hippopotamus, is hunted for its flesh, which is used as food by the natives, though it is not as highly prized as that of the hippopotamus. The tough hide of the South African species is sliced up into thongs, which the natives use in various ways.
The rhinoceros is found sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, but never in a herd. There are various species of the animal in Asia and India as well as Africa. Let us confine our attention to the African species alone. The bovele, or black rhinoceros of South Africa, is the smallest of all known species. ”

“ Jackson's testimony concerning the character of the black rhinoceros as he has known that animal appears to me to coincide very closely with that arrived at by Neumann, his great friend and only rival as a hunter in East Africa. Like Neumann, Jackson fully realises that black rhinoceroses are sometimes vicious and dangerous, but his experience has been that, as a rule, these animals avoid and run away from human beings if they can, and that even when they rush snorting through a long line of native porters, they are usually trying to escape from rather than viciously attacking these men. ”

“ My own personal experience of the black rhinoceros in Southern Africa compels me to believe that, although a small proportion of animals of this species may have been excessively ill-tempered, and were always ready to charge anything and everything they saw moving, and even to hunt a human being by scent, that was never the character of the great majority of these animals. ”

“ Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros) .—The Indian rhinoceros and that of Java have only one horn on the nose, while the African species has two. [204] The white rhinoceros of Africa is the largest, attaining to a length of over twelve feet, and a height of nearly six feet; but the black rhinoceros is best known. These awkward animals are enveloped in a wrinkled and bare hide, which may be compared to a coat-of-mail. They live either solitary or in small herds, in marsh and well-watered districts, and feed on grass, leaves, and roots. They only attack an enemy when provoked. Their horn is a terrible weapon. ”

“ The black rhinoceros is, under all circumstances, as already mentioned, a morose and sulky beast. The one in question was unusually savage, as she had probably a young sucking calf. We did not see the latter, it is true, but assumed such to be the case from the beast’s teats being full of milk. It is most likely that her offspring was of too tender an age to accompany her, and that, as not unfrequently happens, she concealed it among the bushes when about to quench her thirst at the pool. ”

“ The black rhinoceros is one of the most dangerous of the wild beasts of Africa, and travelers stand in great awe of it. The courage of Dr. Livingstone in exposing himself to the risk of such animals on this missionary tour was none the less that he himself says not a word regarding it ”

“ I think I have read all recent books on South African hunting, but I cannot recall any mention of a white man or a black man having been killed by a black rhinoceros in any one of them, though both Oswell and Andersson were badly injured and came very near losing their lives in encounters with individuals of this species. I do not say that between 1836 and 1871 no human being was killed by a black rhinoceros in South Africa. ”

“ The “black” species, as before said, are of a very sullen and morose disposition. They are, moreover, subject to sudden paroxysms of unprovoked fury, rushing and charging with inconceivable fierceness animals, stones, bushes—in short, any object that comes in their way.
Seen in his native wilds, either when browsing at his leisure, or listlessly sauntering about, a person would take the rhinoceros to be the most stupid and inoffensive of creatures; yet, when his ire is roused, he becomes the reverse, and is then the most agile and terrible of animals. ”

“ Amral told me that one day, while himself and party were engaged in pursuit of an elephant, a black rhinoceros suddenly appeared among them, charging madly both beasts and men, several of whom had narrow escapes from being gored by the animal.
The rhinoceros will also fight his own species. ”

“ Although many hundreds of native hunters—poorly armed with smooth-bore muskets for the most part—must have taken part in the practical extermination of both the black and the white rhinoceros, throughout all the uninhabited tracts of country lying between the high plateau of Matabeleland and the Zambesi river, as far as I know no single man was either killed or injured in the process, although they must have killed between them at least a thousand black rhinoceroses alone during the five years before 1886. ”

“ The vast majority have quite short horns—under a foot—and anything over 18 inches is uncommon, while a length of 30 inches or upwards is extremely rare." The black rhinoceros, I believe, never eats grass, but browses on the young shoots of trees and bushes, which are often quite leafless and seem excessively dry. ”

“ Our oryx led us a mile or more over rocky slopes, always promising and never giving a good chance for a shot, until at last he drew us round the shoulder of a hill—and there, abruptly, was the rhinoceros. The impression was extraordinary. A wide plain of white, withered grass stretched away to low hills broken with rocks. The rhinoceros stood in the middle of this plain, about five hundred yards away, in jet-black silhouette; not a twentieth-century animal at all, but an odd, grim straggler from the Stone Age. ”

“ The opinion expressed in the above paragraph concerning the black rhinoceros and the danger of its pursuit has, I think, been proved to be fairly accurate by the experience of the many sportsmen (most of them utterly inexperienced in hunting large and dangerous animals) who have visited British East Africa in recent years ”

“ Unlike the Indian species of rhinoceros, the black variety of Africa is free from folds, and the hide fits smoothly on the body like that of the buffalo. This two-horned black species is exceedingly vicious. It is one of the very few animals that will generally assume the offensive; it considers all creatures to be enemies, and, although it is not acute in either sight or hearing, it possesses so wonderful a power of scent that it will detect a stranger at a distance of five or six hundred yards should the wind be favorable. ”

“ In my own experience I always found that black rhinoceroses ran off at once on getting the wind of a human being; whilst, on the other hand, if they only heard one approaching, they would come towards the noise, and I have often known them to trot up to within twenty yards of where I was standing, snorting and puffing loudly ”

“ Even the big white bear at the Zoo, who always looked bored when he saw a camera, stared curiously at the Hazenfield party; the ostriches looked 142scornful, and the rhinoceros seemed likely to strangle himself in an effort to keep himself out of sight under water.
Of course Allan photographed the elephants. All the members wanted to photograph the elephants, and Major Mines induced the keeper to make special display of the Princess; and the Princess, while not at all guilty of looking pleasant, at least turned an almost motionless profile to the bristling battery of cameras. ”

“ His skin hangs in great thick folds like plates of armour, and is so loose that it looks as if his tailor had fitted him very badly. He is much smaller than the elephant, and his thick-set body shows great strength. He is hideously ugly according to our ideas; but rhinoceros' ideas are different, and he would probably think the smooth pink-and-white skin of a child hideous. He lives in the jungle and eats the leaves of trees, which he tears off with his long upper lip. ”

“ Besides its having a skin without plaits, it has two horns on the forehead, so loose that they clash against one another, and make a noise when the animal is running: then he has one of these only that are moveable, which he turns to one side or the other when he chooses to dig roots; an imagination scarcely possible, I think, to any one who has ever seen a rhinoceros. With these loose and clashing horns he diverts himself by throwing a man and horse into the air ”

“ Instead of the bold brutal nature of the rhinoceros—rushing out without provocation, attacking and butting at whatever comes in its way—here we have a shy timid creature, that takes to flight on the slightest suspicion of danger, and seems to be frightened at its very shadow. Why, it affords the most absolute proof of the uncertainty of the teeth and bones as a guide to the mode of life of any animal. ”

“ The great carnivora never troubled their heads about such a preposterous victim, and the nations of the deer kind, couching by day in the forest depths and feeding by night in the open plain, saw nothing of the bulky rhinoceros. He lived therefore in virtual solitude, — for water-fowl and weasels were hardly worth calling companions, — and was indeed so vigilant in guarding his concealment that he remained a secret for ages.
The rhinoceros, therefore, figures nowhere in folk-lore, and neither fairy tale nor fable has anything to tell us of it. Art owes little to it, and commerce nothing. ”

“ These animals are found in Bengal, Siam, China, and in several countries of Africa; but are far less numerous than the elephant, and of sequestered solitary habits. The female produces only one at a birth; and at the age of two years the horn is only an inch long, and at six only of the length of nine inches. The rhinoceros is not ferocious, unless provoked, when he exhibits paroxysms of rage and madness, and is highly dangerous to those who encounter him. He runs with great swiftness, and rushes through brakes and woods with an energy to which every thing yields. ”

“ I have observed that a rhinoceros will generally charge down upon the object that it smells, but does not see; thus when the animal is concealed either in high grass or thick jungle, should it scent a man who may be passing unseen to windward, it will rush down furiously upon the object it has winded, with three loud whiffs, resembling a jet of steam from a safety-valve. As it is most difficult and next to impossible to kill a rhinoceros when charging, on account of the protection to the brain afforded by the horns, an unexpected charge in thick jungle is particularly unpleasant ”

“ In Southern Africa the white rhinoceros lived entirely on grass, and I have never seen any evidence of their having eaten anything else. When either walking, trotting, or galloping, the white rhinoceros always carried its nose close to the ground. A calf always preceded its mother, and she appeared to guide it by holding the point of her horn on the little creature's rump ”

“ In the wild state, whether he be the African species or the Asiatic, the rhinoceros is a lazy, quiet-loving beast, passing his days in slumber in some secluded swamp of reed-bed, and coming out at night to browse along the wild pastures that offer themselves on forest edges or the water-side. ”

“ It is believed that the few remaining rhinos are being shot much faster then they are breeding; and what will be the effect of this upon an animal that requires fourteen years to reach full maturity? To-day, the most wonderful hoofed mammal of all Asia is booked for extermination, and unless very radical measures for its preservation are at once carried into effect, it is probable that twenty years more will see the last Indian rhino go down to rise no more. One remedy would be a good, ample rhinoceros preserve ”