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A little messy, but here's how I store them all. When we re-did our closets I actually had to special order the extra shoe shelves. i'm happy every single day that i did.
Le Havre, France, September 2010
Le Havre is a harbor city. In fact, it's larger container port in Europe.
It's also a ferry hub to the United Kingdom, and every day ships depart to cross the channel. I've always been quite envious of the people aboard.
Botswana, Moremi National Park, Moremi Game Reserve, Private Reserve, Farm, Chobe National park, Chobe Game Reserve, Zambia, Zambezi River, Livingstone, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Wildlife Conservation Project, Maramba River Lodge, South Africa, Krugger National Park, Okavango Delta, Kalahari region, Kalahari Desert.
Rhinoceros /raɪˈnɒsərəs/, often abbreviated as rhino, is a group of five extant species of knee-less, odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia.
Members of the rhinoceros family are characterized by their large size (they are some of the largest remaining megafauna, with all of the species able to reach one tonne or more in weight); as well as by a herbivorous diet; a thick protective skin, 1.5–5 cm thick, formed from layers of collagen positioned in a lattice structure; relatively small brains for mammals this size (400–600 g); and a large horn. They generally eat leafy material, although their ability to ferment food in their hindgut allows them to subsist on more fibrous plant matter, if necessary. Unlike other perissodactyls, the two African species of rhinoceros lack teeth at the front of their mouths, relying instead on their powerful premolar and molar teeth to grind up plant food.[1]
Rhinoceros are killed by humans for their horns, which are bought and sold on the black market, and which are used by some cultures for ornamental or (pseudo-scientific) medicinal purposes. The horns are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails.[2] Both African species and the Sumatran rhinoceros have two horns, while the Indian and Javan rhinoceros have a single horn.
The IUCN Red List identifies three of the species as critically endangered.
The word rhinoceros is derived through Latin from the Ancient Greek: ῥῑνόκερως, which is composed of ῥῑνο- (rhino-, "nose") and κέρας (keras, "horn"). The plural in English is rhinoceros or rhinoceroses. The collective noun for a group of rhinoceroses is crash or herd.
The five living species fall into three categories. The two African species, the white rhinoceros and the black rhinoceros, belong to the Dicerotini group, which originated in the middle Miocene, about 14.2 million years ago. The species diverged during the early Pliocene (about 5 million years ago). The main difference between black and white rhinos is the shape of their mouths - white rhinos have broad flat lips for grazing, whereas black rhinos have long pointed lips for eating foliage.
There are two living Rhinocerotini species, the Indian rhinoceros and the Javan rhinoceros, which diverged from one another about 10 million years ago. The Sumatran rhinoceros is the only surviving representative of the most primitive group, the Dicerorhinini, which emerged in the Miocene (about 20 million years ago).[3] The extinct woolly rhinoceros of northern Europe and Asia was also a member of this tribe.
A subspecific hybrid white rhino (Ceratotherium s. simum × C. s. cottoni) was bred at the Dvůr Králové Zoo (Zoological Garden Dvur Kralove nad Labem) in the Czech Republic in 1977. Interspecific hybridisation of black and white rhinoceros has also been confirmed.[4]
While the black rhinoceros has 84 chromosomes (diploid number, 2N, per cell), all other rhinoceros species have 82 chromosomes.
White rhinoceros
Main article: White rhinoceros
There are two subspecies of white rhino: the southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) and the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni). In 2007, the southern subspecies had a wild population of 17,480 (IUCN2008) - 16,266 of which were in South Africa - making them the most abundant rhino subspecies in the world. However, the northern subspecies was critically endangered, with as few as four individuals in the wild; the possibility of complete extinction in the wild having been noted since June 2008.[5] Six are known to be held in captivity, two of which reside in a zoo in San Diego. Four born in a zoo in the Czech Republic were transferred to a wildlife refuge in Kenya in December 2009, in an effort to have the animals reproduce and save the subspecies.[6]
There is no conclusive explanation of the name white rhinoceros. A popular theory that "white" is a distortion of either the Afrikaans word weid or the Dutch word wijd (or its other possible spellings whyde, weit, etc.,) meaning wide and referring to the rhino's square lips is not supported by linguistic studies.[7][8]
The white rhino has an immense body and large head, a short neck and broad chest. This rhino can exceed 3,500 kg (7,700 lb), have a head-and-body length of 3.5–4.6 m (11–15 ft) and a shoulder height of 1.8–2 m (5.9–6.6 ft). The record-sized white rhinoceros was about 4,500 kg (10,000 lb).[9] On its snout it has two horns. The front horn is larger than the other horn and averages 90 cm (35 in) in length and can reach 150 cm (59 in). The white rhinoceros also has a prominent muscular hump that supports its relatively large head. The colour of this animal can range from yellowish brown to slate grey. Most of its body hair is found on the ear fringes and tail bristles, with the rest distributed rather sparsely over the rest of the body. White rhinos have the distinctive flat broad mouth that is used for grazing.
Black rhinoceros
Main article: Black rhinoceros
The name black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) was chosen to distinguish this species from the white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). This can be confusing, as the two species are not really distinguishable by color. There are four subspecies of black rhino: South-central (Diceros bicornis minor), the most numerous, which once ranged from central Tanzania south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to northern and eastern South Africa; South-western (Diceros bicornis bicornis) which are better adapted to the arid and semi-arid savannas of Namibia, southern Angola, western Botswana and western South Africa; East African (Diceros bicornis michaeli), primarily in Tanzania; and West African (Diceros bicornis longipes) which was declared extinct in November 2011.[10] The native Tswanan name Keitloa is used to describe a South African variation of the black rhino in which the posterior horn is equal to or longer than the anterior horn.[11]
An adult black rhinoceros stands 150–175 cm (59–69 in) high at the shoulder and is 3.5–3.9 m (11–13 ft) in length.[12] An adult weighs from 850 to 1,600 kg (1,900 to 3,500 lb), exceptionally to 1,800 kg (4,000 lb), with the females being smaller than the males. Two horns on the skull are made of keratin with the larger front horn typically 50 cm long, exceptionally up to 140 cm. Sometimes, a third smaller horn may develop. The black rhino is much smaller than the white rhino, and has a pointed mouth, which it uses to grasp leaves and twigs when feeding.
During the latter half of the 20th century their numbers were severely reduced from an estimated 70,000[13] in the late 1960s to only 2,410 in 1995.[14]
Indian rhinoceros
Main article: Indian rhinoceros
The Indian rhinoceros, or the greater one-horned rhinoceros, (Rhinoceros unicornis) is now found almost exclusively in Nepal and North-Eastern India. The rhino once inhabited many areas ranging from Pakistan to Burma and may have even roamed in China. However, because of human influence, their range has shrunk and now they only exist in several protected areas of India (in Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat and a few pairs in Uttar Pradesh) and Nepal, plus a few pairs in Lal Suhanra National Park in Pakistan. It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The Indian rhinoceros has thick, silver-brown skin which creates huge folds all over its body. Its upper legs and shoulders are covered in wart-like bumps, and it has very little body hair. Fully grown males are larger than females in the wild, weighing from 2,500–3,200 kg (5,500–7,100 lb).The Indian rhino stands at 1.75–2.0 metres (5.75–6.5 ft). Female Indian rhinos weigh about 1,900 kg and are 3–4 metres long. The record-sized specimen of this rhino was approximately 3,800 kg. The Indian rhino has a single horn that reaches a length of between 20 and 100 cm. Its size is comparable to that of the white rhino in Africa.
Two-thirds of the world's Indian rhinoceroses are now confined to the Kaziranga National Park situated in the Golaghat district of Assam, India.[15]
Javan rhinoceros
Main article: Javan rhinoceros
The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is one of the rarest and most endangered large mammals anywhere in the world.[16] According to 2002 estimates, only about 60 remain, in Java (Indonesia) and Vietnam. Of all the rhino species, the least is known of the Javan Rhino. These animals prefer dense lowland rain forest, tall grass and reed beds that are plentiful with large floodplains and mud wallows. Though once widespread throughout Asia, by the 1930s the rhinoceros was nearly hunted to extinction in India, Burma, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra for the supposed medical powers of its horn and blood. As of 2009, there are only 40 of them remaining in Ujung Kulon Conservation, Java, Indonesia. The last rhinoceros in Vietnam was reportedly killed in 2010.[17]
Like the closely related, and larger, Indian rhinoceros, the Javan rhinoceros has a single horn. Its hairless, hazy gray skin falls into folds into the shoulder, back, and rump giving it an armored-like appearance. The Javan rhino's body length reaches up to 3.1–3.2 m (10–10 ft), including its head and a height of 1.5–1.7 m (4 ft 10 in–5 ft 7 in) tall. Adults are variously reported to weigh between 900–1,400 kg[18] or 1,360–2,000 kg.[19] Male horns can reach 26 cm in length, while in females they are knobs or are not present at all.[19]
Sumatran rhinoceros
Main article: Sumatran rhinoceros
The Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the smallest extant rhinoceros species, as well as the one with the most hair. It can be found at very high altitudes in Borneo and Sumatra. Due to habitat loss and poaching, its numbers have declined and it is the most threatened rhinoceros. About 275 Sumatran rhinos are believed to remain.
A mature Sumatran rhino typically stands about 130 cm (51 in) high at the shoulder, with a body length of 240–315 cm (94–124 in) and weighing around 700 kg (1,500 lb), though the largest individuals have been known to weigh as much as 1,000 kilograms. Like the African species, it has two horns; the larger is the front (25–79 cm), with the smaller usually less than 10 cm long. The males have much larger horns than the females. Hair can range from dense (the densest hair in young calves) to scarce. The color of these rhinos is reddish brown. The body is short and has stubby legs. They also have a prehensile lip.
Rhinocerotoids diverged from other perissodactyls by the early Eocene. Fossils of Hyrachyus eximus found in North America date to this period. This small hornless ancestor resembled a tapir or small horse more than a rhino. Three families, sometimes grouped together as the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea, evolved in the late Eocene: Hyracodontidae, Amynodontidae and Rhinocerotidae.
Hyracodontidae, also known as 'running rhinos', showed adaptations for speed, and would have looked more like horses than modern rhinos. The smallest hyracodontids were dog-sized; the largest was Indricotherium, believed to be one of the largest land mammals that ever existed. The hornless Indricotherium was almost seven metres high, ten metres long, and weighed as much as 15 tons. Like a giraffe, it ate leaves from trees. The hyracodontids spread across Eurasia from the mid-Eocene to early Miocene.
The Amynodontidae, also known as "aquatic rhinos", dispersed across North America and Eurasia, from the late Eocene to early Oligocene. The amynodontids were hippopotamus-like in their ecology and appearance, inhabiting rivers and lakes, and sharing many of the same adaptations to aquatic life as hippos.
The family of all modern rhinoceros, the Rhinocerotidae, first appeared in the Late Eocene in Eurasia. The earliest members of Rhinocerotidae were small and numerous; at least 26 genera lived in Eurasia and North America until a wave of extinctions in the middle Oligocene wiped out most of the smaller species. However, several independent lineages survived. Menoceras, a pig-sized rhinoceros, had two horns side-by-side. The North American Teleoceras had short legs, a barrel chest and lived until about 5 million years ago. The last rhinos in the Americas became extinct during the Pliocene.
Modern rhinos are believed to have began dispersal from Asia during the Miocene. Two species survived the most recent period of glaciation and inhabited Europe as recently as 10,000 years ago: the woolly rhinoceros and Elasmotherium. The woolly rhinoceros appeared in China around 1 million years ago and first arrived in Europe around 600,000 years ago. It reappeared 200,000 years ago, alongside the woolly mammoth, and became numerous. Eventually it was hunted to extinction by early humans. Elasmotherium, also known as the giant rhinoceros, survived through the middle Pleistocene: it was two meters tall, five meters long and weighed around five tons, with a single enormous horn, hypsodont teeth and long legs for running.
Of the extant rhinoceros species, the Sumatran rhino is the most archaic, first emerging more than 15 million years ago. The Sumatran rhino was closely related to the woolly rhinoceros, but not to the other modern species. The Indian rhino and Javan rhino are closely related and form a more recent lineage of Asian rhino. The ancestors of early Indian and Javan rhino diverged 2–4 million years ago.[21]
The origin of the two living African rhinos can be traced back to the late Miocene (6 mya) species Ceratotherium neumayri. The lineages containing the living species diverged by the early Pliocene (1.5 mya), when Diceros praecox, the likely ancestor of the black rhinoceros, appears in the fossil record.[22] The black and white rhinoceros remain so closely related that they can still mate and successfully produce offspring.
In the wild, adult rhinoceros have few natural predators other than humans. Young rhinos can fall prey to predators such as big cats, crocodiles, wild dogs, and hyenas. Although rhinos are of a large size and have a reputation for being tough, they are actually very easily poached; because it visits water holes daily, the rhinoceros is easily killed while taking a drink. As of December 2009 poaching has been on a global increase whilst efforts to protect the rhinoceros are considered increasingly ineffective. The worst estimate, that only 3% of poachers are successfully countered, is reported of Zimbabwe. Rhino horn is considered to be particularly effective on fevers and even "life saving" by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, which in turn provides a sales market. Nepal is apparently alone in avoiding the crisis while poacher-hunters grow ever more sophisticated.[26] South African officials are calling for urgent action against rhinoceros poaching after poachers killed the last female rhinoceros in the Krugersdorp Game Reserve near Johannesburg.[27] Statistics from South African National Parks show a record 333 rhinoceros have been killed in 2010.[28]
Horns
Rhinoceros horns, unlike those of other horned mammals (which have a bony core), only consist of keratin. Rhinoceros horns are used in traditional Asian medicine, and for dagger handles in Yemen and Oman. Esmond Bradley Martin has reported on the trade for dagger handles in Yemen.[29]
One repeated misconception is that rhinoceros horn in powdered form is used as an aphrodisiac in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as Cornu Rhinoceri Asiatici It is, in fact, prescribed for fevers and convulsions.[30] Neither have been proven by evidence-based medicine. Discussions with TCM practitioners to reduce its use have met with mixed results since some TCM doctors see rhinoceros horn as a life-saving medicine of better quality than substitutes.[31] China has signed the CITES treaty however, and removed rhinoceros horn from the Chinese medicine pharmacopeia, administered by the Ministry of Health, in 1993. In 2011 in the United Kingdom, the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine issued a formal statement condemning the use of rhinoceros horn.[32] A growing number of TCM educators have also spoken out against the practice.[33] To prevent poaching, in certain areas, rhinos have been tranquilized and their horns removed. Armed park rangers, particularly in South Africa, are also working on the front lines to combat poaching, sometimes killing poachers who are caught in the act. A recent spike in rhino killings has made conservationaists concerned about the future of rhino species. During 2011 448 rhino were killed for their horn in South Africa alone.[34] The horn is incredibly valuable: an average sized horn can bring in much as a quarter of a million dollars in Vietnam and many rhino range States have stockpiles of rhino horn.[35][36] Still, poaching is hitting record levels due to demands from China and Vietnam.[37]
Historical representations
Albrecht Dürer created a famous woodcut of a rhinoceros in 1515, based on a written description and brief sketch by an unknown artist of an Indian rhinoceros that had arrived in Lisbon earlier that year. Dürer never saw the animal itself and, as a result, Dürer's Rhinoceros is a somewhat inaccurate depiction.
There are legends about rhinoceros stamping out fire in Malaysia, India, and Burma. The mythical rhinoceros has a special name in Malay, badak api, where badak means rhinoceros and api means fire. The animal would come when a fire is lit in the forest and stamp it out.[38] There are no recent confirmations of this phenomenon. However, this legend has been reinforced by the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, where an African rhinoceros is shown to be putting out two campfires.
Conservation
International Rhino Foundation
Save the Rhino
Nicolaas Jan van Strien
Individual rhinoceroses
Abada
Clara
Rhinoceros of Versailles
See also: Fictional Rhinoceroses
Other
Rhinoceroses in ancient China
A wine vessel in the form of a bronze rhinoceros with silver inlay, from the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) period of China, sporting a saddle on its back
A rhinoceros depicted on a Roman mosaic in Villa Romana del Casale, an archeological site near Piazza Armerina in Sicily, Italy
Dürer's Rhinoceros, in a woodcut from 1515
Monk with rhinoceros horn. Samye, Tibet, 1938.
Indricotherium, the extinct "giant giraffe" rhinoceros. It stood 18 feet tall at the shoulder and weighed up to 20 tonnes (22 short tons).
Coelodonta, the extinct woolly rhinoceros
The thick dermal armour of the Rhinoceros evolved at the same time as shearing tusks[20]
The Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest of the rhino species
Smaller in size than the Indian rhinoceros, the Javan rhinoceros also have a single horn
The Indian rhinoceros has a single horn
The black rhinoceros has a beak shaped lip and is similar in color to the white rhinoceros
The white rhinoceros is actually grey
Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) at the Saint Louis Zoo
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Infraclass:Eutheria
Order:Perissodactyla
Suborder:Ceratomorpha
Superfamily:Rhinocerotoidea
Family:Rhinocerotidae
Gray, 1820
Extant Genera
Ceratotherium
Dicerorhinus
Diceros
Rhinoceros
Extinct genera, see text
NEW DELHI: A total of 631 animals, including 19 rhinos, died in the recent floods in Kaziranga National Park of Assam, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
In a written reply to the House, forest and environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan also said that flood is a natural and recurring phenomenon in Kaziranga and it creates a variety of habitats for different species.
"Mortality of wild animals due to flood has been reported during the year only in Kaziranga Tiger Reserve. As reported by the state, a total of 631 animal deaths, including 19 rhinos, have occurred in Kaziranga due to excess water brought by the flood during June-July 2012," she said.
She also informed the House that the flooding results in damage to infrastructure such as roads, anti-poaching camps, artificial high grounds.
"Similar high floods of 1988 and 1998 recorded animal mortality of 1203 and 652 respectively," Natarajan said.
Replying to a separate question on tiger deaths reported in Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, she said from 2008 till now, there are 19 such incidents of the big cats dying due to natural and other causes.
She said only two incidents of poaching were reported from the national park.
In reply to another question on Tiger Project, she said, "The country level tiger population, estimated once in every four years using the refined methodology, is 1706."
While the lower limit of the tiger population is estimated to be 1520, the upper limit has been fixed at 1909.
Providing details of the 'India State Survey of Forest Report 2011', Natarajan told the House that "Forest and tree cover in the country is 78.29 million hectare, which is 23.81 per cent of the total geographical cover. This includes 2.76 per cent of tree cover."
On the forest cover in hilly and tribal areas, she said, "In the hill and tribal districts of the country, a decrease in forest dover of 548 sq km and 679 sq km respectively has been reported as compared to the previous assessment."
The northeastern states account for one-fourth of the country's forest cover but, "A decline of 549 sq km in forest cover as compared to the previous assessment", she said.
Replying to a query on mangrove cover in the country, Natarajan said there has been an increase of 23.34 sq km during the same period.
More expensive than cocaine, rhino horn is now the party drug of choice among Vietnam’s young things.
Instead of a razor blade and mirror, a textured ceramic bowl is used for grinding down rhinoceros horn into a powder to be mixed with water or wine.
Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same protein as fingernails. Scientists say it has no medicinal value, and users aren’t getting high. The belief in Vietnam is that drinking a tonic made from the horn will detoxify the body after a night of heavy boozing, and prevent a hangover. One Vietnamese news website described rhino horn wine as “the alcoholic drink of millionaires.”
This is the latest twist in South Africa’s devastating rhino poaching crisis, which began with a sudden boom in illegal killings of the endangered animal in 2008 and has worsened every year since. Demand among the newly wealthy in Vietnam is the root of the problem, says TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring group.
Tom Milliken, a rhino expert with TRAFFIC, said that in Vietnam, offering your friends rhino horn at a party has become a fashionable way to show wealth and status.
The way it happens is like this: “I would get my closest friends and we’d go into another room. I would bring out some rhino horn and we’d all take it and then come back to the party,” said Milliken, who studied the phenomenon.
A new TRAFFIC report, co-authored by Milliken, details how surging demand for horn in Vietnam, corruption in South Africa’s wildlife industry, loopholes in regulations and criminal networks have all fed into the poaching epidemic.
Vietnam’s new rich have become the world’s largest consumer group of rhino horn, spurring demand and the continued slaughter of rhinos in South Africa.
Another key group of Vietnamese consumers is people with serious illnesses, in particular cancer, who believe rhino horn can cure them despite the lack of any medical evidence. The TRAFFIC report describes the phenomenon of “rhino horn touts” stalking the corridors at hospitals, seeking out desperate patients with cancer.
An update released by South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs said that 339 rhino have been killed illegally in the country since the start of 2012, on track to be the worst year for poaching yet. There have also been 192 poaching-related arrests this year.
South Africa is the primary target for poachers because it is home to 21,000 rhinos, or more than 80 per cent of the world population.
South Africa and Vietnam are beginning to cooperate on the problem, although progress has been slow.
Vietnam’s deputy foreign affairs minister Le Loung Minh visited South Africa last week for talks on illegal trade in wildlife with his counterpart Ebrahim Ebrahim. The two governments are set to sign a memorandum of understanding that would encompass cooperation in criminal investigations. But it has taken a year of sporadic talks to reach this point — a sign of the lack of urgent action.
“South Africa has progressively scaled up its response to rhino crime,” the report noted, pointing to a plan that is being implemented and the recent increase in “high-value arrests.”
South Africa’s environment ministry hired Mavuso Msimang to bring together South Africans in private and public sectors to find the best way to save the rhino.
The project involves studying the potential legalising of the rhino horn trade, a contentious issue. “The government has done a good job of putting their effort behind the saving of the rhino,” Msimang said at the launch of the TRAFFIC report. “It’s got shortcomings, coordination is not always great, but the will to do well is with us,” he said.
Every day in South Africa, a rhinoceros will bleed to death after its horn has been hacked off by poachers. The horns are sold on the black market in Asia, mostly in Vietnam, where they’re believed to have powerful medicinal properties. Dutch veterinarian Martine van Zijl Langhout works together with local wardens to try and protect this threatened species.
Van Zijll Langhout stalks as quietly as possible through the tall grass at Mauricedale Park in the east of South Africa near the famous Kruger Park. She pulls back the trigger on her special tranquiliser rifle, takes aim and fires. The rhinoceros in her sights wobbles groggily for a few minutes before sinking onto its knees and rolling unconscious onto its side. Van Zijll Langhout and her team, carrying a chainsaw, approach the animal cautiously.
Brutal killings
There are some 20,000 rhinos in South Africa, 80 percent of the world population. And every day these animals are slaughtered savagely by poachers. First the rhino is shot to bring it down, and then the horn is hacked off with axes and machetes. The poachers cut as deeply into the animal’s head as possible. Every extra centimetre of horn means more money in their pockets. In 2007, thirteen rhinos in South Africa fell victim to poachers. Last year that number had soared to 448, and the toll so far this year is 312.
Reducing risk
Loud snoring can be heard. The vet blindfolds the rhinoceros and then the park manager starts up the chainsaw and proceeds to slice into the beast’s horn. Van Zijll Langhout monitors its breathing: “This is one way to stop the poachers” she explains. “They want as much horn as possible so rhinos with a small horn are a less attractive target”.
Van Zijll Langhout came to South Africa in 1997 when she was still a student and worked at Kruger Park with lions, elephants and rhinos. She knew she’d found her dream job, and five years ago she returned as a qualified vet. “It’s an unquenchable passion, such an adventure, and every day is different,” she says, “It’s such a privilege to work with African animals and an honour to be able to do something for them”.
No better option
The preventive removal of the rhinoceros’ horn takes about ten minutes. Van Zijll Langhout, an energetic woman in her thirties with wildly curly hair, compares the process to clipping nails or having a haircut: “It’s completely painless; we cut above the blood vessels”. Again she checks the animal’s breathing as its snores echo through the bush. “It’s not nice that we have to do this, but I don’t really see a better option”, she sighs, “and the horn does grow back, otherwise we wouldn’t do it.” The fact that visitors to the park might be disappointed and expect to see rhinos complete with proud curving horns doesn’t bother her: “What matters is the animals’ survival”.
Organised crime
The fight against poaching is a difficult one. “These are professional criminals”, explains Van Zijll Langhout. “This isn’t about poor locals living in huts. Poachers have advanced weapons and sometimes even use helicopters.” The horns are worth more than their weight in gold, so it’s a lucrative trade for organised crime syndicates.
The horn falls to the ground; the team will preserve it and register it. The rhino is given an injection. Within minutes he’s back on his feet and walking off into the bush. His newly weightless head is no guarantee of safety though. A rhino was poached in the park the same week as the horns were sawn off. Even the stump that remains after the procedure is worth big money.
Both black and white rhinoceroses are actually gray. They are different not in color but in lip shape. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip. The difference in lip shape is related to the animals' diets. Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground.
White rhinos live on Africa's grassy plains, where they sometimes gather in groups of as many as a dozen individuals. Females reproduce only every two and a half to five years. Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years old.
Under the hot African sun, white rhinos take cover by lying in the shade. Rhinos are also wallowers. They find a suitable water hole and roll in its mud, coating their skin with a natural bug repellent and sun block.
Rhinos have sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell. They may find one another by following the trail of scent each enormous animal leaves behind it on the landscape.
White rhinos have two horns, the foremost more prominent than the other. Rhino horns grow as much as three inches (eight centimeters) a year, and have been known to grow up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. Females use their horns to protect their young, while males use them to battle attackers.
The prominent horn for which rhinos are so well known has been their downfall. Many animals have been killed for this hard, hair-like growth, which is revered for medicinal use in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle.
The white rhino once roamed much of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction due to poaching fueled by these commercial uses. Only about 11,000 white rhinos survive in the wild, and many organizations are working to protect this much loved animal.Fast Facts
Type:
Mammal
Diet:
Herbivore
Size:
Head and body, 11 to 13.75 ft (3.4 to 4.2 m); tail, 20 to 27.5 in (50 to 70 cm)
Weight:
3,168 to 7,920 lbs (1,440 to 3,600 kg)
Protection status:
Endangered
Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:
Both black and white rhinoceroses are actually gray. They are different not in color but in lip shape. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip. The difference in lip shape is related to the animals' diets. Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground.
Except for females and their offspring, black rhinos are solitary. Females reproduce only every two and a half to five years. Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years old.
Black rhinos feed at night and during the gloaming hours of dawn and dusk. Under the hot African sun, they take cover by lying in the shade. Rhinos are also wallowers. They often find a suitable water hole and roll in its mud, coating their skin with a natural bug repellent and sun block.
Rhinos have sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell. They may find one another by following the trail of scent each enormous animal leaves behind it on the landscape.
Black rhinos boast two horns, the foremost more prominent than the other. Rhino horns grow as much as three inches (eight centimeters) a year, and have been known to grow up to five feet (one and a half meters) long. Females use their horns to protect their young, while males use them to battle attackers.
The prominent horn for which rhinos are so well known has also been their downfall. Many animals have been killed for the hard, hairlike growth, which is revered for medicinal uses in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle.
The black rhino once roamed most of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction due to poaching fueled by commercial demand.
The rifle shot boomed through the darkening forest just as Damien Mander arrived at his campfire after a long day training game ranger recruits in western Zimbabwe's Nakavango game reserve. His thoughts flew to Basta, a pregnant black rhinoceros, and her two-year-old calf. That afternoon one of his rangers had discovered human footprints following the pair's tracks as Basta sought cover in deep bush to deliver the newest member of her threatened species.
Damien, a hard-muscled former Australian Special Forces sniper with an imposing menagerie of tattoos, including "Seek & Destroy" in gothic lettering across his chest, swiveled his head, trying to place the direction of the shot. "There, near the eastern boundary," he pointed into the blackness. "Sounded like a .223," he said, identifying the position and caliber, a habit left over from 12 tours in Iraq. He and his rangers grabbed shotguns, radios, and medical kits and piled into two Land Cruisers. They roared into the night, hoping to cut off the shooter. The rangers rolled down their windows and listened for a second shot, which would likely signal Basta's calf was taken as well.
It was an ideal poacher's setup: half-moon, almost no wind. The human tracks were especially ominous. Poaching crews often pay trackers to find the rhinos, follow them until dusk, then radio their position to a shooter with a high-powered rifle. After the animal is down, the two horns on its snout are hacked off in minutes, and the massive carcass is left to hyenas and vultures. Nearly always the horns are fenced to an Asian buyer; an enterprising crew might also cut out Basta's fetus and the eyes of the mother and calf to sell to black magic or muti practitioners. If this gang was well organized, a group of heavily armed men would be covering the escape route, ready to ambush the rangers.
As the Land Cruiser bucked over rutted tracks, Damien did a quick calculation—between his vehicles he had two antiquated shotguns with about a dozen shells. Based on the sound of the shot, the poachers held an advantage in firepower. If the rangers did pick up a trail and followed on foot, they would have to contend with lions, leopards, and hyenas out hunting in the dark.
In the backseat of one of the speeding Land Cruisers, Benzene, a Zimbabwean ranger who had spent nearly a year watching over Basta and her calf and knew the pair intimately, loaded three shells into his shotgun, flicked on the safety, and chambered a round. As we bounced into the night, he said, "It is better for the poachers if they meet a lion than if they meet us."
AND SO GOES A NIGHT on the front lines of southern Africa's ruthless and murky rhino war, which since 2006 has seen more than a thousand rhinos slaughtered, some 22 poachers gunned down and more than 200 arrested last year in South Africa alone. At the bloody heart of this conflict is the rhino's horn, a prized ingredient in traditional Asian medicines. Though black market prices vary widely, as of last fall dealers in Vietnam quoted prices ranging from $33 to $133 a gram, which at the top end is double the price of gold and can exceed the price of cocaine.
Although the range of the two African species—the white rhino and its smaller cousin, the black rhino—has been reduced primarily to southern Africa and Kenya, their populations had shown encouraging improvement. In 2007 white rhinos numbered 17,470, while blacks had nearly doubled to 4,230 since the mid '90s.
For conservationists these numbers represented a triumph. In the 1970s and '80s, poaching had devastated the two species. Then China banned rhino horn from traditional medicine, and Yemen forbade its use for ceremonial dagger handles. All signs seemed to point to better days. But in 2008 the number of poached rhinos in South Africa shot up to 83, from just 13 in 2007. By 2010 the figure had soared to 333, followed by over 400 last year. Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, found most of the horn trade now leads to Vietnam, a shift that coincided with a swell of rumors that a high-ranking Vietnamese official used rhino horn to cure his cancer.
Meanwhile in South Africa, attracted by spiraling prices—and profits—crime syndicates began adding rhino poaching to their portfolios.
animals architecture art asia australia autumn baby band barcelona beach berlin bike bird birds birthday black blackandwhite blue bw california canada canon car cat chicago china christmas church city clouds color concert dance day de dog england europe fall family fashion festival film florida flower flowers food football france friends fun garden geotagged germany girl graffiti green halloween hawaii holiday house india instagramapp iphone iphoneography island italia italy japan kids la lake landscape light live london love macro me mexico model museum music nature new newyork newyorkcity night nikon nyc ocean old paris park party people photo photography photos portrait raw red river rock san sanfrancisco scotland sea seattle show sky snow spain spring square squareformat street summer sun sunset taiwan texas thailand tokyo travel tree trees trip uk unitedstates urban usa vacation vintage washington water wedding white winter woman yellow zoo
The individuals that owned my house before me must have been completely unintelligent. Actually, I KNOW they are completely unintelligent as I still have to deal with them since they are renting one of the garages from me. Anyway, for some reason, they thought it would be a good idea to put plywood and insulation over half the windows on both the upper and lower enclosed porches in an attempt to make them actual rooms within the house. It didn't really sufficiently insulate them. I don't know how they thought it would... They did a really shitty job. I'm not sure why it took me/us so long to tear it down... I think we were just afraid of making it worse (and we are not Mr. and Ms. Fix-It, that's for sure). At any rate, Andrew started working on it over the weekend, and even though it's currently a mess in there, I already feel better - there's so much more light coming in the house now. It rules.
Minolta X700
Kodak Ultramax 400
These were the number of guests who came for nana's engagement..there were more outside...It wa s a glorious event ehehe...I really love the food part...:)..
already 2 days..runny nose, sore throat and coughing...
Chorten is important in Buddhism symbolizing five purified elements. One of them close to Demul village in Spiti valley, India
"Große Themen brauchen viele Köpfe", dies beschreibt Citizen Science wohl am besten und ist eine Wissenschaftsmethode, welche die Zusammenarbeit von Forscherinnen und Forschern mit der interessierten Bevölkerung beschreibt.
Wie kann gemeinsame Forschung von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern sowie Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern funktionieren?
Dieser Frage und noch vielem mehr in diesem Zusammenhang wurde im Rahmen der ersten Salzburger Citizen Science Konferenz am 16. Februar 2016 auf der Edmundsburg nachgegangen.
Fotos: Simon P. Haigermoser
fête pour enfants à Paris sur le thème du Brésil - Jogaventura 2014 Jogaki Capoeira Paris www.paris-capoeira.fr
Tobaganning fun - the kids are off school, how great is that for them - instead they are getting lots of fresh air and exercise!!!
Without them, I have no soundtrack.
1. Florence + The Machine, 2. Marina & The Diamonds, 3. Girl, 4. bat for lashes, 5. Regina Spektor, 6. La Roux, 7. Emiliana Torrini @ Secret Garden Party 2009, 8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Karen O swallows mic, 9. La chanteuse qui va bien avec la photo d'à côté.
Flickr has it's things. When you least expect you find something you could never think off, being Tagged is one of them. Oh, well... here I go for my 16:
0 - I'm 38. It's quite different than I thought it would be some years ago. After all this time I still haven't learned the lesson and still try to figure out what being older will be.
1 - I am married to a beautiful top model that never earned a single euro for any of the photos I take her. She does it for free. I'm lucky.
2 - I have a son. He is now tall enough to wear my t-shirts. Today I had my revenge and took his. I was spanked for it.
3 - The thing on my hand reveals I tend to keep boxes of machines I ever get. I got lots. All together they can take a lot of space. At work people make fun me when I'm compelled to store boxes of printers, switches, servers, PCs, etc.
4 - Work. I am Systems Administrator. I like it so much sometimes I can't sleep thinking of what to do next day. When I sleep I can always get a call to...
5 - I find Mathematics and physics poetic. I wish I new a little more about it.
6 - I don't find poetry physical nor mathematical.
7 - I like painting and drawing. One of the next decades I'll start doing it again.
8 - I like gardening. I have a small garden where I spend some of my free time.
9 - I like reading. I don't read as much as I could and I have a big dilemma. What to read next? A classic or a contemporary author?
A - My favorite sport is tennis. Do you think it is poetic?
B - I'm very curious about machines. I like to understand why it was built that way. I think I better not say that I find poetic a good engineering solution.
C - I guess I read everything I about my Canon before a got it. Including the operating manual. Please don't spread this at work. I will deny it.
D - I could not sleep well when I ordered my camera. I tested the camera during my sleep. Somethings operate exactly the same way as in my dream.
E - I like Flickr. Thank you for all your comments to my photostream. I also want to thank all the teaching you all shared with me.
F - In case you haven't noticed I used hexadecimal for numbering my thoughts. The reason I did it is that there is something poetic in numbers I can't explain. Flickr Tagging is base 16!
Asian Pacific Festival of Arts & Music By the Sea unites the Asian Pacific communities, empowers them with a forum for expression, and promotes cultural diversity and awareness through arts and music. The theme “Reflection Through a Shining Community” captures the unity of our Asian Pacific communities and their successes.
The purpose of the Festival is to introduce and celebrate the rich Asian cultures, Asian arts, and Asian music artists to everyone, including the one-point-five and second generations Asian Americans, who might not have traveled to these Asian countries yet.
The opening ceremony on Saturday will kick off with Taiko drums, and the dragon boat demonstration. The Festival offers everyone a virtual trip to “HOME” in many Asian countries such as Vietnam, China, Thailand, Korea, India, Philippines, Japan, Cambodia and many more. Festival-goers will enjoy a variety of cultural exhibits, art walk, folk dances, fashion shows, music and entertainments, martial arts, food eating contests, cooking challenges, alcohol garden, and authentic food from different countries. Children will enjoy the day touring through the Kid’s Village where they will be issued a “Bon Voyage” Passport to tour different Asian countries. While there, the children have the opportunities to participate in fun and collaborative activities.
Highlights include APF Hip-Hop Dance Competition, Miss Scholarship Asian Pacific Pageant, and different exhibits inspired by various artists around the world.
The Festival’s closing ceremony will be on Sunday with an Ondo Dance and a Lantern Ceremony.
Asian Pacific Festival of Arts & Music By the Sea unites the Asian Pacific communities, empowers them with a forum for expression, and promotes cultural diversity and awareness through arts and music. The theme “Reflection Through a Shining Community” captures the unity of our Asian Pacific communities and their successes.
The purpose of the Festival is to introduce and celebrate the rich Asian cultures, Asian arts, and Asian music artists to everyone, including the one-point-five and second generations Asian Americans, who might not have traveled to these Asian countries yet.
The opening ceremony on Saturday will kick off with Taiko drums, and the dragon boat demonstration. The Festival offers everyone a virtual trip to “HOME” in many Asian countries such as Vietnam, China, Thailand, Korea, India, Philippines, Japan, Cambodia and many more. Festival-goers will enjoy a variety of cultural exhibits, art walk, folk dances, fashion shows, music and entertainments, martial arts, food eating contests, cooking challenges, alcohol garden, and authentic food from different countries. Children will enjoy the day touring through the Kid’s Village where they will be issued a “Bon Voyage” Passport to tour different Asian countries. While there, the children have the opportunities to participate in fun and collaborative activities.
Highlights include APF Hip-Hop Dance Competition, Miss Scholarship Asian Pacific Pageant, and different exhibits inspired by various artists around the world.
The Festival’s closing ceremony will be on Sunday with an Ondo Dance and a Lantern Ceremony.
Asian Pacific Festival of Arts & Music By the Sea unites the Asian Pacific communities, empowers them with a forum for expression, and promotes cultural diversity and awareness through arts and music. The theme “Reflection Through a Shining Community” captures the unity of our Asian Pacific communities and their successes.
The purpose of the Festival is to introduce and celebrate the rich Asian cultures, Asian arts, and Asian music artists to everyone, including the one-point-five and second generations Asian Americans, who might not have traveled to these Asian countries yet.
The opening ceremony on Saturday will kick off with Taiko drums, and the dragon boat demonstration. The Festival offers everyone a virtual trip to “HOME” in many Asian countries such as Vietnam, China, Thailand, Korea, India, Philippines, Japan, Cambodia and many more. Festival-goers will enjoy a variety of cultural exhibits, art walk, folk dances, fashion shows, music and entertainments, martial arts, food eating contests, cooking challenges, alcohol garden, and authentic food from different countries. Children will enjoy the day touring through the Kid’s Village where they will be issued a “Bon Voyage” Passport to tour different Asian countries. While there, the children have the opportunities to participate in fun and collaborative activities.
Highlights include APF Hip-Hop Dance Competition, Miss Scholarship Asian Pacific Pageant, and different exhibits inspired by various artists around the world.
The Festival’s closing ceremony will be on Sunday with an Ondo Dance and a Lantern Ceremony.
click a link for the full 480x960 image. take your pick or take them all.
white with wooden dock: 4 shelves, 3 shelves, 0 shelves
white with metallic dock: 4 shelves, 3 shelves, 0 shelves
white with glossy dock: 4 shelves, 3 shelves, 0 shelves
black with wooden dock: 4 shelves, 3 shelves, 0 shelves
black with metallic dock: 4 shelves, 3 shelves, 0 shelves
black with glossy dock: 4 shelves, 3 shelves, 0 shelves
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red with metallic dock: 4 shelves, 3 shelves, 0 shelves
red with glossy dock: 4 shelves, 3 shelves, 0 shelves
wallpaper for iOS4. velvetica based on "studio" by studio nufabric.
It should be stressed that all four of the churches within the STANTA are are out of bounds to the public, and no attempt should be made to get to see one or all of them without permission.
Although three of the churches are in a poor state of repair, West Tofts is by far in the best condition. But inside on the monuments and tombs signs of bored squaddie damage can be seen.
At first glance, West Tofts looks like Reepham, two churches in one. But it is just one church, though with a very special additional; a chancel bigger and larger than the nave, and designed by God's Own Architect, Augustus Welby Pugin.
Were this open to the public, there would be a stream of visitors every day, as both the medieval and Victorian parts are worth of a visit, but together it is unique.
------------------------------------------
If there was permanent public access to St Mary, then it would never be empty - you could never be alone here. This extraordinary building would be the focus of pilgrimages by church crawlers, Pugin fans and casual visitors who just wanted to gawp in amazement. In the second half of the 19th century, a typical rural medieval church was turned into a Gothic fantasy thanks to the fabulous wealth of the Sutton family of Lynford Hall. They presented to the living, and Augustus Sutton was at once Rector and resident millionaire.
From the outside, the massing of spaces appears complex, because the chancel and north aisle are so much bigger and taller than the nave. In addition, a half-timbered extension on the north side of the chancel lends an air of fantasy. The sanctus bell turret at the west end of the nave creates an illusion of two separate churches close together.
The churchyard is set back from the track that was once the village street, but the avenue of lime trees still leads up to it just as it did a century ago. Today, when St Mary is used for its annual carol service, the avenue is lit up so that former parishioners can walk to it as it once was. However, there is also a track that leads up to the church from where the pub yard used to be.
The great building appears shoe-horned into its narrow churchyard, which has more headstones in it that the other three training area churches put together. The 14th century tower was probably built by the same master mason as that at Santon Downham in Suffolk, about seven miles away; the inscription of donors' names at the base is identical, although the central part appears to have been replaced - was there a west door here in the years after the Reformation that Pugin did away with? If so, it would have face away from the village, but perhaps towards a big house.
The original nave remains, but the chancel was replaced by a new construction which dwarfs it. A transept forms a memorial chapel to Jane Mary Sutton, and a tomb recess on the outside of the chancel contains her husband Augustus, who paid for it all.
A curious thing: At the time of Pugin's work here, the tiny church at nearby Santon (neighbour to Santon Downham, mentioned above) had its chancel lavishly rebuilt. The architect has never been satisfactorily identified - but we know that Pugin was staying at the Rectory there during the time of the restoration here, and medieval materials have been incorporated into the rebuilding there. Hmm...
You step into a clean, bright space; although disused for thirty years, the church was returned to use in the late 1980s. Turning east, you see the gorgeous roodscreen which formed the centrepiece of the Pugin exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The space is enhanced by the removal of pews and their replacement with simple chairs, which always looks good. It also sets in relief the beautiful parclose screen to the chapel in the north aisle, also Pugin's work. This chapel is designed as if it was a chantry, and contains another tomb in a recess - it is as if the Reformation had never happened, which is precisely what Pugin hoped and intended.
The two most extraordinary features of the building are the memorial south transept chapel and the chancel. The chapel is extraordinarily elaborate. I stepped through the wrought iron gate to the fantastic tomb; it was a bit like coming across the Albert Memorial in a junk shop. The walls and roof of the chapel are highly carved and decorated. In the chancel, Pugin decorated the walls with stencilling and set an ornate reredos beneath the east window - sadly, all the coloured glass beneath the top lights has now gone, but the stencilling is a rare survival, since so much of this kind of thing was destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s.
A stairway from the vestry leads up inside the half-timbered stairwell to the organ loft, which projects out into the chancel. I was in such a hurry I banged my head on the low lintel at the top. The organ itself is now at South Pickenham, but you can stand on the balcony for a tremendous view of Pugin's rood loft. On the landing floor lies the lonely memorial plaque to one of Sutton's children, to whom the organ was presumably decorated.
Back in the nave are some good 18th century memorials to the Partridge family of Buckenham Hall, and a series of curious 19th century paintings, found in storage in the vestry in the 1980s. Some good glass has been returned to the building over the last few years, including some supposedly by Sutton himself. All in all, this is a church with a future, and it wouldn't take much to turn it into a venue for concerts and other performances. Perhaps this is its future.
Outside, my favourite headstone is to The Two George Maples, father and son, at the start of the 20th century.
Simon Knott, May 2004
Taken at Botanical Garden Penang. I think there are three copies of this picture and this is one of them.
Botswana, Moremi National Park, Moremi Game Reserve, Private Reserve, Farm, Chobe National park, Chobe Game Reserve, Zambia, Zambezi River, Livingstone, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Wildlife Conservation Project, Maramba River Lodge, South Africa, Krugger National Park, Okavango Delta, Kalahari region, Kalahari Desert.
Rhinoceros /raɪˈnɒsərəs/, often abbreviated as rhino, is a group of five extant species of knee-less, odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia.
Members of the rhinoceros family are characterized by their large size (they are some of the largest remaining megafauna, with all of the species able to reach one tonne or more in weight); as well as by a herbivorous diet; a thick protective skin, 1.5–5 cm thick, formed from layers of collagen positioned in a lattice structure; relatively small brains for mammals this size (400–600 g); and a large horn. They generally eat leafy material, although their ability to ferment food in their hindgut allows them to subsist on more fibrous plant matter, if necessary. Unlike other perissodactyls, the two African species of rhinoceros lack teeth at the front of their mouths, relying instead on their powerful premolar and molar teeth to grind up plant food.[1]
Rhinoceros are killed by humans for their horns, which are bought and sold on the black market, and which are used by some cultures for ornamental or (pseudo-scientific) medicinal purposes. The horns are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails.[2] Both African species and the Sumatran rhinoceros have two horns, while the Indian and Javan rhinoceros have a single horn.
The IUCN Red List identifies three of the species as critically endangered.
The word rhinoceros is derived through Latin from the Ancient Greek: ῥῑνόκερως, which is composed of ῥῑνο- (rhino-, "nose") and κέρας (keras, "horn"). The plural in English is rhinoceros or rhinoceroses. The collective noun for a group of rhinoceroses is crash or herd.
The five living species fall into three categories. The two African species, the white rhinoceros and the black rhinoceros, belong to the Dicerotini group, which originated in the middle Miocene, about 14.2 million years ago. The species diverged during the early Pliocene (about 5 million years ago). The main difference between black and white rhinos is the shape of their mouths - white rhinos have broad flat lips for grazing, whereas black rhinos have long pointed lips for eating foliage.
There are two living Rhinocerotini species, the Indian rhinoceros and the Javan rhinoceros, which diverged from one another about 10 million years ago. The Sumatran rhinoceros is the only surviving representative of the most primitive group, the Dicerorhinini, which emerged in the Miocene (about 20 million years ago).[3] The extinct woolly rhinoceros of northern Europe and Asia was also a member of this tribe.
A subspecific hybrid white rhino (Ceratotherium s. simum × C. s. cottoni) was bred at the Dvůr Králové Zoo (Zoological Garden Dvur Kralove nad Labem) in the Czech Republic in 1977. Interspecific hybridisation of black and white rhinoceros has also been confirmed.[4]
While the black rhinoceros has 84 chromosomes (diploid number, 2N, per cell), all other rhinoceros species have 82 chromosomes.
White rhinoceros
Main article: White rhinoceros
There are two subspecies of white rhino: the southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) and the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni). In 2007, the southern subspecies had a wild population of 17,480 (IUCN2008) - 16,266 of which were in South Africa - making them the most abundant rhino subspecies in the world. However, the northern subspecies was critically endangered, with as few as four individuals in the wild; the possibility of complete extinction in the wild having been noted since June 2008.[5] Six are known to be held in captivity, two of which reside in a zoo in San Diego. Four born in a zoo in the Czech Republic were transferred to a wildlife refuge in Kenya in December 2009, in an effort to have the animals reproduce and save the subspecies.[6]
There is no conclusive explanation of the name white rhinoceros. A popular theory that "white" is a distortion of either the Afrikaans word weid or the Dutch word wijd (or its other possible spellings whyde, weit, etc.,) meaning wide and referring to the rhino's square lips is not supported by linguistic studies.[7][8]
The white rhino has an immense body and large head, a short neck and broad chest. This rhino can exceed 3,500 kg (7,700 lb), have a head-and-body length of 3.5–4.6 m (11–15 ft) and a shoulder height of 1.8–2 m (5.9–6.6 ft). The record-sized white rhinoceros was about 4,500 kg (10,000 lb).[9] On its snout it has two horns. The front horn is larger than the other horn and averages 90 cm (35 in) in length and can reach 150 cm (59 in). The white rhinoceros also has a prominent muscular hump that supports its relatively large head. The colour of this animal can range from yellowish brown to slate grey. Most of its body hair is found on the ear fringes and tail bristles, with the rest distributed rather sparsely over the rest of the body. White rhinos have the distinctive flat broad mouth that is used for grazing.
Black rhinoceros
Main article: Black rhinoceros
The name black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) was chosen to distinguish this species from the white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). This can be confusing, as the two species are not really distinguishable by color. There are four subspecies of black rhino: South-central (Diceros bicornis minor), the most numerous, which once ranged from central Tanzania south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to northern and eastern South Africa; South-western (Diceros bicornis bicornis) which are better adapted to the arid and semi-arid savannas of Namibia, southern Angola, western Botswana and western South Africa; East African (Diceros bicornis michaeli), primarily in Tanzania; and West African (Diceros bicornis longipes) which was declared extinct in November 2011.[10] The native Tswanan name Keitloa is used to describe a South African variation of the black rhino in which the posterior horn is equal to or longer than the anterior horn.[11]
An adult black rhinoceros stands 150–175 cm (59–69 in) high at the shoulder and is 3.5–3.9 m (11–13 ft) in length.[12] An adult weighs from 850 to 1,600 kg (1,900 to 3,500 lb), exceptionally to 1,800 kg (4,000 lb), with the females being smaller than the males. Two horns on the skull are made of keratin with the larger front horn typically 50 cm long, exceptionally up to 140 cm. Sometimes, a third smaller horn may develop. The black rhino is much smaller than the white rhino, and has a pointed mouth, which it uses to grasp leaves and twigs when feeding.
During the latter half of the 20th century their numbers were severely reduced from an estimated 70,000[13] in the late 1960s to only 2,410 in 1995.[14]
Indian rhinoceros
Main article: Indian rhinoceros
The Indian rhinoceros, or the greater one-horned rhinoceros, (Rhinoceros unicornis) is now found almost exclusively in Nepal and North-Eastern India. The rhino once inhabited many areas ranging from Pakistan to Burma and may have even roamed in China. However, because of human influence, their range has shrunk and now they only exist in several protected areas of India (in Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat and a few pairs in Uttar Pradesh) and Nepal, plus a few pairs in Lal Suhanra National Park in Pakistan. It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The Indian rhinoceros has thick, silver-brown skin which creates huge folds all over its body. Its upper legs and shoulders are covered in wart-like bumps, and it has very little body hair. Fully grown males are larger than females in the wild, weighing from 2,500–3,200 kg (5,500–7,100 lb).The Indian rhino stands at 1.75–2.0 metres (5.75–6.5 ft). Female Indian rhinos weigh about 1,900 kg and are 3–4 metres long. The record-sized specimen of this rhino was approximately 3,800 kg. The Indian rhino has a single horn that reaches a length of between 20 and 100 cm. Its size is comparable to that of the white rhino in Africa.
Two-thirds of the world's Indian rhinoceroses are now confined to the Kaziranga National Park situated in the Golaghat district of Assam, India.[15]
Javan rhinoceros
Main article: Javan rhinoceros
The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is one of the rarest and most endangered large mammals anywhere in the world.[16] According to 2002 estimates, only about 60 remain, in Java (Indonesia) and Vietnam. Of all the rhino species, the least is known of the Javan Rhino. These animals prefer dense lowland rain forest, tall grass and reed beds that are plentiful with large floodplains and mud wallows. Though once widespread throughout Asia, by the 1930s the rhinoceros was nearly hunted to extinction in India, Burma, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra for the supposed medical powers of its horn and blood. As of 2009, there are only 40 of them remaining in Ujung Kulon Conservation, Java, Indonesia. The last rhinoceros in Vietnam was reportedly killed in 2010.[17]
Like the closely related, and larger, Indian rhinoceros, the Javan rhinoceros has a single horn. Its hairless, hazy gray skin falls into folds into the shoulder, back, and rump giving it an armored-like appearance. The Javan rhino's body length reaches up to 3.1–3.2 m (10–10 ft), including its head and a height of 1.5–1.7 m (4 ft 10 in–5 ft 7 in) tall. Adults are variously reported to weigh between 900–1,400 kg[18] or 1,360–2,000 kg.[19] Male horns can reach 26 cm in length, while in females they are knobs or are not present at all.[19]
Sumatran rhinoceros
Main article: Sumatran rhinoceros
The Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the smallest extant rhinoceros species, as well as the one with the most hair. It can be found at very high altitudes in Borneo and Sumatra. Due to habitat loss and poaching, its numbers have declined and it is the most threatened rhinoceros. About 275 Sumatran rhinos are believed to remain.
A mature Sumatran rhino typically stands about 130 cm (51 in) high at the shoulder, with a body length of 240–315 cm (94–124 in) and weighing around 700 kg (1,500 lb), though the largest individuals have been known to weigh as much as 1,000 kilograms. Like the African species, it has two horns; the larger is the front (25–79 cm), with the smaller usually less than 10 cm long. The males have much larger horns than the females. Hair can range from dense (the densest hair in young calves) to scarce. The color of these rhinos is reddish brown. The body is short and has stubby legs. They also have a prehensile lip.
Rhinocerotoids diverged from other perissodactyls by the early Eocene. Fossils of Hyrachyus eximus found in North America date to this period. This small hornless ancestor resembled a tapir or small horse more than a rhino. Three families, sometimes grouped together as the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea, evolved in the late Eocene: Hyracodontidae, Amynodontidae and Rhinocerotidae.
Hyracodontidae, also known as 'running rhinos', showed adaptations for speed, and would have looked more like horses than modern rhinos. The smallest hyracodontids were dog-sized; the largest was Indricotherium, believed to be one of the largest land mammals that ever existed. The hornless Indricotherium was almost seven metres high, ten metres long, and weighed as much as 15 tons. Like a giraffe, it ate leaves from trees. The hyracodontids spread across Eurasia from the mid-Eocene to early Miocene.
The Amynodontidae, also known as "aquatic rhinos", dispersed across North America and Eurasia, from the late Eocene to early Oligocene. The amynodontids were hippopotamus-like in their ecology and appearance, inhabiting rivers and lakes, and sharing many of the same adaptations to aquatic life as hippos.
The family of all modern rhinoceros, the Rhinocerotidae, first appeared in the Late Eocene in Eurasia. The earliest members of Rhinocerotidae were small and numerous; at least 26 genera lived in Eurasia and North America until a wave of extinctions in the middle Oligocene wiped out most of the smaller species. However, several independent lineages survived. Menoceras, a pig-sized rhinoceros, had two horns side-by-side. The North American Teleoceras had short legs, a barrel chest and lived until about 5 million years ago. The last rhinos in the Americas became extinct during the Pliocene.
Modern rhinos are believed to have began dispersal from Asia during the Miocene. Two species survived the most recent period of glaciation and inhabited Europe as recently as 10,000 years ago: the woolly rhinoceros and Elasmotherium. The woolly rhinoceros appeared in China around 1 million years ago and first arrived in Europe around 600,000 years ago. It reappeared 200,000 years ago, alongside the woolly mammoth, and became numerous. Eventually it was hunted to extinction by early humans. Elasmotherium, also known as the giant rhinoceros, survived through the middle Pleistocene: it was two meters tall, five meters long and weighed around five tons, with a single enormous horn, hypsodont teeth and long legs for running.
Of the extant rhinoceros species, the Sumatran rhino is the most archaic, first emerging more than 15 million years ago. The Sumatran rhino was closely related to the woolly rhinoceros, but not to the other modern species. The Indian rhino and Javan rhino are closely related and form a more recent lineage of Asian rhino. The ancestors of early Indian and Javan rhino diverged 2–4 million years ago.[21]
The origin of the two living African rhinos can be traced back to the late Miocene (6 mya) species Ceratotherium neumayri. The lineages containing the living species diverged by the early Pliocene (1.5 mya), when Diceros praecox, the likely ancestor of the black rhinoceros, appears in the fossil record.[22] The black and white rhinoceros remain so closely related that they can still mate and successfully produce offspring.
In the wild, adult rhinoceros have few natural predators other than humans. Young rhinos can fall prey to predators such as big cats, crocodiles, wild dogs, and hyenas. Although rhinos are of a large size and have a reputation for being tough, they are actually very easily poached; because it visits water holes daily, the rhinoceros is easily killed while taking a drink. As of December 2009 poaching has been on a global increase whilst efforts to protect the rhinoceros are considered increasingly ineffective. The worst estimate, that only 3% of poachers are successfully countered, is reported of Zimbabwe. Rhino horn is considered to be particularly effective on fevers and even "life saving" by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, which in turn provides a sales market. Nepal is apparently alone in avoiding the crisis while poacher-hunters grow ever more sophisticated.[26] South African officials are calling for urgent action against rhinoceros poaching after poachers killed the last female rhinoceros in the Krugersdorp Game Reserve near Johannesburg.[27] Statistics from South African National Parks show a record 333 rhinoceros have been killed in 2010.[28]
Horns
Rhinoceros horns, unlike those of other horned mammals (which have a bony core), only consist of keratin. Rhinoceros horns are used in traditional Asian medicine, and for dagger handles in Yemen and Oman. Esmond Bradley Martin has reported on the trade for dagger handles in Yemen.[29]
One repeated misconception is that rhinoceros horn in powdered form is used as an aphrodisiac in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as Cornu Rhinoceri Asiatici It is, in fact, prescribed for fevers and convulsions.[30] Neither have been proven by evidence-based medicine. Discussions with TCM practitioners to reduce its use have met with mixed results since some TCM doctors see rhinoceros horn as a life-saving medicine of better quality than substitutes.[31] China has signed the CITES treaty however, and removed rhinoceros horn from the Chinese medicine pharmacopeia, administered by the Ministry of Health, in 1993. In 2011 in the United Kingdom, the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine issued a formal statement condemning the use of rhinoceros horn.[32] A growing number of TCM educators have also spoken out against the practice.[33] To prevent poaching, in certain areas, rhinos have been tranquilized and their horns removed. Armed park rangers, particularly in South Africa, are also working on the front lines to combat poaching, sometimes killing poachers who are caught in the act. A recent spike in rhino killings has made conservationaists concerned about the future of rhino species. During 2011 448 rhino were killed for their horn in South Africa alone.[34] The horn is incredibly valuable: an average sized horn can bring in much as a quarter of a million dollars in Vietnam and many rhino range States have stockpiles of rhino horn.[35][36] Still, poaching is hitting record levels due to demands from China and Vietnam.[37]
Historical representations
Albrecht Dürer created a famous woodcut of a rhinoceros in 1515, based on a written description and brief sketch by an unknown artist of an Indian rhinoceros that had arrived in Lisbon earlier that year. Dürer never saw the animal itself and, as a result, Dürer's Rhinoceros is a somewhat inaccurate depiction.
There are legends about rhinoceros stamping out fire in Malaysia, India, and Burma. The mythical rhinoceros has a special name in Malay, badak api, where badak means rhinoceros and api means fire. The animal would come when a fire is lit in the forest and stamp it out.[38] There are no recent confirmations of this phenomenon. However, this legend has been reinforced by the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, where an African rhinoceros is shown to be putting out two campfires.
Conservation
International Rhino Foundation
Save the Rhino
Nicolaas Jan van Strien
Individual rhinoceroses
Abada
Clara
Rhinoceros of Versailles
See also: Fictional Rhinoceroses
Other
Rhinoceroses in ancient China
A wine vessel in the form of a bronze rhinoceros with silver inlay, from the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) period of China, sporting a saddle on its back
A rhinoceros depicted on a Roman mosaic in Villa Romana del Casale, an archeological site near Piazza Armerina in Sicily, Italy
Dürer's Rhinoceros, in a woodcut from 1515
Monk with rhinoceros horn. Samye, Tibet, 1938.
Indricotherium, the extinct "giant giraffe" rhinoceros. It stood 18 feet tall at the shoulder and weighed up to 20 tonnes (22 short tons).
Coelodonta, the extinct woolly rhinoceros
The thick dermal armour of the Rhinoceros evolved at the same time as shearing tusks[20]
The Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest of the rhino species
Smaller in size than the Indian rhinoceros, the Javan rhinoceros also have a single horn
The Indian rhinoceros has a single horn
The black rhinoceros has a beak shaped lip and is similar in color to the white rhinoceros
The white rhinoceros is actually grey
Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) at the Saint Louis Zoo
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Infraclass:Eutheria
Order:Perissodactyla
Suborder:Ceratomorpha
Superfamily:Rhinocerotoidea
Family:Rhinocerotidae
Gray, 1820
Extant Genera
Ceratotherium
Dicerorhinus
Diceros
Rhinoceros
Extinct genera, see text
NEW DELHI: A total of 631 animals, including 19 rhinos, died in the recent floods in Kaziranga National Park of Assam, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
In a written reply to the House, forest and environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan also said that flood is a natural and recurring phenomenon in Kaziranga and it creates a variety of habitats for different species.
"Mortality of wild animals due to flood has been reported during the year only in Kaziranga Tiger Reserve. As reported by the state, a total of 631 animal deaths, including 19 rhinos, have occurred in Kaziranga due to excess water brought by the flood during June-July 2012," she said.
She also informed the House that the flooding results in damage to infrastructure such as roads, anti-poaching camps, artificial high grounds.
"Similar high floods of 1988 and 1998 recorded animal mortality of 1203 and 652 respectively," Natarajan said.
Replying to a separate question on tiger deaths reported in Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, she said from 2008 till now, there are 19 such incidents of the big cats dying due to natural and other causes.
She said only two incidents of poaching were reported from the national park.
In reply to another question on Tiger Project, she said, "The country level tiger population, estimated once in every four years using the refined methodology, is 1706."
While the lower limit of the tiger population is estimated to be 1520, the upper limit has been fixed at 1909.
Providing details of the 'India State Survey of Forest Report 2011', Natarajan told the House that "Forest and tree cover in the country is 78.29 million hectare, which is 23.81 per cent of the total geographical cover. This includes 2.76 per cent of tree cover."
On the forest cover in hilly and tribal areas, she said, "In the hill and tribal districts of the country, a decrease in forest dover of 548 sq km and 679 sq km respectively has been reported as compared to the previous assessment."
The northeastern states account for one-fourth of the country's forest cover but, "A decline of 549 sq km in forest cover as compared to the previous assessment", she said.
Replying to a query on mangrove cover in the country, Natarajan said there has been an increase of 23.34 sq km during the same period.
More expensive than cocaine, rhino horn is now the party drug of choice among Vietnam’s young things.
Instead of a razor blade and mirror, a textured ceramic bowl is used for grinding down rhinoceros horn into a powder to be mixed with water or wine.
Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same protein as fingernails. Scientists say it has no medicinal value, and users aren’t getting high. The belief in Vietnam is that drinking a tonic made from the horn will detoxify the body after a night of heavy boozing, and prevent a hangover. One Vietnamese news website described rhino horn wine as “the alcoholic drink of millionaires.”
This is the latest twist in South Africa’s devastating rhino poaching crisis, which began with a sudden boom in illegal killings of the endangered animal in 2008 and has worsened every year since. Demand among the newly wealthy in Vietnam is the root of the problem, says TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring group.
Tom Milliken, a rhino expert with TRAFFIC, said that in Vietnam, offering your friends rhino horn at a party has become a fashionable way to show wealth and status.
The way it happens is like this: “I would get my closest friends and we’d go into another room. I would bring out some rhino horn and we’d all take it and then come back to the party,” said Milliken, who studied the phenomenon.
A new TRAFFIC report, co-authored by Milliken, details how surging demand for horn in Vietnam, corruption in South Africa’s wildlife industry, loopholes in regulations and criminal networks have all fed into the poaching epidemic.
Vietnam’s new rich have become the world’s largest consumer group of rhino horn, spurring demand and the continued slaughter of rhinos in South Africa.
Another key group of Vietnamese consumers is people with serious illnesses, in particular cancer, who believe rhino horn can cure them despite the lack of any medical evidence. The TRAFFIC report describes the phenomenon of “rhino horn touts” stalking the corridors at hospitals, seeking out desperate patients with cancer.
An update released by South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs said that 339 rhino have been killed illegally in the country since the start of 2012, on track to be the worst year for poaching yet. There have also been 192 poaching-related arrests this year.
South Africa is the primary target for poachers because it is home to 21,000 rhinos, or more than 80 per cent of the world population.
South Africa and Vietnam are beginning to cooperate on the problem, although progress has been slow.
Vietnam’s deputy foreign affairs minister Le Loung Minh visited South Africa last week for talks on illegal trade in wildlife with his counterpart Ebrahim Ebrahim. The two governments are set to sign a memorandum of understanding that would encompass cooperation in criminal investigations. But it has taken a year of sporadic talks to reach this point — a sign of the lack of urgent action.
“South Africa has progressively scaled up its response to rhino crime,” the report noted, pointing to a plan that is being implemented and the recent increase in “high-value arrests.”
South Africa’s environment ministry hired Mavuso Msimang to bring together South Africans in private and public sectors to find the best way to save the rhino.
The project involves studying the potential legalising of the rhino horn trade, a contentious issue. “The government has done a good job of putting their effort behind the saving of the rhino,” Msimang said at the launch of the TRAFFIC report. “It’s got shortcomings, coordination is not always great, but the will to do well is with us,” he said.
Every day in South Africa, a rhinoceros will bleed to death after its horn has been hacked off by poachers. The horns are sold on the black market in Asia, mostly in Vietnam, where they’re believed to have powerful medicinal properties. Dutch veterinarian Martine van Zijl Langhout works together with local wardens to try and protect this threatened species.
Van Zijll Langhout stalks as quietly as possible through the tall grass at Mauricedale Park in the east of South Africa near the famous Kruger Park. She pulls back the trigger on her special tranquiliser rifle, takes aim and fires. The rhinoceros in her sights wobbles groggily for a few minutes before sinking onto its knees and rolling unconscious onto its side. Van Zijll Langhout and her team, carrying a chainsaw, approach the animal cautiously.
Brutal killings
There are some 20,000 rhinos in South Africa, 80 percent of the world population. And every day these animals are slaughtered savagely by poachers. First the rhino is shot to bring it down, and then the horn is hacked off with axes and machetes. The poachers cut as deeply into the animal’s head as possible. Every extra centimetre of horn means more money in their pockets. In 2007, thirteen rhinos in South Africa fell victim to poachers. Last year that number had soared to 448, and the toll so far this year is 312.
Reducing risk
Loud snoring can be heard. The vet blindfolds the rhinoceros and then the park manager starts up the chainsaw and proceeds to slice into the beast’s horn. Van Zijll Langhout monitors its breathing: “This is one way to stop the poachers” she explains. “They want as much horn as possible so rhinos with a small horn are a less attractive target”.
Van Zijll Langhout came to South Africa in 1997 when she was still a student and worked at Kruger Park with lions, elephants and rhinos. She knew she’d found her dream job, and five years ago she returned as a qualified vet. “It’s an unquenchable passion, such an adventure, and every day is different,” she says, “It’s such a privilege to work with African animals and an honour to be able to do something for them”.
No better option
The preventive removal of the rhinoceros’ horn takes about ten minutes. Van Zijll Langhout, an energetic woman in her thirties with wildly curly hair, compares the process to clipping nails or having a haircut: “It’s completely painless; we cut above the blood vessels”. Again she checks the animal’s breathing as its snores echo through the bush. “It’s not nice that we have to do this, but I don’t really see a better option”, she sighs, “and the horn does grow back, otherwise we wouldn’t do it.” The fact that visitors to the park might be disappointed and expect to see rhinos complete with proud curving horns doesn’t bother her: “What matters is the animals’ survival”.
Organised crime
The fight against poaching is a difficult one. “These are professional criminals”, explains Van Zijll Langhout. “This isn’t about poor locals living in huts. Poachers have advanced weapons and sometimes even use helicopters.” The horns are worth more than their weight in gold, so it’s a lucrative trade for organised crime syndicates.
The horn falls to the ground; the team will preserve it and register it. The rhino is given an injection. Within minutes he’s back on his feet and walking off into the bush. His newly weightless head is no guarantee of safety though. A rhino was poached in the park the same week as the horns were sawn off. Even the stump that remains after the procedure is worth big money.
Both black and white rhinoceroses are actually gray. They are different not in color but in lip shape. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip. The difference in lip shape is related to the animals' diets. Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground.
White rhinos live on Africa's grassy plains, where they sometimes gather in groups of as many as a dozen individuals. Females reproduce only every two and a half to five years. Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years old.
Under the hot African sun, white rhinos take cover by lying in the shade. Rhinos are also wallowers. They find a suitable water hole and roll in its mud, coating their skin with a natural bug repellent and sun block.
Rhinos have sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell. They may find one another by following the trail of scent each enormous animal leaves behind it on the landscape.
White rhinos have two horns, the foremost more prominent than the other. Rhino horns grow as much as three inches (eight centimeters) a year, and have been known to grow up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. Females use their horns to protect their young, while males use them to battle attackers.
The prominent horn for which rhinos are so well known has been their downfall. Many animals have been killed for this hard, hair-like growth, which is revered for medicinal use in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle.
The white rhino once roamed much of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction due to poaching fueled by these commercial uses. Only about 11,000 white rhinos survive in the wild, and many organizations are working to protect this much loved animal.Fast Facts
Type:
Mammal
Diet:
Herbivore
Size:
Head and body, 11 to 13.75 ft (3.4 to 4.2 m); tail, 20 to 27.5 in (50 to 70 cm)
Weight:
3,168 to 7,920 lbs (1,440 to 3,600 kg)
Protection status:
Endangered
Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:
Both black and white rhinoceroses are actually gray. They are different not in color but in lip shape. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip. The difference in lip shape is related to the animals' diets. Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground.
Except for females and their offspring, black rhinos are solitary. Females reproduce only every two and a half to five years. Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years old.
Black rhinos feed at night and during the gloaming hours of dawn and dusk. Under the hot African sun, they take cover by lying in the shade. Rhinos are also wallowers. They often find a suitable water hole and roll in its mud, coating their skin with a natural bug repellent and sun block.
Rhinos have sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell. They may find one another by following the trail of scent each enormous animal leaves behind it on the landscape.
Black rhinos boast two horns, the foremost more prominent than the other. Rhino horns grow as much as three inches (eight centimeters) a year, and have been known to grow up to five feet (one and a half meters) long. Females use their horns to protect their young, while males use them to battle attackers.
The prominent horn for which rhinos are so well known has also been their downfall. Many animals have been killed for the hard, hairlike growth, which is revered for medicinal uses in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle.
The black rhino once roamed most of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction due to poaching fueled by commercial demand.
The rifle shot boomed through the darkening forest just as Damien Mander arrived at his campfire after a long day training game ranger recruits in western Zimbabwe's Nakavango game reserve. His thoughts flew to Basta, a pregnant black rhinoceros, and her two-year-old calf. That afternoon one of his rangers had discovered human footprints following the pair's tracks as Basta sought cover in deep bush to deliver the newest member of her threatened species.
Damien, a hard-muscled former Australian Special Forces sniper with an imposing menagerie of tattoos, including "Seek & Destroy" in gothic lettering across his chest, swiveled his head, trying to place the direction of the shot. "There, near the eastern boundary," he pointed into the blackness. "Sounded like a .223," he said, identifying the position and caliber, a habit left over from 12 tours in Iraq. He and his rangers grabbed shotguns, radios, and medical kits and piled into two Land Cruisers. They roared into the night, hoping to cut off the shooter. The rangers rolled down their windows and listened for a second shot, which would likely signal Basta's calf was taken as well.
It was an ideal poacher's setup: half-moon, almost no wind. The human tracks were especially ominous. Poaching crews often pay trackers to find the rhinos, follow them until dusk, then radio their position to a shooter with a high-powered rifle. After the animal is down, the two horns on its snout are hacked off in minutes, and the massive carcass is left to hyenas and vultures. Nearly always the horns are fenced to an Asian buyer; an enterprising crew might also cut out Basta's fetus and the eyes of the mother and calf to sell to black magic or muti practitioners. If this gang was well organized, a group of heavily armed men would be covering the escape route, ready to ambush the rangers.
As the Land Cruiser bucked over rutted tracks, Damien did a quick calculation—between his vehicles he had two antiquated shotguns with about a dozen shells. Based on the sound of the shot, the poachers held an advantage in firepower. If the rangers did pick up a trail and followed on foot, they would have to contend with lions, leopards, and hyenas out hunting in the dark.
In the backseat of one of the speeding Land Cruisers, Benzene, a Zimbabwean ranger who had spent nearly a year watching over Basta and her calf and knew the pair intimately, loaded three shells into his shotgun, flicked on the safety, and chambered a round. As we bounced into the night, he said, "It is better for the poachers if they meet a lion than if they meet us."
AND SO GOES A NIGHT on the front lines of southern Africa's ruthless and murky rhino war, which since 2006 has seen more than a thousand rhinos slaughtered, some 22 poachers gunned down and more than 200 arrested last year in South Africa alone. At the bloody heart of this conflict is the rhino's horn, a prized ingredient in traditional Asian medicines. Though black market prices vary widely, as of last fall dealers in Vietnam quoted prices ranging from $33 to $133 a gram, which at the top end is double the price of gold and can exceed the price of cocaine.
Although the range of the two African species—the white rhino and its smaller cousin, the black rhino—has been reduced primarily to southern Africa and Kenya, their populations had shown encouraging improvement. In 2007 white rhinos numbered 17,470, while blacks had nearly doubled to 4,230 since the mid '90s.
For conservationists these numbers represented a triumph. In the 1970s and '80s, poaching had devastated the two species. Then China banned rhino horn from traditional medicine, and Yemen forbade its use for ceremonial dagger handles. All signs seemed to point to better days. But in 2008 the number of poached rhinos in South Africa shot up to 83, from just 13 in 2007. By 2010 the figure had soared to 333, followed by over 400 last year. Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, found most of the horn trade now leads to Vietnam, a shift that coincided with a swell of rumors that a high-ranking Vietnamese official used rhino horn to cure his cancer.
Meanwhile in South Africa, attracted by spiraling prices—and profits—crime syndicates began adding rhino poaching to their portfolios.
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Benicia Arsenal Camel Barns
Buildings 7 and 9 were built in 1853 and 1854 and cost $10,000 and $12,000.
The Engine House between them was completed in 1855, it is now used as an office for the Benicia Historical Society.
These finely crafted sandstone Buildings were originally constructed for use as Warehouses. They gained their name and fame, however, during a brief period in 1863-64 when they were to stable a herd of camels imported by the U.S. Army for transportation in the American desert.
The Benicia Arsenal was a large military reservation located next to Suisun Bay in Benicia, California. For over 100 years, the arsenal was the primary US Army Ordnance facility for the West Coast of the United States.
In 1847 a 252-acre parcel of land adjoining the Benicia city limits on the east was acquired for a military reserve. First occupation of the post was on April 9, 1849, when two companies of the 2nd Infantry Regiment set up camp to establish Benicia Barracks, which also housed the 3rd Artillery Regiment . In 1851, after the urging of General Percifer F. Smith, the first Ordnance Supply Depot in the West was established in Benicia. In 1852 it was designated Benicia Arsenal. Notable military personnel who were stationed there during this time include Ulysses Grant, Edward Ord, and Joseph Hooker, among others.
The grounds of the Benicia Arsenal are also famous for stabling the Army's one and only Camel Corps. The short-lived Camel Corps was disbanded in 1863, but the Camel Barns, built in 1855, remain and are now the Benicia Historical Museum.
The Benicia Arsenal was a staging area during the Civil War for Union troops from the West, and the installation remained a garrisoned post until 1898 when troops were assigned to duty in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. During World War I, Benicia Arsenal gave ordnance support to all large Army installations in the Western States as well as supplying Ordnance material to American expeditionary forces in Siberia.
In the 24 hours following the Pearl Harbor bombing, 125 separate truck convoys were loaded and dispatched from the Benicia Arsenal, leaving its stock of ammunition, small arms and high explosives completely exhausted. Throughout the war, the arsenal supplied ports with weapons, artillery, parts, supplies and tools. In addition, the arsenal overhauled 14,343 pairs of binoculars, manufactured 180,000 small items for tanks and weapons and repaired approximately 70,000 watches. However, the arsenal is most famous for supplying munitions to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle for the first bombing raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942, launched from the USS Hornet.
Prior to 1940, the arsenal employed 85 civilian employees; by October 1942, the payroll had reached 4,545. The labor shortage in 1944 forced the arsenal commander to put 250 Italian and 400 German prisoners of war to work, alongside 150 juveniles from the California Youth Authority. Women comprised nearly half the civilian employee force. During the Korean War, the number of civilians reached an all-time high of 6,700 workers..
Benicia Arsenal was deactivated in 1963 and the facility was closed in 1964. Its functions were transferred to Tooele Army Depot in Utah. The arsenal has been redeveloped as work and sales space for artists and artisans.
U.S. people are all-the-time calling reservoirs "lakes," but you should not correct them unless you want to get shot.
Yon windfarm is the Blue Canyon Wind Farm, which this article from 2022 says is the largest windfarm in Oklahoma.
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In the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Comanche County, Oklahoma, on February 16th, 2023, a view from the top of Mount Scott.
Lake Lawtonka is formed by a dam on Medicine Creek, which flows to East Cache Creek, which joins West Cache Creek to form Cache Creek, which flows to the Red River, which historically flowed to the Mississippi River, but now flows to the Atchafalaya River, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico.
The rocks are Mount Scott Granite, part of the Wichita Granite Group, which was formed 533.24 to 515.6334 million years ago (per Macrostrat), in the Cambrian period.
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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names terms:
• Comanche (county) (2001638)
• Lawtonka, Lake (2485526)
• Medicine Creek (2504743)
• Scott, Mount (1106374)
• Wichita Mountains (1109804)
Art & Architecture Thesaurus terms:
• artificial lakes (300263360)
• Cambrian (300391263)
• evergreens (300132417)
• granite (rock) (300011183)
• igneous rock (300011178)
• Juniperus virginiana (genus) (300343646)
• lichens (Fungi) (300249626)
• mountain landscapes (300411358)
• mountains (300008795)
• overlooks (300008186)
• Paleozoic (300391254)
• wildlife refuges (300008181)
• wind farms (300000445)
• winter (300133101)
Wikidata items:
• 16 February 2023 (Q69306711)
• 2022-23 North American winter (Q114585888)
• Atchafalaya River drainage basin (Q117282797)
• Blue Canyon Wind Farm (Q3641153)
• Central and Southern mixed grasslands (Q5062062)
• Central Great Plains (Q14710395)
• February 16 (Q2342)
• February 2023 (Q61312937)
• Lake Lawtonka (Q6476591)
• Lawton, OK Metropolitan Statistical Area (Q6505064)
• Little Arkansas Treaty (Q6648935)
• Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (Q6671518)
• Medicine Creek (Q117284394)
• Medicine Lodge Treaty (Q1566313)
• Mount Scott (Q6923527)
• Mount Scott Granite (Q117310718)
• Red River drainage basin (Q117283017)
• reservoir (Q131681)
• Southwestern Oklahoma (Q7571438)
• Treaty with the Comanche and Kiowa, 1865 (Q116841115)
• Treaty with the Kiowa and Comanche, 1867 (Q116842059)
• Western Oklahoma (Q7988126)
• Wichita Granite Group (Q117310680)
• Wichita Mountains (Q3305333)
• Wichita Mountains ecoregion (Q116840211)
• Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge (Q743584)
Library of Congress Subject Headings:
• Conifers (sh85031129)
• Eastern redcedar (sh85071046)
• Geology—Oklahoma (sh85054072)
• Junipers (sh85071044)
• Mountains—Oklahoma (sh85087921)
• Reservoirs—Oklahoma (sh85113110)
• Wildlife refuges—Oklahoma (sh85146756)
Since that DISH Network L.L.C is could be the company that could have the annoying commercial with a satellite dish strolling around the house in the dark with extremely annoying music just like the Vengaboys song We Like to Party driving everybody nuts and reminding them of T.R. Chula's white saliva on the first half of 2006 and I never ever wanted that commercial and that annoying music to come back and I never ever want anything to go on T.R. Chula's white saliva so I hear by DISH Network L.L.C MUST BE BANNED AND GET SHUT DOWN FOR GOOD and MUST HAVE Rauland Telecenter and Canadian TV providers take over DirecTV and DISH Network just like having electric mechanical wall bells taking over Bogen Multicom 2000 and we MUST CONVERT ALL DISH Network offices into Nelvana studios or DeVry College of Technology campuses. So T.R. Chula the evil Tarantula from Fievel Goes West MUST BE BURNED TO ASHES in a FIRE and extinguish his white saliva for good. The Vengaboys song, We like to Party MUST BE BANNED and never ever get revived in the future because this song annoys people very bad and reminds them of T.R. Chula's white saliva and I never ever want anything on T.R. Chula's white saliva and especially in 2004, they introduced the worst and most creepy mascot to Six Flags who was called Mr. Six who will also be banned too because he danced to this annoying song we all hate and this is one of the reasons why Six Flags MUST SHUT DOWN forever and get replaced by Corbeil School Bus Manufacturing Plants and we want the world to be a friendlier place too not with this annoying song by the Vengaboys. This song doesn't only annoy me this song also annoys Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Buffett. Mr. Six the mascot of Six Flags of 2004 MUST BE BANNED and NEVER EVER get revived in the future because Mr. Six is so bald, annoying, and freaky and freaks people out and have killed the happiness of the late 1990s which is getting restored forever. And Mr. Six have danced to the worst annoying song we all hate which is called "We Like to Party" and also have restored the worst Tom and Jerry cartoon "Tom and Jerry: The Movie" with some bratts were getting bad advice from this movie with convience taking over good old fashioned traditional stuff is the exaggerated house demolition in 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie with a pear-shaped wrecking ball destroying the beautiful old fashioned living house and replacing it with a garage full of ice cream trucks with the bad old outdated confusing misleading red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO which is extremely mean-spirited and is a yield sign that says stop which is extremely wrong and confusing to people who are deaf, color blind, can't read, or don't speak English. Also old fashined traditional stuff are extremely important not just conviences. Good thing I am making safety collaborations by updating all ice cream trucks to all have the current updated yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word children slow crossing and or school bus swing arm stop signs which are octagon shaped especially I know for a fact in all traffic signs the shape is the most important not just the word and color especially in all stop signs the octagon shape is the most important not just the word and color in the 2000s when McDonald's had super-size which made our economy gone bad. So when Mr. Six gets Banned we will all tear apart the Six Flags buses used in the Six Flags commercial when Mr. Six was the masscot as new playplace play equipments for McDonald's restaurants and we will also smash the music box inside of these Six Flags buses into pieces so we will never ever hear that annoying song "We like to Party" ever again. So T.R. Chula the evil tarantula from Fievel Goes West MUST BE BURNED INTO ASHES IN A FIRE and extinguish his white saliva for good. Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) MUST BE BANNED never ever get revived in the future because Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) does have an upsetting unrealistic house demolition with an old fashioned pear-shaped wrecking ball destroying a beautiful old fashioned living house because of it being decades old ruining nostalgia and ruining my golden toddlerhood and abused many Blue's Clues Steve fans making them think the wrecking ball destroyed the handy dandy notebooks which we all love because the destroyed house at the beginning of Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) does look slightly identical to the Blue's Clues House and now even the destroyed Handy Dandy Notebooks are getting mended back together. So I hereby Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) to BE BANNED FOREVER due to abusing Blue's Clues Steve Fans like me. Tom and Jerry: The Movie MUST BE BANNED because it has an unrealistic house demolition with a very bad old fashioned wrecking ball that upsets people so bad and abused many Blue's Clues Steve Fans and some bratts were getting bad advice from this movie with convience taking over good old fashioned traditional stuff is the exaggerated house demolition in 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie with a pear-shaped wrecking ball destroying the beautiful old fashioned living house and replacing it with a garage full of ice cream trucks with the bad old outdated confusing misleading red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO which is extremely mean-spirited and is a yield sign that says stop which is extremely wrong and confusing to people who are deaf, color blind, can't read, or don't speak English and polluting the environment and putting Eastern cottontail rabbits extinct. Also old fashined traditional stuff are extremely important not just conviences. Good thing I am making safety collaborations by updating all ice cream trucks to all have the current updated yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word children slow crossing and or school bus swing arm stop signs which are octagon shaped especially I know for a fact in all traffic signs the shape is the most important not just the word and color especially in all stop signs the octagon shape is the most important not just the word and color.
. Similar to modern Simpsons (seasons 19 and Later) 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie is another bad media showing convience taking over good important traditional stuff with a pear-shaped wrecking ball destroying a beautiful old fashioned living house and replace the house with convient high rise appartment building with a garage full of ice cream trucks with the bad old oudated confusing misleading red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO which was mean-spirited and ruining my golden toddlerhood. In the 2000s, Warner Bros reviving 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie and and selling too many DVD copies of that movie surpassing Corduroy the Bear and his buttons was all McDonald's corporation and Bogen Communication's fault because the super size at McDonald's was brainwashing many people by reviving the bad old 1992 Tom and Jerry movie and popularizing Bogen Multicom 2000 and their mean spirited bell tones that are haunted chimes that don't sound like a bell at all scaring off kids especially kids with autism and making them not want to go to school and abandoning my golden toddler stuff like Corduroy the Bear with two buttons on his green corduroy overalls but good thing I am undoing all of the bad influence the super size gave us by restoring my golden toddlerhood, safety improvements, kindness improvements, reviving Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good by showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and that corduroy the bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever and bringing back all nostalgic inducing stuff like green chalkboards and electric mechanical wall bells etc and create a nostalgic inducing future. So this is why all broadcasts of The Simpsons MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be ONLY reruns of classic Simpsons (first 18 seasons of The Simpsons). This is why all schools MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be set up like Middleborough, Hilltop School from Timothy Goes to School, and or my DeVry building in North Brunswick, NJ and all with green chalkboards, electric mechanical wall bells, and Corbeil school buses and other school buses with electric stop arms, and only kind-spirited stuff like Disney Snow White and Pinocchio stuff and Corduroy the Bear with two buttons on his green corduroy overalls and Steve Notebooks etc, and no mean-spirited stuff like Bogen Multicom 2000 and that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and no processed foods in the school lunches. This is why McDonald's restaurants MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be McEyebrows with the yellow and orange striped awnings, arch wedge the new aluminum exterior I have created, or the original 1970s version of the iconic double sloped mansard roof and better and safe updated indoor PlayPlaces with low and safe steps and slides and green chalkboards and or just the dining room option (no playplace), This is why all ice cream trucks MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be all updated to the current updated yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word CHILDREN SLOW CROSSING and or school bus stop signs and that all ice cream trucks MUST BE BY LAW MANDEDTED TO GET RID of the bad old outdated red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO for good, This is why Crayola Crayon boxes MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be new modern 1997 boxes. This is why school PA systems MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be Rauland Telecenter or PA systems with no bell tones. And this is why Nelvana and Hanna-Barbera MUST TAKE OVER Warner Bros. Animation. The reality is that demolition are based on how bad the building is damaged not on how old the building is like in 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie. And River TV and other Canadian TV providers of Ontario will expand in the USA to Take over DirecTV and Dish Network.
Roger Waters (Us + Them Tour) @ Prudential Center, Newark, NJ on Thursday, September 7, 2017.
#RogerWaters #UsAndThemTour #Setlist:
Set 1:
Intro: Speak to Me (#PinkFloyd song)
Breathe (#PinkFloyd song)
One of These Days (#PinkFloyd song)
Time (#PinkFloyd song)
The Great Gig in the Sky (#PinkFloyd song)
Welcome to the Machine (#PinkFloyd song)
When We Were Young
Déjà Vu
The Last Refugee
Picture That
Wish You Were Here (#PinkFloyd song)
The Happiest Days of Our Lives (#PinkFloyd song)
Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (#PinkFloyd song)
Another Brick in the Wall Part 3 (#PinkFloyd song)
Set 2:
Dogs (#PinkFloyd song)
Pigs (Three Different Ones)(#PinkFloyd song)
Money (#PinkFloyd song)
Us and Them (#PinkFloyd song)
Smell the Roses
Brain Damage (#PinkFloyd song)
Eclipse (#PinkFloyd song)
Encore:
Vera (#PinkFloyd song) (preceded by band introductions)
Bring the Boys Back Home (#PinkFloyd song)
Comfortably Numb (#PinkFloyd song)
150 days till the end of the year.
Taken for Countdown to 2009.
Today I found Newcastle's best kept secret. Sweet Traditions at the Junction.
I have a bit of an addiction to a few American candies. There are other places to get them in Australia, but they are always more expensive and require postage to get what I want.
This cute little shop has been hiding out in the Junction for a while. But now I am outing it. If you're a fan of American candy you must go there. Keep them in business so I can continue to feed my habit.
I also picked up a 'smores kit. The woman who owns the shop also imports Hershey's, Jet Puff Marshmallows and Graham Crackers. She repackages a portion of marshmallows, and puts them with 2 hershey bars and one presealed pack of grahams from the bigger box. I think I will be having some 'smores this weekend.
I also can't wait to get some Graham Crackers at christmas so I can make a graham cracker house, like gingerbread houses...only not.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
I spent three weeks in Tanzania recently with my fiancee and two friends. We had a great time and met a lot of different creatures both human and not so human. There will be plenty of uploads in the coming weeks from this trip.
Sunset is a quick affair this close to the equator. The sky seems to find it difficult to keep up and stays colorful longer then up north or down south.
Quote by Jawaharlal Nehru.
View large on black highly recommended.
I am excited for the remake of Clash of the Titans. So while you're at it remake another movie classic. . . THEM!
Created for the WPC Week 184
Rubbish dump by oddsock
ants by
Man Shooter imnotquitejack
Woman shooter valkyrieh116
Scream by Nataliej
2013-05-19: Making my way around Illinois, stopping over night in Bloomington then visiting the Milller Park Zoo and made my way over to Peoria to go see the four amur (siberian) tiger cubs who are almost 1 year old now. This little guy is Luka. Man, how they have grown up! But they sure will continue to grow - I mean look at those paws! Luka was kind enough to sit still by the linear-fence which makes it much easier to take photos with minimal wire artifacts in the frame.
What a beautiful weekend, I hope everyone had an opportunity to go out and enjoy the weather. I see several of my flickr friends made trips to their respective zoos - always great to see photos from the adventures.
(c) 2013, all rights reserved. Please do not copy and/or redistribute this photo without prior permission (including, and is not limited to, www.tumblr.com/ and pinterest.com as these sites download their own copy of the picture without my consent), thanks for your understanding!