Greater One-horned Rhinoceros

About this species

Size

Head and body 3.7–3.8m (bulls), 3.1–3.4m (cows); shoulder 1.5–1.9m

Weight

Bulls about 2,070–2,200kg, cows about 1,600kg

Diet

Almost entirely grasses; also leaves, shrubs, fruit and water plants

Habitat

Alluvial floodplain grassland, swamps and riverine forest of the Brahmaputra valley and the Terai

The greater one-horned rhinoceros is the second-largest land mammal in Asia after the elephant. Its thick grey-brown skin hangs in deep folds that look like plates of armour, pinkish where blood vessels lie close to the surface, and the shoulders and upper legs are covered in wart-like bumps. Both sexes carry a single horn of keratin on the snout, which starts to show after a few years and is usually about 25 cm long in adults. Apart from eyelashes, ear fringes and a tail brush, the body is almost hairless. Bulls have heavy neck folds (Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its range this rhino is a grazer, cropping tall grasses with a semi-prehensile upper lip and pushing down saplings by walking over them. It feeds in the morning, evening and at night and spends hot days wallowing, since the skin folds hold water. Adult bulls are mostly solitary with overlapping ranges of a few square kilometres, while cows keep their calves close; tigers are the only real threat to young calves. Rhinos swim well, hear and smell well but see poorly, and can run at up to 55 km/h for short distances (Wikipedia, general species account).

In India the species survives in a few grassland reserves in Assam, northern West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Kaziranga National Park holds by far the largest population: its 14th census in 2022 counted 2,613 rhinos, up from 2,413 in 2018, and drones were used for the first time in part of the park. Orang National Park counted 125 and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary 107 in the same census (Assam Forest Department 2022, as reported by ForumIAS).

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)