1/29/2024 0 Comments Armored rhinoceros![]() At the Zoo, the Indian rhino is fed a diet of grain, hay, fruits, vegetables, and acacia. In the wild, they primarily forage on tall, reedy grasses, but also eat small amounts of aquatic plants, bushes, tree twigs and sprouts. Rhino habitat includes floodplains near large rivers, swampy and tall grass areas, reed beds, grasslands and wooded meadows. Indian rhinos range is severely fragmented in Nepal and Northeastern India. Lifespan is between 30 and 40 years in the wild and up to 47 years under human care. Rhinos have poor vision though, and are extremely near-sighted, making them very dangerous and unpredictable and likely to charge unfamiliar sounds and smells. Their excellent sense of smell and hearing gives rhinos information about their surroundings and help them detect danger. Indian rhinos have a prehensile upper lip that is flexible and is used to grasp bunches of grass in a browsing motion or can be tucked out of the way for grazing short grasses. They have a single horn that sits on a bony knob and is composed of hardened, compressed hair-like fibers called keratin. These rhinos are characterized by grey or grayish-brown skin folds that resemble armor plating and have wart-like bumps that cover the shoulder and upper leg region. Males can weigh up to 6,000 pounds and females up to 3,500 pounds. The greater one-horned rhino is the largest land mammal after elephants, along with the African white rhino. ![]() Greater one-horned rhinos are also known as Asian rhinos or Indian rhinos.Like horses, rhinos run and walk on their toes, and can run a surprising 28 to 35 miles per hour for short distances.The scientific name Rhinoceros unicornis is from Greek and Latin, and means, roughly, “one horn upon the nose.”.Our pachyderm specialists and veterinary staff work with Gauhati to file and trim his horn to keep it growing and healthy. Gauhati wears down his horn on his own by rubbing it on the rocks in his enclosure but sometimes he needs help keeping it even. Our greater one-horned rhinoceros, Gauhati, can be found across from Penguin Island at the back side of the Pachyderm Building.
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