Adaptations
Structural
- Thick, layered skin protects rhinos from sharp grasses and thorns. Thick, padded soles on their feet absorb shock and cushion legs.
- A prehensile upper lip helps in foraging and browsing.
- Large ears can rotate to pick up sounds from many directions.
- Horns used for defence and possibly display
- Behavioural
- The black rhino is usually solitary, meaning it will live by itself until mating season comes
- While their eyesight is poor, which is probably why they will sometimes charge without apparent reason, their sense of smell and hearing are very good.
- They have an large variety of growls, grunts, squeaks, snorts and bellows.
- When attacking, the rhino lowers its head, snorts, breaks into a gallop reaching speeds of 30 miles an hour, and gores or strikes powerful blows with its horns.
- For all its bulk, the rhino is very agile and can quickly turn in a small space.
- The rhino has a symbiotic relationship with oxpeckers, also called tick birds. The bird eats ticks it finds on the rhino and noisily warns of danger. Although the birds also eat blood from sores on the rhino's skin and thus obstruct healing, they are still tolerated.
- Mark their territories by spraying urine and scattering faeces by rotating the tail