The Rhinoceroses Who Live In Africa

There are a lot of kinds of wild animals in Africa, it is a very large animal world. I believe that we all have seen the huge rhinoceros in African dessert. A few centuries ago, the Indian rhinoceros ranged across the north Indian plains in the wet lands of the rivers Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra. There are five kinds of rhinoceros found in the world, white rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, Indian rhinoceros, Javan rhinoceros, and Sumatran rhinoceros. The white and black rhinoceroses are live in Africa, while Indian, Javan and Sumatran are Asian rhinoceroses, found in North Pakistan, Assam in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The usual weight of an Indian Rhino is 2,000 kg. The one way to distinguish between a an Indian rhinoceros and an African rhinoceros is the single horn. Both white and black African rhinoceros have two horns. Another distinguishing feature of the Indian Rhinoceros is its skin, which is knobbly and falls into deep folds at its joints, giving a look like the Rhino is wearing a coat of armour.

 All the rhinoceroses are vegetarian and Indian rhinoceroses mostly eat grass, fruits, leaves and crops. Their well developed upper lip helps them to eat out tall elephant grasses, which they like the best. It also helps them to pull out aquatic plants by the roots. Indian rhinoceroses usually prefer to roam around in the morning and evening hours to avoid the heat of the day and live for about 40 years.

Today this survivor from the prehistoric times is found only in pockets in the north eastern state of Assam and in Nepal. In Assam, their rhinoceros habitat is limited to just two national parks – Kaziranga and Manas.

Lying along the mighty Brahmaputra river, the Kaziranaga National Park covers an area of about 430-sq-kms. Its swamps and grasslands with tall thickets of elephant grass and patches of ever green forest support the largest number of rhinoceros population in the whole of Indian subcontinent. Once reached to an alarming point due to hunting and poaching, this area came under wildlife conservation in 1926 and in 1940, Kaziranga was declared a sanctuary.

Kaziranga National Park is a birding paradise; the grasslands are a raptor country that can be seen on safari makes a remarkable experience. These include the Oriental Honey Buzzard, Black-Shouldered Kite, Black Kite, Brahminy Kite, Pallas’s Fishing Eagle, White Tailed Eagle, Grey-Headed Fishing Eagle, Himalayan Griffon, etc. Huge numbers of migratory birds descend on the parks lakes and marshy areas during winters, including Greylag Geese, Bar-Headed Geese, Ruddy Shelduck, Gadwall, Falcated Duck, Red-Crested Pochard and Northern Shoveller.