The rhinoceros could be the second largest land mammal on the planet, second only to the elephant. Large and intelligent they've got little to fear, except for humans, who've brought their species near extinction. Learn how the rhino survives in its habitat and what conservation efforts are being made.
Rhinos existed back prehistoric times once flourished in thousands, living in diverse habitats across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Today, on account of poaching and habitat loss, hardly any remain. Since 1970 alone, the rhinoceros population has declined by approximately 90 percent, according to the American Wildlife Foundation. As of 2010, you will find five varieties of rhinos totaling approximately 24,500 within the wild and 1,250 in captivity, reports the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The White Rhino is under threat of extinction along with the other vietnam tour packages four species are stored on the verge of extinction. The five remaining species are:
White Rhino (Certotherium simum)
Number inside wild: 17,500
Location: Africa's savannahs

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Black Rhino (Diceros bicornis)
Number in the wild: 4,240
Location: Africa's grasslands, savannahs and tropical bush lands
Greater One-Horned Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis)
Number inside wild: 2,800
Location: Northern India's and Southern Nepal's flood plains, grasslands and woodlands
Sumatran Rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)
Number inside the wild: 200
Location: Dense tropical forests with the Indonesian island Sumatra as well as on Borneo
Javan Rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus)
Number inside wild: 40 to 50
Location: The majority with the remaining Javan Rhinos (35 to 50) are now living in Ujung Kulon National Park, located in Indonesia. A few (less than five) live in vietnam tour packages's Cat Tien National Park. No Javan Rhinos happen in captivity.

Rhinos are herbivores and approximately 27 to 37 pounds of vegetation per day. To meet the demands of their diet, they are in densely vegetated grasslands, savannahs and tropical forests of Africa, Northern India, Southern Nepal, Indonesia and Vietnam. They spend about 50 percent in the day, traveling a few miles daily, eating a wide-variety of grasses to satisfy their dietary needs. The Black Rhino however, has a prehensile lip which it uses to know leaves and twigs to secure from trees and shrubs, as opposed to grasses. To deal with warm weather, rhinos have a tendency to rest during the heat of the day and forage for food inside the mornings and evenings. Rhinos need to drink a lot of water to hydrate themselves and cool off their own health, so a rhino's territory must contain water. Each rhino carries a territory array of about 12 square kilometers. They prefer to drink daily, but could go several days without water at the appropriate time. During dry seasons, they often times travel farther than normal to locate water, extending their territories to 20 square kilometers.
Rhinoceroses have numerous features and techniques they will use to survive within the wild. These survival mechanisms include:
Size
Rhinoceroses are huge. They will be the second largest land mammals on the planet; elephants are the largest. The White Rhino is the biggest with the five species, weighing approximately 6,000 pounds and the Sumatran Rhino may be the smallest, weighing around 2,000 pounds. Being such a large size, adult rhinos do not have much to fear within the animal kingdom. In fact, humans are their main predators. Calves (baby rhinos) that are still sufficiently little to attract predators are protected by their mothers who stick near by, scaring off any animal who intends them harm.
Speed
In addition to their large size, rhinoceroses can be extremely fast. Rhinos have big feet which are capable of supporting their large bodies, while enabling these to run really fast. Depending about the species, rhinos can run up to 40 mph. Imagine a rhino running you'd like a car in your direction! When a rhino feels it really is in danger, it charges full-speed in the object of their fear. Usually, this is just an act of intimidation to try and scare a predator away, in case necessary, the rhino will come across and ram a predator that ceases to seek cover. The rhino is also quite agile, despite its large size and will quickly maneuver and turn in tight areas.
Horn
Rhinoceroses have 1 or 2 horns -- depending on the species -- situated on the front in the face, above the nostrils. The horns are manufactured out of narrow, tightly matted together tubes of keratin (exactly the same substance real human hair and nails consist of). Rhinos use their horns to defend themselves against predators and during mating fights. Sometimes during mating time, two males will fight collectively over a lady. Very occasionally, two females will fight over a male. A piercing jab through the horn might be deadly. Sometimes throughout a fight, a horn will go away, but grows back slowly over time.
Skin
Rhinos have thick skin that's difficult to penetrate, protecting them from predators and thick brush inside the habitat. The skin looks rough and leathery, but it's actually quite soft and sensitive. Rhinos frequently roll in mud wallows, coating themselves with mud, which protect their skin from sunburn, insects and to keep cool in hot weather.
Senses
Rhinoceroses have poor vision. Their vision is indeed poor that they have got been proven to barge into trees, mistaking them for predators. To make up because of their poor vision, they've vietnam travel promotions an excellent sense of smell and hearing. They can rotate their ears to enable these to locate sounds originating from different directions and they'll use their sense of smell to detect predators and also to communicate together. By smelling the urine and dung from other rhinos, they can detect the boundaries of other's territories so when others are prepared to mate.

Symbiotic Relationship
The tick bird -- called askari wa kifaru in Swahili, this means the rhino's guard -- along with the rhino have a very symbiotic relationship. The bird eats ticks as well as other insects off the rhino's skin and raises a noisy fuss when something is near, alerting the rhino to danger.

The future survival of rhinoceroses is a major concern. Wildlife officials are constantly battling to avoid poachers and prevent habitat loss.
Although killing rhinos and selling horns is illegal, the market industry is still strong. There is a strong need for the horns primarily in China, Taiwan and South Korea. They are used in traditional Asian medicines as a treatment for ailments, like headaches, impotence, fever and devil possession, in spite of the lack of scientific evidence that this horn is an excellent remedy for any ailment. More recently, rhino horns are already falsely touted being a cancer cure -- without having scientific evidence -- which includes increased poaching activity.
The pharmaceutical company, Hoffman LaRoche and Dr. Raj Amin in the Zoological Society of London ran extensive tests on rhino horns. The test results showed conclusively that rhino horns had absolutely no medicinal qualities. Despite these test results, approximately sixty percent of traditional Asian medical professionals stock rhino horns for his or her practice, as outlined by survey by TRAFFIC.org. The horns sell for $57,000 a kilogram about the black market, which is quite a nice-looking price to poachers. The high selling price in the horns has had about a sophisticated strain of poachers. Dr. Joseph Okori, the WWF African Rhino Program Manager said, "This just isn't typical poaching." These sophisticated poachers utilize helicopters, night-vision equipment, tranquilizers and gun silencers to kill rhinos in reserves without attracting attention from wildlife law enforcement officials patrols.
Another cause with the decline of rhinos are human activities such as road projects, dam construction, agriculture and the construction of buildings, which continually encroach to the rhinoceros's habitat.
Conservation efforts are making some progress over time with conservation efforts. Numbers of White Rhinos, Greater One-Horned Rhinos and Black Rhinos have increased, although, there are still much too few remaining to cease conservation efforts. Recently, however, illegal poaching is again around the rise. In the first half of 2011, almost 200 rhinos were killed in South Africa alone. In 2010, in Vietnam's Cat Tien National Park, a female Javan Rhino (probably the last inside area) was found dead with your ex horn chopped off. On a more positive note, the World Wildlife Fund released videos in 2011 that showed two female Javan Rhinos making use of their calves in Indonesia's Ujung Kulon National Park.
Several methods are now being undertaken to conserve the rhinos including stopping human encroachment on habitats, establishing and expanding protected habitats, relocating rhinos to safe habitats, patrolling reserves and habitats capture poachers, improving laws to fight poaching, enforcing stiffer penalties for poachers and promoting tourism which will increase funding for conservation. Money is always a problem. It is harmful for monitor habitats for poachers. Fortunately, wildlife money is helping fund conservation efforts.
Rhinos; IUCN; May 2, 2010;
Rhinoceros; AWF;
Rhino Poaching Surge Continues this year; July 4, 2011;
Dramatic Video Footage Confirms That Javan Rhinos are Breeding; Rhinoconservation.org; February 27, 2011;
Rhino Fact Sheet; International Rhino Foundation;
Rhinoceros; WWF; wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/rhinoceros/
Rare Javan Rhino Found Dead in Vietnam; WWF; May 10, 2010; wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?uNewsID=193168
25 Things You Might Not Know About Rhinos; International Rhino Foundation;
White Rhino Image Credit: Chris Eason/ creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Black Rhino Image Credit: Matthew Field/ creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/deed.en
Greater One-Horned Rhino Image Credit: Hans Stieglitz/creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
Sumatran Rhino Image Credit: Bruce1ee/Public Domain
Javan Rhino Image Credit: The Zoological Society of London/Public Domain