The white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) is an animal of the African plains and savannahs. Its wide mouth has evolved to mow grasses. They prefer to drin


The white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) is an animal of the African plains and savannahs. Its wide mouth has evolved to mow grasses. They prefer to drink at least once a day and can drink up to 50 litres at a time but the average is 12 litres a day. It is an odd-toed ungulate related to tapirs and is the largest of the remaining rhinoceros species. It has two asymmetrical horns on its rostrum composed of a chemically complex type of keratin. Relentless poaching for the horn has reduced worldwide rhino numbers to a critical number but the white rhino is heavily protected in Southern Africa where its numbers are quite healthy. However, the killing of a rhino in a Paris zoo in 2017 indicates the threat these animals are under. Photographed in Lille zoological park, France.


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Photo credit: © MARTYN F. CHILLMAID/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
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