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This is a young white, or square-lipped rhinoceros that was still traveling with its mom (not shown) at Pilanesberg, a mineral and game park in South Africa not far from the famous "Sun City" Casino northwest of Pretoria.
Notice the wide lip. It could easily be called the wide-lipped rhino to distinguish it form the other African species ("black" or "bush" rhinoceros). The mouth parts of this creature are actually designed to act as a lawn mower, as the animals spend most of the time grazing along in grasslands munching, munching, munching.
In fact, the W Rhinos are very cow like, with many individuals more docile than some cattle.
Life Science
Comments
I thought that the "white" part of the name was actually "weit", or "wide" in Afrikaans. The "black" rhinos were named that purely as distinction from the mis-named "white", not their color, and are thus doubly mis-named.
Have I been misinformed?
Posted by: Anon | December 2, 2008 3:44 PM
So what do they taste like?
Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | December 2, 2008 3:50 PM
You know, I've never eaten a rhinoceros.
Posted by: Greg Laden | December 2, 2008 6:28 PM
I've never heard of the rhino's square mouth until now. It reminds me of the Nigersaurus, a dinosaur that was discovered a couple years ago, and which had a strangely shaped mouth. The Nigersaurus might also have been a ground-feeding herbivore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigersaurus
Posted by: Gary | December 2, 2008 8:19 PM
Very cool. What a magnificent creature.
Posted by: K. | December 4, 2008 9:34 AM