I trust everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend and had a great time with family and friends.  I am sure you are all full of yummy mini-eggs and other types of delicious Easter chocolate, so just sit back and enjoy the Wild Fact.  Today we are going to explore the 21st Century’s closest thing to a dinosaur.  This is of course my opinion but I think the White Rhinoceros looks strikingly similar to the creatures in Jurassic Park.  In fact, 30 to 35 million years ago roamed the largest land mammal which just happened to be a descendant of the modern day rhinoceros. This old rhino weighed about 15 tons and had a long neck similar to the giraffe.  Enough about the old guys, let’s fast forward 35 million years to the present day.  Who wants to learn about the White Rhinoceros? Great, let’s go!!

The white rhinoceros is actually a gray colour (as is the black rhinoceros) with a square lip used to feed on the grasses of Africa’s plains.  Currently the white rhino is the 2nd largest land mammal just behind the elephant.  They weigh approximately 1400 to 3600 kg  or for our American friends,  3100 to 7900 lb.  No matter what measurement you use, that is one heavy animal and is probably self conscious about their weight.  To think that they are capable of getting this heavy just by eating various grasses.  If you ever get up close and personal with a white rhinoceros you may notice that they don’t  have any canine or incisor teeth.  These gigantic creatures only need their large molars to grind the grasses for consumption.

Okay, so what about their horns? Well, the white rhino has two horns made up of keratin, which is the same material as your finger nails.  Their horns continuously grow and their front horn can get as large as 2 m (3′) long.  The rhino is lucky in that if their horn snaps off it will grow back rather easily. How about that for a party trick!

White Rhinoceros Fast Fact: The rhino’s ears are able to move independantly from one another which allows them to pick up sounds from all directions.  Although, they may have good hearing the rhino depends mostly on their smell.  As a matter of fact, their olfactory passages responsible for their smell is actually larger than their brain!

Well, that does it for me!  Have a great day everyone!!!