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Rhino Resource Center: Rhino Forums > Rhino Species > Black Rhino > Strange horn

Posted by: Birdbrain Aug 13 2010, 08:42 PM

I took this picture in hluhlue nationalpark in South-Africa about a year and a half ago (february 2009) . As it was a bad picture of a rhino far away I have not looked much into it before now. It looks like the front horn is very strange, thin and pointing forward, or is what i see as a horn some wood from the bushes in the background? If you judge this as a horn, do you know how common this is, and how would this infect the rhinos life. It must at least be wery unpractical when walking through brushes and while eating.

Posted by: bigbobbin Sep 11 2011, 09:52 PM

Having looked at a number of photos over the years, I do know that different rhino populations develop different horn patterns. Forward projecting horns, some of them remarkably long, were more common than they are now, due to poaching. Thus, the older the photo (National Geographic) the more likely you are to find variation. On the convenience issue, if whole populations have this adaptation, it must serve them (or have served them) to some advantage.