Horn. Collected by: Marius Maxwell. In Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
Horn. Collected by: Marius Maxwell. In Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
Under rigid protection the few that remain in this portion of the continent have survived and multiplied and today are in fair numbers in two reserves in Zululand, and this rhinoceros for the time being may be regarded as in a fairly firm position.
The skin of the body of this species is thrown into great folds very much as in the Indian animal, and is marked all over with a kind of mosaic-like pattern which distinguishes it at a glance from the hairy or smooth skin of the Sumatran Rhinoceros and from the rivet-like markings on the skin of the Indian species.
The White Rhinoceros of Africa is in rather a different position from the Asiatic species, as it is not only strictly protected by rules and regulations but these are enforced. In the days of the early settlers in South Africa this rhinoceros was so plentiful that it was all in a day's work for a man to shoot several of these magnificent beasts. No animal of such slow breeding powers, as this species possesses, could possibly survive for any length of time such persecution, and we find that in the early days of the twentieth century the White Rhinoceros of South Africa was so reduced in numbers as to be on the verge of extinction.
The skin of the body of this species is thrown into great folds very much as in the Indian animal, and is marked all over with a kind of mosaic-like pattern which distinguishes it at a glance from the hairy or smooth skin of the Sumatran Rhinoceros and from the rivet-like markings on the skin of the Indian species.
The record specimens in the Museum collection, which are two front horns, measure 32 1/8 and 27 1/8 inches respectively.
The reason of this great scarcity is not difficult to ascertain. The horns of this and other species of rhinoceros are practically worth their weight in gold to the natives, who poach them, rhinoceros horn being used for medicinal purposes of a quack nature in the Far East. So much so is this the case that not only are all the Asiatic species on the wane because of this strange practice, but the demand for the horn has even affected the market price of African rhino horn. The great Indian rhinoceros has suffered almost as much as the Javan species and is now restricted in its distribution to a comparatively small area in Nepal and possibly Assam. In this animal the horn as a rule is little longer than that of the Javan species, but in the record specimen in the British Museum collection the length is as much as 24 inches.
In the early days of this century Major P. H. G. Powell-Cotton discovered the Northern White Rhinoceros near Lado, in the Sudan, and this race, which has been named Rhinoceros simus cottoni, is a very close relation of the Southern form, so close as to be all but indistinguishable. This Northern race is distributed widely over a great part of North-Central Equatorial Africa, occurring not only in the Sudan, but in Northern Uganda and along the Congo-Sudan boundary as well. It is reported to be present in fair numbers, and there would appear to be no immediate cause for anxiety regarding the welfare of the Northern White Rhinoceros. At the same time, the situation was thought to be sufficiently serious at the recent conference on the Protection of the Fauna and Flora of Africa for the White Rhinoceros, including both the Southern and Northern forms, to receive the maximum protection afforded by the Convention.
In this animal the horn as a rule is little longer than that of the Javan species, but in the record specimen in the British Museum collection the length is as much as 24 inches.
