Wildlife
Indian rhinoceroses have a formidable appearance. The folded skin looks like a suit of armour enhanced by a single half metre horn on its nose. Courtships are aggressive with chasing and fighting common. A successful mating ends in a single 70kg calf being born, which remains by its mother's side until the next calf is born. Their travelling companions are egrets and myna birds, happily riding on a rhino's back picking at parasites found in the folds of skin. Indian rhinos eat mainly grass, but will also consume aquatic plants, happily wading into the water and dunking their head underneath the surface to pull them up. Mother rhinos will push over saplings so that their calves can reach the leaves. Scattered populations are now only to be found in north east India, Bhutan and Nepal.
Scientific name: Rhinoceros unicornis
Rank: Species
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Enormous baby
An Indian rhino's first foray into the outside world.
An Indian rhino's first foray into the outside world.
Rhino birth
After a 16 month pregnancy and a 50 hour labour, a baby rhino is born.
After a 16 month pregnancy and a 50 hour labour, a baby rhino is born.
Supporting roles
Courting rhinos is a heavyweight affair.
Courting rhinos is a heavyweight affair.
The Indian rhinoceros can be found in a number of locations including: Himalayas, Indian subcontinent. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Indian rhinoceros distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Vulnerable
Population trend: Increasing
Year assessed: 2008
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), also called the greater one-horned rhinoceros and Indian one-horned rhinoceros, belongs to the Rhinocerotidae family. Listed as a vulnerable species, the large mammal is primarily found in north-eastern India's Assam and in protected areas in the Terai of Nepal, where populations are confined to the riverine grasslands in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The Indian rhinoceros once ranged throughout the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic Plain but excessive hunting reduced the natural habitat drastically. Today, about 3,000 rhinos live in the wild, 2,000 of which are found in India's Assam alone.
It is the fifth largest land animal.
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Helpless young
Predation defence
Acoustic communication
Herbivorous
Maternal care
Adapted to running
Chemical communication
Territorial
Visual communication
Viviparous