The Black Rhinoceros is a mammal.  They are found in the eastern and central Africa.  Although it is called black it is more of a grey or white in colour.

An adult rhino is about 150 cm tall, to the shoulder, and weighs a massive 1200kg.  Their thick skin protects the rhino from thorns and sharp grasses.  They have two horns on their heads made of keratin.  The horns are used for defence, digging up roots and snapping branches for feeding.  Rhinos have poor eye sight and rely on hearing and smell.

The Black Rhino is a herbivore, it eats only vegetation.  They rest during the hottest part of the day and enjoy wallowing in mud to keep cool.

Black Rhinos are endangered for the most obvious reasons:  their habitat is getting smaller and some of their body parts are considered very important in medicine, especially their horns.

Credits:

We would like to thank Smithsonian National Zoological Park for allowing us to use the image of the baby Black Rhino. If you would like to find out more about the Zoo and see more amazing images of animals visit http://nationalzoo.si.edu/default.cfm

We used information from the following web sites to help us write this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rhinoceros

http://www.rhinos-irf.org/

http://www.bcb.uwc.ac.za/Envfacts/Black_Rhino/index.htm