Can rhinos walk backwards?
Yeah, they can, they can back up.
It's interesting to see that they're wondering about whether rhinos do these things, so that's pretty cool.
Yeah, I'm going to answer some weird searches about rhinos.
Do rhinos eat people?
No rhinos do not eat people.
Rhinos are herbivores, they eat plants only really.
So so no, they definitely don't eat people.
So why do rhinos have such poor eyesight?
Well, it's kind of one of the worst senses.
They rely mainly on their sense of smell.
They smell each other's dung, which can again tell which
rhinos are in the area, whether there's a breeding female in season.
And they also have really good hearing.
Their ears are actually shaped in a certain way to allow them to move their ears all the way around.
They can hear from all different directions, so they rely on that, they rely on the sense of smell.
And so those two things kind of make up for the fact that they have terrible eyesight.
Right. Why do rhinos charge?
So they charge, usually it's kind of a sign of aggression.
So in the wild, they would charge to maybe protect a young calf.
They might charge at something that's novel in the environment.
So kind of to tell them to get lost, really.
They charge at a lot of new people that might come into the area as well.
So it's kind of just to assert their dominance,
to show their size.
And I guess like, it's a way of scaring someone away.
Why do rhinos have thick skin?
So rhinos have about five centimetre thick skin, so it's super thick?
The greater one horned rhino in particular, looks like it's wearing armour, and it's mainly to kind of protect
them, maybe from other rhinos that are wanting to attack.
It's also to do with predators as well.
So if there's a predator trying to attack or trying to attack a calf,
it's much more difficult for them to do some damage to the animal.
So why the rhinos have horns?
Well, they use their horns as a defense mechanism between rival males
over a territory, over a female, and they use the horns to fight, to spar.
The size of the horn, it depends on how desirable a male may be,
Why do rhinos get poached?
So rhinos are poached for their horn.
The horn is literally made of keratin,
which is your same as your hair, your fingernails, poachers kind of go out, kill the whole animal.
and just take the horn.
It's used in Asian medicine to cure from cancer to even a
hangover.
There's no scientific evidence in this, but it still happens on a daily basis.
The statistic is every day two rhinos are poached for their rhino horn,
so it's pretty shocking, really.
So why do rhinos get dehorned?
Rhinos are dehorned because of the poaching industry.
So conservationists out in the wild, dehorn the rhinos to stop this from happening,
so a rhino that has no horns isn't seen as desirable from a poachers point of view.
Unfortunately, dehorned, the kind of the thing that makes a rhino a rhino really is
taken away from them. It's such a shame, but I guess it's the only way that we're kind of working towards
to be able to save them and let them live a normal life.
Do rhinos have predators?
Yes, they do have predators, kind of all the major predators.
They have the lions, hyenas.
And the main predator for a rhino is humans, unfortunately, so.
Yeah, that's kind of, it's not predators that are reducing the numbers, it is the human population that is doing
that. Can rhinos walk backwards?
Yeah, they can. They can back up, I guess.
I'm not sure whether they choose to, really.
But yeah, I don't think it's something that they can't do.
Do rhinos have teeth?
Yes, rhinos do have teeth, very big teeth,
They have the teeth set further back in the mouth, which they use to grind down the the branches,
the twigs, the leaves.
And they kind of use their top lip
to pull the branches and twigs into the mouth and use those big teeth to grind down those really
tough branches.
That we would use loppers to cut down, they're really, really strong.
The Indian Rhinos, however,
are slightly different. They have the teeth set further forward because they're more grazing
species,
they use them to kind of eat the grass,
much more adapted to that grazing behaviour.
You do also have a lot of teeth in the back of the mouth, too,
to when they are in the branches and twigs like the black rhinos do.
Can rhinos kill you?
Yes, rhinos can kill you if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.
So the black rhino is way more aggressive than, say, the white rhino.
It tends to be why you see more white rhinos in safari parks much less likely to charge at cars.
The white rhino and the great one horned rhino are a lot more kind of laidback placid species,
whereas the black rhino is really feisty, you know, charge a lot more.
we wouldn't be going in the enclosures with them here at the zoo.
You definitely wouldn't want to see one out in the wild
and get too close, especially if there's a mum protecting her calf.
So, yeah, definitely steer clear of them,
but they wouldn't intentionally kill you to eat you or anything.
It is just more of a defense mechanism.
Some things have surprised me a little.
Yeah, it's interesting to see that they're wondering about whether rhinos do these things,
so that's pretty cool.
Hopefully, answered some questions anyway.