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rhinoceros
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white rhinoceros Map showing the geographic ranges of the five living rhinoceros species across Africa and Asia. Orange areas in southern and eastern Africa represent black rhinoceros range, with purple areas for southern white rhinoceros. Pink highlights the Indian, or greater one-horned, rhinoceros range in northern India and Nepal. Red and green dots in Sumatra and Java indicate remaining strongholds for Sumatran and Javan rhinoceroses, respectively. A magenta dot in central Africa marks the last northern whi northern white rhinoceros A black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) stands on sandy ground in a zoo, facing forward with both horns and thick, folded skin visible. white rhinoceros woolly rhinoceros Illustration of the extinct mammal Indricotherium or Paraceratherium, a large, hornless, long-necked perissodactyl, shown in side profile with a scale bar indicating its impressive height. African black rhino A black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) walks on sandy ground in a zoo enclosure, its body shown in profile with two horns visible on its snout. black rhinoceros
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African black rhino
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white rhinoceros
white rhinoceros White rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum).

rhinoceros

mammal
Also known as: Rhinocerotidae, rhino, rhinoceri, rhinoceroses, rhinos(Show More)
Written by
Eric Dinerstein
Director, Biodiversity and Wildlife Solutions Program, RESOLVE. Former Chief Scientist and Vice President of Conservation Science, World Wildlife Fund. Author of The Kingdom of Rarities and others.
Eric Dinerstein
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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rhinoceros, (family Rhinocerotidae), any of five or six species of giant horn-bearing herbivores that include some of the largest living land mammals. Only African and Asian elephants are taller at the shoulder than the two largest rhinoceros speciesā€”the white, or square-lipped, rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), which some divide into two species (northern white rhinoceros [C. cottoni] and southern white rhinoceros [C. simum]), and the Indian, or greater one-horned, rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). The white rhinoceros and the...

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