Rhinoceros

Name: Rhinoceros
Geographica distribution: Asian south-west: Indonesia and Vietnam.
Natural habitat: It lives in tropical dense forests. These animals prefer zones with much water and mud.
Food habits: They eat berries, seeds, leaves and fruits.
Size: Height: 1,50 m – 1,70 m. Length: 2 m – 4 m.
Weigh: of 900 kg up to 1400 kg.
Gestation period: 16 months
Number of broods: 1
Life expansion: 35 years.
Conservation state of the specie: rhinoceroses are threatened extinction, due to the fact of not being so fertile – each female only has a brood of two in two years – and, so, they are very vulnerable to hunting, besides they suffer from the destruction of its habitat. They have been hunted intensively because practically all its parts are used in the traditional medicine. The most valuable part is the horn, which has been used like aphrodisiac, to cure fevers, or to prepare a potion that supposedly allows to detect poisons.
By: Stephanie Sales