The Extinct #1-The West African Black Rhinoceros

How majestic they are, their horns curved, so unfortunate that man can only tell of them in pictures and stories, imagining how one feel to stand beside them, touch them, and feed them from hands, with that little fear not because they may harm you but of their ignorance only to smile when done, how i wish I can get to show this animal to my kid during a visit to the zoo, and smile when he touches it, but my dreams have been crushed, my heart pierced with a sword, I will never get to see them again, so long lost.

And that's my piece to those lost animals we will never see again, TheEXTINCT !!.

The first to come in my series of the extinct animals is the rhinoceros, a series aimed at bringing to our knowledge the wonders of nature lost forever, the reason man will not be seeing the lights of these wonderful animals again and by that we learn not to make same mistakes again with respect to other existing animals, how we can help protect other species which a near extinction, keeping to light the wonders of the world as animals are among the wonders of the earth.

THE WEST AFRICAN BLACK RHINOCEROS
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The black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) although referred to as black have its colors vary from brown to Grey. They measure about 9.8-12.3 ft (3-3.75m) long, height of about 4.6-5.9 ft (1.4-1.8 m) and with a weight about 800-1400kg. This simply gives a picture of a magnificent animal with which many humans (me not included though :) ) will have to think twice to approach as they will take the braveness out of you.

They come with two horns situated at their skull sometimes they may develop a third smaller horn, the first horn measure about 1.6-4.6 ft (0.5-1.4 m) and the second which is quite smaller about 0.79-21.65 in (0.5-1.4 meters) with which they use for intimidation, defense, breaking branches and digging up roots during feeding.

Just like other black Rhinos, they are naturally browsers, with their diet being leafy plants and shoots which they can find around their habitat.

During the early part of the day and sunset, they browse for food around their habitat and during the hot part of the day, you can find them in a cool place where they sleep or wallow. Stick with me as i unveil what makes this animal special, how they left our planet and how to avoid such from occurring to other like animals.

Behavior

Their behavioral pattern portray an animal solitary in nature with a strong bond between a mother and calf, additionally, male and females exhibit a consort relationship during mating. Sub-adult and young adult black rhino on occasion form loose association with older ones of either sex.

The Black Rhino are not very territorial hence sometimes find themselves in other rhinos' territory while browsing. Their home ranges vary with respect to season and availability of food and water. But generally, they have smaller home ranges and their numbers tend to be high in a habitat with enough food and water and vice versa when these needed resources are not available.

Also, home range is also influenced by the sex and age of the Black rhino with the females quite larger than the male most especially when accompanied by a calf. They have certain areas they tend to visit which we normally refer to as their “house” normally located on a high ground level.

When in captivity, studies have shown that sleep patterns vary with respect to sex as the males have been proved to sleep longer on average than the female almost twice the time. Other factors which play a role in sleep patterns is the location they decide to take the nap.

The black rhinoceros have a reputation of aggressiveness and charges readily to any perceived threat. They will fight each other, hence, having the highest record rates of mortal combat for any mammal to walk the earth(They sometimes die of combat related injuries)
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Adult rhinos on a normal circumstance have no natural predator all thanks to their size, thick skin and dangerous horns. But, adult black rhinos on circumstance fall prey to crocodiles. Calves are seldom, small sub-adults may also be prayed upon by lions. They are fast animals with speed of about 55 kilometers per hour when running on their toes.

Communication

I am amazed by the communication skill of this mammal though having the deficiency of poor sight and solitary nature.

They use several means of communication between one another of which scent marking is the most common. They identify themselves with their urine and feces. Urine spraying occurs on bushes and trees, around feeding areas and water holes. Coming around the sprayed areas, a rhino will smell to know who is in the area, they have different reactions when presented with feces or urine of opposite sex, hence the urine and feces of a black rhinocero help determine another rhinoceroses sex, age and identity.

Another communication technique comes to play when a rhino rubs their heads or horns against a tree trunk, due to their powerful tube-shape ears, they tend to detect sounds coming from over a far distance.

Reproduction

The Rhino adult is solitary in nature hence coming together only during mating. Mating between black rhinos do not have a seasonal pattern but giving birth tend to be close to the end of the rainy season at a more arid environment.

The female rhino will mark dung piles when in season and males will fellow, Just like a guy wish to be the only one after a girl (that's human) the male rhino scrape and spread the dung thus making it difficult for other adult males to pick her scent trail.

Courtship behaviors among males include snorting and sparring with horns. Another called the bluff and bluster sees the rhino snort and swing head from side to side in an aggressive manner before running away repeatedly.

Breeding pairs tend to stay together for about 2-3 days, sometimes weeks, mating several times a day with copulation lasting about half an hour.

Gestation last 15 to 16 months giving rise to a single calf which weighs about 35-50 kg at birth having the permission to fellow its mother around for only but 3 days. The mother and calf stay together for about 2-3 years up until the next calf is born, but females tend to stay longer to form small groups. Sexual maturity for females is reached from 5 to 7 years of age and 7-8 years old for males.

In Natural conditions the Black Rhinoceros have a life expectancy of 35 to 50 years.

The Sad Story Of The End
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Oh the difference a century brings. During the beginning of the 20th century, an estimation of a million black rhinoceros of four subspecies roamed the savannas of Africa only to be dropped to about 2,300 by 2001 loosing a subspecie, The western black rhinoceros, this is a sad tale of how we lost a wonder, a story of indifference, greed, hope and dispire.

History sees the western black rhino across the central and western Africa. Though lived in these areas for years, western black rhino was incompatible with the 20th century.
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Annihilation began as wild spread sports hunting during the first decade of the century decrease its population. This was followed by industrial agriculture which saw to clearing the habitat of these historic animals for settlements and fields viewing them as dangers to crops which encoraged the slaughter.

The last nail to the coffin began in the dawn of 1950s when a traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) was promoted by Moa Zeddong, rumored to cure various diseases. Though Mao Zedong himself was not a fan of this medicine, he called for use of this over western medicine.

Among many cures brought by china's New Medicine was powdered rhino's horn, which was rumored to cure everything ranging from fevers to cancer. That lead to a heavy hunt by poachers on this animal. Between the range of 1960 to 1995 90% of this specie were gone, killed by poachers either to feed demand for this medicine or for its horns which was used to make ceremonial knife handles.

All rhinos suffered this attack but the western black rhino which was already weakened by over hunting suffered the hardest hit. In 1980 the western black rhino rang shrunken to just two countries of which Cameroon held 110 of this animal and Chad just 25. Chads was wiped out just after 10 years while Cameroon held on a bit longer.

An estimate of 50 western black rhinos were held by Cameroon in 1991 of which dropped to 35 just a year later and down to 10 by 1997. This number was scattered across 25,00 square kilometer northern Cameroon where four lived in close proximity to one another while the other six lived in isolation.

Another survey conducted by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) showed just five of this specie at 2001 and that was the last time a western black rhino was seen on earth. And we kept searching but no black rhino were ever found and In 2011 with no sight in a decade, the Western Black Rhino was declared extinct by the International Union For Conservation of Nature.

LESSONS

Will we learn from this unfortunate loss of the western black rhino?, we can when we begin to understand how important these animals are in our planet, helping in any way we can to conserve species which are termed endangered in our society. @amavi is putting a list of some endangered specie, that is a way forward to avoid this sad incident from occurring again.

This is a series, I will be bringing with time those lost animals we would only tell stories of their beauty.

For the love of Animals

For the love Of Nature

For the Love Of Planet Earth.

Fellow Me For More On Animals And Nature( I Am Just Getting Started), Please Don't Miss The Upvote Button (its just by the corner :) ), And don't Forget To Resteem. SteemIt All The Way.

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