Quick answer
Key facts about white rhinoceros — size, diet, habitat, and conservation in one place.
Grassland grazer
White rhinos crop grass with a wide muscular lip, spending half the day feeding. Their head is held low near the ground — unlike browsing black rhinos. Poor eyesight is offset by excellent smell; mud wallows cool the skin and deter parasites.
Social groups
White rhinos are more social than black rhinos, with cows and subadults sometimes forming loose groups. Territorial bulls mark with dung piles and defend access to females. Calves walk behind the mother for up to three years.
Southern recovery miracle
Southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) fell to roughly 50 animals in the early 1900s in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal. Protection and translocation rebuilt the population to over 15,000 — one of conservation's greatest recoveries — though poaching pressure continues.
Northern white rhino tragedy
The northern subspecies is functionally extinct: the last male died in 2018, leaving two females in Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy. IVF and stem-cell research aim to prevent total loss, but the wild northern white rhino is gone from its range in Central Africa.