The rhinoceros is not a very intelligent animal. It is usually harmless, but can be easily provoked. It is then capable of showing a very capricious temper. When irritated it becomes very dangerous; and though usually very slow in moving, it can, when worked into a frenzy, run at a rapid rate.
Its great weight and strength enable it to force a passage through jungles and forests, and thus to break down all small trees that come in its way.
Its hide is so tough that the animal has nothing to fear from the lion or the leopard, and little to dread in man. It is only at a short distance that the hunter can penetrate the hide with a leaden bullet, and then only in some of the thinnest parts along the neck and chest. Usually bullets of iron or tin are used to shoot the animal.
The rhinoceros, like the hippopotamus, is hunted for its flesh, which is used as food by the natives, though it is not as highly prized as that of the hippopotamus. The tough hide of the South African species is sliced up into thongs, which the natives use in various ways.
The rhinoceros is found sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, but never in a herd. There are various species of the animal in Asia and India as well as Africa. Let us confine our attention to the African species alone. The bovele, or black rhinoceros of South Africa, is the smallest of all known species. Its first horn is thick at the base and not very long, while its second is quite short and conical. It is a very fierce, dangerous animal. When hunted it is capable of such activity that it is more to be dreaded than the lion.
The keitloa is larger than the bovele, and has its two horns of nearly the same length. The forward horn is curved backward, while the other is curved forward. This species of rhinoceros is also a native of South Africa. It is much dreaded on account of its great strength and ferocity. The white rhinoceros is the largest of all the African species. One of its horns attains the length of four feet.
The food of the black rhinoceros differs from that of the white. The former species lives almost wholly upon roots, which it digs up with its larger horn. Sometimes it eats the branches and the young sprouts of the thorny acacia tree. The white rhinoceros lives almost wholly upon grasses. Possibly this mild, succulent food gives it a nature resembling more that of the ordinary grazing animals, for it falls an easy prey to the invading Europeans. Even the flesh of the two species varies. That of the black rhinoceros is thin and tough, and has a sharp bitter taste. That of the white rhinoceros is juicy and of a good flavor, and is counted a delicacy by the natives and by the settlers.
The rhinoceros has an extraordinary acuteness of smell and hearing. It listens closely to the sounds of the desert, and can scent the approach of man from a great distance. The size of its unwieldy horns often impedes the range of its small, deep-set eyes, hence it can see only what comes immediately before it. To compensate for its imperfect sight, the rhinoceros is often accompanied by a bird. This bird seems as much attached to it as the dog is to man. Its warning cry acquaints the beast with the approach of danger. When the natives address a superior they call him "My Rhinoceros." This is by way of compliment, and serves to show that the inferior, like this bird, is ready to be of service.
The black rhinoceros has a gloomy, melancholy temper. It often falls into a perfect frenzy of rage from no apparent cause. Yet, to see this creature in its wild haunts, cropping its favorite leaves from the bushes, or moving quietly along over the plains, one might think it one of the most inoffensive and good-tempered animals of the whole continent of Africa. When roused to anger, no more terrific sight can be imagined. The very beasts of the wilderness tremble in fear of it. The lion silently steals away out of its path; even the elephant is glad to escape its notice.
