Nairobi National park Black Rhinos
Nairobi National park Black Rhinos : Nairobi National park is a national park in Kenya that was established in 1946 about 7km (4.3 mi) south of Nairobi. It is fenced on the three sides, where as the open southern boundary allows migrating wildlife to move between the park and the adjacent Kitengela plains. Nairobi National park is well known for the ‘’ Rhinoceros Sanctuary’’.
Nairobi National Black Rhinos.
Nairobi National Park is one of the best places in the world to observe the Eastern Browse (Black) Rhino (Diceros bicorni micheali) in the wild. These intelligent and affectionate creatures have inhabited and Earth for 60 million years. It is one of the Kenya’s most successful rhinoceros sanctuaries, and it is one of the only a few parks where visitors can be certain of seeing a black rhinoceros in its natural habitat.
Black rhinos are such intelligent and affectionate creatures inhabited the earth for 60 million years. Today, these species of the black rhinos are perilously close to extinction, the rate of their decline is truly astounding even in Nairobi National Park.
They are thought to be the second largest land animal, with the elephant being the largest. They have arobust, cylindrical body with a large head, relatively short legs and short tail. The characteristic feature of the black rhinos is a large horn in the middle of their faces; though some have got a second, smaller horn. Black rhinos are mammals which are group of the vertebrates constituting the class Mammalia, characterized by the presence of the mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding their young ones.
The open savannah landscape enables easy spotting and observation of this awesome pachyderm in its natural habitat. Nairobi National Park is the convenient and virtually guaranteed chance to observe eastern black rhinos, of which only 700 remain after poaching decimated the population back in 1970’s. Nairobi National Park is a home to over 101 black rhinos currently of the highly endangered creatures, as well as to 11 southern white rhinos translocated here for their own protection amid the current rhino poaching epidemic. Silole Cottage provide of accommodation for those wanting to get up close and personal with rhinos and in the Silole Sanctuary one can indulge in some rhino tracking and see the hows and whys of rhino life on foot.
Black Rhinos are so important in that they are referred to as an umbrella species. Like an umbrella protects you from the rain, conservation of an umbrella species can indirectly protect many other species, because there are millions of species of conservation concern and the resources available for conservation are limited, it can be useful to use umbrella species to make conservation decisions, in format way when you save a rhino, you save an ecosystem.
In Nairobi national park the black rhino is usually solitary, while the white rhino tends to be more social, the black rhino is a browser, black rhino is triangular shaped upper lip, which ends in a grasping point, is used to eat a large variety of vegetation including the leaves, fruits, buds, and shoots of plants, bushes and trees. Black rhinos can be found in the various habitats that have woody vegetation.
Nairobi National Park is an important rhino sanctuary forming a nucleus for feeding the other populations, in that the park is where Kenya Wildlife Services use to restore the population of rhinos in other areas.
The male Rhinos are the territorial and normally when they grow and reach a certain age they start forming their own territories, to guard their resources and this creates fights, here the fights are a very common occurrence and the stronger ones will displace the less fit ones. The black rhino fights are indicators that the carrying capacity has been exceeded and management should take action.
The male black rhinos need to wait until they are 10 to 12 years old before they can claim a territory and mate. Black rhinos may reach 40 to 50 years of age. The females reach sexual maturity between ages 4 and 7. Gestation lasts approximately 14 to 16 months, with a single calf being the norm every 2 and a half to 3 years.
Black rhinos do not forestall a fight, but the black rhinos use their horns to defend themselves, as the horns are sharp enough to gore their thick skin because the rhinoceros rubs it on rough surfaces, which inadvertently removes the soft outer layer. The black rhinos has weight between 1000 to 1800 kilograms (2200 to 3970 ibs, they have body length which is 2.9 to 3.75 meters, their tail length is also between 60cm to 70cm and their shoulder height is 1.4 to 1.8meters. Black rhinos also have a defense mechanism where they soak in mud or roll in dust as protection against sunburn and insect bites, because the rhinos are very nearsighted, they often charge when startled; in the wild, rhinos have been observed charging at boulders or trees. This defense mechanism has given them an undeserved reputation for having a bad temper.
Black rhinos communicate through the honks, sneezes and poo, during confrontations, they growl and make ‘’trumpet calls’’. Black rhinos snort when they are angry, make sneeze-like calls as alarms, scream if they are scared and ‘’mmwonk’’ when relaxed. Rhinos also communicated through their poo and urine.
Black rhinos have special adaptations for dealing with them. First, they have an excellent sense of smell, which allows them to smell anything getting too close, secondly to make up for their bad eyesight, they have amazing hearing with ears that can rotate around to take in sounds from all directions.
Black rhinos are such unique in that they are browsers rather than grazers, and their pointed lip helps them feed on leaves from the bushes and trees, during your safari to Nairobi National Park, the black rhinos are such superb, outstanding and terrific creatures that you should not miss out during your safari in Kenya that will give you unforgettable memories.
