--- title: "Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "A hooked, prehensile lip, a recorded top speed of about 34 miles per hour, and two horns that grow from the skin all its life." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/black-rhino-1.webp" published: "2026-09-01" updated: "2026-09-16" --- # Black Rhinoceros (*Diceros bicornis*) > **Status**: Checked against 6 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: A hooked, prehensile lip, a recorded top speed of about 34 miles per hour, and two horns that grow from the skin all its life. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Brutal Death Metal & Heavy Groove // Bolt Thrower, "For Victory" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/5ZZqPBNUHwGYVKS6ucjjNH) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwQJu1ua6VQ) > **Vibe Match**: Guttural low-end aggression and a grinding mid-tempo groove that rolls like a tank column, for an animal recorded at up to 55 km/h that runs straight through scrub. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Diceros bicornis* - **Danger Level**: Deadly - **Conservation Status**: Critically Endangered ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2020-1.rlts.t6557a152728945.en)) - **Superpower**: A hooked, prehensile upper lip that grabs plants and guides them into its mouth. - **Habitat**: Semi-desert savannah, woodlands, forests and wetlands in southern and eastern Africa - **Diet**: Twigs, woody shrubs, small trees, legumes and grass, with a preference for acacias and Euphorbia plants - **Tags**: ungulate, savanna, herbivore ## Natural History & Behavior ## A Hooked Lip for Browsing The black rhinoceros (*Diceros bicornis*) is a browser that eats trees, bushes and shrubs, unlike the grass-grazing white rhino. A black rhino weighs 1,000 to 1,800 kilograms, with a body 2.9 to 3.75 meters long and a shoulder height of 1.4 to 1.8 meters. It once lived across Africa south of the Sahara, apart from the Congo Basin. Today it lives in southern and eastern Africa, in countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The clearest way to tell it from a white rhino is its hooked lip; a white rhino's is flat. That upper lip is prehensile, meaning it can grip: it grabs plants and guides them into the mouth. It has no incisors, the front biting teeth. It eats an average of 23.6 kilograms of food a day. ## Sharp Nose, Curious Charges Black rhinos have poor eyesight and cannot easily spot a person standing more than 30 meters away, but their senses of smell and hearing are excellent. Yet a 2008 study of one rhino's retina found no support for its weak-sighted reputation. It put the rhino's sharpness of vision at 6 cycles per degree, comparable to a rabbit's, and calculated that, against the right background, a black rhino could readily pick out a 30-centimeter-wide person about 200 meters away. A startled black rhino tends to run away. Once the scare passes, curiosity kicks in and it investigates with charges. Many charges at people and their vehicles turn out harmless, but some can cause injury or death. Black rhinos have been recorded at up to 55 kilometers an hour (34 mph). Lions sometimes attack adults, and lions and spotted hyenas sometimes prey on young rhinos, but humans are the most important predator. > **Horns Without Bone** Both horns grow continually from the skin at their base throughout a rhino's life. They have no bony core and are not shed. Each is made of thousands of compressed hair-like strands of keratin, like the fibers in hair and fingernails. ## A Mostly Solitary Life Depending on the habitat, black rhinos can be solitary and territorial or semi-social. Adult males tend to live alone except when courting, and females are usually found only with their latest calf. The BBC's Africa series even filmed a group gathering socially at a waterhole. Home ranges run from 2.6 to 133 square kilometers. Rhinos mark their ground by spraying urine, leaving dung piles called middens, and rubbing a scent gland on their skin against a rock or tree. Oxpeckers, birds often seen with rhinos, remove their ticks and raise the alarm when danger approaches. ## Back From About 2,400 In the 19th century, black rhinos numbered several hundred thousand and were hunted relentlessly. By 1970 an estimated 65,000 were left. Poaching rose through the 1970s and 1980s with demand for rhino horn in Asia and the Middle East, and between 1970 and 1992 numbers fell 96 percent, to as low as around 2,400. Save the Rhino now puts the population at 6,788. Black rhinos live up to 30 to 35 years in the wild and 35 to 45 years or more in captivity. AnAge's longevity record is a wild-born female that was about 57 when she died in captivity at a sanctuary in Ngorongoro. The species is Critically Endangered, and Save the Rhino names poaching and a lack of safe habitat as its most significant threats. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What's the real difference between a black rhino and a white rhino? Start with the upper lip. A black rhino's is triangular and prehensile, meaning it can grip. A white rhino's is square and can't grip. The white rhino also has a large hump behind its head, and its molars are high-crowned, while the black rhino's are low-crowned. *(Source: [San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Library]())* ### What are rhino horns actually made of? Keratin. A black rhino's two horns grow continually from the skin at their base throughout its life, like human fingernails. Each horn is made of thousands of compressed hair-like strands of keratin, which makes it extremely hard and tough, though it can break or split in a fight. The front horn is longer than the rear one, averaging around 50 centimeters. *(Source: [Save the Rhino International]())* ### How fast can a black rhino run, and is it true it can barely see? Black rhinos have been recorded at up to 55 kilometers per hour (34 mph), and they can change direction surprisingly quickly and run right through scrub and bushes. Their eyesight is poor: one cannot easily spot a person standing more than 30 meters away. Their senses of smell and hearing are excellent. *(Source: [Save the Rhino International]())* ## Sources 1. [Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) Fact Sheet: Physical Characteristics. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Library.]() 2. [Black rhino. Save the Rhino International.]() 3. [Diceros bicornis (black rhinoceros). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 4. [AnAge entry for Diceros bicornis. AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database.]() 5. [Pettigrew & Manger (2008). Retinal ganglion cell density of the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis): Calculating visual resolution. Visual Neuroscience.]() 6. [Emslie (2020). Diceros bicornis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T6557A152728945.]() *Published September 1, 2026. 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