2 Rare and endangered black rhinos lying inside a watering hole as they are trying to cool down in an attempt to escape from the simmering heat that have been ravaging most of South Africa during the last month or two. Two species of rhino, the black and white rhino, are found in Africa with the species diverging about 5 million years ago. The main difference between black and white rhinos is the shape of their mouths; white rhinos have broad flat lips for grazing whereas black rhinos have long pointed lips for eating leaves and twigs. An interesting fact is that the black rhinoceros has 84 chromosomes while all other rhinoceros species have only 82 chromosomes.
Black rhino numbers have declined from around 70 000 in the 1960’s to a low of 2500 in the mid 1990’s. Their numbers have reached a high of about 4500 by 2010 when rhino poaching began to rear its ugly head when the demand for rhino horn from asian countries sent the price for this scarce and limited commodity sky rocketing.
