The Difference Between Black & White Rhinos

AFRICAN RHINOS

There are two kinds of rhinoceros in Africa – the black rhino and the white rhino. There are approximately 4800 black rhino and 20 000 white rhino surviving in the wild.

                                                             

                                                                 Young white rhino.. 

                                                                 A black rhino.. 

Black rhino

• Black rhino (which are actually grey) are browsers, using their pointed upper lips like a miniature elephant trunk to twist off low-growing branches of trees and shrubs.
• They are sometimes said to be bad-tempered, but are actually just shy and inquisitive. They will run towards anything unusual in their surroundings, but usually run away if they smell humans. Even so, if a black rhino is encountered in the wild, you should climb the nearest tree or stand very still. Some individual rhinos are very nervous and a female with a calf will charge anything she considers a potential threat.
• Rhinos have poor eyesight but a good sense of smell and hearing.
• Black rhino grow to 1.6m tall, weigh up to 1 400kg and have two horns.
• Black rhino are the fastest kind of rhino with a top speed of 55km/ hour.
• They eat woody trees, shrubs and herbs.     

• White rhino

  • The white rhino has a wide mouth. The name of the white rhino is sometimes said to be a corruption of the Dutch word “wijd” but nobody really knows where the names come from.
  • The white rhino grows to 1.8m and weighs over two tons. It is second only to the African elephant in the size of land mammals.
  • It is a grazer and lives in social groups.
  • They mainly eat grass and are the most abundant rhino species.
  • They have two horns.
  
  The story of the southern white rhino is one of the great conservation success stories of the 20^th century. A hundred years ago they had been hunted almost to extinction. A small surviving population of about 50 was protected in Imfolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. That population grew and the then Natal Parks Board (now Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife) began to translocate animals to other areas where they could breed to form new populations. They are no longer considered critically endangered, although are still regarded as vulnerable.

• How to distinguish between black and white rhino in the wild

  Black rhino are more likely to be solitary and are shyer, keeping to thicker bushy areas. White rhino tend to be in groups. Black rhino have short necks and hooked lips which make browsing branches easier. White rhino have long necks and wide mouths for eating grass.

• AFRICAN RHINO ACTIVITIES AND BEHAVIOUR

  
  
  
  
  • Black rhino adults tend to roam within specific areas, called home ranges or territories.
  • Mother rhinos protect their calves fiercely.
  • Rhino are host to many parasites. Black rhino carry a few tick species that are rhino specialists. Ticks are the cause of much of the determined rubbing on posts and stones undertaken by rhino.
  • Black rhino must drink at least every two to three days. When succulent plants form a large part of their diet, they can go without drinking for longer.
  • Black rhino do more of their feeding and drinking during the cool hours of the night than during the day.
  • Social advertising is important to rhino. They make use of dung piles or middens and scrapes (spray-urination sites). The middens are used by more than one rhino and by both black and white rhino. Males use spray-urination to advertise their presence and mark their range.
  • Rhino use their horns for self-defence and attacking opponents or predators. White rhino groups stand in a circle facing outwards to form a barricade with calves near the centre.
  •                                                                              Two white rhinos..
  •                                                                                       A black rhino...
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Blue monkey/diademed monkey (Cercopithecus mitis)

The blue monkey or diademed monkey is a species of Old World monkey native to Central and East Africa, ranging from the upper Congo River basin east to the East African Rift and south to northern Angola and Zambia.

Who knows anything about this guy,help me know please.....
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Sykes' monkey/Samango monkey/white-throated monkey

Kipunji/Highland mangabey.

The kipunji is a species of Old World monkey that lives in the highland forests of Tanzania. Also known as the highland mangabey.

The kipunji is a large, forest-dwelling primate discovered by WCS scientists in southern Tanzania in 2003. Initially assumed to be a mangabey—a species of monkey found only in Africa—subsequent DNA analysis revealed that the kipunji is an entirely new genus of primate. WCS derived its scientific name  from the mountain on which it was found, Mount Rungwe. The kipunji is critically endangered, with a total population of only about 1,100 and a range smaller than 20 square miles.

Kipunjis lives in montane forests in two isolated regions. In the Southern Highlands, they are found in Mt. Rungwe Nature Reserve and the Livingstone forest of Kitulo National Park, and in the Udzungwa Mountains, they live in the Kilombero Nature Reserve. The two Southern Highland locations are linked by the narrow Bujingijila Corridor, which has been severely degraded by logging.

Kipunjis are diurnal and arboreal, rarely coming to the ground. Social animals, they live in groups of 20 to 36 individuals. Their diet consists of at least 120 species of plants as well as fungi, lichen, insects, and other invertebrates. They are not territorial and the two-square-mile home range of one group may often overlap with other groups. The main predators are humans, crowned eagles, and leopards.

Fast Facts

Scientific Name

Rungwecebus kipunji

The kipunji was the first new African primate genus to be discovered since 1923. Kipunjis tend to be vocal, with at least 12 unique calls identified. They are wary of humans, and males often exhibit a head-shaking behavior and make a call referred to as a “honk-bark” to warn intruders away. Kipunjis often associate with black-and-white colobus, and Sykes’s monkeys—a behavior that may provide safety in numbers when evading predators.

Challenges

The kipunji faces a number of significant threats, including habitat loss through logging and charcoal production, habitat fragmentation, and illegal hunting. Many subpopulations are small and isolated, and are unlikely to be viable in the long-term without conservation interventions. Kipunjis prefer steep-sided gullies and valley edges, and avoid ridges and open areas. The monkeys occasionally enter adjacent farmlands to feed on maize and the leaves of sweet potatoes and beans. Local farmers may kill the offending kipunjis and hunt them for food.

WCS Responds

WCS has worked in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands since 2000, when we launched the Southern Highlands Conservation Program. Since discovering the kipunji in 2003, WCS routinely monitors the population and its conservation status, and continues to study its ecology and behavior daily. WCS is investing in the protection and restoration of all Southern Highland habitats and was responsible for the designation of both Kitulo National Park and Mt. Rungwe Nature Reserve. We also conduct environmental education workshops for local communities to help foster respect for all wildlife in the region.

Zanzibar red colobus/ Kirk's red colobus

You can only find them in Tanzania,Unguja[Zanzibar]

Abbott’s duiker.

Abbott's duiker (Cephalophus spadix), also known as minde in swahili, is a large, forest-dwelling duiker (small antelope) found only in a few scattered enclaves in Tanzania. It may be a subspecies of the yellow backed duiker. It is very rare and the first photograph was taken as recently as 2003.
 Abbott's duikers stand around 65 cm (26 in) tall at the shoulder and weigh about 55 kg (121 lb). This duiker has a glossy, dark brown coat which is lighter on the underside. The face is paler and gray in color, with a large red tuft on the forehead; the horns are thin and short (8 to 12 cm (3.1 to 4.7 in)).The secretive behavior of Abbott’s duiker, along with its largely nocturnal habits and preference for dense vegetation, means little is known about the ecology and behavior of this species. It has been observed feeding on leaves in the forest understory, and on vegetation in forest clearings, and may feed on fruits, flowers and moss. An Abbott’s duiker has also been seen with a frog in its mouth; duikers are known to occasionally capture and feed on live prey. The cryptic habits and alertness of Abbott’s duiker unfortunately does not protect it entirely from predation. Young Abbott’s duikers are probably preyed on by African crowned eagles (Stephanoetus coronatus) and pythons (Python species), while duikers of all ages may fall victim to leopards (Panthera pardus). Lions (Panthera leo) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) may also hunt this duiker species in some areas.

African clawless otter.

The African clawless otter (Aonyx capensis), also known as the Cape clawless otter or groot otter, is the second-largest freshwater species of otter. African clawless otters are found near permanent bodies of water in savannah and lowland forest areas. They range through most of sub saharan-Africa, except for the Congo River-basin and arid areas.They are characterized by partly webbed and clawless feet, from which their name is derived.

White-browed sparrow-weaver

Juvenile in Namibia.

 An acacia tree with white-browed sparrow-weaver nests in the Okavango delta, Botswana.

 Male, At L.Baringo.

White-browed sparrow-weaver nests in Botswana, Africa.

A pair relaxing on a branch of tree.

Rufous-tailed weaver

The rufous-tailed weaver (Histurgops ruficaudus) is a species of songbird found in East Africa. Despite its name, it is placed in the sparrow family (Passeridae).
It is a quite unusual sparrow species, and was included in the weaver family (Ploceidae) by many authors even after the other Old World sparrows were separated from the weavers proper, hence its common name. It is placed in the monotypic genus Histurgops.
It is an endemic breeder in Tanzania, but vagrants occur in Kenya too.
 Rufous-tailed weaver. Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. Photo by Lee R. Berger (Below).

Tortoise

Tortoises are a family, Testudinidae, of land-dwelling vertebrates in the order testudineTortoises are shielded from predator by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge. The carapace is fused to both the vertebrae and ribcage, and tortoises are unique among vertebrates
in that the pectoral and pelvic girdles are inside, rather than outside, the ribcage. Tortoises can vary in size from a few centimeters to two meters. They are usually diurnal animals with tendencies to be crepuscular depending on the ambient temperatures. They are generally reclusive
animals.

 Above is the Aldabra giant tortoise.

How some of us misuse our lovely tortoises.

Baby tortoise, less than a day old.

 Desert tortoise in Rainbow Basin near Barstow, California 

22-year-old leopard tortoise.

 Skeleton of a tortoise.

Testudo graeca ibera, Testudo hermanni boettgeri, Testudo hermanni hermanni, Testudo marginata sarda

Young, 20-year-old Tanzanian leopard tortoise feeding on grass

 Pair of African spurred tortoises mate in a zoo.

 African spurred tortoise.

 Young (3.5 years) African spurred tortoise.

 Tortoises generally have the longest lifespans of any animal, and some individuals are known to have lived longer than 150 years.
 Female tortoises dig nesting burrows in which they lay from one to 30 eggs.Egg-laying typically occurs at night, after which the mother tortoise covers her clutch with sand, soil, and organic material. The eggs are left unattended, and depending on the species, take from 60 to 120 days to incubate.