White rhino (Ceratotherium simum)

Personal Information
The Zoo has two white rhinos, Roscoe and Bill. The two are half brothers and were both born at the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee in 2004. Roscoe and Bill are considered bachelors because of their age. Roscoe and Bill are often active and appear combative with one another, but this behavior is one form of exercise and play.

Status in the Wild
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status: Near threatened. When the rhino Species Survival Plan committee decides where to place rhinos in facilities, a number of factors come into play, including the rhino’s age, sex, genetics and exhibit availability. Having the two young males is exciting and the Seneca Park Zoo is pleased to have Roscoe and Bill.

Habitat
The squared lip that the white rhino is named for is an adaptation to the African grasslands that it grazes for food. The rhino is built to graze the open grasslands and floodplains in pockets of eastern and southern Africa.

Diet
Grasses, fruits and grain are the primary foods.

The white rhino is one of five species of rhinos. The others are the Javan rhino, the Sumatran rhino, the Indian rhino and the black rhino.
Full-grown adult white rhinos weigh between 5,000 to 7,000 pounds and measure 6-feet tall at the shoulders.
Our white rhinos are fed 25 pounds of grain, 5 pounds of produce (lots of bananas!) and hay every day.
The name white rhino comes from the Dutch words “wijd” or “weit,” meaning wide and refers to their wide, square shaped upper lip.
Rhinos have a poor vision. They can see movement, but not details more than 100 feet away. They do, however, have excellent hearing and a keen sense of smell which enables them to detect odors up to a mile away.
Rhinos wallow in mud as a way to cool themselves off.