Have you ever wondered about the life of the smallest rhino in the world? Well to start, the Sumatran rhino is the smallest rhino in the world. A Sumatran Rhino is usually 1.0–1.5 m (tall at shoulder), also is 2.0–3.0 m long (length of body) and weighs 600-950 kg. Sumatran rhino’s have reddish brown skin, covered with long hair (most of the time) and the hair can vary from very sparse to very dense.

 

Two characteristics you could identify a Sumatran rhino are that they have fringed ears and have two horns; the front (anterior) horn is bigger and is 25–79 cm. Their second horn is mostly smaller then 10-cm. Some adaptations are that they have very good hearing and sense of smell to make up for their bad sight. They also keep their incisor teeth and have canine teeth they use for fighting with horses and tapirs. Sumatran rhinos live in dense tropical forests in the Malay Peninsula on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and on Borneo (in both lowlands and highlands). They do well in these places because they eat fallen fruit, twigs, and bark.

 

Sumatran rhinos can also live in sea-level wetlands. Sumatran rhino’s are also scattered all over Malaysia and Indonesia. Sadly, there are only 300 surviving Sumatran rhinos left in the world. The Sumatran rhino population has reduced by 50% in the last 10 years. Poachers are killing them for their horns because they are made up of the protein keratin; they use the horns to make some Asian medicines. There is no scientific proof that the keratin works in the medicine. They are also dieing because humans are wiping out their habitats.

 

Sumatran rhinos are herbivores and are preyed upon by carnivores. They compete for food by using their incisor and canine teeth to fight for the food they want to eat, which is mainly fruit, leaves, and twigs. They compete with different types of horses and tapirs that eat the same things they do. I think that is part of the reason they are shrinking too, because they have to compete for food. The main animals that prey on Sumatran rhinos are tigers and lots of other big cat species. They mainly prey on baby rhinos that have little horns and are defenseless but sometimes they go after grown rhinos. It protects itself from being eaten by hiding in the reddish brown grasses and mud; also it fights with its horn and uses its canine teeth to bite its opponent.

 

What interested me most was that it is the smallest rhino in the world. I learned that if we don’t try and stop the poachers and stop destroying their habitats they will all become extinct.

 

Author: Hannah H

Published: 02/2007

 

Bibliography “Eating Habits of the Sumatran rhino” 16 Feb. 2007 “Physical characteristics of a Sumatran rhino” 16 Feb. 2007 www.accessexcellence.org/wn/sua09/rhino197.html “Population size of the Sumatran rhino” 16 Feb. 2007 www.asianrhinos.org.av/new/html