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World Wildlife
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The rhinoceros has a history going back 25 million years, the early species were woolly like Mastodons and Mammoths. Now the only rhinoceroses to be found are in Africa and South East Asia.
Some rhinoceroses have one horn while others have two. The horn is not made of horn but is a tightly packed bundle of coarse hair which has hardened.
The one horned species live in India, the two horned species live in Africa where the white rhino is the second largest land mammal in size and weight after the elephant.
A bird named the oxpecker will ride on the back of the rhinoceros, pulling out ticks which gives relief to these huge creatures.
Conservationists claim that Kenya once had around 20,000 white and black rhinos; sadly poachers have been killing them in large numbers and in 2006 there were fewer than 170 left in Kenya.
Dave Ansell
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