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How Does a White Rhinoceros Eat?

The white rhinoceros is herbivorous and consumes vast amounts of vegetation to gain the energy that it needs. Adaptations help it to gather, break down and digest its food as efficiently as possible. The white rhino began to be distinguished into two subspecies, the southern white rhino and northern white rhino, around 2 million years ago as it adapted to consume different types of plant life in different habitats. This animal's natural habitat is the savanna and grassland regions of South Africa. Small numbers can also be found in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Uganda. In 2011, all white rhinos are endangered. According to Animal Corner, there are around 11,000 southern white rhinos in the wild today and only four northern white rhinos are thought to exist.

Diet
- The white rhinoceros is an herbivorous grazer, consuming a diet made up of a range of grasses such as panicum and urochloa. Some of the vegetation that the white rhinoceros consumes with no ill effects would be poisonous to other animals. The white rhinoceros plays an important role in its environment by removing these plants. Occasionally, these animals may eat soil to supplement mineral levels. Although the white rhinoceros can last for up to five days without water when necessary, it prefers to drink every day. This rhinoceros can consume up to 17.5 gallons of water in a single day.
Volume of Food
- The types of foods that the white rhinoceros eats have a low nutritional value. This means that this animal must eat large volumes of food over long periods to gain the amount of energy that it needs. The white rhinoceros spends around half of its day eating and can consume up to 37 lbs. of vegetation over a period of 24 hours.
Adaptations for Eating
- White rhinoceros is a name derived from an Afrikaans word to describe its mouth. In the Afrikaans language, the word weit means wide. The wide, square mouth helps the white rhino to graze on short grass effectively, collecting large amounts of grass. A hump on the animal's back is caused by the strong muscles that allow the white rhinoceros to hold its massive head in the grazing position for extended periods of time. The muscles in the white rhino's lips are also strong and make easy work of browsing even though the animals have no canine or incisor teeth. The white rhinoceros can also use its horn to forage for food. If grass becomes too short for the rhino to graze, its horn can be used to uproot the remaining grass before using its lips to gather the vegetation. The white rhinoceros has four molar teeth, two on the top and two at the bottom. These flat teeth are used to break down grasses before being swallowed.
Digestive System
- The white rhinoceros has an efficient digestive system to help it gain as much as possible from the low-energy vegetation that it consumes. Tough vegetation such as grasses are fermented inside part of the gut, allowing the white rhino to break down more fibrous vegetation. Because of the large amounts of food consumed, the white rhinoceros also produces large amounts of dung which serve an additional purpose of marking territory.

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