Most rhinoceroses prefer to avoid humans, but males, particularly during the breeding season, and females with calves may charge with little provocation. The animal’s eyes are small and shortsighted, but their senses of smell and hearing are very keen. The animals eat a variety of vegetation, and some have prehensile upper lips that they use to grasp and tear grass, reeds, and twigs. In solitary species the home territory is crisscrossed with well-worn trails and tunnels through the brush, and the borders are often marked with urine and piles of dung. Most rhinoceroses are solitary inhabitants of open grassland, savanna, scrub forest, or marsh. They are nearly hairless except for stiff bristles at the tip of the tail and short fringes around the ears. The animal’s thick skin forms platelike folds resembling armor, especially at the shoulders and thighs. Rhinoceroses have one or two horns on the upper surface of the snout. The feet have three short toes tipped with broad, blunt nails. Their massive bodies are settled on short, stumpy legs. They may grow to 14 feet (4.3 meters) long and 6 1/ 2 feet (2 meters) high at the shoulder. Rhinoceroses are ponderous, hoofed mammals found in eastern and southern Africa and tropical Asia. Yet the rhino’s horn is simply a mass of keratin-a fibrous protein found in the hair, nails, and outer skin of mammals. Most are killed for their horns, believed by some East Asian peoples to be an aphrodisiac, or sexual stimulant. Despite protective laws, they continue to be hunted because parts of their bodies are credited with some medicinal value in folk medicine. Nearly all species of rhinoceroses are threatened, and some are close to extinction.
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