Rhinos are herbivores, obtaining their nutrients from feeding on plant matter such as shoots, leaves, fruits, berries, buds, and grass.
Each of the five species of rhino on the planet has its own unique physiological and environmental differences – but while there may be some variance in their diets, there are some key characteristics that all species share.
In this informative article we explore the eating habits of these giant mammals.
About Rhinos
The rhinoceros is one of the top five largest animals on the planet and belongs to the few remaining mega-fauna surviving today.
There are currently five species of rhino left in the world. The white rhino and black rhino species are found in Africa and the Sumatran rhino, Indian or Greater One Horned rhino and Javan rhino are found in Asia.
With only approximately 26,000 rhino living in the wild today, rhino are a critically endangered species. Human activity has caused this dramatic decline in rhino numbers, with poaching, habitat loss and disengaged communities by far the greatest threat to their populations.
Three of the five species, the black rhino, the Javan rhino and the Sumatran rhino are listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, with the southern white rhino (one of two sub-species of the white rhino) categorised by IUCN as Near Threatened and the Greater One Horned rhino as Vulnerable. The second white rhino sub-species, the northern white rhino, who live at Helping Rhino’s partner project Ol Pejeta Conservancy, is now Functionally Extinct with only two remaining female northern white rhinos left.
Rhinos are Mega Herbivores
Different rhino species seek out different types of vegetation to eat. What they eat, where they source their food, and how their body adapts to food often relate to where they live.
A rhino’s typical habitat includes tropical and subtropical grasslands, tropical forests, savannas, tropical moist forests, and shrublands. An adult rhino needs to eat a large amount of food to stay nourished. Actual intake varies between the species, and some rhinos need to consume over a hundred pounds of vegetation a day to maintain their weight and nutrition.
Because of their size and eating capacity, rhino are considered to be ‘mega herbivores’, and are also recognised as a keystone species, having a pivotal role in defining the ecosystem. Without keystone species such as the rhino, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. Rhino are selective in their choice of food, therefore are great eco-gardeners. By choosing certain plants or grasses over others, rhinos increase biodiversity by giving other species of plants the ability and space to grow.
Rhino – a Grazer or a Browser?
In terms of how rhinos feed, rhino species fall into one of two eating categories: grazers and browsers.
Grazers keep their heads down and primarily feed on grasses with a preference for shorter grasses. Greater one horned rhinos and white rhinos are both classified as grazers.
Black rhinos, Sumatran rhinos, and Javan rhinos all fall into the category of browsers. Rather than feed on grasses, browsers instead focus their attention on food that’s above eye level — with preferences including twigs, fruit, and leaves.
Different rhino species have also evolved different mouths to facilitate their foraging behaviours.
Browsing rhinos have an upper lip that is pointed and prehensile (good at grasping). This allows them to operate their lips in a similar way to pruning shears — clipping twigs, leaves, and fruit from trees and stripping bark from the surface. By contrast, grazers, like the white rhino have a wider, square-shaped upper lip that allows them to consume large quantities of grass in a short time.
Here are more details on the feeding habits of each of the 5 species of rhinoceros:
The White Rhino
(Ceratotherium simum)
The largest of all rhinoceros species, the white rhino can be found mostly in South Africa, with smaller translocated populations found in Kenya and Zimbabwe. There are also smaller reintroduced populations in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Swaziland, Uganda and Eswatini, while a small population survives in Mozambique.
There are two sub-species of white rhino: the southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) and the northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni).
A grazer, the white rhino is the most social of all rhino species, staying together in herds (also known as rhino crashes) and tend to dwell in the tropic and sub-tropic grasslands and savanna.
Known for its wide squared lip, the white rhino can feed on grass continuously throughout the day. This distinctive feature influences its feeding habit significantly. Being squared-lipped helps the white rhino to consume large quantities of grass over a short time period and as they intake some moisture along with the grass, they can survive for several days without water.
They are considered good grazers: showing some discrepancy in the grasses they choose, allowing for other species of plants to grow thereby increasing biodiversity. They also have another special skill – they’re able to eat a number of plants that are toxic to other animals and by doing so, they keep the grazing safe for the other animals.
The Black Rhino
(Diceros bicornis)
The smaller of the two African species, the black rhino is primarily found in Kenya and Tanzania in eastern Africa as well as parts of South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. There are four sub-species:
Southern Central black rhino (Diceros bicornis minor)
Eastern black rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli)
South Western black rhino (Diceros bicornis bicornis)
Western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes – declared extinct in 2011)
The black rhino is a browser and occupies a variety of habitats including savannas, sparse thorns scrub, thickets, dry forests, semi-desert savannas as well as mountain forests and moorlands at higher altitudes. Far more shy, secretive, and aggressive than the white rhino, the black rhino can be more difficult to track and spot. They tend to wander smaller home ranges as long as there are woody plants and waterholes nearby.
The black rhino’s diet consists of leafy plants, foliage from low-growing trees and bushes, shoots, thorny wood bushes and fruit. They can also dig up the ground using their horns to feed on edible roots.
The black rhino’s upper lip is pointed and prehensile (good at grasping), allowing them to grab and clip away at leaves, twigs and fruit from trees and bushes. They can also strip bark from the surface of branches and trunks. They like eating herbs and succulents. In fact, the black rhino is known to eat more than 200 different species of plants. But they tend to stay away from grass.
Like their white rhino counterpart, the black rhino also plays a part in supporting biodiversity within their habitat by keeping the bush and foliage from overgrowing.
>The Sumatran Rhino
(Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)
The smallest of the five species of rhino and the only Asian rhino with two horns, the Sumatran rhino is found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
Critically endangered, their population is said to have declined by about 50% since the late 1990’s. Their decline, like all other species of rhino, is due to poaching for their horn but the Sumatran rhino is also suffering due to loss of habitat. Their natural habitat is being destroyed and developed for palm oil plantations.
A browser, the Sumatran rhino lives in dense tropical and subtropical forests where they forage for a variety of foods including fruits, bark, leaves and twigs. Sumatran rhinos love mangoes and figs and are known to break into fruit plantations to steal a snack.
They tend to feed before dawn and dusk and are primarily active at night.
The Javan Rhino
(Rhinoceros sondaicus)
The Javan rhino is Critically Endangered, with only a single population left in the Ujung Kulon National Park, east of Jakarta in Indonesia.
The species inhabits dense lowland rainforests with a good supply of water, plentiful mud wallows, salt licks, and tall grass and reed beds.
The Javan rhino has a diverse diet. They are predominantly browsers, feeding on shoots, twigs, young foliage and fallen fruit. They also nibble young trees and occasionally graze on various species of grass. They are smaller than other browsing rhinos, so they browse from lower down.
Like the black rhino, their long upper lip is very distinctive and allows the Javan rhino to browse on trees, twigs and leaves, knocking down saplings to reach the leaves, shoots and fruit.
The Greater One Horned Rhino
(Rhinoceros unicornis)
The greater one horned rhino, also known as the Indian rhino is found across India and Nepal and has the most varied diet of all the rhino species.
They mostly inhabit shrublands and grasslands and are found primarily in Nepal and India. The greater one horned rhino has enjoyed a boost to their population in recent years. It is currently listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
Greater one horned rhinos are mainly grazers, feeding on tall grass. They prefer wetlands and spend most of their time in cool water, spending up to 60 percent of the day wading in shallow pools. The species also consume aquatic plants, which are typically juicy and succulent.
It also feeds on farm crops, fruits, and leaves, searching for food in the early mornings, late afternoons, or nights to avoid the sun’s heat.
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Read more about the issues facing rhinos from rhino poaching, to why rhinos are an endangered species and our commitment to creating rhino strongholds to protect rhinos, wildlife and wild spaces.