Anonymous, 1874. On the new rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens. Nature 9, March 12: 363-364
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Captive - Europe |
| Subject: |
Captivity - Zoo Records |
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Indian Rhino |
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12 March 1874
ON THE NEW RHINOCEROS AT THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS
A glance at our list of additions to the Zoological Gardens during the last week will inform the reader that the Zoological Society has been successful in adding to its already unrivalled collection of specimens of the genus Rhinoceros still another species, which is exhibited for the first time in the Society's collection, and most probably in this country.
It is well known amongst naturalists that in Asia there are to be found two species of Rhinoceros, with a single horn developed on the top of the nose. The larger of these is the gigantic Indian Rhinoceros (R. unicornis), many specimens of which have been brought to this country, and a very fine male example of which is living in the Regent's Park Gardens. In it the skin, which is immensely thick, is thrown into massive folds or shields, making the animal appear as if clad in armourplating. Each shield is thickly studded with nearly circular slightly-raised tubercles, which look very much like the heads of innumerable bolts intended to strengthen and retain the shield in position. The folds that surround the neck, where it joins the head, are very ample, producing the appearance of the now so fashionable ruff, somewhat modified. According to the observations of the late Mr. Edward Blyth, the Indian Rhinoceros is found only at the foot of the Himalayan hills, and in the province of Assam, along the valley of the Brahmapootra.
The second species of one-horned Rhinoceros is generally called the Javan Rhinoceros (R. sondaicus). It is found in Java, and in the country stretching from Malacca up through Burmah to Assam. It is considerably smaller than the Indian species; the shields are not so strongly marked, and are not arranged in an exactly similar manner, the gluteal shield not being completely divided into two by a transverse fold situated half-way down it; and the middle neck fold, instead of running backwards on each side before it reaches the spine, crosses the middle line, and so divides off a saddleshaped shield, which is median, and as deep from before backwards as from side to side. The fold which surrounds the neck is also much less significant, and the head is narrower and less formidable in aspect. The tuberculation of the shields is more slightly marked, and each tubercle is proportionately smaller in diameter.
It is a specimen of this Javan Rhinoceros (R. sondaicus), a nearly full-grown male from Java itself, which the Zoological Society has succeeded in purchasing, and which is now exhibited in the same house as the Indian species, so that every opportunity is at last afforded for a more minute study of the differences which will most probably be found to distinguish the two species.
The other species of Asiatic Rhinoceroses, namely, the Sumatran Rhinoceros (R. sumatranus), and the Hairy-eared Rhinoceros (R. lasiotis), are both two-horned, and have been divided off as a separate genus, that of Ceratorhinus, by Dr. J. E. Gray. The skin is not divided into shields, and is thinner than in the one-horned species. The type specimen of the Hairy-eared Rhinoceros, the only example known, is now living in the Zoological Gardens. About a year ago the Sumatran animal was also represented, and rumour says that the gap caused by its loss will not be long unfilled.
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On the new rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens
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