Renshaw, G., 1904. Natural history essays. London and Manchester, Sherratt and Hughes, pp. i-xv, 1-218
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| Subject: |
Morphology |
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White Rhino |
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It will be noted that in the above account no reference has been made to colour as a distinguishing mark of the white rhinoceros. Colour plays but little part in differentiating between the so-called 'white' and 'black' rhinoceroses, since both are of a dull slaty grey.
Several explanations of the Boer name 'witte rhenoster' (white rhinoceros) may here be considered.
1. The usual explanation is that the first individuals encountered were seen when emerging from their mudbath, and that their caked hides gave them a whitish appearance.
2. A little observation, even in a zoological garden, will amply show that the colour even of a dark animal may vary in intensity, according to the amount of sunlight concentrated upon it. It is now so common for the up-to-date sportsman to be armed with camera as well as with rifle, that most recent works on African hunting are ornamented with excellent engravings from photographs taken on the veldt. Several recently published photos show that even the black species in full sunlight may appear quite white: and Drummond, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1876, has pointed out that the sun shining full on a bull of the white species may cause it to appear whitish, the same animal on being followed into the shade appearing quite dark. We may thus conclude that R. simus, even when not recently emerged from its mud-bath, may appear white owing to the slate-grey hide glistening beneath the fierce rays of the African sun.
3. There appears to be a distinct tendency to true albinism in the white rhinoceros. Individuals have been met which were really white, or at least whitish. Sir Cornwallis Harris, who saw many simus during his famous expedition of 1836-7, says of this animal - 'His true complexion..... often approaches to cream colour.' Mr. Nicholson, writing to the 'Field' in 1894, mentions having shot no less than three examples which were of a yellowish cream hue. According to old tradition, the white rhinoceroses inhabiting South Western Cape Colony were lighter in colour than those found further north: these would naturally be the first individuals encountered by the early expeditions setting out from Cape Town, and thus the name adopted by the old pioneers would come into general use.
4. Another explanation has also been suggested. The horns of the white rhinoceros are pale-coloured, and those of the black rhinoceros are black, hence since these structures are but agglutinated hair, it may be inferred that if these anmals' bodies were hirsute instead of naked, then would R. simus be truly white, and R. bicornis truly black. Any person who has examined a front horn of the white rhinoceros will admit that the pale bristles sprouting from the base of the horn are themselves half way in structure to hair. Further, I have recently examined a front horn of the allied extinct Rhinoceros antiquitatis, and this strikingly resembled a white rhinoceros horn in my possession. Both specimens were markedly fibrous in texture, translucent, and had the posterior margin sharply defined. At its base the fossil horn was split up into bristly fibres, just like that of the white rhinoceros of the present day: in section it showed also exactly the hue which is seen in its living congener, so that the horns of the two species agreed remarkably in many ways. We are thus led up to a most interesting speculation for since Pallas* described the frozen carcase of the woolly rhinoceros which was found in December, 1771, on the banks of the Viloui River, as covered with ash-coloured hair, one may retrace the steps of evolution and fancifully picture the living white rhinoceros of recent times clad in a furry robe of silvery grey. Truly, in such a case, would the white rhinoceros well deserve its name!
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