ZOOLOGICAL 
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MARUKA, THE GREAT CHIEF OF THE LOGO 
In his territory the regular annual toll of white rhinoceroses killed by 
natives for meat exceeded forty. 
among living groups of African mammals is a 
natural condition, and not so rare as generally 
believed. 
Even so decidedly widespread a 
ane “. species as the black rhinoceros 
ack y - = 
Species cannot boast of a continuous 
range, though it is found yet in 
many sections of South Africa and all the way 
north to Abyssinia, neighboring parts of Egypt, 
across the Sudan to the eastern bank of the 
Nile, and also in Angola, and the Katanga dis- 
trict of the Belgian Congo. At present it is 
totally absent from all that territory known as 
the range of the Nile-Congo race of white rhin- 
oceroses, though, as stated, occurring again in 
the Shari-Niger region south of Lake Chad. 
Thus in the north both species apparently live 
apart. 
Of the habits of the only white 
rhinoceroses still alive im South 
Africa Vaughan-Kirby* has just 
published an interesting study. 
There, in the Umfolosi reserve 
in Zululand, embracing an area of 
about 90,000 acres, and for the greater part 
Near 
Extinction 
of Southern 
White 
Rhinoceros 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 
situated between the Black and White Umfolosi 
rivers, both the prehensile-lipped black and 
square-mouthed white rhinoceroses live under 
natural and undisturbed conditions. For some 
strange reason their number in this last refuge, 
stated in 1910 by Stevenson-Hamilton to be 
“some fifteen’? seems now to have dwindled to 
“some ten” individuals, according to Heller’s 
reference, later quoted by Vaughan-Kirby, who 
nevertheless gives assurance that reproduction 
is proceeding as rapidly in the reserve as in the 
Congo-Nile region. 
In the field one need not worry 
Habits much about dangers from aggres- 
and sion by white rhinoceroses. All 
Tempera- those who have wandered the veldt 
ment of a 5 s 
NSC know the fascination of tracking 
White hour after hour under constantly 
Rhinoceros shifting winds. Finally the re- 
ward may be to catch a glimpse 
of what perhaps promises an exciting adven- 
ture, but now, beyond the hazy screen of thicket, 
looks merely like an outcropping boulder. 
These rhinoceroses, gregarious, sociable, and 
piglike in many ways, lie down helter-skelter 
in the fashion of heedless vagabonds. An occa- 
sional snort and the rumbling of gases in their 
intestines alone break the dead silence of a 
tropical noon. Instinctively and as in a dream 
their ears continue to fan the air, the eyelids 
twitch, the muzzle quivers, and the tail whisks 
off the hosts of harassing flies. The shifting 
of a bulky head or the fidgety turn of a body 
will not disturb a herd. But at the slightest 
evidence of your presence their elbows jerk the 
forelimbs from beneath the body. One or all 
may sit up in dog fashion on their haunches, 
listen and sniff, and if all is well, lie down 
and quietly drowse again. 
Once roused from rest the sluggish body is 
full of hesitation; and doubt and fear are easy 
losers. The massive brutes seem suddenly to 
realize that the traditional freedom of their 
haunts is at stake. Bewilderment is changed 
into blind fury. With astonishing speed they 
dash across the veldt. Sharp horns, swift 
hoofs, mighty weight, and hide like solid armor, 
they recognize no obstacles. The clumps of 
bushes, gnarly scrub, entangled masses that no 
one has yet dared brave are trodden down and 
brushed aside like trembling blades of grass. 
The weirdness of the crashing sounds, the boom- 
ing of the thundering progress fan still higher 
the flames that furnish energy and motion. 
Yet one cannot help but note how quickly the 
fearful rush gives way. Soon they trot and 
* Ann. 
XXVIII. 
Durban Mus., II, part 2, 1920, pp. 223-242, Pl. 
