86 ZOOLOGICAL 
THE BEGINNING OF A WATER HOLE 
In the midst of the jungle a mere puddle may rapidly be transformed into a deep hole, for with 
each wallowing each rhinoceros carries off a heavy load of mud. 
as stomach contents and droppings also attest. 
Perhaps such a restricted diet is one of the 
reasons why no white rhinoceroses have ever 
reached civilization alive. A careful supervision 
of their food would undoubtedly help keep these 
monsters alive after capture. Strange as it may 
sound the young are easily handled. In 1907 
I had the pleasure of turning over to Dr. Wil- 
liam T. Hornaday, Director of the New York 
Zoological Park, a young black rhinoceros I 
brought to New York from Mombasa, East 
Africa. I can vouch that the monstrous weight 
and power is not so serious a drawback. These 
giant pets show great affection for those attend- 
ing them and at the slightest call give instant 
response. Even when racing at top speed a 
mere whistle will make them brace their four 
limbs and turn with a rapidity that astonishes 
every one. 
Black rhinoceroses live in rather 
solitary fashion, and stand about 
or travel with head generally car- 
ried well off the ground. Their 
sources of information being more dependent 
Habits of 
Black and 
White 
Rhinoceroses 
on the wind are uncertain, a fact accounting 
for their more truculent temper. Usually 
their droppings are left along trails, in 
well established sites, and the large accumula- 
tions are thoroughly kicked over and nosed 
about by other passers-by. Much in the same 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 
manner as dogs sniff about, these 
black rhinoceroses gather infor- 
mation about the presence, num- 
ber, and sex of their kin. These 
nalodorous messages of course 
are really important for the wel- 
fare of their race. 
The white rhinocernses travel 
with nostrils close to the ground, 
the whole family within a nar- 
row compass. No special excite- 
ment need necessarily rouse 
them to a spirit of aggressive- 
ness, their information being 
transmitted through scent, is al- 
ways close at hand. Their tem- 
per is therefore less susceptible 
to being rufled by continuous 
doubt. Unlike the black species, 
they deposit their droppings 
wherever they happen to be, 
usually during the early morn- 
ing; they may nose them and 
occasionally scrape the ground 
with their hind feet, but other- 
wise leave them untouched. 
It would thus seem that the different methods 
of depositing excreta in the black and white 
species, are not accidental habits. They prob- 
ably are based upon fundamental differences in 
instinct, with a definite purpose, and are related 
to the fact that in both kinds the eyesight is 
poor. 
The impress these rhinoceroses 
leave upon their habitat bears but 
little comparison to the general 
havoe wrought upon a region by passing herds 
of elephants. True, the latter also have a few 
well-worn highways, but the daily ten to twenty 
mile stroll of rhinoceroses endows their haunts 
with good trails, welcome to all. Relentless 
habit, softening rains, and hardening action of 
the sun—these are the factors that have slowly 
formed the greatest jungle trails in Africa. 
Here the primitiveness of a one-track brain, the 
rhinoceroses brutal strength and ponderous 
weight have forced their right of way, and the 
results can well compare with those wrought 
by the American bison. Where do these age- 
old pathways lead? To native hovels, to far 
off hamlets, to hard-tilled soil, or to white men’s 
brick-built posts? No! They claim their world, 
and throw a mighty span across the jungle. 
The whole savannah, with its level stretches 
and its hills, the rivers, swamps, luxuriant 
grazing grounds and barren outcrops all are in 
Rhinoceros 
Trails 
