The island of Java, surrounded by the sea on all sides, has high temperatures and rains all year round, regardless of cold and heat. Located at the western tip of Java, Ujung Kulong National Park is home to a large area of swamps and mangroves, with palm trees everywhere. The lowland rainforest environment here is suitable for the giant Javan rhinoceros to survive, but unfortunately, the Javan rhino is on the verge of extinction, according to expert estimates, there are only about 72 left in the world! They are all hidden in the dense forest and are not discovered.
According to the Times of India, not long ago, in Ujung Kulong National Park, an adult male Javan rhino was bathing in a muddy pool of dense woods, only to see it roll happily, allowing the muddy water to spread evenly throughout the body.
Can you imagine a giant Javan rhino taking a mud bath, happily rolling over and rolling over again? At first glance, I only think it is mighty, and then I look at it again, it seems a little cute? The Javan rhino is bulky and imposing in appearance, but it also shows a cute and cute side when taking a mud bath.
<h1>01 weighs about 1500 kg, the head is long with a single horn, and the skin is like an armor suit</h1>
Javan rhinoceros, also known as Javan rhinoceros, is a strange-hoofed, rhinoceros family, unicorn rhinoceros genus rhinoceros, huge body, the whole body length of about 3 meters, shoulder height of about 1.6 meters, the average weight of about 1500 kg, the largest individual even up to 2300 kg.
The only surviving one-horned rhinos are the Indian rhinoceros and the Javan rhinoceros. Relatively speaking, Indian rhinos are larger, heavier in weight, and have larger horns on their heads. So people call the Indian rhinoceros the big one-horned rhinoceros and the Javan rhinoceros the small one-horned rhinoceros.
The most obvious feature of the Javan rhino is that the male has a single horn on its head, and the horn is not connected to the skeletal structure of the skull, and it is not very long. The single horn that grows above the nose, which is in front when it walks, is particularly windy. However, females have no horns.
Has gray skin. The outer skin is made up of large pieces of leather, which are as hard as armor, and there are 3 thick folds on the body, which are spliced together at the back. The whole Javan rhino looks like it is wearing a perfectly stitched armor suit. The neck is folded up two or three layers, much like a collar.
A pair of long, narrow ears grow on the head, covered with not long hairs; it also has a slender upper lip that extends outward and beyond the lower lip, and large incisors.
Heavyweight Javan rhinoceros, with a large body, short limbs, always clumsy look. Wouldn't it be scary if such a big guy appeared in front of you?
<h1>02 To take a mud bath twice a day, you can hear it roaring 600 meters apart</h1>
Living in lowland rainforests and mangrove swamps, Javan rhinos can find good food everywhere. It feeds on branches, shoots, young leaves, fruits, bamboo, mangoes and figs, etc., as long as you walk around the woods, you can eat and fill your stomach with your mouth open, and you don't have to worry about eating and drinking at all.
The Javan rhino likes to be alone, for it, the most pleasant time to relax is to take a mud bath, I really don't know whether to say that it loves to be clean, or that it is playful?
Although The Javan rhinoceros has thick skin, there are many mosquitoes in the dense woods and they are afraid of being bitten. It doesn't hurt, but it feels bad to be bitten.
So when the Javan rhinoceros feels uncomfortable, it will find a quagmire or puddle and run in to spread joy and roll. It can cool down the body and keep it cool, and when it is wrapped in mud, it can also prevent mosquito bites.
Indonesian Environment Minister Nurbaya Baka said javanese rhinos take mud baths at least twice a day, sometimes for up to 3 hours.
The Javan rhino has poor eyesight, but has a keen sense of smell and hearing, and its call is loud and penetrating. It is known that Javan rhinos can make a variety of calls, including "hoarse", "screaming", "lip vibration" and "nasal sounds". When it roared, the sound penetrated the dense forest and could be heard from a distance of 600 meters.
<h1>03 When fighting without a single horn, with incisors, the biggest natural enemy is humans</h1>
Don't look at the Javan rhinoceros with a thick appearance, it is actually a stupid big one, the courage is small, and it is always very cautious when going out. Once he found an abnormality, he immediately dragged his bulky body and fled.
However, it doesn't want to get into trouble, and trouble always comes to it. When the Javan rhino was forced to defend itself with force, it fought in a simple and brutal way, rampage, and used its size advantage to deal with the enemy. And they don't use the horn on their heads, but use their sharp incisors to bite each other.
In nature, The Javan rhino has no natural enemies, after all, no carnivore dares to fight the Javan rhino without self-control, and other small animals are more fragrant. The biggest predator of the Javan rhino is humans.
The Javan rhino rarely attacks people unless it is frightened at close range or is raising a cub, and its range of motion is generally between 20 square miles.
But those who are greedy will not let it go easily, and use every means to hunt down the Javan rhinoceros and cut off the horns of the rhinoceros. Because rhino horn is very precious, it is regarded as a precious Chinese medicine. Others carved rhino horns into dagger handles.
<h1>04 Breed only once every 4-5 years, and the young rhinoceros lives with the mother for 2 years</h1>
The Javan rhino is a typical solitary animal, and one of the reasons for its endangerment is its poor reproductive ability and low reproductive rate, which only breeds every 4-5 years. Moreover, the gestation period is up to 16 months.
Each litter gives birth to only one cub, and the mother beast will carefully raise the cub, feed it and drink milk, and when the cub is a little older, she will take it to the forest to forage for food, and pick the most tender leaves for it to eat.
Of course, they will also take their cubs to the edge of the mud pool and roll and play in the muddy water together. The lactation period of young rhinos is as long as 1-2 years, during which time they follow the mother and animal, and only after 2 years do they begin to live independently.
A female Javan rhino conceives and gives birth to a cub, and then raises her cubs, which is a long process. Javan rhinos are eugenic, so it's no wonder they breed every 4-5 years.
Female rhinos mature at three or four years, while male rhinos mature at 6 years of age, with an average lifespan of 35-40 years, with the longest lifespan reaching more than 50 years.
<h1>05 Critically endangered, only 72 remain in the world! </h1>
Nurbaya. As of 2019, the number of Javan rhinos is only 72, of which 39 are males and 33 are females, Baka said.
As the habitat of the Javan rhinoceros, Java is home to the only wild population in the world. Historically, the Javan rhino has been widely distributed in southern China, the Central Plains, as well as India, Indochina, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and other regions.
Since the Han Dynasty, rhinoceros habitat in China has gradually shrunk, retreating from northwest and south China to southwest. It was not until 1922 that the last Javan rhinoceros, the little one-horned rhinoceros, was killed. Since then, the Chinese rhinoceros has gone extinct.
Due to the large number of killings, the number of Javan rhinos is decreasing, and it is only distributed in Ujung Kulong National Park on the island of Java, and Ki Sien National Park in Vietnam. But in 2011, Vietnam's Javan rhino subspecies was also declared extinct.
The main reason threatening the survival of the Javan rhino is that humans poach in large quantities! In order to obtain rhino horn to make precious medicinal materials or handicrafts for profit, poachers will not hesitate to kill and rob the lives of a large beast.
Second, the habitat of the Javan rhino is gradually reduced or destroyed, resulting in the inability of the Javan rhino to survive; another reason is that the Javan rhino itself is very poor in breeding, and the population is difficult to reproduce in a short period of time.
<h1>epilogue</h1>
Every species has its own value! The huge Javan rhinoceros, once hunted in large numbers by poachers, is critically endangered. Thankfully, today, the Javan rhino is closely protected. It is believed that they will slowly increase the population and get rid of the fate of extinction.
Snow Spirit Valley Animal Lab/Production
References: Global Web, National Geographic, Zoology, Human and Nature