No. 429 Rhinoceros Indicus. — (Jerdon’s No. 212)
Native Names.—Genda, Gonda, Ganda, or Genra, Hindi; Gor, Assamese.
Habitat.—Himalayan Terai, from Central Nepal to the extreme eastern corner of the valley of Assam.
“About three centuries ago this animal existed on the banks of the Indus. The Indian rhinoceros inhabits by preference heavy grass jungle, rarely entering forest. In this respect it differs from its ally Sondaicus, which is a forest-loving species, and even frequents mountainous countries. It is still numerous in the mighty grass jungles which extend along the foot of the Eastern Himalayas from their slopes to the banks of the Brahmaputra. It is yearly becoming more scarce in the Nepal Terai, but is found there from Rohilkund to the Bhootan Doars.”
Description.—The accompanying outline sketch, taken from Nature for April 1874, will give a better idea of the animal than a mere verbal description:—
“For convenience of description I will divide the body into five segments—the head, the cervical, the scapular, the abdominal, and the gluteal. At the junction of the head with the neck is a large deep collar or ruff or fold of skin, which gives a very peculiar appearance to the animal. Behind this is a second similar but smaller ruff, which does not hang so low down from the throat as the first. On the dorsal surface it transversely crosses the nape. It is then continued down angularly to about the centre of the anterior edge of the scapular shield, where it forms an obtuse angle with its posterior but major half. It is at the point where it forms this angle that it gives off what I call the cervical fold, which forms the boundary of the top front edge of the scapular shield, but is lost at a point in the shoulder nearly over the centre of the fore limb.
“The scapular shield is a thick cuirass-like plate of skin, studded with round projections about the size of a shilling, and bearing much resemblance to the heads of bolts by which the shield was riveted to the body, and hence called ‘boiler-bolt tubercules.’ This shield is often removed from the carcase of a slain rhinoceros as a trophy, ‘and it is in its centre, but slightly low, that the fatal spot lies which will take him in the heart’ (Pollock).
“Between the scapular and the gluteal shields lies the abdominal segment. It calls for no particular description, except that the tubercles here are very much flatter and smaller than on either segments three and four. They are here about the size of a four-anna piece, and they seem to be crowded along the centre line of the body, while the dorsal surface is nearly free from them, and smooth.
“We next come to the gluteal segment. It is in this portion that the boiler-bolt tubercles attain their greatest development, some of them being perhaps three-tenths of an inch high.
“The gluteal segment is laterally crossed by three ridges of skin. The first, which is the only one indicated in the drawing, goes right across the buttock. In some animals there is an indication of a second below this, and about fourteen inches lower down a third, which only goes about a quarter of the way across. The tail is almost concealed in a deep groove, in which lie the perineum, &c. Both the front and hind limb from the point at which they project from the body are finely covered with reticulated skin, forming pentagonal and hexagonal scales, very much as in R. Sondaicus, only much finer and less prominent.
“The Indian rhinoceros has the same habit as the African species of depositing its droppings in one spot till they form huge mounds, which the animal levels with its horns. It is probable that this rhinoceros was found throughout the plains of the N.W. Provinces in unreclaimed spots as late as the fifth or sixth century. According to the observation of Dr. Andrew Smith in South Africa these huge pachyderms do not absolutely require for their support the dense tropical vegetation we should think necessary to supply food to such huge beasts. This gentleman saw over fifty of them in one day in an open country covered with short grass and thorn-bushes about four feet high. From the affinities of the fauna of the N.W. Provinces, which are strongly African, it is probable that the plains of the N.W. Provinces were rather covered with scrubby open jungles and grass than with tropical primeval forests.
“Here and there belts of Dhak (Butea frondosa) were found, and in favoured spots doubtless other tree jungle, but it is improbable that primeval forest has existed since the depression of the Indo-Gangetic plain.”—J. Cockburn, MS.
The rhinoceros is supposed to be a very long-lived animal. Dr. Gray (‘P. Z. S.’ 1867. p. 1011) states on the authority of Mr. Blyth that a pair lived in the Barrackpore Park for forty-five years. They were exactly alike in size and general appearance; they never bred. There is no difference in the horns or form of the skull in the two sexes (Blyth, ‘J. A. S. B.’ vol. xxxi. p. 155).
No. 430. Rhinoceros Sondaicus.
The Javan Rhinoceros (Jerdon’s No. 213).
Native Names.—The same as last in Hindi; Khyen-hsen, Burmese; Warak, Javanese; Badak, Malayan.
Habitat.—“The Bengal Sunderbunds, Tipperah, the swamps at the base of the Garo, Khasia, and Naga Hills” (Pollock). “Munipurf, extending into the western provinces of China, southward into Burmah, the Malayan peninsula; Sumatra, Java, and Borneo” (J. Cockburn, MS.).
Description.—“Folds somewhat on the same plan as in Indicus, one marked distinction being that the lateral shoulder fold is continued upward over the back of the neck to form an independent saddle-shaped shield on the nape. The whole body covered with pentagonal or hexagonal warty insulæ. Females hornless” (J. Cockburn, MS.). Males with one horn.
Size.—Mr. Cockburn gives the following measurements of a female, which he states is the largest recorded specimen: “Length of body (head and body?), 12 feet 3 inches; tail, 2 feet 4½ inches; height, 5 feet 6 inches.” Dr. Jerdon gives: “Length 7 to 8 feet; height, 3½ to 3¾ feet;” and he calls the animal “the lesser Indian rhinoceros,” whereas Mr. Cockburn’s measurement gives an animal somewhat longer, though not so high as the largest recorded specimen of Indicus. Blyth again writes (‘Mammals of Burmah,’ see ‘J. A. S. B.’ vol. xliv. part ii. 1875, p. 50): “It is about a third smaller than R. Indicus, from which it is readily distinguished by having the tubercles of the hide uniformly of the same small size, and also by having a fold or plait of the skin crossing the nape in addition to that behind the shoulder-blades.”
This rhinoceros seems to be found at all elevations, like the Sumatran one which was found by General Fytche at an altitude of 4000 feet; it is much more of a forester than the last. Blyth and Jerdon suppose it to be the same as the species hunted by the Moghul Emperor Baber on the banks of the Indus.
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