White rhinoceros Facts for Kids
Ceratotherium simum · ser-uh-toh-THEER-ee-um SY-mum
A huge grass-eater with horns made of the same stuff as fingernails.
- 🏃 speed: not yet checked
- ⚖️ 1.7 to 2.6 tons1.5 to 2.4 tonnes1
- 📏 5.6 to 6.1 ft1.7 to 1.9 m1 tall
- 🎂 40 to 50 years40 to 50 years1
- 🍽️ plants
- Doing fine, for now (Near Threatened)
White rhinos are huge grass-eaters. They have two horns on their nose. They love to roll in the mud!
A white rhino has a wide, flat mouth that is just right for mowing short grass. It cannot see very well, but its hearing and sense of smell are sharp. In the heat of the day it rolls in mud, which cools its skin and keeps bugs away.
White rhinos are the largest kind of rhino and among the biggest land animals alive. Their two horns are made of keratin, the same stuff as your hair and fingernails, with no bone inside. Because rhino horn was sold for a lot of money, poachers hunted white rhinos until almost none were left. Rangers and reserves guarded the few that remained, and the southern white rhino has come back, though poaching is still a danger.
How big is a white rhinoceros?
White rhinoceros in numbers
| Length | no checked number yet |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | 5.6 to 6.1 ft1.7 to 1.9 m1 |
| Weight | 1.7 to 2.6 tons1.5 to 2.4 tonnes1 |
| Top speed | no checked number yet |
| How long it lives | 40 to 50 years40 to 50 years1in captivity (human care) |
| What it eats | short grasses |
| Where it lives | the grasslands of southern and eastern Africa |
| What kind | Mammals |
| Is it in danger? | Doing fine, for now (Near Threatened)2 |
A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.
Wow!
- A group of white rhinos is called a crash.
- Rhinos leave smelly messages in dung piles for other rhinos to sniff.
- Little birds called oxpeckers sit on rhinos and eat bugs off their skin.
Compare the white rhinoceros
Friends and neighbours
African elephant
Grévy's zebra
GiraffeThree questions
Books about the white rhinoceros, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about the white rhinoceros for free.
Where these numbers come from
- US Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Register 2013 (Listing the Southern White Rhino), checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, from the IUCN Red List, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, White rhinoceros (Q159918), checked 30 October 2026.