Animal kingdom has its own share of misnomers, i.e. the name has nothing to do with the features of the species.
There are two species of African rhinos- the white rhinoceros and the black rhinoceros. You might think that their names are given because of their color. But that isn't the case but the shapes of their lips have earned these names.
Both share the characteristic of being gray in skin color,
The former (shown in pic) has a square-lip called 'wyd' (pronounced wide) in Afrikaans language, the origin of word 'white', enabling it to only graze. The latter tends to have a lip like a hook enabling it to browse on plants and rarely graze gets the name black rhinoceros, again from native language.
Interestingly, the great Indian one horned rhinoceros knows both the arts - browse and graze!
There are two species of African rhinos- the white rhinoceros and the black rhinoceros. You might think that their names are given because of their color. But that isn't the case but the shapes of their lips have earned these names.
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| Image courtesy of [by suwatpo] at FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
The former (shown in pic) has a square-lip called 'wyd' (pronounced wide) in Afrikaans language, the origin of word 'white', enabling it to only graze. The latter tends to have a lip like a hook enabling it to browse on plants and rarely graze gets the name black rhinoceros, again from native language.
Interestingly, the great Indian one horned rhinoceros knows both the arts - browse and graze!
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