greater one-horned rhinoceros

[Jitendra Katre]

canon 7d, canon 300mm,2.8, f/4, 1/250, iso-200

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice eye contact with this rhino. Nice angle. The horn seems to be cut off? Where was this clicked?

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Good image. There are some injury marks. The mating season has started, it may be linked with that, if it is a male.
Shri Sabyasachi,
It is, as I see it, not a case of chopping off the horn. I have seen a number of rhinos in Kaziranga with such small-sized horns.The average size of Kaziranga rhino is about 8 inches, as recorded by E P Gee, the largest seen and photographed by him is about 18 inches. You are well aware that as the rhino horn consists of compressed hair, scientifically called, keratin fibres and if it is struck off, it will start growing within a year.
Now if we look at injury marks, it might have been caused by tushes (large incisor teeth), as the Indian rhino bites the vicitim unlike the African rhino which charges with the horn.
Kind regards,SaktiWild

[Jitendra Katre]

thanks Sabyasachi and Saktipada for useful information. this image is shot in "Pobitora Sanctuary" near Guwahati.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice composition. Good eye contact and nice shadow and light effect. Was this clicked from a gypsy? How si the sighting of rhinos in Pobitora Sanctuary? Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Shaktipadaji,
In Africa they tranquilise the rhino to cut off its horn so that poachers don't kill the rhino for the horns.

I faintly remember there was some proposal to cut off the horns of rhino's and that was shot down. I have to search it.

At one point of time some people equated the Indian rhino with the mythical unicorn and attached great value to it. Since the poachers need keratin, we can donate hair or simply buy it from Lord Tirupati administration which exports hair for wig making industries. Unfortunately, the pressure on rhinos are increasing and 2012 was particularly bad for African Rhinos as 2013 is proving for Indian rhinos.

This magnificent animal was also mentioned in the Mahabharata. I hope we can save our rhinos.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Jitendra Katre]

thanks everybody,..Pobitora has densest population of rhinos, also there is big population of wild buffaloes...

[Dr Ajay Kumar Singh]

Very nicely composed sharp image. Thanks for sharing the image. Many thanks to Saktipada and Sabyasachi for providing all the info on Rhino.

[Abhirup Dutta Gupta]

Super shot.

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Lovely image Dr.Katre. I feel its a bit tight on the frame. Neverthless a nice image. The marks on its body are prominent and have been captured well. Thanks for sharing.