Title of article : White Rhinoceros
Url of article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rhinoceros
1. What is the article about?
The White Rhinoceros or Square-lipped rhinoceros is one of the five species of rhinoceros that still exist and is one of the few megafaunal species left. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The White Rhino is the most common of all rhinos and consists of two subspecies: the Southern White Rhino, with an estimated 17,480 wild-living animals at the end of 2007, and the much rarer Northern White Rhino. The northern subspecies may have 7 remaining worldwide, all captive 1 male 6 female which are out breeding age.
A popular theory of the origins of the name White Rhinoceros is a mistranslation from Dutch to English. The English word "white" in English is said to have been derived by mistranslation of the Dutch word "wijd", which means "wide" in English. The word "wide" refers to the width of the Rhinoceros mouth. So early English-speaking settlers in South Africa misinterpreted the "wijd" for "white" and the rhino with the wide mouth ended up being called the White Rhino and the other one, with the narrow pointed mouth, was called the Black Rhinoceros.
2. What have I learnt?
I have learnt that not many white rhinos are still prowling the earth. If we do not start to take care of them, the white rhinos are going to go extinct and we will never be able to see them again. The northern subspecies of white rhinos are left with a small number of 7 and all of them are not able to breed, which means to say that if all 7 die, the subspecies of rhinos will be extinct.
White Rhinos get their names from mistranslation from Dutch to English from the word "wide" in Dutch. The word wide is used to describe the width of the rhinos mouth. Wide mouthed rhinos were called white rhinos while narrowed mouth rhinos were called black rhinos.
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