Did they use a picture of a Black Rhino (!!??!!) and labeled it Southern White Rhino, which is what they have at the zoo. Sure looks like a Black Rhino when you look at the picture full size.
Someone should have proofed the sign before putting it up for public display.
I cannot see the lip on screen resolution (even by clicking to enlarge), so unless you have seen the sign in person I am not sure why you think it looks like a black rhino. The picture depicts is grazing on the ground, which is of course a characteristic of white rhino. Sign looks fine to me.
You are absolutely right Arizona Docent, you cannot see the mouth shape in the zoo's boma picture. But of course there are many characteristics that differentiate black and white rhinos. One of the most obvious being the prominent shoulder hump present on white rhinos. This is the extra muscle mass that helps supports the white rhino's large head. This is not present in black rhinos. Even in a head down position, the extra muscle and neck thickness is obvious. The neck and general body composition of the rhino in the zoo's boma picture indicates a black rhino.
The smaller head size, and a more developed secondary horn are two other characteristics of black rhinos, which can also be seen in the boma pic.
it does look very like a black rhino on the Boma sign. An interesting detail when looking at the two species is that the eye is in a different position (relative to the position of the upper horn, for instance) which gives the head a distinctly different look even if the mouth is obscured.
Originally Birmingham had a male Black Rhino named Ricko, who lived at the Zoo until 2009. He was the one who lived on the smart strand carpet for a month.
The original plan for the trails involved Black and White Rhinos. In 2008 we added Laptop and Abaju, mother and daughter Whites (Square Lipped to be precise). Ricko originally had the "Rhino" pen which at various times has held Blacks and Whites. When the Asian elephants died, they accquired the White Rhinos and put them in the modified Asian Elephant area with a contact exhibit. When we shipped off Ricko to another Zoo, they were able to give the two White Rhinos both exhibits. Now there is definitely room to pair them with a Male in the future if so is desired.
The Boma Yard is the Contact yard seen in other pics. It connects the Main Trails Yard with the New Elephant Barn/Off exhibit pens and the Old Remodeled Pachyderm complex where the Rhino and Hippo live.
They are able to put Laptop Abaju and Tadpole (the Hippo) on the Main Paddock with the Elephants if they so wish. Eventually they will develop best practices for mixes and we will see Hippo and Giraffe or Elephant and Impala (like Dallas) or Giraffe and Zebra in the 11 acre paddock.
Actually the rhinos are Laptop and Ajabu not Abaju. The zoo now has found a male rhino (I'm not allowed to say who it is) but we are not sure if we will receive him, much like Thabo Umasai the elephant from Germany that was supposed to come here.
sorry for the typo but yeah the sign is definitely a stock photo though. Our two rhinos have slight growths on their horns like Elasmatherium which to me probably means that somewhere down their bloodline they got the gene from that by having a ancestor that was a Northern White.
