Animal Facts

White Rhinoceros
With a total body length of up to 4m, and tipping the scales at around 2 tonnes each, Longleat’s ‘crash’ of White Rhinoceros is a truly impressive sight. Despite their huge size, rhinos are actually vegetarians spending most of their time peacefully grazing.

The rhino is actually one of the more dangerous animals in the Safari Park. Although their eyesight is very poor - being unable to detect a motionless person at a distance of more than 30m - their sense of smell is acute so always stay downwind if you don’t want to be caught out in the wild!

The rhino has few natural predators. It is Man who has managed to reduce their total numbers so radically with up to 50% of the total population being killed in the 1970s alone. Most rhinos are killed for their horn which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years as a remedy for everything from headaches to arthritis.