White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Graminivores

• Feed almost exclusively short grasses
• Diet of southern subspecies (from Owen-Smith 1973)
• 95% comprised of 12 species of plants
• 74% came from 4 species
• Themeda triandra
• Panicum maximum
• P. coloratum
• Urochloa mossambicensis
• Actively avoid some grasses
  
• Cymbopogon plurinodis, a coarse, odoriferous grass, consistently avoided in one study

Feeding

• Pull with the lip to clip grasses
  
• No incisors
• Upper lip to grasp grass against lower lip
• Crops grass close to ground
• As short as 1 cm
• Do not chew cud as seen in other ruminants

Drinking

• Drink every 1-4 days during the dry season

White rhinoceros feed almost exclusively on short grasses. A lack of upper incisors means that grass is pulled with the lips, grasped between the upper and lower lips.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. All rights reserved.

Kingdon (1997)
Owen-Smith (1973)