Rhinoceros Trivia
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60 free Rhinoceros trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This rhinoceros trivia quiz covers all five living species (white, black, Indian, Javan and Sumatran), what their horns are actually made of, why 'white' rhino probably has nothing to do with the Dutch word for 'wide', how long a rhino pregnancy lasts, why the Sumatran rhino is hairy and related to the woolly rhinoceros, and what happened to Elasmotherium and the other Ice Age giants. It also covers rhinos and people: Linnaeus filing them under rodents, Dürer's famous and wrong 1515 woodcut, Miss Clara touring 18th-century Europe, Sudan the last male northern white and the two females guarded at Ol Pejeta, the Malay fire-stamping legend, the lavender rhino, and the economics of poaching, dehorning and horn poisoning. Every question was verified against a primary reference (mainly the Wikipedia articles on the rhinoceros, its species and the individual animals) and carries a citation. Play it alongside our hippo, elephant and Big Five questions for a full safari round.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many living species of rhinoceros are there?
Five
Two in Africa (white and black) and three in Asia (Indian, Javan and Sumatran).
Q 02The word 'rhinoceros' comes from Greek words meaning what?
Nose-horned
Rhis is 'nose' and keras 'horn'; the plural can be either 'rhinoceros' or 'rhinoceroses'.
Q 03Rhino horns are made of what material?
Keratin
The same stuff as hair and fingernails, which is why there is no good evidence of any medical benefit.
Q 04Rhinoceroses belong to which group of hoofed mammals?
Odd-toed ungulates
That puts them in the same order as horses and tapirs; every living rhino has three toes on each foot.
Q 05Which two rhinos have no teeth at the front of their mouths and pluck food with their lips instead?
The two African
Black and white rhinos completely lack incisors; Asian rhinos keep a tusk-like lower incisor they use in fights.
Q 06Which two countries drove the market for rhino horn through the 2010s?
China and Vietnam
Yemen, where horn is carved into dagger handles, was the main source of demand in the 1970s and 1980s before demand shifted to East and Southeast Asia.
Q 07In which country was rhino horn traditionally used for dagger handles?
Yemen
Esmond Bradley Martin documented that trade, the biggest driver of demand in the late 20th century.
Q 08Which two rhino species did Linnaeus name first, in 1758?
Indian and black
He put the genus Rhinoceros in the group Glires with the rodents, because the Indian rhino has incisors.
Q 09Linnaeus wrongly grouped rhinos with which animals?
Rodents
The confusion came from the Indian rhino's incisor teeth.
Q 10Which is the smallest living rhino species?
Sumatran
It averages about 775 kg and is also the hairiest, a legacy of its kinship with the woolly rhinoceros.
Q 11Which is the largest living rhino species?
White
Males average 2,400 kg and exceptional specimens reportedly reach 4,500 kg.
Q 12Elasmotherium sibiricum, an Ice Age rhino from Eurasia, weighed an estimated how much?
4,500 kg
At the other extreme, Menoceras of Miocene North America was sheep-sized at about 313 kg.
Q 13How many chromosomes does a black rhinoceros have, unlike every other rhino species?
84
All the others have 82; three northern whites in one study had 81.
Q 14Roughly how heavy is an adult black rhino's brain?
Q 21How long is a white rhino's front horn on average?
90 cm
It can reach 150 cm; the black rhino's front horn averages about 50 cm.
Q 22Black rhino numbers fell from about 70,000 in the late 1960s to a record low of how many in 1995?
2,410
They had doubled again to 4,880 by the end of 2010, still 90% below three generations earlier.
Q 23Which black rhino subspecies was declared extinct in November 2011?
West African
The south-central subspecies remains the most numerous.
Q 24What does the Tswana name 'keitloa' describe?
About 530 grams
That is tiny for an animal of over a tonne; the skin, by contrast, is a collagen lattice up to 5 cm thick.
Q 15How do male rhinos check whether a female is ready to breed?
By tasting her urine
They then perform a flehmen response, curling back the upper lip.
Q 16How long is a white rhinoceros pregnancy?
About 504 days
The black rhino's is a little shorter at about 460 days; calves stand within 30 minutes of birth.
Q 17Rhino calves typically stand up within how long after birth?
30 minutes
They are suckling within two hours, and remain vulnerable to predators until about age three.
Q 18Which subspecies is the most abundant rhino on Earth, at over 20,000 animals?
Southern white
The northern white, by contrast, is down to two captive females.
Q 19What does linguistic research say about the claim that 'white' rhino comes from Dutch or Afrikaans 'wide'?
It is not supported
There is no conclusive explanation for the name; the black rhino was simply named to contrast with it.
Q 20Which rhino has a flat, square lip built for grazing grass?
White
The square lip is for grazing grass; the black rhino's pointed lip grasps leaves and twigs.
A rhino whose rear horn matches or beats the front
It is a South African variant of the black rhino.
Q 25The Indian rhinoceros is also known by what name?
Greater one-horned
Its single horn is 20 to 60 cm and its folded, wart-studded skin gives it an armour-plated look.
Q 26Two-thirds of the world's Indian rhinos live in which national park?
Kaziranga
It sits in the Golaghat district of Assam; a reintroduced pair also lives in Pakistan's Lal Suhanra National Park.
Q 27The entire wild population of Javan rhinos lives in which national park?
Ujung Kulon
About 60 remained as of 2015, at the far western tip of Java; the last one in Vietnam was poached in 2011.
Q 28What is unusual about female Javan rhinos?
They usually have no horn at all
They are the only living rhinos that stay hornless into adulthood; the males' horns are the smallest of any rhino.
Q 29The last Javan rhino outside Indonesia was killed for its horn in 2011 in which country?
Vietnam
That left Java as the species' only home.
Q 30DNA shows the hairiest, most ancient living rhino is the closest relative of which extinct animal?
The woolly rhinoceros
It is the most ancient of the living rhinos and can still be found at high altitudes in Borneo and Sumatra.