Scientific name: Diceros bicornis
Black rhinoceros horn (probably front) on a brass base. The exhibit was once part of the collection put together by Antonio Vallisneri senior (1661-1730) between the 17th and the 18th centuries, which formed the core element of our and other museums of the University.
The black rhinoceros, like its white counterpart and the smaller Sumatran rhinoceros, has two horns, one on the nose and one on the forehead. The horns are not bony but made of keratin, like nails and hair. The black rhinoceros lives in grasslands, savannahs and tropical woodlands. It grazes the leaves and shoots of trees and shrubs, selecting them carefully with its pointed, prehensile upper lip. It is one of the most endangered large mammals due to the reduction and fragmentation of its habitat. Moreover, for many years now it has been a victim of poaching for the illegal horn trade. Indeed, its horns are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine as a remedy for a variety of ailments. Furthermore, perhaps due to the species’ prolonged mating, powdered rhinoceros horn is considered a potent aphrodisiac by the superstitious.
