Today we have photos from Ephraim Heller continuing his series on a recent trip to Namibia. Ephraim’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
I continue my series on a May-June 2026 visit to Namibia. I’m organizing the posts by habitat, in the order of our visits, so that you get a sense of the ecosystems. Today’s post features the south-western black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis bicornis) and southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) of Etosha National Park and the adjacent, private Ongava Game Reserve. This is one of the most important rhino populations in Africa. In other African national parks I was happy to see one or two rhinos. On this trip I was surprised and pleased to view dozens of individuals.
[Note to readers: I have a lot of difficulty distinguishing the two species. I would appreciate corrections from experts if I have made an identification mistake.]
White rhino in morning light:
My previous posts documented Namibia’s desert coastline. Etosha National Park lies inland. The region is semi-arid with mean annual precipitation of 300-430 mm (12-17 in) and hot summers with typical temperatures around 40 °C (104°F).
Proclaimed as a reserve in 1907 by the German colonial administration and later reduced by the South Africa administration to just a quarter of its original size due to political and agricultural pressure, the park today encompasses over 22,000 km² (8,500 mi²). It is Namibia’s flagship conservation area. The park is dominated by the Etosha Pan, a ~5,000 km² (1,930 mi²) saline depression that is the remnant of an ancient inland lake.
White rhino at night. You can see the impressive scarring along its torso:
On the southern boundary of Etosha National Park lies Ongava Game Reserve, a private conservation area whose name means “rhino” in the Herero language. Starting in 1991 with the purchase of ~30,000 hectares of former cattle farmland, the Reserve’s ecology has slowly recovered. While the Park is closed to visitors at night, the Reserve caters to photographers with lodges and photo blinds overlooking illuminated waterholes.
White rhino baby nursing at the waterhole at night:
I wondered whether the two rhino species compete with each other. I learned that despite being closely related, they occupy distinct ecological niches. The mopane and mixed woodlands provide critical browse for black rhinos, and the grasslands support white rhinos.
This young male white rhino came too close to a baby. The baby’s mother inflicted this wound as a helpful reminder to respect her baby:
The southern white rhino is the larger of the two species, with adult bulls commonly exceeding 2,000 kg and occasionally approaching 3,500 kg. Despite the name, both African rhinos are grey and no one knows why are they called “white” and “black.” White rhinos are obligate grazers that crop grasses. Their large head is held low and supported by a pronounced hump at the neck.
White rhino with an impressive horn. Note the hump at the neck:
Socially they are more gregarious than black rhinos, often forming small groups of cows and calves, with territorial bulls maintaining more solitary ranges. Southern white rhinos recovered from a severe population bottleneck in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are currently listed as Near Threatened. They disappeared from Etosha and were reintroduced in the 1990s from South Africa.
White rhino in the grass:
White rhino in dawn light. I love the ear tufts:
Black rhinos are smaller and more compact, typically weighing 800–1,400 kg. Allegedly, their most distinctive feature is the prehensile, hooked upper lip used for browsing leaves, twigs, and shoots from bushes and trees (I can’t distinguish the difference in their mouths). The head is held higher than in white rhinos, and the back shows a saddle-like dip. They are generally more solitary and can be more aggressive.
Rhinos on the way to the waterhole at dusk. I’m told that these are black rhinos, but those sure are big humps:
In the mid-20th century, remaining black rhinos from elsewhere in Namibia were relocated into Etosha. With improved protection and habitat, the population recovered strongly to over 500 black rhinos. Namibia has the south-western subspecies. Etosha is a global stronghold for this population. The species as a whole remains Critically Endangered following catastrophic declines in the 20th century.
Black rhino baby at the waterhole at night:
Poaching remains the primary threat to African rhinos. The news here is mixed. Etosha National Park has not fared well due to its large size and public management, with dozens of rhinos poached annually in recent years. On the other hand, and to their great credit, Ongava has had zero poaching incidents in recent history due to its private ownership, smaller size, and intensive security (dedicated, armed, anti-poaching teams conducting foot patrols; trained canine units; aerial support; and continuous high-tech monitoring). Tourism revenue helps fund security. Dehorning is used selectively in some high-risk areas as an additional deterrent.
This black rhino appears to be a veteran of many battles:
Wow you do get around Mr. Heller, you must just burn through passports.
Color me impressed.
Great pics and I like rhinos a lot. Not as pets, but it is nice they’re out there somewhere and you’re bringing them to us.
keep well,
D.A.
NYC
Thank you, David!
An amazing set! It makes sense that the black rhino has that slightly prehensile upper lip, since it tends to browse on shrubs. While the broad horizontal upper lip of the white is good for mowing down grass.
The ‘wide mouth’ in Afrikaans is wyde which has transformed into ‘white’ for a white rhino.
Interesting that the white rhinos tend to be in larger groups. No doubt an adaptation to grassland life…safer to be in a herd when you’re out in the open. Implication for human evolution? Maybe moving to grasslands forced us to form larger groups which led to selection for brain development to deal with a more complex society.
I don’t see why we can’t extrapolate from rhinos to human evolution….
There are some neuroscientists who do study commonalities and differences in Brian evolution among species. Although it was not my primary interest, I did do a bit of work in that field and it continues to fascinate me.
Your photos are fantastic, and I envy your travels. This particular post raised my blood pressure, since poachers are mentioned. I regard such people as an evil, and it is too bad that a “refuge” aka prison is not created specifically for them, with their residences lasting many years, along with work requirements involving creation of safe environments for their victims.
Great photos! We visited a guy raising rhinos on his ranch in Australia. He called one over to the heavy protective fence and suggested I rub its lower back. Like a huge dog its back legs just folded up and it went to the ground. It seemed to enjoy the rubbing!
I had no idea that there are rhino ranches with petting zoos. That sounds like a great idea for a future trip.
I don’t know how I missed last week’s photos, but I’ve now gone back. Fabulous photos, thank you, rhinos really are amazing creatures. I remember sitting at the viewing area of Etosha years ago (people are basically locked into a fenced area overlooking a water hole, and animals make their way to it, rather than people driving around). I sat there for quite some time, long after most people had left, and there were various deer and other animals there, all quiet. Then, something in the air shifted. All the animals froze, and a minute or so later a huge male rhino appeared, looking around, and not long after a female with a baby followed. It was mesmerizing. On a separate trip, my husband and I did a flying safari over Namibia, flying up the Skeleton Coast and landing at a handful of hidden campsites. It was probably the most remarkable thing I’ve ever seen, and my husband, who’d never been to Africa at that point, had his mind completely blown by the whole experience. Besides his day job, he’s an accomplished photographer and ended up doing a piece on the trip for the Atlantic. (I can’t access the 2007 article now, but his pics are here at the beginning of his photo gallery, which is woefully out of date: https://www.clivecrookphoto.com/Gallery.html )
Your husband certainly IS an accomplished photographer. Those photographs are wonderful!
Beautiful photos. Your husband has a good eye. I wish I had gone to Namibia before the tour buses took over Deadvlei.
Your husband’s article is here! (That’s a gift link, btw, so others can access it.) I’m looking forward to reading it.
Thank you! One annoyance of my husband’s which persists to this day – he wanted this piece to be titled “Angle of Repose,” and at the last minute some editor decided to change it to “The Skeleton Coast” because he didn’t think readers would understand the other title. Drove my husband crazy, this dumbing down reflexive habit of theirs (and they worked for my husband!).
I seem to recall that “white” rhinos came from “wide” (lipped) rhino. Ie, the shape of the mouth and lips is the clearest discriminator. But, my memory is not very reliable anymore!
ai supports that theory, Roger.
“The name “white rhino” comes from an early English mistranslation of the Dutch/Afrikaans word “wijd” (or wyd), which means “wide”, referring to the animal’s wide mouth.”
And naming the black rhino black was just to distinguish the two.
Apparently Klees Rookmaaker did the research and published a paper debunking that theory:
https://pachydermjournal.org/index.php/pachyderm/article/download/1137/1116
So we really don’t know the origin of the name “white” rhino.
I agree with Rookmaker – I am not Afrikaans but can get by in it: a better word for ‘wide’ would be ‘breede’ or ‘bree’ meaning broad, and so ‘white’ coming from Afrikaans ‘wyd’ or ‘wyt’ seems a stretch. A Breemondrenoster would be a wide mouthed rhino. However, to ‘graze’ is ‘wei’ in Afrikaans: could it be that a ‘white rhino’ is actually a ‘grazing rhino’? It would fit. We are still left with why the ‘narrow-lipped rhino’ the ‘browsing rhino’ has become a ‘black’ rhino though.
Those are amazing pictures!
Amazing photos of almost-unbelievable animals.
Thank you for these terrific shots – “Rhinos on the way to the waterhole at dusk” gave me goosebumps.
Thank you for a great post with information about rhinos, and photos.
They are just tanks. I’ve heard they are quite fast. Hard to believe carrying all that body.