Which African safari animal is the largest living rhinoceros species?

The white rhinoceros is the largest living rhinoceros species. It is also called the square-lipped rhinoceros because its broad, straight upper lip is adapted for grazing grass close to the ground.

White rhinoceroses can weigh more than 2,000 kilograms and have two horns made of keratin, the same structural protein found in human hair and fingernails. They usually live in open grassland and savanna, where their wide mouths help them crop vegetation efficiently. Calves stay close to their mothers, while adults may form loose groups.

The name “white” probably arose from a historical misunderstanding of the Afrikaans word wyd, meaning “wide,” rather than from the animal’s color. White rhinoceroses are generally gray, like other rhinoceroses. The northern white rhinoceros is functionally extinct in the wild, while the southern white rhinoceros remains the more numerous of the two subspecies.