Rhinoceroses Hybrids
Family Rhinocerotidae
Mammalian Hybrids
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EUGENE M. MCCARTHY, PHD GENETICS
White Rhinoceros
Black Rhinoceros
Hybrid White x Black (Robinson et al. 2005)
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Ceratotherium simum [White Rhinoceros]
× Diceros bicornis (♂) [Black Rhinoceros] These animals come into potential breeding contact in eastern and southern Africa, but it seems that no natural hybrids have been reported. Captive rhinoceroses in South Africa’s National Zoological Gardens Game Breeding Centre produced a female hybrid (pictured at right, a, b and c). The sire was a black rhino and the dam, a white rhino. Because it was a hybrid, it was intentionally killed (often the policy at zoos in recent years) before maturity, so no data on its fertility could be collected. D. bicornis is critically endangered. The white rhinoceros has a diploid chromosome count of 2n=82, the black, 2n=84. The count in the hybrid was 2n=83. It had ears shaped like those of D. bicornis (see picture at right, a), but its upper lip was wide like that of C. simum, though it did have a upper-lip protrusion similar to, but smaller than the prehensile upper lip of the black rhinoceros (see picture, b). Robinson et al. 2005.
Diceros bicornis [Black Rhinoceros] See: Ceratotherium simum.
A dog-cow hybrid?
By the same author: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World, Oxford University Press (2006).