Little Becca is ready to go home! She will be available in this Saturday's shop update ♡ (details in today's Newsletter!:) but till that, here are some interesting facts about the Sumatran rhino! Hope you'll enjoy reading:) Did you know that the Sumatran rhino 🦏 is considered the most 'primitive' rhino species, because of its hairy skin and other prehistoric characteristics? It is also the closest living relative to the famous wooly rhino that lived in the frigid lands of Europe & Asia during the ice-age. 🦏 is surprisingly vocal? Sumatran rhinos communicate with many different sounds, mostly whistling and whining noises. They hear & smell well, but are rather short sighted. 🦏 it can easily break through the densest vegetation protected by the horns and rims of hard skin & cartilage on nose? 🦏 it uses a network of scented trails throughout the forest? They occur on all major ridges and along all major rivers and are used to travel between feeding areas and salt-licks. 🦏 it is a browser and eats the tips of plants growing on the forest floor, just as leaves, twigs and fruit- especially wild mangoes and figs?:) 🦏 that in the wild it lives very solitary? Females are thought to be territorial too, and to avoid each other. 🦏 it has a single calf every 4-5 years? Baby rhinos start nibbling from the food hanging from the mother's mouth at an early age to learn which plants are good to eat:) 🦏 that salt licks are very important in a Sumatran rhino's territory? Each rhino has a favourite salt lick that is visited once every one or two months to extract important minerals for its health 🦏 it spends a large part of the day wallowing in mud holes? The access to mud wallows is essential for thermo-regulation, skin condition and to get rid of biting insects& parasites? 🦏 that once it roamed from the foothills of the eastern Himalayas through Thailand possibly to Vietnam and China, but now it lives in small populations just on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia? 🦏 it's horn is made of keratin (just as our fingernails & hair fibres!) but is still believed to cure fever and pain, and is still used in Asian medicine?... ♡ . . #stitchesfromthewild
