In the bestiary of desire, the rhinoceros is more of a sex object than its glowering visage and hunker-down physique would suggest. In some parts of Asia, powdered rhino horn is regarded as both panacea and aphrodisiac. Long association of the rhino with sexual potency has even filtered into our popular culture, spawning such herbal sexual tonics as Wild Rhino, Rhino Sex Enhancement Tablets, and Rhino Cola.
On September 13, Emi, shown some 14 months pregnant in July (above), delivered a healthy, 73-pound male calf at the Cincinnati Zoo. He is the first Sumatran rhino born in captivity in over a century—the last was born at the Calcutta Zoo in 1889. The calf's arrival is even more exciting because Emi had miscarried several times in the first three months of pregnancy.
But life as a sex symbol has done little for the actual love life of the average rhino, particularly the Sumatran rhino. Little is known about this creature, the smallest of the five species of rhinos and among the most endangered of all mammals. We do know that despite their intimidating size and fierce reputation, the retiring, hirsute herbivores live solitary lives browsing their way from mudhole to mudhole in the rain forest. When they're not in the mood, which is most of the time, individuals avoid one another. Mating seems to be luck-of-the-draw, occurring whenever a male and a female happen to meet at just the right time.
This strategy worked fine for millions of years, but it isn't working too well today. Rhinos used to range from Borneo and Sumatra to the foothills of the Himalayas; now only an estimated 300 survive in reserves and isolated regions in Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and Borneo. The problem is not strictly habitat loss; there is still enough forest in this region to support perhaps 10,000 rhinos. The threat is the price of rhino horn. At $25,000 a pound, the average Sumatran rhino wanders through life with a $50,000 bounty on its head.
