Is it possible to ride a rhino

Meet the people trying to help. Animals Whales eat three times more than previously thought. Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big.

Environment As the EU targets emissions cuts, this country has a coal problem. Paid Content How Hong Kong protects its sea sanctuaries. History Magazine These 3,year-old giants watched over the cemeteries of Sardinia.

Magazine How one image captures 21 hours of a volcanic eruption. Science Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. Science The controversial sale of 'Big John,' the world's largest Triceratops. Science Coronavirus Coverage How antivirals may change the course of the pandemic. Science Coronavirus Coverage U. Please send an email to reservations olpejetaconservancy.

As the world continues to deal with the effects and unprecedented circumstances occasioned by the COVID pandemic, we are extending changes to our payment and cancellation policies until further notice. We effected these changes in March as a means to assist our clients during this trying time. Find the complete payment and cancellation policy here.

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.

The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.

The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". It does not store any personal data. I think Christine Janis may have written about it, in a cryptozoological journal I can't find. There was a paperback reprint University of Chicago Press?

A work of great scholarship, in a field where-- alas-- further research is not to be anticipated. Personally I prefer L. Sprague de Camp's suggestion that the image in question refers to an Okapi which was brought from Central Africa.

I believe there are some pygmies in the same relief. The hero is sent into the depths of Africa in search of a sirrush, the dragon-like creature depicted on the gate of Babalyon sp!

I was reading a lot of older works on Indian wildlife recently and came across some vague reference to war rhinos. Ufortunately can't remember where! But I'm pretty sure no solid evidence was offered.

Gee did mention how tame Indian Rhinos can become. And there is a reason the Indians might have tried to use rhinos in this way: elephants are apparently afraid of them.

The piece in Wikipedia about the gregariousness of White Rhinoceros is quite correct, though the largest group I've seen contained 9 animals. Actually their social structure lone adult males, groups of young males and females is rather similar to the African Elephant's. Their very thick hide with marked folds really does look a bit like armor.

Even if this would not explain the small horn and some other traits, it could make sense. This would be "badas" and not "bandas". They are refereed to as animals seen in the countryside during the voyage from Nanjing to Beijing. The identity of the animal is not clear, it is not a cow, buffalo, donkey or horse for those are given in the same list. They were indeed used by the Tartars in warfare. This is the passage:. Thank you Tengu - would anyone like to buy me that book : It would mean me adding an update on this subject in future, of course.

Reese, D. Paleocryptozoology and archaeology: a sivathere no longer. Cryptozoology 9, The evidence a Sumerian sculpture from Iraq suggests that sivatheres survived until more recently than usually thought viz, to about years ago , but there is no evidence of a collar. Yes, this possible Sivatherium-depictions are really interesting.

The very best thing I ever read about this topic was a creationist who wrote that Sivatherium was an animal with a single horn on the head, and that a skeleton of this animal is known from an ancient archaeological site, and he also mentions this old artwork I'll email you some photos - I use them in one of my hoofed mammal talks.

Was planning to blog about sivatheres some time by the way Thank you very much Darren! As you probably know I am very interested in recently extinct megafauna, and although the sivathere-artworks dates comparably long back in time, it is still very interesting, because it was a time when the first real civilisations occured.

By the way, do you know about the very recently survival of stegodons in China? German Wikipedia admittedly not the most scientific of sources claims that the most recent stegodon remains, found in the Xiaohe Cave in Yunnan, are only 4.

But they also claim that the tusks of an old male stegodon were so large and stood so close together that the trunk wold no longer fit between them and had to be carried above the tusks or dangling down beside them, so I have a few doubts about their accuracy. This paper has been much cited in the recent literature as an exciting development and I have yet to see any indication that the record is doubtful [does anyone know otherwise?

So apparently it's for real, meaning that these amazing proboscideans survived into modern times. The description of male Stegodon given above is dead accurate: unlike other proboscideans, stegodontid tusks were so close together at their bases that the trunk couldn't have hung between them.

To put food in its mouth, a stegodontid would have to reach round and under its tusks, in an action quite unlike that performed by other trunked proboscideans. Ma, A. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 30, Yes, there was a whole bunch of elephant-like animals which survived until very recently, and could still be alive, but Stegodons were probably the most impressive of all if you think a giant stegodon with monstrous tusks is more impressive than a pig-sized pet-elephant.

Besides animals like the Tilos pygmy elephant I am especially interested in probable survival of Mastodons like Cuvierionius in mayan times. On the one hand such cases are fascinating, but on the other hand it is also frustating that we passed some really magnificent creatures for only a very short time. It seems that I was to rash to dismiss wikipedia or its german branch as a source.

They actually got it right I think we can forget about those years. Anyway,the more elements of the megafauna survived into historic times, and the more strange and exotic they were, the better! Johannes, I knew of the late-surviving stegodons from the abstract of the original paper, but found it later also at Wikipedia.

I once began a still growing list of megafauna which became extinct in historic times, what is for me about the time since the first real high-developed cultures like the egyptian civilisation appeared. I have a vague recollection that rhinos don't have very good vision. I can't see getting them drunk and expecting them to decimate the opponent troops and not your own.

Are you sure this is the same reference? Yunnan and Zheijiang are two provinces on opposite ends of southern China Easier said than done. The spanish tried this with cattle against Drake and ca. The cattle came under musket fire, panicked, and crashed into the spanish, rather than the english, troops.

Morgan's buccaneers were mostly veterans of the new model army, but Drake's soldiers were raw recruits. Even so,the "stampede" tactic did not work against them.

That is interesting. Didn't the font take the tone marks on Yunnan and Zhejiang? I'll try again: Yunnan, Zhejiang -- that last one is an a with a - on it. Two names that became prominent in this regard are Bert Nelson and George Emerson.

The former came from the A. Barnes Circus, and was to double Weissmuller wrestling a lion, which was also supplied by Nelson. The latter was hired by MGM as a full-time trainer, a unique position in a Hollywood studio, and he was assisted by Frank Leggitt, who had had some experience as an elephant handler.

A rhino named Mary was imported from Germany. She had the distinction of being "rideable. The chimpanzees who played Cheta came from a variety of sources. Most of the animals were leased from Emerson. That's bizarre. Ordinary acute and grave accents on ordinary vowel letters, part of the orthography of languages like Spanish and French and therefore of ISO, become Typical Miscoded Unicode Gunk, but the a with the macron, not part of that standard, is displayed correctly?

Another question from Reddit that may fit the format of this site. Elephants used to be used for warfare in the past, and even those are hard to tame. Would it be possible that instead of horses, rhinos are used for cavalries? Horses are used for their great acceleration and speed, as well as being able to carry quite a heavy load.

They can rear up and aid the knight in battle, as well as be trained quite well to charge the enemy without shying away. Elephants can be very aggressive when the situation warrants, and their hide is very tough and thick, making it very hard to kill. They were huge targets, however, so archers and ballistic devices could target them easily and bring them down without them so much as touching a soldier.

Rhinos, however, are a whole different beast. Sure, they can get up to some insane speeds and gore the living crap out of someone, or even a horse, but they have very poor eyesight. Not to mention, do you know anyone who would be brave enough to approach a wild Rhino? They are extremely aggressive, and would most likely be extremely hard to train.

They are quite dumb beasts, and will take a few hundred years of taming and breeding in order to train them to fight. And when they do get to the battlefield, their poor eyesight will lead them astray. They will pick up speed over time, and get ready to charge a man on his horse with a javelin, but all the horse has to do is veer off a few feet to the right when the rhino is a few dozen meters away and the rider will be perfectly safe to lop off the rider's head as the rhino charges off into the forest.

All in all, they just aren't made for that sort of thing. They are very clumsy with their poor eyesight, and would be left in the dust by the cavalries consisting of horses alone. It might be possible to have rhino cavalries, but they would most certainly not be very advantageous.

The weight difference between a rhino and a horse would mean that a charging rhino would shove a horse alongwith rider aside with some heavy damage. Little humans would be flung aside like pebbles. The extremely aggressive nature of a rhino, combined with its speed and weight would mean that the rhinos can go on crazy rampages once inside the enemy lines. The kill spree would be so fast, each rhino would be killing a human in an average of 7 seconds.

The thick hide of a rhino means it can take more damage than a horse and still stay alive and functional. Like elephants, a surprise rhino formation would scare the pee of the enemy infantry and possibly cavalry too , providing a massive morale advantage to their side.

Horses who have never encountered a camel before, are scared of camels' smell and are likely to go stampeding. This effect would be much more profound with rhinos. Considering the aggressiveness of rhinos, they would be extremely hard to domesticate. Fun fact: rhinos don't even condone the presence of other animals in their vicinity. Even lions stay the heck away from them. Considering the aggressiveness of rhinos, they would be extremely hard to train not to charge randomly in the presence of massive crowds armies.

That could end up with a lot of casualties in friendly fire category.