Few animals are as heavily armoured as a rhinoceros. Its hide is up to 5cm thick, enough to repel almost any attack by teeth and claws. It is also powerfully built.
Even the smallest of the world's five rhino species, the Sumatran rhino, weighs in at over 950kg while the largest species, the white rhino of Africa and the great one-horned rhino of India can reach over 2500kg – heavier than the average family car. And a rhino is not afraid to put all that weight into a charge if it feels threatened.
Further more, it has the famous pointed horn with which to drive home that attack, keeping adult lions, tigers and other larger predators at bay with ease. There are even occasional reports of rhinos charging at humans, injuring and even killing them – but this is very rare.
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So it's not surprising to learn that adult rhinos have few natural predators. By far the biggest threat to rhinos comes from poachers: criminals that hunt these magnificent beasts.
So which animals can kill a rhino?
Lions
Even a pride of experienced lions cannot bring down a full grown adult white rhinoceros in their African homeland. But they will use their renowned teamwork to isolate a mother and her calf.
Then, through distraction and feint attacks, they work to separate the youngster, who they can overpower and kill. But such attacks are fraught with danger. Even a glancing blow from an angry mother rhino could break a lion's hip or leg, from which it is unlikely to recover.
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Hyenas
Hunting in small numbers, hyenas tend to be more opportunistic and less closely organized than a pride of lions. They keep watch, looking for mothers with babies as, like the lions, they can overpower a youngster. However, there are several documented examples of hyenas attacking injured adult rhinos.
The group harasses its victim constantly, weakening it through biting vulnerable areas, particularly around the tail and rump. Eventually, through sheer attrition, the hyenas may succeed. But there are plenty of examples of hyenas being fatally wounded by rhinos.
Wild dogs
Unlike lions which rely on ambush to catch prey, wild dogs hunt by relentlessly pursuing a target. The pack works closely together, herding the victim and driving it on till it drops from exhaustion. This occasionally works with rhinos but the dogs are unlikely to be strong enough to kill a fit adult. Instead, they focus on a mother and calf, tiring them until an opportunity arrives to kill the calf.
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Leopard
Leopards have been known to ambush and kill very young rhino calves. Leopards hunt alone so cannot benefit from teamwork – attacking an adult rhino is usually beyond an individual's ability. Attacks have been witnessed, with the rhino easily shrugging off the desperate leopard or fleeing into water to keep the pesky big cat at bay. A leopard will only attack a young rhino if a perfect opportunity arises – the mother may be dead or injured so there is no one protecting the youngster.
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Tigers
Over 2007 and 2008, a group of tigers in Kaziranga National Park in India were found to have targeted adult great one-horned (Indian) rhinoceroses and were successful on several occasions. It seems the tigers target weak spots, especially tendons in the leg.
There have been sporadic rhino kills by tigers reported since including, in one dramatic report from 2017, a dead rhino with tiger claw and teeth wounds close to a dead tiger that had died from injuries sustained in the attack.
Elephants
Elephants are herbivorous and do not actively target other species. However, they are territorial and will defend themselves and their youngsters extremely aggressively if they feel threatened. There are a number of well documented confrontations between elephants and white rhinos and a grown adult elephant could easily trample the smaller animal to death.
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Humans
By far the biggest predator of adult rhinos is humans. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were thought to be close to 500,000 rhinoceroses in the world. The number today is about 27,000 and the drastic decline is almost purely due to hunting the animal for its horn. In the far east, particularly in China and Vietnam, rhino horn is valued for its supposed medicinal properties – it is claimed is can cure just about anything.
However, rhino horn is made of keratin, the same material that makes up hair and fingernails and has no special powers according to science. This hasn't stopped wealthy businessmen viewing rhino horn as a status symbol, using powdered horn as a party drug to supposedly prevent hangovers for instance.
Trade in rhino horn is illegal but as the horn is so prized, a lucrative black market exists, which encourages organised crime syndicates to hire local people to shoot and kill rhinos.
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