Southern White Rhinoceros

Open encyclopedia reference

The white rhinoceros, white rhino or square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhinoceros consists of two subspecies: the southern white rhinoceros, with an estimated 17,464 individuals in the wild as of the end of 2023, and the much rarer northern white rhinoceros. The northern subspecies is critically endangered and on the brink of extinction; it has only two confirmed left as of 2018 (two females: Fatu, 24 and Najin, 29, both in captivity at Ol Pejeta). Sudan, the world's last known male northern white rhinoceros, died in Kenya in March 2018. White rhinoceros can run up to 40 mph (64 km/h) for very short bursts. They can maintain speeds of around 30–31 mph (48–50 km/h) for a good amount of time, and they have good stamina.

Wikipedia contributors, White rhinoceros; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:08:42.887253+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Ceratotherium simum (Burchell, 1817)

Name authority

(Burchell, 1817)

Common name

Southern White Rhinoceros

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Perissodactyla

Family

Rhinocerotidae

Genus

Ceratotherium

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderPerissodactyla Owen, 1848
12. familyRhinocerotidae Gray, 1821
13. subfamilyDicerotinae Pocock, 1845
14. genusCeratotherium Gray, 1868
15. speciesCeratotherium simum (Burchell, 1817)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 5 records assigned to Rhinocerotidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=625001 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:SQFF. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.