Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have some questions for you Rhino breeders. I see numerous breeders who are producing beautiful baby rhinos, but very few seem to produce the multi-horn variety, and I was wondering why there are so few.

What is the difference between normal Rhinos and "multi-horn" Rhinos on a genetic level? Is the "multi-horn" a co-dominant trait? Simple recessive? Who produces multi-horns? Are these from multi-horn to multi-horn breeding? Or multi-horn to normal?

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I'm one of the guys with them. I don't have the full story on the multihorned rhinos but about sixteen years ago I found a pair rhino iguanas for sale in our local newspaper, the guy told me they came out of Florida, at that time rhinos were pretty pricey but I think I got the young adult pair for $1500.00 which was a really good deal. When I went to see the pair they were totally berserk but I purchased them anyway, later they ended up being two males. Only one of the two males calmed down and he is my breeder male now, the other is coming along but I have not breed him to anyone. My opinion on these guys is that they could be related to a smuggling bust in Florida I heard about years later, I found out they were bringing rhinos in from Haiti (well known importer)until they got busted, one of the rhinos purchased had cactus spines in him hmmm? Anyway, it was years later when John A. mentioned that the horns on my animals are different than his and others he had seen, I concurred, I also noticed that they were lacking large spines on their nape which is somewhat uncommon. We did end up going to DR to check them out in the wild, and in one of the zoos, we saw tons of rhinos but only saw one multihorned at lake cabritos. I wonder if this trait is from animals originating from a Haitian locality? the lake is not far from Haiti and their were so many rhinos at the lake it was like people had dumped some there like ducks at a pond (not logical though). I better finish this up, it's getting long and late. When I breed my male multihorned to a three horned Robert Ehrig female I end up with about fifty percent mutihorned babies, I may be mistaken but I think that this could be called a co dominant trait. I would love to go to Haiti to see what their rhinos looked like in different areas but I'm not sure how safe it would be, I would love to look for ricords there too! I am sure their are a lot more of them in Hispanola than people are told, we saw plenty, the rhinos were the rarity in most areas we went. This could be my segway to my Ricords question for people reading this, why don't we hear anything about the difference between the ricords around lake cabritos and the Pendernales area, the color is very different, I was wondering if any other differences are known, I have noticed that the ricords in zoos and private collections are the Pendernales form and is this the same form as the Haitian animals? Look at the ricord Joel is holding in his post and look at the photos of all the captive ricords, other than being way lighter, I don't think the cabritos iggys are as big, we never got a good sight of one of the big males in Pendernales but they sounded like a horse when they ran by. Cheers. KB

Many years ago I observed C. ricordi near Etang Sumatre , a large lake in Haiti near the D.R., but was unable to collect any. There is NO question in my mind that they occur there. Even in the 1970's it was a difficult place to get to and very inhospitable to stay in. I believe there are populations as yet undiscovered in the far eastern Artibonite regions in Haiti...TC The multi-horn Rhino's are reasonbly commen east of the town of Gonaive in N.W. Haiti....TC

I'm going to get on GoogleEarth and see where you are talking about, I love GoogleEarth, it is amazing how things have changed for information. I did notice that if you look closely to the wilderness areas in Haiti you could still see houses here and there, which could be tough on the iguanas. You dont have any early pictures from your trip? KB