Rhinoceroses are characterized by the possession of one or two horns on the upper surface of the snout; these horns are not true horns but are composed of keratin, a fibrous protein found in hair. Modern rhinoceroses are large animals, ranging from 2.5 metres (8 feet) long and 1.5 metres (5 feet) high at the shoulder in the Sumatran rhinoceros to about 4 metres (13 feet) long and nearly 2 metres (7 feet) high in the white rhinoceros. Adults of larger species weigh 3–5 tons.
Rhinoceros, (family Rhinocerotidae), plural rhinoceroses, rhinoceros, or rhinoceri, any of five or six species of giant horn-bearing herbivores that include some of the largest living land mammals. Today the total population of all the rhinoceros species combined is probably fewer than 30,000. Rhinoceroses today are restricted to eastern and southern Africa and to subtropical and tropical Asia.