The Extinctions: The Lost Rhinos of Europe

Eemian scene showcasing a herd of narrow-nosed rhinoceroses (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) crossing a river in autumn, somewhere in ancient Central Europe. In the foreground can also be seen Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra) and a European dipper (Cinclus cinclus).

Terms of use: Artwork by Hodari Nundu and Commissioned by The Extinctions

“When it comes to ‘charismatic megafauna’, few animals more thoroughly exemplify the concept than the rhinoceroses. In Africa, they number among the renowned Big Five, in Asia they are recorded already in the seals of the Indus Valley civilisation, and across the world there are few groups that can rival them for fame or recognisability. From the Western perspective, a core part of this appeal has always been of an exoticising sort—the rhinoceros is the perfect fanciful, foreign animal, so simultaneously bizarre yet impressive as to form an ideal fixture for any bestiary or menagerie. That is to say, the rhinoceros grew so famed in Europe, so familiar, paradoxically precisely because it was not found there. And yet, this has not always been the case.”

My article for The Extinctions from November 2024 surveying the recently extinct rhinoceroses of Europe, of which there were four species at the time of human settlement, all lost by the end of the Pleistocene.