Re: new boook on functional morphology

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

> According to Richard Estes' "The Behavior Guide to African Mammals",
> "African rhinos have much the longest horns, which are employed as stabbing
> weapons against predators but usually only as staves in encounters with
> other rhinos".  Black rhino males meeting each other at territorial
> boundaries "tend to be peaceful, including gentle head and horn nudging...."
> Fighting among rhinos rarely results in serious injury, but a female has
> been known to kill a lion.  White rhinos "stand horn to horn staring at each
> other.. next they back away and ground-wipe with the front horn, readvance,
> back up and so on.  Sometimes they clash horns briefly..."

     This certainly seems to be a point against herbivore head armament 
always being used predominantly for intraspecific combat instead of 
predator defense.

LN Jeff