2.3 t5,070 lb
An adult male white rhino weighs about 2,300 kg (roughly 5,100 lb), the average San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance gives for bulls. Females are lighter, at about 1,600 to 2,000 kg (3,500 to 4,400 lb). The biggest southern white rhino bulls reliably recorded reached about 3,600 kg (7,900 lb), which makes the white rhino the largest rhino species alive.
| Biggest bulls on recordSouthern white rhino; heavier claims are unverified | 3.6 t7,940 lb |
|---|---|
| Adult bull, averageMost sources give 2,000 to 2,500 kg | 2.3 t5,070 lb |
| Adult cow, averageSources range from 1,600 to 2,000 kg | 1.8 t3,970 lb |
| Newborn calfUsually 40 to 65 kg (88 to 143 lb) | 50 kg110 lb |
It depends mostly on sex and age. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance puts adult males at about 2,300 kg (5,100 lb) and females at about 1,800 kg (4,000 lb). Save the Rhino International gives 1,800 to 2,500 kg for bulls and 1,800 to 2,000 kg for cows, and the classic field study by Norman Owen-Smith found average bulls of 2,000 to 2,300 kg and cows of 1,600 to 1,700 kg.
Both sexes stand about 1.5 to 1.85 m (5 to 6 ft) at the shoulder and measure up to 4.2 m (14 ft) from nose to rump, plus a tail of about 1 m. Bulls are bulkier and keep growing for longer: females mature at about 7 years old, males at 10 to 12.
Guinness World Records says the southern white rhino can reach 3.6 tonnes (7,937 lb), and that is the upper limit most zoologists accept. Claims of white rhinos up to 4,500 kg have been made but never verified.
Less than you might think. A 1991 study of horns from Kruger National Park and other South African reserves found that an adult white rhino carries an average of 7 kg (15 lb) of horn, front and rear together. Bulls averaged 8.3 kg (18 lb) and cows 5.2 kg (11.5 lb), so the horns make up well under 1% of the animal’s weight. The heaviest front horn in the sample weighed 11 kg (24 lb).
Rhino horn is not bone. It is made of keratin, the same protein as hair and fingernails, and it keeps growing throughout life, at about 5 cm (2 in) a year in adults, though rubbing on trees and the ground wears it down. Cows tend to have longer, slimmer front horns. The longest white rhino horn on record belonged to a female and measured 1.59 m (5 ft 2.5 in).
There are five rhino species, and the white rhino is the largest. The greater one-horned rhino of South Asia comes close, at 1,800 to 2,700 kg according to the International Rhino Foundation. The Javan rhino weighs 900 to 2,300 kg and the black rhino, Africa’s other species, only 800 to 1,350 kg. The smallest is the Sumatran rhino, at 600 to 950 kg.
The white rhino has two subspecies. The southern white rhino accounts for almost all of them: the IUCN counted 15,752 white rhinos in Africa at the end of 2024, down 11% in a year. The northern white rhino is a little smaller and is functionally extinct. Its last male, Sudan, died in Kenya in March 2018, leaving two females, Najin and her daughter Fatu, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, neither able to carry a pregnancy.
The BioRescue project has since made 38 northern white rhino embryos in the lab. As of August 2025 it had transferred some into southern white rhino surrogates, but none had led to a lasting pregnancy.
An adult male white rhino weighs about 5,100 lb and a female about 3,500 to 4,400 lb. The biggest bulls reach about 7,900 lb. A black rhino is much lighter, at about 1,750 to 3,000 lb.
A white rhino calf weighs 40 to 65 kg (88 to 143 lb) at birth, after a pregnancy of about 16 months. It is born without a horn: the front horn breaks through the skin at about 5 weeks old.
The southern white rhino. Bulls average about 2,300 kg and the biggest reach 3,600 kg. The greater one-horned rhino of South Asia is the next heaviest, at up to about 2,700 kg.
A black rhino weighs 800 to 1,350 kg (1,750 to 3,000 lb), roughly half as much as a white rhino. The white rhino is also taller, standing up to about 1.85 m at the shoulder against at most 1.7 m for a black rhino.
The IUCN estimated 15,752 white rhinos in Africa at the end of 2024, almost all of them southern white rhinos. The species is listed as Near Threatened. Of the northern white rhino, only two females were left as of 2025.
Last checked October 3, 2026.
