AMAZING PHOTOS: Playful Baby Rhino Skips Along the Road in South African Bush

Looking as playful as any spring lamb, this baby rhino bounds ahead of his mother's heavy footsteps. Safari tour guid captured photos of the youngster leaping and posing for the camera on a tourist trip in the South African bush. The 42kg calf jumped, span and kicked, then charged at the tourists, as his 1.8ton mother looked on proudly.

The baby rhino came as close as about 1.5m from the truck, giving a little snort of pride at astonished tourists before turning tail and disappearing off into the wilderness.

Rhinos have two horns, the foremost of which is far more prominent than the rear, that have been known to grow up to five feet long. Both males and females use their horns as weapons: the former in courtship battles and against attackers, the latter to protect their young.

It is these horns which have been their downfall, with many killed for their hard, hair-like growths. In many Asian countries there is a massive demand for rhino horns because of folk medicine which claims it is an aphrodisiac. In North Africa and the Middle East the horns are prized as handles for ornamental daggers.

The white rhino once roamed much of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction with significant populations now limited to South Africa. Still, the country, which has around 16,225 individuals in the wild, loses more than two rhinos a day due to poaching.

White rhinos are born weighing between 40 and 65kg. A fully grown female can weigh between 1,400-1,700kg, and males a whopping 2,000-3,600kg.