The Rhino Resource Center: accessing and utilizing a unique digital database

Abstract

Rhinos have a long history in European art and literature, having captivated the public for over 500 years. In China and India, this is even longer (Bishop 1933, Bose 2020). This long-term record means that there is a wealth of rhino imagery and publications available for researchers. The Rhino Resource Center (RRC) is a repository of such information. Whilst the power of the RRC’s literature database has been documented, we consider that the image gallery has thus far been underappreciated by researchers. To complement a recent publication that made use of the images in the RRC to investigate changing human perceptions of rhinos and morphological changes in rhinos over time, we describe the volume and type of data available on the RRC and the images it contains and how to access these, including thematic information, time and location data, ecological data and morphology. We hope that this paper will facilitate rhino researchers making greater use of this information and we strongly encourage uptake of this resource for future rhino research.