The Horn That Flips A Car Three Times
At a German safari park, a three-ton white rhino bull named Kusini rammed a zookeeper's car and rolled it over again and again with the keeper inside — and she walked away with bruises and a concussion.
The Horn That Flips A Car Three Times
In August 2019, at Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen, Germany, a zookeeper was driving a small zebra-striped hatchback across an enclosure, moving a rhino bull named Kusini towards his stable. Kusini, thirty years old and weighing over three tons, turned on the car. Visitors filmed what happened next: the rhino drove his horn under the vehicle and flipped it, then flipped it again, and again, with the keeper still inside.
Three Tons at Thirty Miles an Hour
A white rhino is one of the heaviest land animals alive. Adult bulls weigh between 1,800 and 2,500 kilograms, and Kusini was on the heavy end of that. Despite the bulk, a white rhino can run at around 50 kilometres per hour, about 30 miles per hour. Put those two numbers together and you have something close to a loaded truck moving at city speed, with a horn on the front.
Five Feet of Fingernail
The horn is not bone. It grows from the skin and is made of compressed strands of keratin, the same material as human fingernails and hair. The front horn of a white rhino averages around 60 centimetres, but it keeps growing through the animal’s life. The longest ever recorded was about 150 centimetres, close to five feet.
The Car as a Toy
The hatchback weighed about a ton and a half. Against three tons of animal it was not an obstacle. The footage shows Kusini hooking the horn under the car and rolling it across the ground. Nobody at the park could get close enough to stop him, and the reason for the rage was never established.
She Walked Away
The keeper inside was shaken but alive. According to the park’s manager, she came out with a few bruises and a concussion and was expected back at work within days. The car did not do as well.
