Rhinos made their appearance in the Belle Vue collection quite early on. In fact, in 1856 a list of the collection indicated that the Jennisons now had six lions, three camels and two rhinos. At one point they were housed in the Elephant House, and then in the Giraffe and Camel House, but in 1937 an new outdoor enclosure was built using stone blocks from the City Goal that was demolished nearby.

The 3 images above are shown with the permission of Ray Chadwick.

The rhino images below are shown with permission from Tommy Kelly

The picture below was taken by Ray Chadwick's father in the 1940s. A similar view of a tapir eating from a metal pan appears in one of Robert Nicholls' Belle Vue books to illustrate the fact that during the war years feeding the animals was a difficult task. The tapir in his picture was said to be eating stale bread and vegetables from the pan.

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