Zoos, animal sanctuaries and conservation centers use this same scientific name as an indicating reference to the surviving south-central black rhinoceros.

[1][2] It is unknown from where the original specimen (the holotype), on which Carl Linnaeus based "Rhinoceros" bicornis in 1758, was collected.

It was even proposed that it was indeed the skull of an Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) with a faked second horn, as Linnaeus erroneously noted India as occurrence.

[3] This was fixed formally in 1911, when O. Thomas declared the Cape of Good Hope as type locality of D.

[2] This subspecies was restricted to well-vegetated regions, in contrast to others that are well adapted to desertic conditions.