SciFi Q of the Day: Rhinoceri and the Second World War

SciFi Question of the Day: In an alternate history where rhinoceroses are domesticated pets, who wins the Second World War?

Facebook Answers:

Pony Horton I do, of course!

Santi Fabrellas Isn’t that from The Big Bang Theory? I think Sheldon and Amy asked this same question. I don’t remember the answer.

Daniel Beard The side with the Americas. having a 2000 mile moat, and more industry than it knew what to do with are still not going to change with rhinos.

Pony Horton Daniel… Maybe, but the rhinoceros is the Self-Appointed Fire Marshall of the Kalihari, so that could at least shorten the war.

Terry Morgan Anyone tough enough to have Rhinos as pets should automatically win.

Santi Fabrellas Found it: Uganda. Defense: Kenya rises to power on the export of rhinoceroses. A central African power block is formed, colonizing North Africa and Europe. When war breaks out, no one can afford the luxury of a rhino. Kenya withers, Uganda triumphs.

Google Plus Answers, Public Post:

Linda Dean Alexander the Great

Michelle Cameron Without a doubt that would be the army of poets lead by William Shakespeare, because only his group know that a shrew is a more potent weapon than a domesticated rhino.

Addison Fox Domesticated as of what era? If they were only the latest victorian fad, then Britain would have been unprepared for the Third Reich’s Mechanized Battlerhino, but if we’re talking “they domesticated rhinos instead of wolves in the BC era” then probably Russia.

Vivian Spartacus Japan, they have more Pokemon masters 🙂

Dan Thompson The triceratops brigades of Australia, of course.

EB Taylor The ivory horned brigades of Canada.

Addison Fox Fun fact, the ivory horns on the Canadian ivory horned brigade are prosthetic; Rhinoceros horns are made of compressed keratin (like fingernails in humans).

Zachary Besterfield Considering that the rhino kills more humans on an annual basis than any other animal, far exceeding lions tigers and bears put together, I think the nazi’s would have won. They would have air dropped thousands of rampaging rhino’s into England, and probably had them strapped with explosives to boot. England might have fallen before the Americans could muster.

They wouldn’t have been bogged down in the mud in Russia either, using rhinos to port supplies.

Kimberly Unger Well, if Hannibal used Rhinos, rather than Elephants, then Rome would never have been properly sacked, which suggests that Italy would have been the primary aggressor in WWII. Stack upon this the idea that an army marches on it’s stomach, and you have Italy (because, lets face it an army marching on spaghetti and wine is going to take their time, one can’t rush these things) chucking the whole thing as a bad idea once the grapes are in and the Allies emerging victorious.

Google Plus Answers, Science Fiction Community:

Roddy Campbell It depends – African or Indian Rhinos?

Mack Meijers I’d say cats win it. And every other war. In such a universe they probably managed to sneak in an evolution of opposable thumbs …

Picture that 😛

Jayson J Soft rhino, warm rhino, massive horned and grey.

Grumpy rhino, charging rhino, run away!

Gadget Freehan The rhinos

Gustavo Campanelli First of all, rhinoceros pets talk about houses with bigger terrains, making dense packed cities completely undesirable. This means that trying to bombard a city would be completely out of the scene, as there would be little places that justify that kind of small area bombardment.

At the same time, taking over a village would have to be done house by house, as they are scattered and protected by the pet Rhinos. Troops would have to carry impracticall elephant hunting rifles to conquer that kind of places, so machine guns are completelly out of the question because of the much heavier bullets.

David Sullivan Uganda

Defense: Kenya rises to power on the export of rhinoceroses. A central African power block is formed, colonizing North Africa and Europe. When war breaks out, no one can afford the luxury of a rhino. Kenya withers, Uganda triumphs.

AmyBeth Inverness