Indian Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros unicornis
Status: Vulnerable. Poaching and illegal trade of rhino horns for traditional medicine has put them at risk
Unicorns have had a place in mythology around the world since ancient times. They appeared in Mesopotamian artworks, and there are also references to single-horned creatures in ancient myths from India and China. Sometimes these images were of a bull; but depicted in profile, it had but a single horn. Gazelles were also depicted in such a fashion, and it is thought that such imagery was an early source for the rise of the unicorn myth.
It was said that those who drank from its horn would be protected from stomach trouble, epilepsy, and poison, but the creature was elusive. It was very fleet of foot and difficult to capture. Early descriptions in Greek literature were made by the historian Ctesias who wrote of an animal that resembled a horse with a horn on its forehead. Ctesias most likely was describing an Indian Rhinoceros.
References:
Briggs, G. W. (1931). The Indian Rhinoceros as a Sacred Animal. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 51(3), 276-282. https://doi.org/10.2307/593451
Thomas Bulfinch (1918). Age of Fable. "The U-ni-corn", The Saalfield Publishing Company, Chicago, Akron OH, NY, pg96. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Age_of_Fable/KiPEPTk3m6sC