Last male northern white rhino dies in Kenya <
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Posted On: 03/20/2018 4:09:56 PM
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Last male northern white rhino dies in Kenya
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The last surviving male northern white rhino has died, leaving two remaining white rhinos—both female—as the last of their kind, the conservation organization that cares for the animals has announced.
“It is with great sadness that Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the Dvůr Králové Zoo announce that Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino, age 45, died at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya on March 19th, 2018,” the conservancy said in a statement.
Sudan was euthanized after his health suddenly worsened, it said. The rhino, who had been at the zoo in the Czech Republic from 1975 until 2009, was being treated in Kenya for age-related complications that caused degenerative changes in muscles and bones as well as skin wounds.
The future of the species now rests with the two surviving females, Sudan’s daughter Najin and her daughter Fatu, who also live at the conservancy in Kenya. The Czech zoo is the only one that has successfully bred northern white rhinos, who once roamed freely in swaths of central Africa, but have been decimated by poachers who hunt them for their horns. The zoo has used artificial techniques of reproduction in the past, although no pregnancy has yet occurred.
“Examinations of the two females showed that neither is currently capable of natural reproduction,” said Jan Stejskal, coordinator of the zoo’s program for saving the northern rhino, according to the conservancy’s website.
The only hope for the preservation of this subspecies now lies in developing in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques using eggs from the two remaining females, stored northern white rhino semen from males and surrogate southern white rhino females, said Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta’s chief executive.
The estimated cost of developing these techniques from trial to implantation to the creation of a viable herd of breeding animals, is about $9 million, he said. The conservancy is seeking donations in memory of Sudan to support that initiative.
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Northern white rhinos were all but wiped out in the 1970s and 1980s as poachers hunted them in large numbers for their horns, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine and for dagger hands in Yemen, the conservancy said. That wiped out the subspecies’ entire population in Uganda, Central African Republic, Sudan and Chad.
The final remaining wild population of about 20 to 30 rhinos in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were wiped out during fighting in that country in the 1990s and early 2000s.
See now: How drones are working to prevent future ‘Cecil the Lion’ shootings
By 2008, the northern white rhino was widely considered to be extinct in the wild. In 2009, the last four fertile animals, two males and two females, were moved to Kenya from the Dvůr Králové Zoo in eastern Bohemia, with the aim of encouraging them to reproduce in a climate similar to their native habitat.
Don’t miss: Trump administration stance on national parks ‘deeply disturbing,’ say resigning board members
“Sudan was the last northern white rhino that was born in the wild,” said Stejskal. “His death is a cruel symbol of human disregard for nature.”
< >
The last surviving male northern white rhino has died, leaving two remaining white rhinos—both female—as the last of their kind, the conservation organization that cares for the animals has announced.
“It is with great sadness that Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the Dvůr Králové Zoo announce that Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino, age 45, died at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya on March 19th, 2018,” the conservancy said in a statement.
Sudan was euthanized after his health suddenly worsened, it said. The rhino, who had been at the zoo in the Czech Republic from 1975 until 2009, was being treated in Kenya for age-related complications that caused degenerative changes in muscles and bones as well as skin wounds.
The future of the species now rests with the two surviving females, Sudan’s daughter Najin and her daughter Fatu, who also live at the conservancy in Kenya. The Czech zoo is the only one that has successfully bred northern white rhinos, who once roamed freely in swaths of central Africa, but have been decimated by poachers who hunt them for their horns. The zoo has used artificial techniques of reproduction in the past, although no pregnancy has yet occurred.
“Examinations of the two females showed that neither is currently capable of natural reproduction,” said Jan Stejskal, coordinator of the zoo’s program for saving the northern rhino, according to the conservancy’s website.
The only hope for the preservation of this subspecies now lies in developing in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques using eggs from the two remaining females, stored northern white rhino semen from males and surrogate southern white rhino females, said Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta’s chief executive.
The estimated cost of developing these techniques from trial to implantation to the creation of a viable herd of breeding animals, is about $9 million, he said. The conservancy is seeking donations in memory of Sudan to support that initiative.
Read also: Companies are talking more about their climate-change risks, but it’s not much help to investors — so far
Northern white rhinos were all but wiped out in the 1970s and 1980s as poachers hunted them in large numbers for their horns, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine and for dagger hands in Yemen, the conservancy said. That wiped out the subspecies’ entire population in Uganda, Central African Republic, Sudan and Chad.
The final remaining wild population of about 20 to 30 rhinos in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were wiped out during fighting in that country in the 1990s and early 2000s.
See now: How drones are working to prevent future ‘Cecil the Lion’ shootings
By 2008, the northern white rhino was widely considered to be extinct in the wild. In 2009, the last four fertile animals, two males and two females, were moved to Kenya from the Dvůr Králové Zoo in eastern Bohemia, with the aim of encouraging them to reproduce in a climate similar to their native habitat.
Don’t miss: Trump administration stance on national parks ‘deeply disturbing,’ say resigning board members
“Sudan was the last northern white rhino that was born in the wild,” said Stejskal. “His death is a cruel symbol of human disregard for nature.”
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