I am very sorry to annonce that the last male white rhino died about a month ago, aged 45, leaving only two females: his daughter Najin, and Najin’s daughter Fatu.
“His condition worsened significantly in the last 24 hours; he was unable to stand up and was suffering a great deal,” the conservancy, where Sudan lived under armed guard to prevent poaching, explained.
This white rhino was called Sudan, and was transferred to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2009 from the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic.
His park rangers described him as a loveable character. Ol Pejeta CEO Richard Vigne told Euronews that:
“It got to a point over the past two weeks where he was becoming almost completely recumbent. He was in obvious pain as a result of various infections and he was incredibly uncomfortable and had stopped eating so the best thing for us to do was to take the decision to relieve him of his suffering and to euthanise him,”
Now that I have told you the sad news, there comes the question: What next? Well, this is what happened when he was alive.
In 2017, conservationists put Sudan on dating app Tinder as “The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World”, in hopes of raising enough money for a fertility treatment after attempts at getting him to mate naturally failed.
We all hope that Sudan, who was infertile for around five years before his death, can still help to repopulate the species using some of his genetic material taken the day he died.
IVF is a really complicated process and has never been used on rhinos before but it is the last chance for northern whites.
Vigne told Euronews this is “a simple signal to what we as humans are doing to the planet and the impact we’re having on thousands of species.”
I hope this tragic news will boost you to fight even more for our planet, and please spread the word!
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