Last Remaining Male Northern White Rhino Under Armed Guard Against Poachers [Video]
After an aging rhino in San Diego Zoo passed away a while back, this left only one male Northern White Rhino surviving in this world. Now living in a conservancy in Kenya, it is hoped that his sperm, together with eggs from the only four remaining female Northern White Rhinos left in the world, will be able to halt the extinction process.
The last living male Northern White Rhino is named Sudan, and he is living on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, surrounded by armed guards. According to a recent blog about the rhino, Sudan was moved to Ol Pejeta from a zoo in the Czech Republic in 2009 and is 43 years of age.
While his horn has been removed for his safety and to protect him from poachers, these armed guards are essential, because once he’s gone, extinction of the Northern White Rhino species is almost totally assured.
Armed guards in Sudan protect the last male northern white rhino on earth. His species survived for 50 million years pic.twitter.com/fUCLq4ROdG
— Wild Animals (@OutOfWild) June 5, 2015
The Weather Channel notes experts as saying a natural pregnancy would be impossible at this stage, but by harvesting Sudan’s sperm along with eggs from the last four females of the species, they hope to have some success. However, Richard Vigne, CEO of Ol Pejeta said it’s a race against time.
“Those remaining females could all die tomorrow. Once they’re gone, then the source of eggs disappears.”
Rhino horns from all species of the endangered animals are highly coveted by poachers, who sell them as a so-called health remedy on the black market, after slaughtering the animals in the process.
The Guardian reported a while back that the demand for rhino horns on the black market is ever-increasing with 13 rhinos killed in South Africa during 2007 and last year a huge 1,000 rhinos killed by poachers in the country.
WATCH: Kenyan Conservancy home to the last male northern white rhino on the planet. https://t.co/I01brdJJBR pic.twitter.com/B4QS7Aab2v
— Capital FM Kenya (@CapitalFM_kenya) June 3, 2015
At present two females live at Ol Pejeta with Sudan and the other two remaining female Northern White Rhinos are situated in a zoo in San Diego.
George Paul, deputy veterinarian at Ol Pejeta said that realistically, these animals are likely to die in the next decade or so.
“But hopefully, using artificial methods of reproduction, we might be able to bring them back in the future.
“This might mean that it will happen when the current animals are already deceased, but it could happen.”
If in vitro fertilization fails while the five remaining Northern White Rhinos are alive, scientists are hoping that it will be an option to resurrect the species in the future using their DNA and reproductive samples.
In other animal-related news, the Inquisitr reported on the story of polar bears in Norway who have been seen killing and eating dolphins. Not only is this an unusual diet for the bears, but they have even been seen storing remaining dolphins in the snow for later consumption.
[Image: Sudan the Northern White Rhino Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Lengai101]
