Animal-focused site The Dodo is reporting that the very last male Northern white rhino on the planet is in trouble.
Sudan, who is now 45 years old, is surrounded by armed guards 24 hours a day because he represents the last hope for the survival of his subspecies. …
Then, at the end of 2017, the people who devote their lives for caring for Sudan noticed a sore on his leg — and they feared the worst.
That first infection was treated and Sudan seemed to recover, but then a second, deeper infection set in. At 45, Sudan is an old rhino. White rhinos usually live a bit longer then their cousins the black rhinos, but that still means that life expectancy is somewhere between 40 and 50 years.
It seems very unlikely at this point that Sudan will be around much longer, or that he will successfully mate with either of the two remaining female Northern white rhinos. There is still hope that Sudan’s sperm can be used to fertilize previously collected eggs, which might be carried to term by a much more numerous Southern white rhino.
Remaining rhinos …
- Northern white rhino: 3, all on a reserve in Kenya
- Southern white rhino: 17,000, mostly in South Africa
- Eastern black rhino: 700, mostly in Kenya
- South-central black rhino: 2,000, mostly in South Africa
- South-western black rhino: 1,900, mostly in Namibia
- Cape black rhino: Extinct (1850)
- Near-east black rhino: Extinct (1920)
- Western black rhino: Extinct (2011)
While rhinoceros, like all large African animals, are suffering from habitat loss, the biggest threat to all sub-species continues to be illegal poaching for horns. Several varieties have lost over 80 percent of their population since 1980.
The Western black rhino was the most common variety of rhino at the beginning of the 20th century. As recently as 1970, there may have been over 850,000 individuals. By 1995, there were 2,000. The last animal sighted in the wild was spotted in Cameroon in 2006. It was officially declared extinct in 2011.