Rare rhino species faces imminent extinction

“We are going to witness the demise of this species; that’s the reality of what we face. They are going to die here,” reads a statement issued by Richard Vigne, CEO of Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Vigne was lamenting the sad state that northern white rhinos have found themselves in. The species is on the verge of extinction as there are only five of them alive in the whole world today.

In 2009, Najin, Fatu, Sudan and Suni, four of the world’s last remaining northern white rhinos, were moved across continents from Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic.

Suni, one of the males brought to Kenya in 2009, died of natural causes in October of 2014. Another male, Angalifu, died in captivity in the San Diego Zoo in the United States in December of the same year – barely two months after the demise of Suni. Angalifu was 44 at the time.

Currently, the only surviving northern white rhinos include a female in the San Diego Zoo, another in the Czech Republic, and two females and a male at Ol Pejeta, who are part of a last-ditch effort to breed the extremely rare subspecies. Sudan, the last living male, is 43.

By rhino standards, vets say his sperm is low quality. Nola in San Diego is also beyond reproductive age while Nabire in the Dvur Kralove Zoo is 31, but suffers from ovarian cysts. In Kenya, Najin, 25, cannot mate because of her weak hind legs, while her daughter Fatu, 14, is infertile.

“It is an indictment of what the human race is doing to planet earth and it’s not just happening to rhinos. It’s happening to all sorts of species - big and small - across the planet,” Vigne added.

Being home to 96 black rhinos and 11 southern white rhinos, Ol Pejeta, East Africa’s largest black rhino sanctuary was found to have the best possible ecology for the northern white rhino’s breeding project aimed at giving the species a lifeline. But now, even with successful trans-location from Czech to Kenya, it seems the writing is on the wall for the northern white rhino.

According to Vigne, the northern white’s geographic range was Central Africa. He says that war, strife, lawlessness and human greed opened the door for poachers to kill them at will. “People are absolutely to blame,” he says.

Mohammed Doyo, the park ranger at Ol Pejeta who looks after Sudan, Najin and Fatu, believes that there is hope. To deter poachers, the northern whites are escorted by armed wardens at night and their horns are trimmed.