Sudan the world’s last male northern white rhino dies from ‘age-related complications.

The world’s last male northern white rhino, Sudan, has died after ‘age-related complications’. His species now faces near-certain extinction with just two female northern white rhinos left at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy north of Nairobi, Kenya.

A statement said that he was euthanized yesterday after his condition ‘worsened significantly’ and he was no longer able to stand. His muscles and bones had degenerated and his skin had extensive wounds. ‘He was a great ambassador for his species and will be remembered for the work he did to raise awareness globally of the plight facing not only rhinos, but also the many thousands of other species facing extinction as a result of unsustainable human activity,’ said the conservancy’s CEO, Richard Vigne.

The rhino ‘significantly contributed to survival of his species as he sired two females,’ the conservancy said.




‘Additionally, his genetic material was collected yesterday and provides a hope for future attempts at reproduction of northern white rhinos through advanced cellular technologies.’ The picture above is believed to be the last one taken of him and he was suffering from an infected leg. The 45-year-old rhino spent the last several weeks of his life in pain because of the deep wound on his right hind leg which suffered from an infection



His keepers had wondered whether it might be time to put him down but conservancy vetinarian Stephen Ngulu said they had managed to bring the infection under control with painkillers and antibiotics, and Sudan had regained his healthy appetite. After all attempts at getting him to mate naturally failed, conservationists last year put Sudan on Tinder, hoping to raise enough money to pay for a £6,500,000 million fertility treatment

‘He is an animal that is showing the will to live,’ Ngulu said before his death. Sudan struggled to walk in his pen while his companions Najin, 27, and 17-year old Fatu played in the mud a short distance away.
Poachers can sell northern white rhino horns for £36,000 per kilo, making them more valuable than gold or cocaine. Kenya, whose tourism sector is a huge source of foreign exchange, had 20,000 rhinos in the 1970s, falling to 400 in the 1990s. It now has 650, almost all of which are black


Scientists tried to help Sudan reproduce via in vitro fertilisation using eggs taken from Najin. The embryo would have been implanted in a surrogate southern white, Ngulu said. if(window.adverts) { adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_mobile_mid"}) }if(window.adverts) { adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_mid"}) }Reproductive experts from Kenya, Europe and South Africa hoped to have designed a means of extracting the eggs from Najin by the end of this year, he said. With the old male nearing the end of his life, Zachary Mutai, who has cared for him at Ol Pejeta for the last eight years, said the ravages of age were a source of sadness. ‘Sudan is my great friend,’ he said.


Metro.