The last male northern white rhino returns home, preserved forever

Posted by David Henning on 30 March 2023

The rarest rhino in the world, the northern white rhino, has made its final journey back home, without having to be sedated.

National Museum Prague display Sudan, the world’s most famous northern white rhinoceros who died a couple of years ago as the last surviving male of the northern white rhino subspecies in Prague, Czech Republic, November 4, 2021. Picture: Michal Krumphanzl/Alamy Live News

Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, was euthanased in 2018 following complications with old age. Its testicles were removed and frozen as Sudan was the last male, with only two remaining females.

The northern white rhino used to be found in Uganda, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Chad. Extensive poaching has decimated the population with the last two remaining rhinos living under 24-hour armed guard at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

Memorial plaque to Sudan, the last male Northern White rhino which died in April 2018 at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya. Picture: Alamy

Sudan’s skin and skeleton were flown to the Czech Republic a year later and fashioned into a stuffed specimen, which was flown back to Kenya and unveiled at the Nairobi National Museum to raise awareness of endangered species. The surviving rhinos, Najin and Fatu, are female but are unable to carry calves.

Read: PICTURES: Living with the last two northern white rhinos

The last two surviving white rhinos, Najin and Fatu, are free to move around within the conservancy as they please, however, they are under 24-hour watch by their caretakers and armed guards the National Police Reservists. Image: Justin Mott/ Getaway Gallery

A groundbreaking process saw the two rhinos undergo a highly risky procedure where they were anaesthetised and five of their eggs extracted.

These were then airlifted to the research team in Italy where they were fertilised, with only two of Fatu’s eggs developing into viable embryos. The team plan to implant the embryo’s into a southern white rhino surrogate.

Sudan spent most of his life in a Czech zoo after being captured in South Sudan in 1975 but was returned to Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2009, where he lived out his last days.

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ALSO READ: Scientists create embryos to save northern white rhinos






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