Rare white rhino dies in Kenya; species on brink of extinction

A rare northern white rhino has died in Kenya, a wildlife conservancy said on Saturday, leaving just six of the animals alive and bringing the species a step closer to extinction.

The 34-year-old male, called Suni, "was probably the last male capable of breeding", according to the Dvur Kralove zoo in the Czech Republic, where the rhino was born in 1980.

The Czech zoo is the only one in the world to have succeeded in breeding the subspecies in captivity.

While thousands of southern white rhinos still roam the plains of sub-Saharan Africa, decades of rampant poaching have drastically cut northern white rhino numbers.

Suni, the first northern white rhino to be born in captivity, was found dead on Friday by rangers at the Ol Pejeta conservancy, about 250 km north of Nairobi.

The conservancy said Suni was not poached, but the cause of death was unclear. It added that no northern white rhinos are believed to survive in the wild.

"Consequently the species now stands at the brink of complete extinction, a sorry testament to the greed of the human race," the conservancy said in a statement.

The Kenya Wildlife Service vets will conduct a post mortem, the conservancy added. Suni's father, Suit, died in 2006 of natural causes, also aged 34.

Suni was one of the four northern white rhinos brought from the Czech zoo to the Ol Pejeta conservancy in 2009 to take part in a breeding program aimed at saving the species from extinction.

Wildlife experts had hoped the 36,420-hectare wildlife conservancy, framed on the equator and nestled between Mount Kenya and the Aberdare mountain range, would offer a favorable climate for breeding.

"We will continue to do what we can to work with the remaining three animals at Ol Pejeta in the hope that our efforts will one day result in the successful birth of a northern white rhino calf," the conservancy added.

Conservationists have struggled to reverse a decline in the numbers of several African species, undermined by ferocious poaching by gangs that mostly ship the ivory to Asia. Last year, 59 rhinos were poached in Kenya.

Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 10/20/2014 page10)