October 15, 2024 12:38 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
After Baba Siddique's murder, arrested shooters reveal his son Zeeshan was on hit list too | Nobel Prize in economic sciences awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson | RG Kar impasse: Bengal doctors-govt meeting ends with no result | Trudeau govt's vote bank politics: India toughens stand against Canada after latest tirade over Nijjar killing | Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which claimed responsibility for Baba Siddique's murder, sends Salman Khan a message
Sudan: World's last male Northern White rhino dies

Sudan: World's last male Northern White rhino dies

| @indiablooms | 20 Mar 2018, 03:12 pm

Nairobi, Mar 20 (IBNS): Sudan, the world's last male Northern White rhinoceros has died on Monday in Kenya, aged 45, reports said.

His death has been mourned by environmentalists, who now fear that Sudan's departure has forced his species a step closer to complete extinction.

According to a statement released by the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Sudan was euthanised as he was no longer able to stand up.

At just two years old, Sudan was captured in Sudan in 1975 and move to Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic.

Later, as the zoo succumbed to financial troubles, he was relocated in 2009 to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, in Laikipia County, Kenya,along with two northern white rhino females named Najin and Fatu. 

According to Dr. Steve Ngulu, the veterinarian who was in charge of Sudan, his death was a testament to human failure.

"But then, as far as their propagation is concerned, we are happy that at least we collected some sperm from him and the other males," National Public Radio quoted him as saying.

The doctor said that they will try ovum pick-up, collect eggs from the females, as neither natural reproduction nor artificial insemination is possible because among the two females, one is sterile and the other is not physically capable of carrying a calf full term.

"So, natural reproduction cannot take place, artificial insemination is not possible, so the only other option that we have to have a pure northern white rhino baby is to retrieve or to do something we call ovum pick-up, collect eggs from the females," he said.

The fertilised eggs would then be transferred into a southern white rhino, who would complete the gestation term.

However, ovum pick-up from a rhino has never been done before and could potentially kill the females, thereby causing extinction.

 

Image: twitter.com/OlPejeta

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.