December 2022

Northern White Rhinoceros

Press secretary at Animat Habitat.

One of the more incomprehensible acts that we humans, as a species, have to face up to is the extirpation of a once thriving group of animals, such as the northern white rhinoceros. Once upon a time… there were thousands of this subspecies living across Africa. The crisis of poaching that has supplied an illegal trade in rhino horn has made the plight of the northern white rhinoceros particularly devastating. Now the next candidates for oblivion.

The Last Northern White Rhinoceros

In 2009, a last chapter was written for the northern white rhinoceros. There were just eight left. They were all in zoos and there was this idea to fly two males and two females back to Kenya in a last ditch effort to save the subspecies. Both black and white rhinoceros have been driven to the brink of extinction. For the northern white subspecies, extinction is now only a matter of time. When Suni passed away in 2014, Sudan was the last male northern white rhinoceros. This chapter ended at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2018 when Sudan died surrounded by people who loved him after suffering from age-related complications. Sudan was 45. ^[1]

Ami Vitale, Nikon Ambassador and National Geographic photographer, was interviewed by Dibblex Lesalon on the Kenya-based podcast Boots on the Ground in September 2021, where she was asked to share the story behind her photographs of Sudan before his death. Vitale has documented a number of wildlife conservation stories in Kenya, perhaps most notably her short film Shaba (2021) tells the story of an elephant in a way to support the foundation of Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. In the interview with Lesalon, Vitale spoke about how Kenya has been doing a lot of things right. She has seen some of the many ways Kenya has been a leader when you look at conservation, with the government committing to conservation and with the community coming together to see value in conservation and so on. “There are challenges and a lot of missteps,” Vitale acknowledged, “but there are also a lot of great lessons to be learned—there is so much noise in the world, this is a really good time for all of us to take a moment and be quiet… And listen. Truly listen.” ^[2]

To be, and then not to be anymore. The extinction of the northern white rhinoceros will inevitably mark an important moment in the history of humankind. We now hold a responsibility to examine why an extinction like this has happened and what that will mean for us humans, as a species, as well. We must carry on the story of the northern white rhinoceros as a reminder that there are other ways to look at wildlife. Stories like this can help remind people how we are all interconnected—all inextricably linked to the natural world.

The black rhino – also known as the hook-lipped rhino – is categorized by the IUCN as critically endangered and has declined by more than ninety-five per cent since the 1960s. The black rhino is made up of four subspecies: the western black rhino, eastern black rhino, south-western black rhino and southern black rhino. The white rhino – misnamed for its wide mouth – is categorized by the IUCN as near threatened, and has been functionally reduced to one subspecies: southern white rhinos. ^[3]

Sudan, Najin and Fatu

Once upon a time… The northern white rhinoceros was found across countries in Africa south of the Sahara. Poaching, intensified by civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Sudan, has devastated the rhino population. In the 1960s there were 2,300 northern white rhinoceros remaining. Today there are two.

These last survivors are the daughter and granddaughter of Sudan, Najin and her daughter Fatu. They live out their lives in the presence of armed guards at all times.

Najin and Fatu are mother and daughter. It is no longer possible for the northern white rhinoceros to reproduce naturally. They are the terminus of a lineage that split-off hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Still some scientists have not given up. In August 2020 at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, African Wildlife Foundation funded a program by the Kenya Wildlife Service and scientists from Germany and the Czech Republic to collect eggs from these last two females. And so began an epiloge in the human story of the northern white rhinoceros. The aim is to rewrite the fate of the northern subspecies with a lot of help from the southern white rhinoceros and with a lot of time. Najin was retired from the program in 2021. ^[4,5]