Only surviving male northern white rhino is put under armed guard
15.04.2015 20:26
The world's last surviving male northern white rhino - stripped of his horn for his own safety - is now under 24-hour armed guard in a desperate final bid to save the species.
Sudan is guarded day and night by a group of rangers who risk their lives on a daily basis as they try to keep the rhino from poachers lured by the rising price of ivory.
But even without his horn, keepers in the Kenyan reserve of Ol Pojeta in fear for his safety.
The 43-year-old rhino - who could live until his 50s - is the last chance for any future northern white rhino calves.
Sudan was moved, along with two female rhinos, from a zoo in the Czech Republic in December 2009.
The reserve, which specialises in the conservation of rhinos, was chosen because of its successful breeding programme with black rhinos.
It had been hoped the move would encourage them to breed, but all attempts have been unsuccessful.
The project was dealt a further blow when Suni - the world's only other male, who also lived at Ol Pojeta - died last October.
It left just five northern white rhinos in the world - and the three in Kenya are in particular danger.
Simor Irungu, one of the rangers who guards Sudan, says the team regularly risk their lives to keep him safe.
'With the rising demand for rhino horn and ivory, we face many poaching attempts and while we manage to counter a large number of these, we often risk our lives in the line of duty.'
It is a sad end for a species which used to roam across the heart of Africa - from southern Chad, across the Democratic Republic of Congo and up into Sudan.
Just over half a century ago, there were 2,000 northern white rhinos; but 1984 there were only 15, all in the DRC, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
But then conservationist managed to bring them back from the brink, and bought the population up to at least 30 animals less than a decade later.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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