A wildlife conservancy in Kenya mentioned that they lost another rare northern white rhino and this leaves only 6 of the animals left and thus bringing the famed African species one step closer to extinction. Although there are still thousands of southern white rhinos that are still seen in the plains of sub-Saharan Africa, the rampant poaching that has been going on for so long has drastically cut northern white rhino numbers.
Suni was 34-year-old when he died and was the first northern white rhino to be born in captivity but was found dead by rangers at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, about 250 km (155 miles) north of Nairobi. The good news is that Suni was not poached, but the cause of his death is still not known. He was one of the last two breeding males in the world as no northern white rhinos are believed to have survived in the wild.
Sadily the species now stands at the brink of complete extinction and this is all because of the greedy nature of the human race. The Kenya Wildlife Service vets will conduct a post mortem in the coming days to find out the cause of its death. Suni has died after 8 years since his father died in 2006 of natural causes, also at the age of 34.
Suni was one of the four northern white rhinos brought from that zoo to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2009 from Dvur Kralove Zoo in Czech Republic and they were to help in the breeding program, all in an effort to prevent the extinction of the species.
Conservationists hoped that 90,000-acre private wildlife conservancy, framed on the equator and in between the snow capped Mount Kenya and the Aberdare mountain range, would provide favorable climate for breeding. Now, all that is available are three animals on Ol Pejeta which hopefully will one day result in the successful birth of a northern white rhino calf so said the conservancy.
It is very important to address the problem of the readily available market in Asia. Rhino horn sold on the streets of major Asian cities and last year, ivory was more valuable than gold or platinum, with traders asking for about $65,000 per kg of rhino horn thus leading to increased poaching in Africa especially in park like the Maasai Mara game park.
Wildlife safari news
