![]() ![]() Ol Pejeta is currently the only reserve in Africa conserving three rhino subspecies.ĭiscussing the future of the northern white rhino, Dr Rob Brett (FFI’s Senior Technical Specialist) said, “It may be possible to generate and conserve future offspring from the remaining animals at some time in the future. Since assisting with the translocation of four northern white rhinos, we have provided ongoing technical and financial support to ensure that they, along with all the resident black rhinos and a small population of southern white rhinos, are well protected. Today known as Ol Pejeta Conservancy, this area forms a vital part of the Laikipia ecosystem in northern Kenya, and is a crucial sanctuary for white and black rhinos as well as a variety of other threatened species including Grevy’s zebra.įFI continues to work with Ol Pejeta to this day. The ranch was converted into a wildlife conservancy and was transferred from FFI to a Kenyan non-profit entity in 2005 under a long-term management agreement. In 2003, with the help of the Arcus Foundation, FFI purchased a 364-km 2 cattle ranch that forms part of a critical wildlife corridor at the foot of Mount Kenya. Could this subspecies be brought back from extinction? The future is uncertain and it is a race against time. ![]() Rhino experts are now exploring the possibility of artificial reproduction technologies, using in vitro fertilisation and southern white rhino surrogates as a way to preserve and maintain northern white rhino genes into the future. Even before his sad and widely publicised death in March 2018, Sudan’s old age meant that natural reproduction was no longer an option. In 2013, one of the males suddenly died from a heart attack leaving just one male (Sudan) and two females in Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Sadly, despite a number of matings, no rhino calves were born. It was hoped that a more natural environment would stimulate them to breed. In December 2009, with support from Fauna & Flora International (FFI), the last four breeding individuals (two males and two females) were flown from the zoo to Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy in a final attempt to save the subspecies from extinction. This left just eight northern white rhinos in two zoos on opposite sides of the world – in the Czech Republic and California.Īttention quickly turned to the northern white rhinos living in Dvůr Králové Zoo in Czech Republic. In 2008, a survey in Garamba concluded that northern white rhinos had become extinct in the wild. However, political instability in these countries and growing demand for rhino horn led to an increase in poaching.Īrmed conflict across Central Africa in the 1970s and early 1980s wiped out most of the remaining northern white rhinos except for a small population in Garamba National Park in DRC. Northern white rhinos once ranged across north-western Uganda, southern Chad, south-western Sudan, the eastern part of Central African Republic and north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ![]()
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