The extremely rare northern white rhinoceros is at the edge of complete extinction as Suni, one of the last two breeding male of its species died on October 17.
Suni was the first northern white rhino born in captivity before he was transferred to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. He is a 34-year old white rhino which is among the seven left of its kind in the world. Rangers of Ol Pejeta found Suni lifeless in his enclosure on Friday.
White rhinos are known to live for 40 to 50 years. The cause of Suni's sudden death is still to be established by the reserve as told in a statement released by Ol Pejeta. The reserve officials made sure that Suni did not die from poaching. His father, Saut, died in 2006 at Suni's present age due to natural causes. A post mortem procedure will be immediately conducted by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
To date, there are only six northern white rhinos left in the world, all of them in captivity. Three of the six remaining are located at Ol Pejeta Conservancy - two females and one male. Suni had not fathered any offspring and no same species of rhino are known to have survived in the wild. His death leaves only one breeding male in the reserve which is crucial to the survival of its kind.
A related subspecies called the southern white rhino has also been considered near threatened by the International Union of Conservation of Nature.
Ol Pejeta wants the rest of the world to know that they will continue to strive further in the survival of the three remaining white rhinos in their hands and hopes that the day of a successful birth of a northern white rhino calf will come.
