There are now just five northern white rhinos left in the world

Image: Angalifu. Credit: Sheep81/Wikimedia

There are now just five northern white rhinos left in the world

One of the last remaining male northern white rhinos has died of old age in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

The death of a 44-year-old male rhino called Angalifu has sadly pushed the critically endangered northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) a step closer to extinction.

Before he died, conservationists at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park had hoped that Angalifu would mate with Nola, their female northern white rhino, but their attempts were all unsuccessful, as the Associated Press reports. 

"Angalifu's death is a tremendous loss to all of us," Randy Rieches, the safari park curator, said in a statement. "Not only because he was well beloved here at the park but also because his death brings this wonderful species one step closer to extinction."

The white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) is the largest existing rhino species in the world, and is made up of two subspecies, the northern and southern white rhinos.

The remaining five northern white rhinos are now located in captivity around the world - there are three at a preserve in Kenya, one at a zoo in the Czech Republic, and Nola remains at the San Dieo park.

As recently as 1960, there were around 2,000 living northern white rhinos, but poachers have quickly reduced the population. The rhino horn is extremely valuable on the black market due to its rumoured healing powers.

Unfortunately, breeding attempts to save the species around the world are also stalling - just last week, preservationists at the animal sanctuary in Kenya reported that their one male and two female northern white rhinos also wouldn’t reproduce naturally.

But scientists are now making an effort to keep the species alive through in vitrofertilisation, the Associated Press reports. They’re hoping that if they can fertilise a northern white rhino egg, it could be transplanted into a southern white rhino surrogate mother. 

And, there is always a chance that the species still exists somewhere we just haven’t found as yet.

As Amar Toor reports for The Verge, the southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) was considered extinct back in the 1800s, before a small population was discovered in South Africa and conservation efforts were implemented. Now the WWF estimates there are more then 20,000 alive today.

Let’s hope that if such a population of northern white rhinos does exist somewhere in the world, they stay well hidden and protected.