The only male northern white rhino left in the world is sick.
The 45-year-old rhino named Sudan was diagnosed with an infection in his right leg last year, which has since worsened. He has been under 24-hour care by veterinarians at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy, but he is still struggling to recover.
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The rhino, who is the last hope for the species to continue, has lived at the conservancy with two younger female counterparts since 2009. They are the only three northern white rhinos left in the world.
Sudan’s story has gained international attention in the past year, with an awareness campaign about the endangered species dubbing him the “The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World.”
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Even with the attention and care he’s received, his caretakers are increasingly concerned about his continuously declining health.
“We are very concerned about him — he’s extremely old for a rhino and we do not want him to suffer unnecessarily,” the Kenyan conservancy said in a statement.
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Scientists hope to save the northern white rhino from extinction by using southern white rhinos as surrogates to carry northern white rhino embryos and give birth.
The in vitro process would be conducted using sperm from dead rhinos that is stored in Berlin and eggs extracted by surgery from the females at Ol Pejeta, according to the conservancy.
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Rhino population
Northern white rhinos once roamed parts of Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Congo and Central African Republic, and there were more than 2,000 remaining as recently as 1960, according to Save the Rhino International, a London-based group.
However, poaching has dramatically downsized the population.
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There are several other rhino subspecies left in the world. As of 2015, there were a total of roughly 30,000 rhinos left in the world.
Some subspecies’ populations have even made a comeback following declines, thanks to recovery efforts.
— With files from The Associated Press
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