Malaysia's last male Sumatran rhino dies: officials

MAY 27, 2019

Malaysia's last surviving male Sumatran rhino died Monday, wildlife officials said, leaving behind only one female in the country and pushing the critically-endangered species closer to extinction.

Once found as far away as eastern India and throughout Malaysia, the Sumatran rhino has been almost wiped out, with fewer than 80 left, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Only a handful of the creatures remain in the wilds of Indonesia.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the Malaysian male, Tam, had lived in a nature reserve on Borneo island.

The cause of the animal's death was not immediately clear, but previous media reports have suggested it was suffering from kidney and liver problems.

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Sudan, the Last Male Northern White Rhino, Has Died

By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | March 20, 2018 06:43am ET

Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, is protected by armed guards John Mugo and Daniel Maina at Ol Pejeta Conservancy on June 25, 2015 in Laikipia County, Kenya.

Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where the rhino spent his last years, announced the death of the 45-year-old rhinoceros, saying that his health worsened to a point that he was suffering and unable to walk. Officials there made the decision to euthanize the rhino.

"He had been suffering from age-related health issues and from a series of infection[s]," Conservancy staff said in a statement. "Once his condition worsened significantly and he was unable to stand up and evidently, suffered a great deal, the decision to euthanise him was made by his veterinary team."

Sudan was the last wild-caught northern white rhinoceros in captivity. The rhinoceros's death leaves only two of the northern white rhino subspecies (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) alive on the planet: Najin, Sudan's daughter born in 1989, and Fatu, Najin's daughter born in 2000. [See Photos of the Last Standing Northern White Rhinos]

"We on Ol Pejeta are all saddened by Sudan's death. He was a great ambassador for his species and will be remembered for the work he did to raise awareness globally of the plight facing not only rhinos, but also the many thousands of other species facing extinction as a result of unsustainable human activity. One day, his demise will hopefully be seen as a seminal moment for conservationists world wide," Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta's CEO, said in a statement on Facebook.

Last male standing

Sudan was born around 1973 or 1974 in South Sudan. At just a year or two of age, he was captured from the wild along with several other of his subspecies and taken to the Dvůr Králové Zoo in what was then Czechoslovakia and is today the Czech Republic.

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At home with the world's last male northern white rhinoceros

With rhino numbers collapsed due to poaching for their horns, a lot rides on one pampered animal in the Kenyan savannah doing his best to further the species

Murithi Mutiga in Ol Pejeta

Monday 27 April 2015 05.00 BSTLast modified on Monday 27 April 201512.18 BST

Mohamed Doyo seems to have a dream job. Every evening, he patrols the Kenyan savannah, glimpsing lions chasing down darting Thomson’s gazelles, hearing the calls of red-chested cuckoos and, when there is a full moon, seeing the majestic, snow-capped peaks of Mount Kenya in the distance.

But Doyo can scarcely stop to admire the extraordinary views because he and a large squad of rangers perform an extraordinary job: they must keep poachers away from one of the rarest species on earth, including the star attraction at the 135 sq mile conservancy, Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino.

“This responsibility weighs so heavily on our shoulders,” says Doyo. “It is sad what human greed has done and now we must keep watch every minute because it would be unimaginable if the poachers succeeded in killing these last few animals.”

The precipitous decline in the number of wild rhinos is the result of the dramatic rise in poaching in the 20th century.

About half a million rhinos roamed in Africa and Asia in 1900. That figure had fallen to 70,000 by 1970, with some species near to disappearing.

By 2011, the western black rhino had been declared extinct, an abrupt end to a species that had walked the earth for 5m years.

Recent conservation efforts have rallied overall rhino population numbers to 29,000, but poaching remains a real threat.

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