With 1 male left worldwide, northern white rhinos under guard day and night [View all]
Source: CNN.com
Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya (CNN)At first glance, Sudan looks like any other northern white rhino: stout and agile, with square lips.
He grazes under the hot sun, his massive head lowered to the ground, with the occasional glance at visitors gawking at him from four-wheel drives at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya.
When he's not wallowing in his enclosure, he waddles around the sprawling savannah, stopping briefly to drink water from a concrete hole.
But Sudan is not just any rhino. He's the last known male northern white rhino left in the entire world.
For an animal on the verge of extinction, the fate of the subspecies rests on his ability to conceive with the two female northern white rhinos at the conservancy.
In addition to various breeding measures, the animals are under 24-hour protection by armed guards. Rhinos are targeted by poachers, fueled by the belief in Asia that their horns cure various ailments. Experts say the rhino horn is becoming more lucrative than drugs.
In addition to round-the-clock security, the conservancy has put radio transmitters on the animals and dispatches incognito rangers into neighboring communities to gather intelligence on poaching.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/16/africa/kenya-northern-white-rhino/index.html
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