Endangerment to Extinction… Just a few steps away

Sudan the Rhino is no more. This news has saddened thousands across the globe-not just animal lovers but people from other walks of life too.  As his health was deteriorating, the concerned officials had to take the ultimate decision of euthanizing it. His death now leaves us with only two northern white rhino subspecies alive on our planet.

Sudan spent his last years in the Ol Pejata conservancy in Kenya. Captured at the age of two and taken to the Dv?r Králové Zoo perhaps saved him, or else he would have ended up with poachers who were on a rampage in Central Africa. In the early 2000s, with the Second Congo war causing mass unrest, concentration focused on the aftermath of the war and saving the rhinoceroses took a back seat. Funds for the militant groups were raised by poaching the rhinos and selling their horns. Fortunately, thanks to conservation and other timely efforts, the southern white rhinos grew in number.

Sadly, a couple of northern white rhinos were poached in captivity too which brings us to the ultimate issue of what all this is leading to. The Ol Pejata conservancy dreads the day when other species of animals too will slowly fall prey to human greed and turn extinct. But by then, it will be too late…