Northern White Rhino lives in savanna across Central Africa. It feeds on grasses and leaves. Its conservation status is Endangered.
Fascinating facts about the Northern White Rhino
- Only two northern white rhinos remain alive, both females named Najin and Fatu, after a male named Sudan died on 19 March 2018, making the subspecies functionally extinct in the wild. Najin was born in captivity in 1989 and is the mother of Fatu, who was born in 2000. They live at Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy under 24-hour armed guard.
- Scientists have created 38 northern white rhino embryos by 2025, storing them in labs in Berlin and Cremona. The embryos come from eggs harvested from the two living females and frozen sperm of dead males, such as Suni. This bank of embryos offers a genetic backup that could one day be implanted into a surrogate southern white rhino, giving the species a chance to re-appear despite the lack of living males.
- A 2010 study suggested the northern white rhino may be a separate species, citing morphological and genetic differences that indicate a split of at least one million years, though a 2016 study found a divergence of 0.46-0.97 million years and 1.8 % mitochondrial DNA difference, supporting its status as a subspecies.
- Poachers once drove the wild northern white rhino population from about 500 individuals to just 15 in the 1970s-80s, then a brief rebound to over 32 by 2003 before poaching again wiped out the last wild herd. The last known wild group was four animals spotted in Garamba National Park in 2005; none have been seen since 2006, and the population is now considered probably extinct. This rapid collapse illustrates how illegal horn trade can eradicate a species.
- The two surviving females were moved from the Czech Republic to Kenya on 20 December 2009, after a long air and road trip, and placed in a 400-by-400-metre paddock where their bent horns were sawn off and radio transmitters were installed. Their horns, worth up to $110,000 per kilogram, were removed to deter poachers, turning a lethal target into a protected animal.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.
At a glance
RangeCentral Africa
HabitatSavanna
DietGrasses and leaves
About the Northern White Rhino
In the scorching savannah, the Northern White Rhino lumbers forward with a gentle elegance, its massive frame gliding effortlessly across the grasslands as it searches for the tender shoots that sustain it. The soft rustle of its footsteps and the occasional snort are the only sounds that betray its presence, a testament to the quiet majesty of this endangered giant. As it moves through the landscape, its armor-plated hide glistens in the sunlight, a formidable shield that has protected its kind for millennia, yet now seems fragile in the face of human threat.
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