Veterinarians at a Kenyan conservation were on edge last week after the only living male northern white rhino came down with an infection in his leg.
According to Reuters, the 45-year-old rhino’s caretakers were worried that he would have to be put down.
“It has been a struggle,” President of the African Wildlife Foundation Kaddu Sebunya told National Geographic. “We’re so concerned that the male rhino is now ailing, and we might lose him. We’re in a hopeless situation.”
Thankfully, Sudan is in recovery and has regained his appetite after being treated with antibiotics and painkillers from his age-related injury.
“He is an animal that is showing the will to live,” Sudan’s veterinarian Stephen Ngulu told Reuters.
The Dodo reports that Sudan was surrounded by armed guards 24 hours a day since the survival of his species lies with him. Sudan has been living at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya since 2009. He lives there with two female white northern rhinos, Najin, 27, and Fatu, 17.
“Sudan developed an uncomfortable age-related infection on his back right leg. He resumed normal movement and foraging habits over January up to mid-February, with his demeanor and general activity improving significantly,” Ol Pejeta said in a statement.
“This has been treated, but worryingly, the infection is taking longer to recover, despite the best efforts of his team of vets who are giving him 24-hour care, with everything possible being done to help him regain his health.”
The conservancy tried to get Sudan to naturally mate, but unfortunately, those attempts failed.
So, they were left to come up with a clever alternative… and they sure did.
Conservationists decided to put Sudan on the dating app Tinder to try and get people to swipe right and make donations to pay for $9 million fertility treatments, according to Reuters.
While there are still thousands of southern white rhinos in existence in the plains of sub-Saharan Africa, poaching has almost completely wiped out their northern counterparts.
White rhino horns are more valuable than gold or cocaine and can sell for $50,000 per kilo.
Their horns are sold on the black market and are often used in Chinese medicine.
National Geographic says that rhinos usually only live between 40 and 50 years, which is why they are so concerned about losing Sudan because he is right around that age.
“We are very concerned about him,” Ol Pejeta explained. “He’s extremely old for a rhino and we do not want him to suffer unnecessarily.”
Sudan’s caretakers asked that people keep the rhino in their thoughts, while animal conservationists are reminding us of what is at stake when we lose these beautiful creatures that we share Earth with.
“This is a very good example of Africa losing the heritage,” Sebunya said. “How can we explain this to the next generation of Africans? We can’t be so arrogant and neglect other African species.”
Scientists are now trying to use an egg from Najin that would be fertilized by Sudan and implanted into a southern white rhino surrogate via in vitro fertilization.
They are hoping to come up with a method to extract eggs from Najin by the end of the year.
“This is something that if we are not careful as Africans, it’s going to happen to a lot of our species,” Sebunya said. “This is happening on our watch, and we can do something about this with all other species.”
Get well soon Sudan! You can learn more about Sudan’s story in the video below.
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