Ol Pejeta Conservancy
[BREAKING NEWS] Ol Pejeta Conservancy loses one of its northern white rhinos

Saturday, October 18, 2014
For Immediate Release

(Nanuyki - Kenya) - It is with great sadness that we announce the death of one of our northern white rhinos, Suni.

Suni was one of the four northern whites residing on Ol Pejeta Conservancy. He was born 34 years ago at the Dvůr Králové Zoo as the first-ever northern white rhino to be born in captivity. Together with one other male and two females, he was translocated from the zoo to Ol Pejeta in 2009.

Our rangers found him on the morning of October 17th, 2014, dead in his boma. Suni was not a victim of poaching and we have yet to establish the cause of his sudden death. The Kenya Wildlife Service vets will conduct a post mortem as soon as possible. In 2006, his father Saút died in the Dvur Kralove Zoo by natural causes at the same age as Suni was now.

Suni was one of the four northern white rhinos residing on Ol Pejeta. He was 34 years old.

There are now only six northern white rhinos left in the world. Suni was one of the last two breeding males in the world and no northern white rhinos are known to have survived in the wild. Consequently the species now stands at the brink of complete extinction, a sorry testament to the greed of the human race.

We will continue to do what we can to work with the remaining three animals on Ol Pejeta in the hope that our efforts will one day result in the successful birth of a northern white rhino calf.

For more information please feel free to contact richard.vigne@olpejetaconservancy.org

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