Though Ol Pejeta provides Sudan with a more natural habitat intended to induce breeding, it also brings him into close proximity to the poachers who have decimated others of his kind. Luckily, Sudan doesn’t have to face them alone – the conservancy has an experienced team of rangers that monitor the 90,000-acre private conservation area and work together with local law enforcement agencies as well.
Their tools include GPS trackers, surveillance aircraft, and dogs trained to detect humans and security breaches. As well, Sudan’s iconic horns have been removed (under sedation), which hopefully will diminish the attraction to poachers. In place of his horns, a radio transmitter was installed to allow closer monitoring of his whereabouts within the Conservancy’s series of bomas and enclosures.
Sudan lives with his daughter Najin (born in 1989) and his granddaughter Fatu (born in 2000 and sired with Najin). Another make, Suni (born in captivity in 1980) died from natural causes on October 17th of 2014, though some of his previously collected sperm has been frozen. Right now, scientists are considering artificial insemination or cross-breeding the females (of which there are 5 left in the world) with similar rhino subspecies and then breeding the resulting rhinos back into pure Northern White Rhinos.
Ultimately, however, the long-term survival of the Northern White Rhinoceros depends on wiping out poaching and the cessation of demand for rhino horns by greedy black-marketers and wealthy but deluded human consumers. (images and info ©Ol Pejeta Conservation, WENN.com)

