One of the two remaining northern white rhinos in the world, guarded 24 hours a day
The northern white rhino is extinct in the wild due to poaching, and only two females remain at a sanctuary in East Africa.
In 2018, Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, passed away due to age-related complications at the age of 45. Presently, only two northern white rhinos remain - Nanjin, Sudan’s daughter, and Fattu, his granddaughter. Upon their demise, the northern white rhino will be officially declared extinct.
If we rewind 30 million years, giant hornless rhinos known as Paraceratherium roamed from Eastern Europe to China. These creatures stood at a shoulder height of 15.7 feet (4.8 meters) and a length of about 24.3 feet (7.4 meters), ranking among the largest mammals to tread the Earth.
Despite their size, Paraceratherium faced threats from predators like giant crocodiles and prehistoric hyenas, as evidenced by fossils. They also competed with elephants, which had an edge with their trunks for obtaining food.
During the Miocene Epoch (23.3 to 5.3 million years ago), tropical forests transformed into grasslands due to cooling. This led to the evolution of smaller-sized rhinos, and the white rhinoceros emerged during this epoch.
Around 2.5 million years ago, as the Earth entered the Ice Age after millions of years of cooling, Paraceratherium had already been extinct. Drastic climate shifts contributed to the decline of many rhino species. Humans further exacerbated the decline by hunting rhinos for meat between 700,000 and 90,000 years ago. The woolly rhino managed to persist until just 10,000 years ago.
Today, only five rhino species survive. While northern white rhinos are down to two individuals, southern white rhinos thrive with around 20,000 in South African game reserves. The one-horned rhino rebounded from around 200 at the start of the 20th century to a population of 3,700.
Regrettably, the Black, Javan, and Sumatran rhinos remain critically endangered, with only a few individuals existing in the wild.
