Advertisement

Northern white rhino dies at Czech zoo, leaving only four alive in world

By Danielle Haynes
The death of a northern white rhinoceros at a zoo in Czech Republic means only four of the animals are left alive in the world. Photo courtesy Dvůr Králové Zoo
The death of a northern white rhinoceros at a zoo in Czech Republic means only four of the animals are left alive in the world. Photo courtesy Dvůr Králové Zoo

DVůR KRáLOVé NAD LABEM, Czech Republic, July 28 (UPI) -- A northern white rhinoceros named Nabiré died at a Czech Republic zoo Monday leaving only four of the critically endangered animals alive in the world, the facility said.

The rhino's death was caused by a large pathological cyst that ruptured inside her body, a news release from Dvůr Králové Zoo said.

Advertisement

"The pathological cyst inside the body of Nabiré was huge. There was no way to treat it," said Jiří Hrubý, a rhino curator of the zoo.

Nabiré's death means there are only four remaining northern white rhinos in the world. Three of them live on a conservancy in Kenya, while the fourth lives in the San Diego Zoo, the World Wildlife Fund says.

Nabiré is one of only four northern white rhinos to ever be bred in captivity; she was born Nov. 15, 1983 at Dvůr Králové Zoo, where she lived her entire life.

"It is a terrible loss. Nabiré was the kindest rhino ever bred in our zoo. It is not just that we were very fond of her. Her death is a symbol of the catastrophic decline of rhinos due to a senseless human greed. Her species is on the very brink of extinction," said Přemysl Rabas, the director of the zoo.

Advertisement

The WWF considers the species to be critically endangered. As recently as 1960 there were more than 2,000 northern white rhinos in their natural habitats in southern Chad, the Central African Republic, southwestern Sudan, northeastern Zaire, Democratic Republic of Congo and northwestern Uganda.

Widespread poaching has decimated the northern white rhino's population and as of 1984, only 15 still existed. Conservancy efforts sent two males and four females to the Dvůr Králové Zoo for breeding purposes in 1975.

Nabiré was unable to conceive due to cysts in her uterus and zoo officials had hoped to use donor eggs from her left ovary for in vitro fertilization. Immediately after her death, the zoo said it removed her ovary and took it to a laboratory in Italy for reproductive purposes.

"It is our moral obligation to try to save them. We are the only ones, perhaps with San Diego Zoo, who have enough of collected biological material to do so. We are aware that our chances are slim, but the hopes are still alive," Rabas said.

Latest Headlines