The death last weekend of Angalifu, one of the six remaining northern white rhinos in the world, brings this species closer to extinction . Angalifu was 44 years old and lived in a zoo in San Diego, California, whose keepers believe he has died of old age, according to a statement from the head of the zoo Safari Park Randy Rieches.
“The death of Angalifu is a huge loss for all of us,” said Rieches, who recalled that now the northern white rhino is “one step closer to disappearance.”
This death represents a loss not only for the zoo, but for the world , since of this critically endangered species only one female remains in the San Diego Safari Park, another in a zoo in the Czech Republic and three in a reserve in Kenya. Until very recently, there were four rhinos in that African reserve, but last November, 34-year-old Suni died.
The white rhinoceros – both north and south – has been poached for the ivory on its horns or even for beliefs about its supposed healing powers. The few that have been kept in captivity in zoos around the world have not reproduced, although the San Diego Zoo has collected semen and testicular tissue to investigate new technologies. The Cabárceno park included a calf of this species a year ago.
In the 1990s, both the white and black rhinos were on the brink of extinction . Then, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the first as near threatened and the second critically endangered, of which about 2,000 specimens remain in Africa.
98% of the southern white rhino population lives in four countries : Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe and the Republic of South Africa. The northern subspecies ( Ceratotherium simum cottoni) , which lived exclusively in the Democratic Republic of the Congo within the Garamba National Park after its extinction from other areas such as Sudan due to human harassment and war conflicts in the area, only survives in the aforementioned zoos, but each time in smaller numbers.
