14 DAY TRIAL // Not to ruin your Monday or anything of the sorts, but just hours ago, staff at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park announced that, on Sunday, a male rhino living in captivity at this wildlife facility passed away.
The creature, a photo of which is included in the gallery below, was one of just six northern white rhinos left in the world. It is understood that it died due to medical complications associated with old age.
Vets were unable to do anything to help the rhino
Staff at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park say that the male northern white rhino passed away at the age of 44. This might not sound all that much in human years, but it's actually a whole lot for this species.
As explained by wildlife researchers, white rhinos have a life expectancy of about 40 to 50 years. What this means is that the specimen that died this past weekend was well past its prime. Simply put, it was a really old guy.
Sometime before its death, the animal lost its appetite. Despite their efforts, vets and caretakers were unable to convince it to eat anything. The rhino's health began to decline, and soon enough, the animal died, LA Times informs.
Why this rhino's death matters
As mentioned, 44-year-old Angalifu was one of merely six northern white rhinos left in the world. Of the other five, three live in a nature reserve in Kenya, one lives at a zoo in the Czech Republic, and one remains at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
In other words, this subspecies of white rhino risks going extinct sometime in the not-too-distant future. More so given the fact that, for the time being at least, conservationists are having trouble breeding these animals in captivity.
Thus, staff at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park failed to get Angalifu and its companion Nola to start a family, and environmentalists in Kenya are still trying to get the three northern white rhinos living in this corner of the world to breed.
How the world lost its northern white rhinos
Conservationists say that, like plenty of other species, northern white rhinos are now a critically endangered species and will likely soon go extinct because some people like their horns a wee too much.
Otherwise put, these creatures are victims of poachers and of the illegal trade in animal body parts. In case anyone was wondering, they are killed and stripped of their horns because people believe this body part to have medicinal value.
