How Many Northern White Rhinos Are Left? The Last Two

Who are Najin and Fatu?

Najin and Fatu were both born in captivity at Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic, the only zoo where northern white rhinos ever bred. Najin’s parents were Nasima and Sudan; Fatu’s parents are Najin and a male called Saut. The two females still belong to the Czech zoo but have lived in Kenya since December 2009.

They were flown there with two males, Sudan and Suni, in the hope that a natural African setting would encourage breeding. It did not. Suni died in 2014, and in 2015 vets concluded that neither female was able to carry a calf to term, mainly because of age-related and reproductive health problems.

The rhinos have been dehorned to make them less of a target for poachers, and rangers guard them day and night.

What happened to Sudan, the last male?

Sudan was captured in the wild in what is now South Sudan in 1975, when he was about two years old, and spent most of his life at Dvůr Králové Zoo. He was moved to Ol Pejeta with the others in 2009.

By 2018 he was about 45 years old and suffering from age-related illness and infected wounds. He was put to sleep by vets on 19 March 2018 to spare him further suffering. His death drew worldwide attention, and photos of rangers with him became a symbol of the extinction crisis. Before he died, his sperm and tissue were collected and frozen.

Why are there so few northern white rhinos?

The northern white rhino once lived across parts of Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad and the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is one of two subspecies of the white rhino; the other, the southern white rhino, is far more numerous.

Its decline was rapid:

The main cause was poaching for horn, made worse by civil wars across the region that left parks unprotected and flooded the area with weapons. Garamba’s small population recovered to about 30 animals by the early 2000s, but a new wave of poaching wiped it out. In 2008 the subspecies was reported as possibly extinct in the wild. Learn why horn is so valuable in what are rhino horns made of.

Can the northern white rhino be saved?

Since natural breeding is impossible, an international team called BioRescue, led by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin with partners including Dvůr Králové Zoo, the Kenya Wildlife Service and Ol Pejeta, is trying to create new calves in the laboratory.

The plan has several steps:

1. Collect eggs. Vets sedate the females and collect immature egg cells. Since 2019 these have come from Fatu; Najin was retired as an egg donor in 2021 for ethical reasons, given her age and signs of illness.
2. Create embryos. In a lab in Italy, the eggs are matured and fertilized with frozen sperm from dead northern white males such as Suni and Saut. By 2025 the team reported more than 30 northern white rhino embryos, stored frozen in liquid nitrogen.
3. Use a surrogate mother. Because neither female can carry a calf, the embryos must be placed in a southern white rhino surrogate. In 2023 the team transferred a southern white rhino embryo into a southern white female at Ol Pejeta, and it became the world’s first rhino pregnancy from IVF. The surrogate died of a bacterial infection about 70 days into the pregnancy, but the result proved the method could work.
4. Raise calves with companions. Any northern white calf would ideally grow up near Najin and Fatu so it can learn rhino behavior.

At the time of writing, no northern white rhino calf has yet been born from these embryos. Even if calves are born, they would all descend from a small number of founders. Scientists are also working on turning preserved skin cells from several dead northern white rhinos into stem cells and then into eggs and sperm, which could add genetic variety in the future.

Is it worth saving a subspecies?

Some conservationists argue that the money would do more good protecting other rhinos, such as the black rhino or the Javan rhino. Supporters reply that the northern white rhino is genetically distinct, adapted to the savannas of central Africa, and that the techniques developed could later help other critically endangered species. Both sides agree on one lesson: it is far easier and cheaper to protect a species before only two are left. For the wider picture, read how many rhinos are left.