An extremely rare white rhino, one of only two breeding males of his subspecies left on Earth, has died at a wildlife reserve in Africa, experts say.
The death in Kenya of the 34-year old male known as Suni leaves the northern white rhino species on the verge of extinction, with just six of the animals left, they say.
Poachers in east and central Africa have decimated the species, killing them for their horns that are highly sought after as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, while habitat loss has also affected the animals.
Suni was born in the Czech Republic in 1980 at the Dvur Kralove zoo, the only facility in the world successful at breeding the sub-species in captivity.
In 2009 Suni, another male and two females were reintroduced into the wild in Kenya in a last-chance attempt to save the endangered rhino subspecies, with the hope they might breed.
However, that didn't happen and even efforts at assisted conception were unsuccessful.
Suni was found dead Oct. 17 in an enclosure at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
He "was probably the last male capable of breeding," experts at the Czech zoo said.
"One can always believe in miracles but everything leads us to believe that hope they would reproduce naturally has gone," zoo spokeswoman Jana Mysliveckova said.
Wildlife experts have characterized northern white rhinos as a "victim of evolution," a small population isolated from the more numerous southern white rhino by the Central Africa's dense forests and by the Great Rift Valley.
Existing only in small numbers, in addition to poaching and habitat loss the animals have been the victims of political turmoil in many countries, including the Sudan, Uganda, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In that way they share the plight of many of Africa's largest animals, says Stuart Pimm, a Duke University conservation ecologist.
The fact that "we've lost [the northern subspecies] is a statement of just how bad off large animals are across Africa," he says. "It's a measure of the fact that rhinos are being massively poached and in trouble wherever they are."
Officials at the Kenya conservancy said Suni appeared to have died from natural causes and was not a victim of poaching.
A post mortem exam would be conducted to try to establish the cause of death, they said.
In the meantime, they would turn their attention to the remaining animals, they announced.
"We will continue to do what we can to work with the remaining three animals on Ol Pejeta," the reserve said in a statement, "in the hope that our efforts will one day result in the successful birth of a northern white rhino calf."
