Death of Nabiré: Only Four Known Living Northern White Rhinoceroses

Formal scientific interest in northern white rhinoceroses dates to 1908, with English bio-geographer, geologist, and naturalist Richard Lydekker’s (July 25, 1849 – April 16, 1915) official taxonomy in 1908. But simultaneous and subsequent amateur, expert, and newbie observations consistently express reservations over in-the-wild sustainability in:

• native, 10,000,000+-year-old distribution ranges within east Central African Republic, northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo, northwest Uganda, and southernmost South Sudan; and
• suspected bio-geographies into Cameroon and Chad.

They furnish the reason for the National Museum of Natural History’s exquisite Lado Enclave region-born specimen collected along the upper Nile River’s west bank during the Smithsonian’s co-sponsored East Africa Expedition of 1909/1910 with twenty-sixth U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919). 

The Smithsonian’s Roosevelt specimen indeed gives excellent information regarding the massive physique of one of sub-Saharan Africa’s two endangered, grey-coated, hearing-guided, mud-wallowing, plant-eating, shade-loving, smell-sensitive, two-horned rhinoceros genera, of which:

• the black, hook-lipped Diceros bicornis (two horns) browses bushes and trees for fruit and leaves; and
• the northern and southern square-lipped white Ceratotherium simum cottoni (white flat-nosed horn-beast) and Ceratotherium simum simum graze on grasses.

It additionally is prescient that only one of the expedition’s specimens is displayed since extinction apparently describes the northern white rhinoceros’s status in the wild and reproduction historically is problematic in captivity. Scientists indeed judge live birth impossible because of:

• Fatu’s infertility;
• Najin’s weak hind legs;
• Nola’s age; and
• Sudan’s low-quality sperm. 

Scientists currently know of one option for ensuring northern white rhinoceros-filled futures:

• in-vitro fertilizing eggs harvested from Nabiré’s left ovary with sperm collected from Sudan or frozen from long-dead males; and
• transplanting in Nabiré’s closest living relative, a female southern white rhinoceros.

The procedure nevertheless leads researchers into peril-fraught territory because of:

• laboratories having more rhinoceros sperm than eggs; and
• northern white rhinoceros females optimally ovulating one egg every 30+ days.

Scientific advances and technological breakthroughs additionally must surface since nobody yet has experience or expertise in lab-maturing immature eggs and pioneering the world’s first-ever rhinoceros in vitro fertilization.

Hope need not be lost: Dvůr Králové’s staff intend for Nabiré’s life not to be lived in vain. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Sudan (born 1973, in Republic of Sudan, northeastern Africa), at age of 36, in Czech Zoo Park the day before his transfer to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya, December 2009
Štefánikova 1029, Dvůr Králové nad Labem, Trutnov District, Hradec Králové Region, north central Czech Republic: Lengai101, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DIGITAL_CROSSING_-_NWR_03.jpg

Nola (born 1974 in Republic of Sudan) the Northern White Rhinoceros female on July 10, 2012
Since deaths of Nadi on May 30, 2007, and of Angalifu (born 1974) on December 14, 2014, Nola now is only Northern White Rhino in San Diego Zoo.
San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Escondido, northern San Diego County, Southern California
Heather Paul (warriorwoman531), CC BY-ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/warriorwoman531/7663289898/

June 2010: unidentified Northern White Rhino, one of four (2 female, 2 male) transferred from Dvůr Králové Zoo and welcomed into new home on December 20, 2009, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Along with dwindling population of Northern White Rhinos, Ol Pejeta Conservancy is home to 100-plus critically endangered Black Rhinos (Diceros bicornis) and also to 20-plus near-threatened Southern White Rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum).
Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Laikipia County, central Kenya: Lengai101, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ceratotherium_simum_cottoni_-Ol_Pejeta_Conservancy,_Kenya.jpg

Angalifu (ang-uh-LEEF-oo), male Northern White Rhinoceros, on July 10, 2012
Death of Angalifu (born 1974) on December 14, 2014, leaves Nola as only Northern White Rhino in San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Escondido, northern San Diego County, Southern California: Heather Paul (warriorwoman531), CC BY-ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/warriorwoman531/7663177936/

Nabiré (November 15, 1983 – July 27, 2015)
Northern White Rhinoceros Nabiré at Dvůr Králové Zoo, Czech zoo park
Colin Groves et al., "The Sixth Rhino," PLOS ONE 5(4), April 7, 2010, Figure 9: Jan Robovský, CC BY 2.0, via PLOS ONE @ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0009703 (specific photo URL @ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0009703.g009)

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