He’s got heavily armed, 24-hour security from the Kenyan military. No, he’s not the president or a high-ranking military officer—he’s a 42-year-old rhinoceros named Sudan. Sudan isn’t just any rhino; he’s the last male northern white rhino on earth, making him incredibly valuable—and vulnerable. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were an estimated 3,000 wild northern white rhinos in eastern and central Africa.
But they were relentlessly targeted by poachers because rhino horns are in high demand in places like China and Vietnam, where they’re used to make jewelry and other luxury items.
Sudan is being safeguarded, along with the last two female northern white rhinos, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya. Caretakers have tried—so far unsuccessfully—to mate the elderly rhinos. There’s still a chance to do so using artificial means, but time is quickly running out. “There is no easy answer regarding the northern white rhino,” Susie Ellis, of the International Rhino Foundation, told The Guardian. “It is now functionally extinct. The best lesson we can learn from that is to never let that happen again with any other species.”