In February, we aired “The Last Rhino”, a film about the three remaining Northern White Rhinos; Sudan, an elderly male, his daughter Fatu, and his granddaughter Najin. Together, they are last living representatives of their kind.

However, this dire situation hasn’t deterred a group of scientists from trying to rescue the Northern White. Using tissue collected from Sudan and his family, as well as frozen tissue from deceased rhinos, they hope to rebuild the population from the ground up.

Award-winning journalist Rachel Nuwer wrote an in-depth article about Sudan and his family for NATURE in 2016. Her article lays out Sudan’s entire backstory, how he ended up in a Czech zoo and eventually at the Ol Pejeta reserve in Kenya.

We caught up with Rachel to ask if she had any updates on Sudan or the plan to save the Northern White Rhino. We also hoped to find out why this subspecies has fared so poorly compared the closely-related Black Rhino and Southern White Rhino.

Links:

"The Last Rhino" film

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/can-science-save-northern-white-rhino-sudan-najin-fatu/

Rachel's article "Do the World’s Three Remaining Northern White Rhinos Have a Future?"

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/can-science-save-northern-white-rhino-sudan-najin-fatu/