And then there were five.
Over the weekend, a 44 year old Northern White Rhino at the San Diego Zoo safari park. While that would be sad for any animal, it turns out that this rhino, named Angalifu, was just one of six Northern white rhinos left in the world.
There is still one Rhino left at the zoo, with the others either at a zoo in The Czech Republic and a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya.
While all rhinos are targets of poaching, the Northern White Rhino was especially prized for it’s horns. Now that poachers have evolved to hunting with military helicopters and using night vision to kill these animals in the dark, it is no wonder that they now only exist in captivity. In fact, because of their rarity, poaching rhino horns is now more lucrative than the drug trade.