"Sudan" misses out on Tinder as people swipe left on the world's last male White rhino

"Sudan" misses out on Tinder as people swipe left on the world's last male White rhino
By Robert Hackwill
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Northern White Rhino's keepers put Sudan on Tinder as a money-raising stunt, and to raise awareness that the species will go extinct if Sudan does not father children soon.

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Hunted to near-extinction because of superstitious beliefs its powdered horn is an aphrodisiac, the irony is the Northern White Rhino has little chance of reproducing due to a lack of partners.

"Sudan" is the proud posession of a nature preserve in Kenya, but finding partners for him and the park's two other Northern White Rhinos, the very last in the world, is proving tough.

The problem is Sudan is not as young as he used to be and at 44 his knees are shot, so he can't mount a female any more, even if one compatible could be found. Breeding the species back to health is vital, so the park decided to put Sudan on Tinder as a PR stunt and to raise money.

Sudan's keepers waited to see how many people would swipe right, or swipe left. They had hopedto raise a million euros for an artificial insemination programme, but it seems rhinos lack a certain sex appeal, and the stunt raised less than 100,000 dollars.

"The problem is that it has never been done in rhinos and it's a very complicated process and it's also very dangerous, not for the male obviously, but for the females because we need to extract their eggs and while the extraction is happening, they could be killed or they could be endangered," explains the Ol Pejeta Conservancy's Elodie Sampere.

The animals are in extreme danger so any method that can revive the species is fine, but is it too late?

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