Very sad.
The Sumatran rhinoceros has become extinct in Malaysia, zoologists have announced.
The last surviving specimen, a 25-year-old female named Iman, died on Saturday in the state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.
Iman had suffered from uterine tumours since her capture in March 2014.
Sabah’s last surviving male Sumatran rhino died six months ago and another female rhino died in 2017. All efforts to naturally breed them failed.
Iman’s egg cells have been collected for a possible collaboration with other scientists to reproduce the critically endangered species through artificial insemination programmes.
Sumatran rhinos numbers have dwindled in recent years with the WWF estimating there are only about 80 remaining in the world.
They have been hard hit by poaching and habitat loss, but the fragmented nature of their populations is also a huge stumbling block to increasing their population.
The Sumatran rhino is located mostly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Indonesian side of Borneo.
