RENNES, France: The world's oldest captive white rhino, South African-born Sana, has died at the age of 55, the French zoo that she called home for the last 26 years said Thursday .
Born in 1964 in the Umfolozi National Park in South Africa's eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, Sana was moved to Europe seven years later.The southern white rhino lived in several parks in Germany before arriving in 1993 at Planete Sauvage, a zoological park in western France near the city of Nantes that had opened the previous year.
The life expectancy of white rhinos in the wild is about 50 years, according to the Save the Rhino advocacy group.Notably, she was no longer able to roll in the mud, a popular and crucial pastime that helps rhinos regulate their body temperature, prevent sunburn and ward off pesky insects."Once a week, they coated her in green clay to help her skin stay hydrated and to stave off infections," the park said.Her death has"deeply affected" her caretakers, the zoo said.
The square-lipped grazers, larger than their black cousins, are divided into southern and northern subspecies. The last male northern white rhino, Sudan, died in Kenya last year, leaving two sole captive female survivors, neither able to carry a calf.In September, conservationists created two northern white rhino embryos from the two last females and sperm from deceased males, to one day implant into a surrogate mother in the hope of reviving the line.Black rhinos, however, are considered critically endangered, with only about 5,000 left.
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