Now that a 31-year-old female at a zoo in the Czech Republic has died, there are only four remaining northern white rhinos in the world.
Zoo scientists said they collected the deceased female’s one functioning ovary and other genetic material and preserved it in case the species can be resurrected in the future.
The four remaining animals are an elderly female at the San Diego Zoo and a male and two females at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
The male — the last living male northern white rhino — is under 24/7 armed guard.
Northern white rhinos were hunted to this point of near extinction for years, for their horns.
The horns are used in traditional Asian medicine.
The last of the wild rhinos were killed in 2006 in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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