NATURE

ONE OF A KIND Sudan l ast hope for his species

BBC2, 9pm Sudan, the northern white rhino, is the very last male of his kind on the planet.

Having survived the rest of his species, the 43-year-old has now turned into a celebrity, with followers on Facebook and Instagram.

He even has his own hashtag #LastMaleStanding, and the dating app Tinder gave him his own profile page stating “I’m one of a kind”.

“He’s like a Hollywood star,” says Elodie Sampere, who heads up PR and marketing at Sudan’s home, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

But there is a serious note to this remarkable story, as Sudan, who lives with the two last remaining females, is the focus of a desperate 11th hour battle to save his species.

This film tells how Sudan was snatched from his homeland in Central Africa 40 years ago. While he was an exhibit in a zoo, the rest of his species were annihilated by aggressive poaching and a failure to breed in captivity.

Now it’s time for science to intervene as a team of experts hatch a rescue plan.

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