User:Miharris/Sumatran rhinos



Suci, one of the last living Sumatran rhinos in captivity in the world, died Sunday, March 30, in Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens in the United States.

Suci had been treated for hemochromatosis, a genetic disease that caused too much iron to build up in her blood, by the zoo for the past several months. Emi, her mother, died from the same disease in 2009.

The Sumatran rhinos are endangered to become extinct because roughly 100 live in the wild in the world.

The zoo has been working with Indonesian organizations for 25 years to help increase the population of Sumatran rhinos.

Terri Roth, one of the scientists who helped Emi conceive Suci, gave a presentation about the work of the Cincinnati Zoo at University of Southern Indiana in Indiana, United States. Their work focuses on helping small cats, rhinos, exceptional plants and polar bears increase their populations.

"When working with endangered animals, your challenges are never over and you learn to expect the unexpected,” Roth said.

The challenges came when some of the seven rhinos that came to the U.S. died, she said.

They were down to two in the U.S. and were about to bread them because they didn't have any other choice when Suci died, she said.

"Indonesia made it very clear that we weren’t going to get any more rhinos," Roth said.