Last male of his kind!

Last male of his kind: The rhino that became a conservation icon

25 January 2024

Riley Farrell

Getty Images

Tony Karumba's photo of Sudan with his carer made the rhino a global sensation in his final year (Credit: Getty Images)

Sudan, the world's last male northern white rhino, died in 2018. In his final years, he became a global celebrity and conservation icon, helping raise awareness about the brutality of poaching.

There was a lot of hope riding on Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros. He was labelled the "world's most eligible bachelor" by the dating app Tinder, the "most famous rhino" by various news outlets and a "gentle giant" by the armed guards who watched over him 24-hours-a-day. But Sudan's life carried the baggage of a species decimated by poaching.

In the Ol Pejeta conservancy at the foot of Mount Kenya, AFP photojournalist Tony Karumba captured a celebrated snapshot of Sudan on 5 December 2016, approximately 15 months before the rhino's death.

At the forefront of Karumba's image is the tender relationship between the humans at the conservancy and Sudan. The photo is iconic but not iconoclastic, exemplifying an ordinary moment of the all-too-late-yet-genuine care that northern white rhinos received from the species that decimated them. Once lost, gone forever, only to live in photos like Karumba's photo series. 

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