Today is World Rhino Day, which is celebrated on September 22nd each year.

In early 2023, MediaStorm partnered with Ami Vitale to produce the film Remembering Sudan, about the passing of Sudan, the last male Northern White Rhino.

One hundred percent of the profits from the film benefitted the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya where the only two remaining female white rhinos are know to be alive.

Visit Ami Vitale’s site Vitale Impacts to watch the film, learn more about the project and to donate.

Visit the Ol Pejeta Conservancy to learn more about the critical work being done to save and protect these endangered species and how you can help.

More from Ami Vitale:

In 2008, northern white rhinos had officially been declared extinct in the wild.

 

This left just eight known to be alive, all in two zoos on opposite sides of the world.

 

On a cold snowy December 2009, Safari Park Dvůr Králové airlifted 4 of the last known northern white rhinos to Kenya.

 

It was a desperate attempt to save an entire species. The hope was that the open air and room to roam in Kenya would stimulate them to breed.

 

Sadly, that never happened and on March 19, 2019, Sudan, the last known male northern white rhino on the planet passed away. Joseph Wachira gave his last goodbye to this gentle hulking creature moments before he was euthanized at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in northern Kenya.

 

It was silent, except for the rain falling, a single bird scolding, and the muffled sorrow of Sudan’s caretakers. It was a haunting silence that seemed to foreshadow what a world without wildlife would be like.

 

With Sudan’s death, the northern white rhino was left with just two females, leaving them functionally extinct, but remarkably, all hope is not lost. Thanks to an international consortium of scientists known as the BioRescue Project, there are now 29 northern white rhino embryos that are being cryopreserved at Avantea in Italy, ready to be transferred into surrogate southern white rhino females in the near future.

 

You can support Ol Pejeta Conservancy by watching the film Remembering Sudan by Ami Vitale and MediaStorm via Vitale Impacts at vitalimpacts.org/pages/remembering-sudan.

 

Each ticket purchase will directly support those caring directly for these last two precious rhinos.