As of 2024, two northern white rhinos are known to be alive. Both are females—Najin and her daughter Fatu—and they live under close protection at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
The subspecies once ranged across parts of Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Poaching, habitat loss, and decades of political instability caused its numbers to collapse. The last known male, Sudan, died in March 2018, leaving the subspecies functionally extinct because no breeding male remains.
The two surviving females cannot produce a calf naturally, but conservation scientists have created and stored northern white rhino embryos using eggs from Fatu and preserved sperm from deceased males. Southern white rhinos are being studied as possible surrogate mothers. This means the number alive remains two, even though future births may eventually restore the subspecies.
A common mix-up is confusing the northern white rhino with the southern white rhino, which is a separate subspecies and still numbers in the thousands.