Last male white rhino joins Tinder to avoid extinction

By Andrew Wasike and Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - The world’s last remaining male northern white rhino has joined the dating application Tinder, in search of a mate like millions of people around the globe.

The 43-year-old rhinoceros, Sudan, currently at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya, joins the dating application in order to raise awareness and save the species, which is on the brink of extinction. Currently, there are three northern white rhinos in the world, all of them at the conservancy at the foot of Mount Kenya.

Sudan has been on Tinder since Tuesday, said Richard Vigne the CEO of Ol Pejeta Conservancy, who hopes to raise $9 million thanks to the stunt.

His Tinder profile reads: “I’m one of a kind, No seriously, I’m the last male white rhino on planet earth. I don’t mean to be too forward but the fate of my species literally depends on me. I perform well under pressure. I like to eat grass and chill in the mud. No problems.6ft [feet] tall and 5,000 lbs if it matters.”

Sudan is in the company of two female white rhinos, Najin and Fatu, who, suffering from various health complications, have become infertile.

Richard Vigne said the money would go to a fertility treatment aimed at saving the white rhino species.

“We are host to the last three remaining Northern white rhinos on the planet. They used to be prolific across Northern Africa and have been reduced [to three] by poaching due to the demand of its horn,” Vigne said Wednesday, noting that the price of a rhino horn, per kilogram, was higher than gold in the international market and nearly the same price one would pay for an equivalent amount of cocaine.

“We have to remove the eggs from these females, then mature these eggs which is difficult, we estimate that it will cost somewhere in the region of 9 to 10 million dollars,” specified Vigne.

Mathieu Plassard, regional managing director of Ogilvy Africa, the self-proclaimed "largest communication agency network in Sub Saharan Africa" said: “We are in a race. A race against the extinction of the northern white rhino species. We urgently need to raise awareness and funds for Sudan. No one could run this campaign better with us than Tinder.”

Matt David, head of communications and marketing at Tinder said: “We partnered with Ol Pejeta conservancy to give the most eligible bachelor in the world a chance to meet his match, we are optimistic given Sudan's profile will be seen on Tinder in 190 countries and over 40 languages."

The conservancy said that soon after launch of the Tinder profile, their website crashed due to increased traffic.