This is Harapan. He has an important mission coming up in several weeks' time. The resident of the Cincinnati Zoo will soon be on his way to Indonesia to be part of a breeding program to save his critically endangered brethren.
The Sumatran rhino population is estimated to be an alarming less than 100 left in the world. Harapan -- known affectionately as Harry to his zookeepers -- is the only Sumatran rhino left in the U.S.
His species, also known as the "hairy rhino," is a descendant of Ice Age woolly ancestors. The zoo said their numbers have fallen by 90% since the '80s, in part due to deforestation in Southeast Asia and poaching for their horns.
A report published this month said that after years of searching for the Sumatran rhino in the forests of Malaysia, officials have declared that the animal has gone extinct in the Southeast Asian country.
Now, 8-year-old Harapan will go to his ancestral home to join 14-year-old Andalas, who has so far managed to sire one male offspring since arriving in Indonesia in 2007.
Andalas, too, was bred in Cincinnati and sent over to Indonesia.
This video published in 2013 features Harapan:
Suci was the third rhino born in the Cincinnati zoo. The zoo was trying to breed Suci with her brother Harapan, but Suci passed away in March 2014 at the Cincinnati Zoo from hemochromatosis, otherwise known as iron-storage disease -- the same illness that killed her mother in 2009.
