The northern subspecies has very few remaining individuals, with only two confirmed left in 2018 (two females: Fatu, 24 and Najin, 29, both in captivity at Ol Pejeta).

Sudan, the world's last known male northern white rhinoceros, died in Kenya on 19 March 2018 at age 45.

[4] A popular albeit widely discredited theory of the origins of the name "white rhinoceros" is a mistranslation from Dutch to English.

A review of Dutch and Afrikaans literature about the rhinoceros has failed to produce any evidence that the word wijd was ever used to describe the rhino outside of oral use.

The white rhinoceros' generic name, Ceratotherium, given by the zoologist John Edward Gray in 1868,[6] is derived from the Greek terms keras (κέρας) "horn" and thērion (θηρίον) "beast".

The white rhinoceros of today was said to be likely descended from Ceratotherium praecox, which lived around 7 million years ago.

[8] It has been suggested that the modern white rhino's skull, which is longer than that of Ceratotherium praecox, evolved in order to facilitate consumption of shorter grasses that resulted from the long-term trend to drier conditions in Africa.

[11] The ancestor of both the black and the white rhino was likely a mixed feeder, with the two lineages then specializing in browsing and grazing, respectively.

The oldest definitive record of the white rhinoceros is during the mid-Early Pleistocene at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, around 1.8 Ma.

Formerly found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara, this subspecies is a grazer in grasslands and savanna woodlands.

Initially, six northern white rhinoceros lived in the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic.

[18][19] In 2015, the Kenyan government placed the last remaining bull of the subspecies at Ol Pejeta under 24-hour armed guard to deter poachers, but he was put down on 19 March 2018 due to multiple health problems caused by old age, leaving just two cows alive which reside at the Ol Pejeta complex.

Distinct morphological and genetic differences suggest the two proposed species have been separated for at least a million years.

By mean body mass, the white rhinoceros falls behind only the three extant species of elephant as the largest land animal and terrestrial mammal alive today.

Comparatively, based on studies of the African elephant, scientists believe the white rhino is a driving factor in its ecosystem.

[37] White rhinos produce sounds that include a panting contact call, grunts and snorts during courtship, squeals of distress, and deep bellows or growls when threatened.

Another way of marking their territory is wiping their horns on bushes or the ground and scraping with their feet before urine spraying.

[49][50] Historically, the major factor in the decline of white rhinos was uncontrolled hunting in the colonial era, but now poaching for their horn is the primary threat.

The white rhino is particularly vulnerable to hunting because it is a large and relatively unaggressive animal with very poor eyesight and generally living in herds.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, the rhino horn is highly prized in traditional Asian medicine, where it is ground into a fine powder or manufactured into tablets to be used as a treatment for a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds, strokes, convulsions, and fevers.

The ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and incursions by poachers, primarily coming from Sudan, have further disrupted efforts to protect the few remaining northern rhinos.

As a result, the white rhino has now received Near Threatened status as its total population tops out at 20,000 members.

[51][53] The white rhino population in South Africa's Kruger National Park fell by 60% between 2013 and 2021, to an estimated 3,529 individuals.

[55][56][57] Even with increased anti-poaching efforts in many African countries, many poachers are still willing to risk death or prison time because of the tremendous amount of money that they stand to make.

Rhino horn can fetch tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram on the black market in Asia, and, depending on the exact price, can be worth more than its weight in gold.

Perhaps the most notable type of conservation effort for these rhinos is having moved them from Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic to Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy on 20 December 2009, where they have been under constant watch every day, and have been given favorable climate and diet, to which they have adapted well, to boost their chances of reproducing.

[16][51][61] On 22 August 2019, using (ICSI), eggs from Fatu and Najin "were successfully inseminated" using the seminal fluid from Saut and Suni.

However, for reasons that are not currently understood, the rate of reproduction is extremely low among captive-born southern white females.

[70] The other four captive northern white rhinos were loaned to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, and only two remain alive.

[71] The northern white rhinos had been transferred to Ol Pejeta Conservancy from the Dvůr Králové Zoo in 2009 in an attempt to protect the taxa in their natural habitat.