Sudan the last male white rhino has died, but you can still see these endangered species in and around Surrey

You're unlikely to see these endangered animals in the wild anymore, but you can see them all right here in the south-east

By

Christopher McKeon

• 13:55, 20 MAR 2018
  Sudan, the world's last male northern white rhino, died on Monday (March 19) after months of ill-health.
  The death of the 45-year-old rhino, who had to be protected from poachers by his own personal bodyguards, leaves just two members of the subspecies alive in the world - his daughter and granddaughter.
  But if you want to see some endangered species before they disappear, you don't need to go all the way to Sudan's home in central Kenya.
  There are plenty of places in and around Surrey where you can see rare animals.
  

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  Chessington Zoo

  

  An Asiatic lion - only a few hundred remain in the wild (Image: Victoria Jones/PA Wire)

  Chessington Zoo has more than 1,000 animals, including some extremely rare species.
  One of these is the Asiatic lion. Smaller than African lions, they used to be found across Asia, from Turkey to eastern India.
  However, they were hunted to near-extinction and now only a few hundred remain in the wild , in the Gir Forest in western India.
  

  

  A Sumatran tiger (Image: Handout)

  Another endangered Asian animal you can see at Chessington is the Sumatran tiger from Indonesia.
  Fewer than 400 remain in the wild and the species is listed as "critically endangered". Chessington's breeding programme plays an important role in their conservation.
  From Africa, there is a group of western lowland gorillas, another "critically endangered" species whose numbers have fallen by 90% in the last 10 years due to poaching and disease.
  

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  Finally, Sudan's cousins, the southern white rhino, also have an enclosure at the zoo.
  Once thought extinct, a small group was discovered in 1895 in the Kwazulu-Natal area of South Africa and, after more than a century of protection, the subspecies is now 20,000 strong.
  

  Howletts Wild Animal Park

  Only a short drive from Surrey, Howletts wildlife park near Canterbury has a host of endangered animals, including Sumatran tigers and around 28 western lowland gorillas.
  The park also boasts four eastern black rhinos, another "critically endangered" species with fewer than 1,000 left worldwide, and a herd of African elephants.
  With 13 elephants, it is the largest herd in the UK.
  

  

  This quizzical chap is a black and white ruffled lemur, a critically endangered species (Image: Mirrorpix)

  Other endangered species at Howletts include the white-naped mangabey, one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world, the Sulawesi macaque, the northern Chinese leopard and four black and white ruffled lemurs.
  There is also a group of seven eastern bongo, a relative of the antelope of which only 100 are left in the wild.
  

  Port Lympne Wildlife Park

  

  Port Lympne celebrated the birth of a black rhino calf in January 2018 (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

  A similar distance from Surrey, in Ashford, Kent, is another wildlife park with a host of endangered animals.
  Port Lympne has its own group of western lowland gorillas, eastern bongos and eastern black rhinos.
  Other endangered species at the park include the Malayan tapir, the painted dog and the exotically named mishmi takin, a large goat-antelope found mainly in south-eastern Tibet of which there are fewer than 3,500 in the wild.
  

  

  Barbary lions have been extinct in the wild since the 1940s (Image: Thomas Frey/dpa via AP)

  However, two of the most-endangered animals at the park are probably the Siberian tiger, with a worldwide population of around 540, and the Barbary lion, which has been extinct in the wild since the 1940s.
  Only around 100 Barbary lions remain in the wild, and Port Lympne's are descended from lions held in the King of Moroccos private menagerie.
  https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/sudan-last-male-white-rhino-14434233