Fausta, a 57-year-old rhino believed to be the oldest in the world, is dead.
Authorities at Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority in a statement released on Saturday, December 28 said the female rhino died of natural causes at a sanctuary on December 27.
Fausta survived a number of attacks in the wild and by 2016, conservationists discovered she had suffered serious attacks from marauding hyenas and was immediately caged, read a report by Al Jazeera.
“Records show that Fausta lived longer than any rhino in the world and survived in the Ngorongoro, free-ranging, for more than 54 years”
The statement also said Fausta moved to a sanctuary in 2016.
“Fausta was first located in the Ngorongoro crater in 1965 by a scientist from the University of Dar Es Salaam, at the age between three and four years,” it added.
“Her health begun to deteriorate in 2016, when we were forced to put the animal in captivity, after several attacks from hyena and severe wounds thereafter.“
Cover photo: Guardian
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