KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's last known surviving male Sumatran rhino died on Monday following complications related to old age, environmental officials said.
The rhino, nicknamed Tam, had died mid-day despite every effort made to save its life at the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary in Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Malaysia's eastern Sabah state, according to Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew Chin Jin.
Liew said the precise cause of death will be clearer later, after the autopsy has been conducted. However, she said Tam's death was certainly related to old age and involved multiple organ failure.
At the time of his capture at an oil-palm plantation in August 2008, he was thought to be in his mid-twenties, meaning that he was now well into old age for a Sumatran rhino.
Looking on the positive side of things, Liew said the one bright spot is that Tam's living genome is preserved in cell culture.
"We hope that with emerging technologies at cell and molecular level, he may yet contribute his genes to the survival of the species," Liew added.
Tam was one of two remaining Sumatran rhinos in Sabah on the Kalimantan Island that was kept in captivity with the hopes of breeding but efforts have not produced results for years.
The surviving female, Iman, suffers from a ruptured tumor in her uterus and cannot produce fertile eggs. The species has not been spotted in Sabah's wild for years.
The species was historically prevalent in South and Southeast Asia but are currently listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with only five substantial populations in the wild, most in Indonesia.
