The United States’ Lone Sumatran Rhino Is Heading Home to Find Love

The last Sumatran rhino in the US is about to head to Indonesia, where conservationists hope he will make a crucial love connection.

Harapan is an eight year-old Sumatran rhino living at the Cincinnati Zoo, and he's been all by his lonesome since his sister died in 2014. There are only about 100 of his kind remaining in the wild, all limited to Sumatra, though the species was once native to most of Southeast Asia.

As National Geographic reports, Sumatran rhinos are extra difficult to breed because of the species' unusual reproductive quirks. For instance, females won't ovulate unless there are males around, and if they don't get pregnant often enough they can develop cysts. The rhino's decline in the wild only exacerbates these problems, locking the animals in a cycle where ideal mating conditions rarely happen. The situation is so desperate that the zoo tried mating Harapan with his sister, but the effort was unsuccessful.

The Cincinnati Zoo already has a mate in mind for Harapan—a captive female named Rosa. Terri Roth, the zoo's vice president for conservation, says Harapan has many good qualities. "He's a really fun rhino. He seems like a little bit of a pistol, quite frankly." Good luck, buddy.