Summary

Suci, a Sumatran rhino, lives at the Cincinnati Zoo where she was born in 2004. The Sumatran rhino is the smallest and oldest of the five existing rhinoceros species. It is the closest descendent of the wooly rhino. Suci is often described as a living fossil. The zoo had been trying but failed to artificially inseminate Suci. The Sumatran rhino became endangered when its natural habitat in parts of Asia and India began to shrink. Sumatrans were captured for a breeding program in an effort to avoid the animal’s extinction. Of the forty captured, many died from disease or injury but none produced offspring.

The Bronx and Los Angeles Zoos sent their Sumatrans to the Cincinnati Zoo which had the only bull in hopes of breeding success. After many disappointments and miscarriages, Emi, the female from Los Angeles, and Ipuh, the...