Scientists and conservationists are to step up a desperate drive to save the northern white rhino from extinction using “Jurassic Park” technology after the death of its last male specimen was announced on Tuesday.

Sudan, on whose tottering shoulders the hopes of the northern white once rested, was put down in Kenya after months of progressive sickness, a moment that could make the extinction of the subspecies inevitable.

But moments before they euthanised him, staff at the Ol Pejeta conservancy carried out a final, poignant and potentially vital procedure on the old, ailing bull.

Using a swab, they extracted a cell sample that could just possibly mean that Sudan might achieve after death what…

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