Associated Press

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

The last Sumatran rhino in the Western Hemisphere is on the way to its ancestral southeast Asian homeland on a mission to help preserve the critically endangered species.

A Cincinnati Zoo official informs The Associated Press that the 8-year-old male, Harapan, began the air, land and sea journey Friday afternoon. The trip is expected to take some 50 hours before the rhino reaches an Indonesian sanctuary.

An animal keeper who was at the Sumatran rhino sanctuary when Harapan’s older brother became a father there in 2012 is accompanying Harapan, along with a zoo veterinarian.

It’s estimated there are 100 of the two-horned “hairy rhinos” left in the world. Conservationists hope Harapan can mate with one or more of the three females in the sanctuary.

The last public zoo viewing was Thursday.