Tanzanian conservation authorities announced on Saturday the world's oldest free-ranging female black rhino died in the Ngorongoro crater at age 57.

Conservation Commissioner for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) Freddy Manongi said in a statement that Fausta the rhino died of suspected natural death on Friday.

Fausta was first located in the Ngorongoro crater in 1965 by a scientist from the University of Dar es Salaam at the age of three to four years. "The health of the rhino began to deteriorate in 2016, when we were forced to put the animal in captivity, after several attacks from hyenas that inflicted severe wounds on the rare animal," said the statement.

The statement said that life expectancy of rhinos is between 37 and 43 years in the wild, and they can live up to 50 years and above in captivity. Records show that Fausta lived longer than any rhino in the world and survived in the Ngorongoro wild for more than 54 years before it was kept in a sanctuary for the last three years of its life in 2016.

(Editor: Xing Fangyu)

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