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Super-rare Sumatran rhino dies after capture

A rare Sumatran rhinoceros has died just weeks after it was discovered in Indonesia. 

A rare Sumatran rhinoceros has died just weeks after it was discovered in Indonesia. 

The female rhino was captured in a pit trap in Kalimantan on March 12, marking the first time in 40 years that researchers made contact with the critically endangered species, the World Wildlife Fund said in March. 

The species was believed to be extinct until 2013, when WWF researchers found rhino tracks and later photographed one with a trap camera.  According to WWF, fewer than 100 Sumatran rhinos exist in the wild. 

Conservationists had hoped start a breeding program with the captured 10-year-old rhino, Pak Efransjah, CEO of WWF-Indonesia said in March statement. 

The rhino, named Najaq, died on Tuesday, Nyoman Iswarayoga, a WWF-Indonesia spokesman told the Associated Press. 

Najaq had an infection from wounds that wildlife officials believe were sustained in a poaching trap, Iswarayoga told AP.

An autopsy will be conducted, Iswarayoga said.

Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter. 

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