A fertility breakthrough has raised hopes for saving the northern white rhino from extinction; there are just two of the animals left on the earth. Scientists have produced the world’s first IVF rhino pregnancy by successfully implanting a lab-created rhino embryo into a surrogate mother. The technique was carried out on southern white rhinos, a closely related subspecies of northern white rhinos. The next stage is to repeat the procedure with northern white embryos.
“To achieve the first successful embryo transfer in a rhino is a huge step,” said Susanne Holtze, a scientist at Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, which is part of the Biorescue project, an international consortium trying to save this species.
“But now I think with this achievement, we are very confident that we will be able to create northern white rhinos in the same manner and that we will be able to save the species.”
Once widespread throughout central Africa, northern white rhinos were exterminated by illegal poaching motivated by the market for rhino horns. There are currently just two rhinos left: Najin and her daughter Fatu, both female. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya is home to the two former zoo animals, who are both kept under strict protection.
Since the species cannot procreate, it is officially extinct. However, in an attempt to save these animals from extinction, the Biorescue team is now relying on cutting-edge reproductive science. They used southern white rhinos to begin their job. With a population in the thousands, this near relative of the northern whites is regarded as a conservation success story, despite ongoing threats from poaching.
