Saving white rhino from extinction
Rhinoceroses are key to keeping grasslands healthy, as they eat—and keep in check—particular species of savanna plants.
Scientists working to save the northern white rhino from extinction have produced two more embryos of the world’s most endangered mammal, increasing the number of viable embryos produced so far to five.
Decades of poaching for its horn have left the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) on the brink of extinction, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF). The two females left, Najin and her daughter Fatu, live at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya.
Embryos grown in lab
Both of these females are unable to carry a pregnancy themselves due to health issues, and so scientists and conservationists are racing to produce viable embryos in a lab that can be implanted into the closely related southern white rhino.
Fatu’s egg cells were transported from Kenya to Avantea laboratory in Italy and were fertilized using the thawed sperm of Suni, who died at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2014.
A ray of hope
Scientists hope to implant embryos made from the rhinos’ egg cells and frozen sperm from deceased males into surrogate mothers from a more abundant rhino species.
The five embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen at a laboratory in Cremona, in Italy’s Lombardy region, waiting to be transferred into a surrogate mother.
The team hopes to be able to deliver its first northern white rhino calf in three years and a wider population in the next two decades. The northern white rhino used to live in several countries in east and central Africa, but its numbers fell sharply due to poaching.
Conservation efforts
Rhinoceroses are key to keeping grasslands healthy, as they eat—and keep in check—particular species of savanna plants.
From African lions to elephants, many of the continent’s megafauna species are plummeting in number due to poaching and other human causes.
Conservationists are now focusing their efforts on ensuring the safety of these animals and reducing the demand for rhino horn in Asian countries such as Vietnam.
White Rhinoceros
Common name: White rhinoceroses
Scientific name: Ceratotherium simum
Type: Mammals
Diet: Herbivore
Size: Head and body: 11 to 13.75 feet; tail: 20 to 27.5 inches
Weight: 1.6 to 4 tons
A last-ditch effort
• Scientists have produced two more white rhino embryos to save one of the world’s most endangered mammals from extinction.
• This means there are now five viable white rhino embryos, which are stored in liquid nitrogen in Cremona, Italy.
• Scientists hope to deliver their first northern white rhino calf in three years, using a surrogate mother.
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