Viable embryos from the world ’s last remaining northerly blanched rhinos are set to be implanted into replacement using in vitro fertilization shortly , in an exciting developing to economise the specie from extinction .
The predicament of the domain ’s last northerly white rhinos is well known . Sudan , the last male , died in March 2018 , leaving female parent and daughter Najin and Fatu as the world ’s only remaining members of their mintage . Anaudacious planwas concocted to save the rhinos from extermination , by harvest eggs from the two females and artificially fertilize them using fixed spermatozoan from asleep males to make northerly white rhino embryos .
This was successfully carry out inAugust 2019with two viable northerly white rhino embryos created , followed up by a third in December 2019 . Now , an international team from Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research ( Leibniz - IZW ) , Safari Park Dvůr Králové , Kenya Wildlife Service , and Ol Pejeta Conservancy – where Najin and Fatu are housed – haveannouncedthey have successful created two more viable embryos , taking the number of utter - breed northerly white rhino embryo up to five . This mean the next step is finding suitable southern white rhino surrogates to try and carry them to full term .
This is a hugely exciting footstep in the architectural plan to save the rhinos from extinction . northerly white-hot rhinos are a subspecies of white rhinoceros ( the other being southerly lily-white rhino ) and were once found across several East and primal African countries . year of widespread poaching and civil war in their home range devastated their populations , and they are now considered functionally extinct . Najin and Fatu belong to the Safari Park Dvůr Králové in the Czech Republic but are housed at theOl Pejeta Conservancyin Kenya , where they are two of the well - guarded animals in the world .
The first three viable embryos were create by harvesting oocyte – immature nut cells – from Najin and Fatu in 2019 , and artificially sow them using frozen spermatozoon from the last two male : Suni , who cash in one’s chips in 2014 , and Sudan . Plans to collect more oocyte had to be put on hold last class due to the pandemic . However , in mid - December 2020 , another oocyte collection was carried out . The cells were immediately rushed from Kenya to the Avantea Laboratory in Italy , fertilized with the semen of Suni , and were cryopreserved on Christmas Eve as they had strive maturation and viability .
Now , with five viable embryo stored in smooth N and ready to be used for in vitro ( outside the soundbox ) fertilization , the next whole step – preparation to shift the embryos into distaff southerly livid rhinos – is already taking berth .
A southerly bloodless rhino bull named Ouwan was moved from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in northerly Kenya to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in November 2020 . Ouwan , a demonstrate champion breeder , is expected to be a reliable indicant through his behavior of where Ol Pejeta ’s distaff southern white rhinos are in their procreative cycles . He has been sterilized though , to ensure the park does n’t finish up with a ruck of southerly white rhinos carrying little Ouwans . Once the sterilization has been confirmed in March this year , Ouwan will be monitored to see if any potential female surrogate are ready to be artificially inseminated . If so , the next step of the architectural plan will be follow through , and the Earth will wait with bated breath to observe the carry on saga of whether it ’s potential to pull these fauna back from the brink of defunctness .
“ This is a with child win for Kenya and its collaborator , as the northerly white rhinos are face with the threat of imminent extinction , ” Kenya ’s Tourism and Wildlife Minister Hon . Najib Balala said in astatement . " I am captivated that the world has a chance through exercise ofcutting bound and innovative technologiesto deliver this threatened wildlife species for posterity and that Kenya is playing its part in this vital preservation campaign , " he said inanother .
" Remember , defunctness is forever , " Balala added . " Once we mislay this coinage we will have lost an iconic animal which will not be seen again by succeeding generation . ”
