A major medical breakthrough in embryo transfer could save Africa’s northern white rhinos from danger of extinction. Present on earth for 26 million years, this species of rhino could survive thanks to scientific prowess.
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There are only two left, Najin and Fatu, mother and daughter, the last females of the northern white rhino species. The last male died in 2018 in a reserve in Kenya. We thought the extinction of this species was inevitable. But scientists from the Biorescue project have achieved the impossible: the in vitro fertilization of a southern white rhino, by injecting frozen sperm from a male of the same species.
An immense hope for the survival of their cousin, the northern white rhinos. Researchers in this breeding program have announced that they want to attempt the feat with a northern white rhino embryo in a surrogate mother of the southern species. According to them, these two subspecies have sufficiently similar characteristics to allow the proper development of the embryo.
This technology could also serve as a model for other endangered rhino species such as that of Sumatran in Southeast Asia. A scientific feat and hope for these animals, decimated by poaching for decades.