INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Najin (R) and her daughter Fatou (L), the last two northern white rhino females
(Reuters Photo)A 28-year-old rhinoceros named Najin and her daughter, Fatu, are the only northern white rhinos on the planet
They live at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya under constant armed guard
Both animals are infertile
In March, veterinarians euthanized Sudan, Najin's father and the last male rhino of their kind
Once Najin and Fatu die, so goes their subspecies.But genes from the northern white rhinos might live on
There's a hopeful thread in a new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications: For the first time, scientists have used
in vitro fertilization to create viable rhino embryos.An international team of zoologists, veterinarians and other researchers plucked
unfertilized eggs from southern white rhinoceroses, a closely related subspecies with a population of about 20,000
In a dish, the scientists used northern white rhinoceros sperm to fertilize the southern white rhinoceros eggs, producing hybrid embryos.Two
hybrid embryos have been frozen for future implantation, the researchers said
They predict, after developing the proper technique, it will be possible to transfer the embryos to female southern white rhinoceroses in
A hybrid calf ensures some genetic continuity for the northern white rhino even after its extinction.Najin (R) and her daughter Fatou graze
near their enclosure at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia National Park, Kenya."This is a very ambitious, very brave last-ditch effort
to save some of the genetics of a spectacular animal," said conservation biologist Stuart Pimm of Duke University, who studies extinctions
and was not involved in this project.Northern white rhinoceroses are not evolutionary failures
The rhinos failed, as biologist and study author Thomas B
Hildebrandt told reporters Tuesday, because their hides were not bulletproof
They failed because rhino horns, gram for gram, are more valuable than gold - fetching high prices as status symbols or for their medicinal
(The horns, mostly made of a protein called keratin, are as medically useful as fingernail clippings.)Hildebrandt, a professor at the
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, and his colleagues are part of a project that has been stockpiling northern white
rhinoceros genetic material for decades
Oliver Ryder, a conservation geneticist at the San Diego Zoo, collected skin samples from Sudan in 1986 as part of a rhino cell bank
Scientists began to freeze northern white rhinoceros sperm in 2008, Hildebrandt said, storing 300 milliliters' worth, roughly the volume of
a soda can.But scooping up rhino skin and semen is relatively easy, at least compared with removing eggs from within a two-ton wild
animal."This is quite the technological feat," said David E
Wildt, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, who was not involved with this research
The study's authors used a 60-inch-long instrument (patent pending) to insert a needle through the anus of anesthetized southern white
rhinos and into ovarian tissue
An ultrasound monitor provided the only guidance for the egg collectors.The embryos are viable and "beautiful," Wildt said
He added: "This is the first step in a long journey to produce living offspring."Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, is fed by a
warden at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia national park, Kenya.Veterinarians have successfully used in vitro fertilization in horses,
cattle and other livestock, but never something as large as a white rhino.Yet such techniques are the "only way" to save northern white
rhino genes, said biologist Terri Roth, director of the Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife at the Cincinnati Zoo
These genes might benefit the southern white rhinos that move into their relatives' former habitats, or confer advantages to living rhinos
during disease outbreaks.The odds are against a complete revival of the northern white rhino, according to Roth, who oversaw the first
successful breeding of a captive Sumatran rhino in 2001
"Even if the moon and the stars all aligned," and a surrogate rhinoceros gave birth to a hybrid calf, "that still hasn't brought back the
subspecies."The San Diego Zoo's Ryder, along with Hildebrandt and other reproductive biologists, drew up a plan in Vienna in 2015 to rescue
It will be possible to bring back a complete northern white rhino, Ryder predicts, which would require an egg as well as sperm.Hildebrandt
and his colleagues plan to harvest eggs from Najin and Fatu, and the researchers are "extremely confident" that they would be successful
The highest risk is not failing to acquire eggs, Hildebrandt said, but to the adult rhinoceroses
The animals must be anesthetized for two hours, "which is quite a risky situation."One of Hildebrandt's co-authors is Kyushu University's
Katsuhiko Hayashi, a pioneering reproductive biologist who helped turn mouse skin cells into eggs into living mice
The team aims to replicate this success with rhinoceros stem cells
So far, they have generated 12 rhino stem cell lines, Hildebrandt said.All of the scientists who spoke with The WashingtonPost agreed that
biological techniques can complement boots-on-the-ground rhinoceros protection
Funds allocated for laboratory research are not usually drawn from the same sources as funds earmarked for other conservation goals
"We should come at it with everything we've got," Roth said."It's a big, messy puzzle
There's not one piece that's going to be the answer," said Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation
"No species has ever been saved by the high-tech approach alone." The science is "very important," but it has to be paired with "working
with local communities and politicians."Pimm, as excited as he was about this result, offered a word of caution
We cannot afford to adopt a cavalier attitude toward extinction, as though animals were something to bring back at our leisure, he said
"The main event has to be: We have to stop rhino poaching."(This story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is
auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
