Scientists hope to save northern white rhino from extinction

As the health of the world’s last male northern white rhino declines in Kenya, a global team of scientists and conservationists is pushing ahead with an ambitious effort to save the subspecies from extinction with the help of the two surviving females.

Participants in the project to create northern white rhino embryos through in vitro fertilization say its success depends not on the sick, elderly male named Sudan but on his daughter Najin and granddaughter Fatu, whose eggs would likely have to be extracted because the rhinos can’t reproduce naturally. Even so, Sudan, who could be euthanized because of a leg infection, is something of a celebrity, attracting thousands of visitors to his home at Ol Pejeta Conservancy and being listed as “The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World” on the Tinder dating app last year in a fundraising effort.

“Sudan has been technically infertile for many years, so him dying is not going to affect the possibilities of recovery for the northern white rhino as a species,” Richard Vigne, the conservancy’s CEO, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Semen from dead northern white rhinos is stored in various locations around the world, and it is critical to keep the two females alive “until such time when the protocol or technique for in vitro fertilization has been perfected so that we can begin that process,” Vigne said.

In vitro fertilization is used in the cattle industry to breed more robust herds, and a Cape buffalo was conceived through IVF for the first time in 2016. However, scientists trying to effectively resurrect the northern white rhino have limited genetic material at their disposal and plan to use another subspecies, the southern white rhino, as a surrogate mother.

Contributing institutions include San Diego Zoo Global in the United States, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin and Embryo Plus, a South African company that worked on the IVF-born buffalo. Experts met in Vienna in December 2015 to discuss stem cell and other technologies with the goal of establishing viable populations of northern white rhinos decades in the future.

Supporters think the work could be used to help other endangered species, while some conservationists believe the focus should be on other critically endangered species, including the Javan and Sumatran rhinos, that have suffered because of poaching and human encroachment on habitats.