Science only hope for northern white rhino
After the death of the last male of the species, experts debate how to save breed from extinction
The death of the last male northern white rhino has given scientists and conservationists extra resolve to save the subspecies through technology. The rhino, called Sudan, was put down in Kenya after months of progressive sickness. However, staff at the Ol Pejeta conservancy extracted a cell sample that could mean that Sudan might sire a calf after death. To do so, however, would require an unprecedented technological feat – the creation of a rhino in a laboratory.
SCIENTISTS and conservationists are to step up a desperate drive to save the northern white rhino from extinction using “Jurassic Park” technology after the death of its last male specimen was announced yesterday.
Sudan, on whose shoulders the hopes of the northern white once rested, was put down in Kenya after months of progressive sickness, a moment that could make the extinction of the subspecies inevitable.
But moments before they euthanised it, staff at the Ol Pejeta conservancy carried out a final, poignant and potentially vital procedure on the old, ailing bull. Using a swab, they extracted a cell sample that could just possibly mean that Sudan might achieve after death what it failed to do in 45 years of life: produce an heir.
To do so, however, would require an unprecedented technological feat – the creation of a rhino in a laboratory, a breakthrough that remains well beyond the scope of scientists today and may continue to do so for decades.
But Sudan’s handlers at Dvůr Králové, the zoo in the Czech Republic that owned Sudan and organised ITS transfer to Kenya in 2009, believe that advances in cellular technology mean that there is hope in the future for the northern white.
“We should not give up,” Jan Stejskal, the zoo’s director of international projects, said. “We must take advantage of the unique situation in which cellular technologies are utilised for conservation of critically endangered species. It may sound unbelievable, but thanks to the newly developed techniques even Sudan could still have offspring.”
Scientists in the US hope to use frozen tissues from dead northern white rhinos once housed at San Diego Zoo – as well as from recently deceased animals like Sudan – to develop embryos.
“The really long-term aim – I speak about 50 years now – would be to have a self-sustaining population in its original habitat. But it is, of course, far away from now,” Mr Stejskal told The Daily Telegraph.
Although Sudan never sired a male calf, it did produce two females. One of them, Najin, is still alive – and with Fatu, its daughter, they are the last two northern white rhinos on Earth.
Northern whites, however, are notoriously difficult to breed from, and both Najin and Fatu are infertile. So for there to be a chance of success, the artificial embryos would have to carried by a surrogate from the other subspecies of the white rhino, the southern white.
Not everyone is convinced, however, with some dismissing it as the “Jurassic Park” approach. At Ol Pejeta itself, researchers believe a simpler IVF approach would be more effective. There are plans to remove eggs from Najin and Fatu, fertilise them with semen previously collected from northern white males, with the resulting embryos also implanted in southern white surrogates.
Even this approach is untested, and is not without its dangers. The complex nature of the operation, which involves cutting into the side of the rhino, could prove fatal. Over the past two years, trials conducted to remove eggs from southern white females in zoos have shown that the procedure is possible, although no viable embryos have been developed.
‘Thanks to the newly developed techniques even Sudan could still have offspring’
Even so, at Ol Pejeta they are optimistic.
“It is not an experimental science,” said Elodie Sampere, the conservancy’s spokesman. “It is something that has been done in humans, in cows, horses and other large mammals. It is not like we are starting from scratch. It is a question of perfecting what’s already been done and adapting it to a different mammal.”
Even this approach has critics, with some saying that the two surviving females are too closely related to sustain a genetically viable northern white population.