RHINO CALF’S BIRTH SPURS BID TO SAVE SPECIES

THE San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s 99th baby southern white rhinoceros was born recently, but the arrival of “Edward” sparked much more widespread interest than the previous 98 births of his subspecies.

That’s because Edward’s conception occurred not through natural mating but via artificial insemination. He is the first southern white rhino born through such means in the US – 12 years ago, a southern white rhino was born through artificial insemination in Budapest, Hungary.

Southern white rhinos of Africa, once close to extinction, have rebounded in protected sanctuaries.

Edward’s arrival by artificial means would not have been quite the heralded event it was if not for one fact: His birth holds out hope for saving the functionally extinct northern white rhino. Only two northern white rhinos remain in the world, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

But there is hope, in the form of DNA from a dozen northern white rhinos banked at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, in a facility called the Frozen Zoo. Over 44 years, tissue and cells from some of the world’s most endangered species have been stored in this cryobank.

Analysis has found there is sufficient genetic variability in the frozen northern white rhino cell lines to theoretically re-establish the population.

By collaborating with scientists around the world, we envision a future northern white rhino baby born to a southern white rhino surrogate. Perhaps Edward’s mother, Victoria, will fill that role.

Victoria and her new calf are doing well. Edward represents an important step in an effort to save a related white rhino subspecies, but what we learned from his birth could also help Sumatran and Javan rhinos.

Sometimes artificial reproductive intervention may be the only way to avert extinction

Edward is also a lesson to all of us, a reminder that humans, as stewards of Earth, must protect species at risk of extinction. The world faces an epic extinction crisis, outlined most recently in a UN report in May that brought together three years of work by nearly 150 researchers from 50 nations. Climate change, habitat loss, wildlife trafficking and other humancaused disturbances all play a role in the rising threat.

Last year, San Diego Zoo Global played a part in efforts to rebuild the black rhino population in Africa by sending a Safari Park-born 8-year-old black rhino to Tanzania. He has joined a female black rhino at Singita Grumeti Reserves, where it is hoped they will help restore a population that was lost in the region and unite four scattered remnant populations of the species.

But the northern white rhino is teetering on the brink. Now we are compelled to intervene using banked frozen cells rather than protecting populations of living individual animals.

Saving individual animals and family groups while fostering sustainable populations is the ideal conservation strategy. But sometimes artificial reproductive intervention may be the only way to avert extinction. With persistence leading to further scientific advances, Edward’s arrival will be living proof of that.