Can scientists save a species?
When the world’s last male northern white rhino, 45-year-old Sudan, died earlier this year, people feared that the species was lost forever. Scientists now say they have made a scientific breakthrough and the northern white rhino may have a future after all.
In 1960, there were more than 2,000 northern white rhinos across Africa. However, decades of warfare, habitat loss and poaching (when wild animals are illegally hunted and killed) have devastated the population, leaving just three individuals at the start of this year. When the only male northern white rhino died in March, leaving just two living females on Earth, the species was thought to be effectively extinct.
However, on 4 July there was some good news. A team from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany, has managed to produce rhino embryos using the frozen sperm cells of two dead male northern white rhinos and the eggs of the closely related species, the southern white rhino. An embryo is an unborn baby that is in the early stages of development. These embryos will be grown inside female white rhinos in the hope of producing a baby. Using this method, Professor Dr Thomas Hildebrandt, who led the team, explained that the goal is to see a baby northern white rhino born within the next three years. This is because eggs could be taken from the two remaining northern white rhinos, Sudan’s daughter and granddaughter.
Trials are set to continue using the eggs of southern white rhinos and only when these have proved successful will the team test the method on northern white rhino eggs.