Eggs extracted from last rhinos in species

OL PEJETA — An international team of scientists said they successfully extracted eggs from the last two remaining northern white rhinos, a step on the way to possibly saving the subspecies from extinction.

Ten eggs were harvested from the female rhinos at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The scientists said Tuesday they hope to use them to create viable embryos that would be transferred into surrogates since neither Najin nor Fatuwill can carry a pregnancy to term.

The harvested eggs were immediately flown to the Avantea Laboratory in Italy to be artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from now-deceased northern white rhino bulls.

The next step is to select female southern white rhinos, another rhino subspecies, at Ol Pejeta to serve as surrogate mothers.

The last male northern white rhino, Sudan, died in March 2018.