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Agence France-Presse

Months after the death of Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, scientists said they have grown embryos containing DNA of his kind, hoping to save the subspecies from extinction.
With only two northern white rhinoceroses known to be alive today – both infertile females – the team hopes their breakthrough technique will lead to the re-establishment of a viable northern white rhino breeding population.
‘A great ambassador for his species’: world’s last male northern white rhino dies
“Our goal is to have in three years the first NWR calf born,” Thomas Hildebrandt, head of reproduction management at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, said on Wednesday.
“Taking into account 16 months [of] pregnancy, we have a little more than a year to have a successful implantation.”


The team’s work, using a recently patented, two-metre (6.6-foot) egg extraction device, resulted in the first-ever test tube-produced rhino embryos.
Now frozen, these “have a very high chance to establish a pregnancy once implanted into a surrogate mother”, Hildebrandt said.
The hybrid embryos were created with frozen sperm from dead northern white rhino males and the eggs of southern white rhino females, of which there are thousands left on Earth.
The eggs were harvested from rhinos in European zoos.
Victoria the rhino is pregnant, and she is carrying the hopes of a species
The team now hopes to use the technique to collect eggs from the last two northern white rhinos – Najin and Fatu, the daughter and granddaughter of Sudan, who died in March at age 45. They live in a Kenyan national park.
By fertilising these with northern white rhino sperm and implanting the resulting embryos in surrogate southern white rhino females, the team intends to create a new, fledgling northern white rhino population.

“Our results indicate that ART [assisted reproduction techniques] could be a viable strategy to rescue genes from the iconic, almost extinct, northern white rhinoceros,” the team wrote in the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers have sought permission to harvest eggs from Najin and Fatu in Kenya, hopefully before the end of the year.
But the procedure is not without risk.
“We have to do a full anaesthesia, the animal is down for two hours, and it is quite a risky situation” for the last two of their kind, Hildebrandt said.
Endangered species traffickers should feel full force of Hong Kong law
“We are highly afraid something unexpected would happen that would be a nightmare.”
In the meantime, the team will practice, implanting some of their hybrid embryos into southern white rhino surrogates “to test the system”.
Any hybrids born as a result may play a crucial future role as surrogates, sharing more genes with northern rhinos than purely southern surrogates.

There is, however, a key obstacle to the team’s envisaged northern white rhino repopulation.
With only two northern white rhino females left and all the available semen from only four dead males, assisted reproduction techniques alone would likely lead to a population without the genetic diversity required for a species to thrive.
To this end, the researchers hope to use stem cell technology to engineer eggs and sperm from the frozen skin cells of 12 dead northern white rhinos that were unrelated to one another.
Chinese demand for rhino horn pushing species to extinction
“This would enlarge the founding diversity of the future NWR population substantially,” the team said in a statement.
There is time pressure, they pointed out, with only two animals still around to socialise the babies in the mysterious ways of northern white rhinos.
“It is a motivating aspect to succeed as soon a possible so the calf that we produce can grow up with Najin and Fatu,” Hildebrandt said.

Terri Roth and William Swanson of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, in a comment on the study, said assisted reproduction techniques alone cannot save a species from extinction.
“Impressive results in a Petri dish don’t easily translate into a herd of healthy offspring,” wrote the duo, who are not involved in the research.
“Achieving the latter requires navigating an untrodden path fraught with obstacles, and it remains unlikely that a viable population of northern white rhinos will be restored.”
For the researchers, however, a combination of assisted research techniques and stem cell techniques could “provide a blueprint on how to save highly endangered species that have already dwindled to numbers that make conventional conservation efforts impossible”.


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Conservation

Can lab-grown embryos save the northern white rhino from extinction?

Scientists have grown embryos containing the DNA of Sudan (pictured), the last male northern white rhino, who recently died. Photo: Reuters

(FILES) This file photo taken on March 20, 2018 shows Najin (L) and Fatu, the two remaining Northern White Rhino as they graze together in their paddock at the ol-Pejeta conservancy in Nanyuki. Months after the death of Sudan, the world's last male northern white rhino, scientists said On July 4, 2018 they have grown embryos containing DNA of his kind, hoping to save the subspecies from extinction. / AFP PHOTO / TONY KARUMBA

FILE -- In this Friday, March 2, 2018 photo Keeper Zachariah Mutai attends to Fatu, one of only two female northern white rhinos left in the world, in the pen where she is kept for observation, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia county in Kenya. Scientist say they're several steps closer to perfecting a method for stopping the extinction of northern white rhinos. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, researchers said Wednesday they’ve succeeded in creating embryos using frozen northern white rhino sperm and eggs from a southern white rhino. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

FILE -- In this Friday, March 2, 2018 photo Najin, one of only two female northern white rhinos left in the world, walks in the pen where she is kept for observation, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia county in Kenya. Scientist say they're several steps closer to perfecting a method for stopping the extinction of northern white rhinos. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, researchers said Wednesday they’ve succeeded in creating embryos using frozen northern white rhino sperm and eggs from a southern white rhino. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

‘A great ambassador for his species’: world’s last male northern white rhino dies

Sudan, the last surviving male northern white rhino, has died. Photo: EPA

FILE PHOTO: Sudan, the last surviving male northern white rhino, is fed by a warden at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia national park, Kenya May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

Poachers broke into a French zoo, killed this white rhino and sawed off its horn

The incident is believed to be the first time in Europe that a rhino in captivity has been attacked and killed

The four-year-old male white rhino called Vince is seen in this handout picture released by the Thoiry zoo and wildlife park. Vince was found dead in his enclosure on Tuesday morning with his horn sawed off. Photo: Reuters

Then there were three: Death of Nola the white rhino moves species closer to the brink

A northern white rhino named Nola receives a veterinary exam from associate veterinarian Meredith Clancy (L) as keepers Kim Millspaugh and Mike Veale (R) assist at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in California in this December 29, 2014 file photo. A 41-year-old northern white rhino died on November 22, 2015 at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, leaving just three members of the critically endangered species alive worldwide, zoo officials said. REUTERS/Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Safari Park/Handout NO SALES. NO ARCHIVES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. MANDATORY CREDIT

FILE - This Dec. 31, 2014 file photo shows Nola, a northern white rhinoceros, in her enclosure at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, Calif. The Los Angeles Times reports that Zoo officials say Nola, 41, was euthanized early Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015 as she was suffering from a number of old-age ailments, including arthritis, and had also been treated for a recurring abscess on her hip. The rhino had been a draw at the Safari Park since 1986.(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)

Nola the white rhino, pictured receiving a veterinary exam from Meredith Clancy (left) in 2014, was euthanised on Sunday after suffering a severe infection. Photo AFP

With only five northern white rhinos remaining, experts considering a test tube baby

One of the five remaining northern white rhinos. Photo: AP

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After the death of Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, scientists have grown embryos containing DNA of his kind


After the death of Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, scientists have grown embryos containing DNA of his kind.


Can lab-grown embryos save the northern white rhino from extinction?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}After the death of Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, scientists have grown embryos containing DNA of his kind

After the death of Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, scientists have grown embryos containing DNA of his kind