In March 2018 the last male Northern White Rhino passed away but there is hope for his species as scientists just made a test tube embryo breakthrough
In March of this year, the world mourned the loss of Sudan, the last male Northern White Rhino. Sudan passed away after being in poor health. He was euthanised after his condition severely deteriorated. The vet on-hand, gave him the ability to drift off in peace and managed to save some genetic material from the rhino.
Now in a scientific breakthrough, the first-ever test tube rhino embryos are giving everyone hope. In May of this year, another scientific breakthrough took place in the USA. A Southern White Rhino became pregnant after being artificially inseminated. These two separate scientific occurrences have renewed hope in both the conservation and scientific fields.
An international team of scientists has successfully created the first ever test tube rhino embryos from southern white rhino eggs and northern white rhino sperm using assisted reproduction techniques.
“These are the first in-vitro produced rhinoceros embryos ever. They have a very high chance to establish a pregnancy once implanted into a surrogate mother,” – Prof Thomas Hildebrandt of the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin.
The team successfully managed to adapt reproduction techniques used in horses to the special circumstances of rhino species. This has opened up the potential to bring back the species from the brink of extinction.
This would be achieved by adopting the procedure pioneered above, to oocytes to be collected from the last two living northern white rhino females, Sudan’s daughter and granddaughter. Southern White Rhinos will then be surrogate mothers to Northern White Rhino calves born through this process.
“Our results are solid, reproducible and very promising. Now we are well prepared to go to Kenya and collect oocytes from the last two northern white females in order to produce pure blastocysts where both eggs and sperm are from northern whites,”- Prof ThomasHildebrandt
Currently, the only genetic material saved comes from four males and the remaining two females. This means a full genetic diversity map will need to be developed before the process can proceed to the next phase. A third method using stem cells is currently being investigated in the hopes that a larger gene pool can be established.
Through science, we have a new hope that the animals on the brink of extinction can be brought back. While we wait for further breakthroughs, let’s bring poaching to an end.
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