How will IVF save the northern white rhino species?
Scientists have recently used in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to make a southern white rhino pregnant for the first time. They successfully placed southern white rhino embryos into surrogate mothers.
This means that if southern white rhino babies can be born through IVF, then the process may be successful for the northern white rhino embryos as well. A southern white rhino will be used as a replacement mother to birth a northern white rhino baby.
Which organisation is behind the first rhino pregnancy through IVF?
A team of researchers from BioRescue, an organisation that works to prevent extinctions, successfully transferred embryos in southern white rhinos for the first time.
In September 2023, scientists at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya transferred two southern white rhino embryos into surrogate mothers, resulting in a successful pregnancy. It's the first time this method has worked in rhinos.
This successful pregnancy shows that this method could help bring back the northern white rhinos.
So, what’s the next step now regarding northern white rhinos?
This achievement offers hope for saving the northern white rhino species. These rhinos were once common in Central Africa, but poaching has destroyed their numbers. Now, only two female rhinos remain, Najin and her daughter, Fatu. Both of them are kept under high security at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
Scientists took eggs from Fatu and used sperm from now-dead male rhinos of the same species to create embryos in a lab. These embryos will be placed into the bodies of female southern white rhinos to grow before their birth.
They plan to do this within the next six months. The researchers say that these two types of rhinos are very similar, which should help the embryos develop well. If successful, it will lead to the birth of the first northern white rhino since the year 2000.
The scientists think that this method could also help other rhino species in danger, like the Asian Javan rhinoceros and the Sumatran rhinoceros.
