The critically endangered northern white rhino could be saved from extinction through a world-first IVF treatment.
A team of scientists have achieved the first white rhino pregnancy using in vitro fertilisation, successfully transferring a lab-created embryo into a surrogate mother.
Only two female northern white Rhinos remain in the world, after the last male, Sudan, died in 2018.
Fatu and Najin, who are both infertile, are kept under 24-hour armed protection at a conservation reservation in Kenya.
The pregnancy was carried out through IVF treatment
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However, with the breakthrough treatment, the last remaining pair of northern rhinos could soon be joined by others.
The procedure involved implanting a southern white rhino – a closely related sub-species of the northern whites – into a surrogate mother named Curra.
Curra died a few months into her 16-month pregnancy, however, scientists said that the embryo transfer and initial successful first few months of pregnancy could be a lifeline to save the critically endangered species.
As the two females remaining are unable to reproduce, the species is technically extinct.
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The northern white rhinos were once found across Africa, however illegal poaching and a demand for rhino horns obliterated the already dwindling population.
Susanne Holtze, a German scientist involved in the Biorescue project, a consortium which aims to halt extinctions, said: “To achieve the first successful embryo transfer in a rhino is a huge step.
“But now I think with this achievement, we are very confident that we will be able to create northern white rhinos in the same manner and that we will be able to save the species.”
Thomas Hildebrandt, the Biorescue project head, said the treatment was vital in saving the population.
“This little baby is the proof of everything,” he told the Guardian.
The project has taken years and took 13 attempts to achieve the first viable IVF pregnancy
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“The sperm injection, the fertilisation, the liquid nitrogen, the thawing – this was never done before for rhinos. All of it could have failed.”
Comparing the IVF process from humans to rhinos, he said: “Humans are simple! We are working with a two-and-a-half-tonne mammal.”
The project has taken years and took 13 attempts to achieve the first viable IVF pregnancy.
Now, the next step is to try this technique but use northern white embryos instead, of which there are only 30 in existence.
Professor Thomas Hildebrandt, another project head for the Biorescue Consortium, said: “I think the situation for the northern white rhino is quite privileged for the embryo transfer because we have a closely related recipient - so their internal map is nearly the same.”
