In a major breakthrough, scientists announced in Berlin on Wednesday (Jan 24) that they carried out the first successful in vitro fertilisation of a southern white rhino.
The significant development could help in saving this highly endangered species of rhinoceros as only two female northern white rhinos remain in existence—Najin and her daughter Fatu—but neither is capable of carrying a pregnancy to term.
Researchers from the international scientific consortium Biorescue are working on implanting a lab-grown northern white rhino embryo in a southern surrogate to save the functionally extinct species. Susanne Holtze, a scientist at Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, which is part of the Biorescue project,” told BBC: “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,” Holtze added.
Once, the northern white rhinos were found across central Africa. They are relatively unaggressive and live in herds. However, uncontrolled hunting in the colonial era led to a major decline of white rhinos. In the current time, poaching for their horn is the main threat. Project leader Thomas Hildebrandt said at the press conference in Berlin that the successful impregnation of a southern white rhino with an embryo of the same species was a “milestone”.
Hildebrandt added, “We achieved something that was not believed to be possible.” This comes after the successful recent trial, which ended tragically when the bull, surrogate, and foetus were all killed by an unrelated infection that scientists believe was caused by bacteria unleashed by a mudslide in their cage.
The scientists have said that the foetus was only 70 days old at the time, however, they were confident that it could have survived the 16-month pregnancy period.
The next step will see scientists try to repeat the feat with other embryos made with eggs harvested from the surviving females and sperm preserved from two long-dead males. Hildebrandt said that the team aims to “produce northern white rhino calves in the next two to two-and-a-half years”. The delicate operation is then performed in just under an hour, with the surrogate under anaesthesia. The team of experts had eggs from the surviving females since 2019—the elder of the two retired from the programme in 2021. The last male, whose name was Sudan, died at the sanctuary in Kenya in 2018.
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