Potential to Save Species: Historic Achievement of First Rhino Pregnancy through IVF

Scientists have achieved a significant breakthrough in fertility that could potentially save the northern white rhino from extinction. Currently, there are only two remaining animals of this species left on Earth. The groundbreaking procedure involved transferring a laboratory-created rhino embryo into a surrogate mother, using southern white rhinos, a closely related sub-species, as surrogates. This achievement gives hope that the same method can be used with northern white embryos and ultimately save the species. The project has faced numerous challenges, such as collecting eggs from the two-tonne animals and creating embryos in a lab. It took 13 attempts to achieve the first successful IVF pregnancy using southern white rhinos. However, tragedy struck when the surrogate mother died during the pregnancy, but a post-mortem revealed a developing male foetus with a 95% chance of being born alive, proving the viability of rhino IVF. The next step is to use the northern white rhino embryos. There are only 30 embryos stored in Germany and Italy, created using eggs from one of the surviving females and sperm from deceased males. The embryos will be implanted into southern white rhino surrogates. While some argue that these efforts may not create a viable population due to limited genetic diversity, researchers believe they have a responsibility to save the species, as humans were the cause of the northern white rhino's near extinction. Additionally, the team is also working on creating rhino sperm and eggs from stem cells as another experimental technique. The researchers hope to preserve the social communication and behavior of the northern white rhino by having the first calf learn from the last two surviving animals. The scientists are fully committed to doing everything they can to protect and recover this species, considering it a critical part of the ecosystem.