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First Successful Rhino IVF Pregnancy Paves Way for Saving Northern White Rhino

BioRescue project's breakthrough could restore critically endangered species, despite challenges and need for further scientific advancements.

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eeper Zachariah Mutai attends to Fatu, one of only two northern white rhinos left in the world, in the pen at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia county in Kenya.
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Female northern white rhinos Najin and Fatu are the last of their species and reside at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

Overview

  • Scientists have achieved the first successful rhinoceros pregnancy through in vitro fertilization (IVF), a technique that could be key to saving the northern white rhino, a critically endangered subspecies with only two living individuals.
  • The procedure was conducted with a southern white rhino, a closely related subspecies, by transferring a lab-made rhino embryo into a surrogate mother in Kenya.
  • Although the surrogate mother died seventy days into her term due to an unrelated bacterial infection, the pregnancy has opened the door for the northern white rhino’s restoration.
  • The BioRescue project, which conducted the procedure, plans to use IVF to create a lab-grown northern white rhino embryo and implant it into a southern white rhino, which will carry the fetus and help repopulate the critically endangered species.
  • The long-term success of the project will hinge on a series of breakthroughs, including the creation of more rhino sperm and eggs from stem cells, which could in turn produce additional embryos.