The critically endangered northern white rhino could be saved from the brink of extinction after scientists achieved the world’s first IVF rhino pregnancy, successfully transferring a rhino embryo created in a lab into a surrogate mother.
BioRescue, a consortium backed by the German government aiming to halt extinctions, performed the first embryo transfers in southern white rhinos, paving the way for the technique to be used for their endangered northern counterparts.
Illegal poaching wiped out the wild population of the northern white rhinos, once found across central Africa. Now, just two rhinos remain — Najin and her daughter Fatu are kept under heavy security at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
The last male northern white rhino, Sudan, died in 2018, and the two remaining rhinos are infertile, making the species technically extinct.
Scientist Susanne Holtze told the BBC that 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."
The procedure was carried out with southern white rhinos in September 2023, with the transfer of two embryos into surrogates resulting in a successful pregnancy.
Commonly used in humans, horses and cows, the method had never been used in rhinos before.
It took 13 attempts to achieve the first viable IVF pregnancy.
"It's very challenging in such a big animal, in terms of placing an embryo inside the reproductive tract, which is almost 2m inside the animal," said Holtze.
While the father and the pregnant surrogate died after contracting an unrelated rare bacterial infection, researchers say that the pregnancy is proof the technique works.
Project head Prof Thomas Hildebrandt told the BBC that “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".
The team is also hoping that the calf will be born while other northern white rhinos are still alive.
"We want to preserve the social communication, the social heritage of the northern white rhino by putting the first calf on the ground so they can learn the language from the last two rhinos, they can learn how to behave from them,” said Hildebrandt.
Project coordinator Jan Stejskal said that it is important to remember that man is behind the extinction of the northern white rhino.
“It's not because of some evolutionary pressure, it was greed, it was the consumption of a rhino horn.
"So, in a way, we are responsible and if we actually have a technique that can assist us to save them, then I think we have a responsibility to use it and to try to save them."
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