Eggs of white rhinos harvested by scientists to save the species from extinction

An international team of scientists said that they have extracted eggs from the last two remaining northern white rhinos. This is being done to prevent the species from extinction. Reports suggest that ten eggs were extracted from the last two female rhinos- Fatu and Najin. The last male white rhino, reportedly died in the year 2018 leaving the species practically extinct. The 45-year-old Sudan was euthanized after a spell of deteriorating health. However, genetic material was saved in hopes of artificially inseminating the remaining females to save the species from going extinct.

Eggs harvested to save rhinoceros from extinction

Reports suggest that the ten eggs were extracted at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. On August 18, the scientists said that they will use the extracted eggs to create viable embryos that would be transferred into surrogates as Fatu and Najin cannot carry a pregnancy. The team from Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research and Safari Park Dvur Kralove in the Czech Republic told AP, “The ovum pickup went smoothly and without any complications”. However, there was a delay in the process due to the novel coronavirus.

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According to the reports, the harvested eggs were immediately flown to the Avantea Laboratory. There, they will be artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from now-deceased northern white rhino bulls. The international team is now planning to female southern white rhinos to serve as surrogate mothers.

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Reports by the conservancy suggest that in August 2019, an international team of scientists harvested 10 eggs from the two female rhinos. 7 out of these 10 were considered viable and 2 were successfully fertilized into embryos. This was done with the help of stored sperm from two northern white rhino bulls. In a tweet on August 18, Ol Pejeta informed that the procedure went according to plan and the eggs are en route Italy to be fertilised with sperm (frozen) from a northern white rhino male. Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Tourism Najib Balala also took to Twitter to laud the efforts and posted pictures of the conservation project with #SaveNorthernWhiteRhino. 

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