Pandemic stalls fertilisation of rare white rhinos

Groundbreaking work to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies - population, two - by in-vitro fertilisation have been halted due to travel restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The goal is to create viable embryos in a lab by inseminating their eggs of the two females with frozen sperm from dead males, then transfer them into a surrogate mother, a more common southern white rhino.

As of January, three embryos had been created and stored in liquid nitrogen at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, but further key steps now have to wait.

It's an international effort that includes conservationists from Kenya, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, many affected by closed borders or restricted travel.

For those involved in the effort, acutely aware of time, the delay can be painful.

The procedure to create viable embryos has proven to be safe, they say, and can be performed regularly before the animals become too old.

Because those eggs are limited, scientists are working with embryos from southern white rhinos until they can establish a successful pregnancy.

Decades of poaching have taken a heavy toll on rhino species.

The animals are killed for their horns, which have long been used as carving material and prized in traditional Chinese medicine for their supposed healing properties.

The last male northern white rhino was a 45-year-old named Sudan, who gained fame in 2017 when he was listed as "The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World" on the Tinder dating app as part of a fundraising effort. He was euthanized in 2018 because of age-related ills.