Time is running out for northern white rhinos as Covid-19 travel restrictions put in-vitro fertilization plans on ice
In this August 23, 2019 file photo, female northern white rhinos Fatu,19, and Najin, 30, the last two northern white rhinos on the planet, are fed some carrots by a ranger in their enclosure at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya.
The two northern white rhinos are female. The goal is to create viable embryos in a lab by inseminating their eggs with frozen sperm from dead males, then transfer them into a surrogate mother, a more common southern white rhino.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.The procedure to create viable embryos has proven to be safe, they say, and can be performed regularly before the animals become too old.
Seven or eight transfers so far have failed to take hold. A receptive female is needed, along with the knowledge of exactly when she ovulates. “The problem is quite serious,” he said. “Certainly as soon as international travel is resumed, it will be the first priority to go” to Kenya and collect more eggs from the two females.
So for now, the two northern white rhinos wait. Fatu and her mother, Najin, roam and graze within sight of rangers in the company of one intended surrogate mother, a southern white rhino named Tewa.“They won’t have a chance anymore to have babies in a natural way, but the only hope is to save them with the scientific way,” he said.
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