Down To The Last 3...

Can Science Save The White Rhino?

A wildlife ranger strokes one of the world’s last three northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya last month. Photograph: Siegfried Modola/Reuters

RIN ⃠ ( rhino /ˈrīnō/ ) Rhinoceros, a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. https://www.instagram.com/p/8rf4_kLTlj/

Down To The Last 3... Can Science Save The White Rhino? International project will use IVF and stem-cell technology in an attempt to resurrect the species.

Under the watchful eyes of a group of heavily armed guards, three rhinos graze on the grassland of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Most of the world knows that the rhinoceros is threatened, but the status of these animals is in another league. They are the planet’s last three northern white rhinos. None is capable of breeding. The northern white, which once roamed Africa in its thousands, is in effect extinct. The three – named Sudan, Najin and Fatu – are the last of their kind.

In a few months, however, a group of scientists from the US, Germany, Italy and Japan will attempt the seemingly impossible: to rescue the northern white rhino – smaller and hairier than its southern cousin – from the jaws of extinction. In October, they plan to remove the last eggs from the two female northern whites and by using advanced reproductive techniques, including stem cell technology and IVF, create embryos that could be carried to term by surrogate rhino mothers. The northern white could then be restored to its former glory. The procedure would be a world first.

It is an audacious plan – and a controversial one. Many conservation experts believe the resources being used to create northern white embryos would be better spent on saving other rhino species by providing them with protection in the wild. Why try to restore the species if the cause of its extinction has still not been tackled, they ask. Others say that taking a hi-tech approach to species preservation could lull the conservation movement into thinking it would always be able to fall back on science to help reproduce a species once it gets into trouble. http://gu.com/p/4j7nd/sfb

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