What's Going on with the Northern White Rhinos?

These beautiful creatures are Northern white rhinos. There are now just two of them remaining in the world. The northern white rhino was always extremely rare and this species has survived for almost 55 million years through everything from ice ages, earthquakes, meteor strikes and was really tested throughout all the historical changes on the planet.

In 2018, their species was declared functionally extinct but not fully extinct. The reason for this is because the last male of the species sadly passed away, making it almost impossible to breed again as we only have a mother and daughter still alive. The last male rhino was called Sudan, he lived up to the age of 45 years. Sudan was a captive northern white rhinoceros that lived at the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic from 1975 to 2009 and spent the rest of his life at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya. This is where his daughter, Najin and his granddaughter, Fatu are kept as they are the last northern white rhinos. The rhinos are staying in this conservation under extreme lookout by armed guards that would protect them from anything that could injure or kill them. Today, poaching for their horn is the main threat. The white rhino is particularly vulnerable to poaching because it is relatively unaggressive and lives in herds. Even though this trade is in fact illegal it is still going on and more and more rhinos are dying because of it.

To prevent full extinction, the BioRescue Project have used the frozen sperm they collected from a dead male rhino many years ago and have extracted egg cells from Fatu, successfully making 9 pure embryos. Although it's been a very long process in making these 9 embryos, they are optimistic that it will succeed in saving this nearly extinct species. These IVF embryos will then be placed into a southern white rhino who will carry the egg and hopefully give birth to a northern white rhino calf. The reason for transplanting it into a southern white rhino instead of a northern is that the two remaining rhinos are no longer viable to carry a pregnancy due to health issues. The BioRescue Project are hopeful that one, or more of these embryos will become a beautiful northern white rhino baby and will hopefully save the rhino species.

For now, all we can do is wait and stay hopeful. According to BioRescue Project (on Instagram), they have said that the two remaining rhinos have been happy and lively during the past days, weeks and months. For more updates you can visit biorescue_project on instagram as well as olpejeta on instagram. Stay updated and aware so you can share true information on what's really going on :)