Northern White Rhino : is this the end of the species?

There are moments in life when we don’t feel very proud of the species we belong to : humans, for the irreversible damage we cause to nature in general and wild life in particular.

It was one such absolutely distressingly poignant moments for me as my wife and I spent the last morning of our African Safari in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya on 9th October,2019. We were in front of the Rhino graveyard looking at the grave of Sudan, the last male Northern White Rhino on the planet, and I felt a deep knot in the throat and gut. The sense of anger combined with sadness was over whelming. I relieve the mood as I write this a good 5 months later. Don’t think I will ever get over that emotion.

Relentless hunting and poaching brought the Northern White Rhinoceros to the brink of extinction. We had 2000 of them in 1960 and we are now down to the last two : Najin (aged 30) and Fatu (aged 19). The last male Sudan, died on 19 March,2018 due to old age and an infection in his leg.

Many consider 20 to be the viable size of a species / sub-species for it to even be self sustaining. We have just two (see the info-graf at the bottom of this page for more information on the infamous saga, well captured by The Independent).

Sudan’s death seemed like the last straw and the last unfortunate signature on the death warrant of a wonderful species.

But, all is not lost - not yet! An incredibly motivated and talented international group of scientists from Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Italian biotech laboratory Avantea, Czech zoo Dvur Kralove, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Germany based Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research were not going to give up. They have been working relentlessly on a first of a kind In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) technique for Rhinos. They managed to collect sperm from four male northern white rhinos before they died. They then extracted egg from the surviving females Najin and Fatu (using a newly developed egg extraction technique) and fertilised them in the Avantea lab in Italy in August 2019.

The good news is that they managed to fertilise and create 3 early stage embryos. Great success but only the first in a series of difficult steps in a never before process of developing a viable pregnancy.

Now, the next complexity. Neither Najin nor Fatu can carry a calf due to serious age and health conditions they have. So, the teams in the process of identifying a surrogate mother for the embryos from the nearest sub species : The Souther White Rhino. We had an opportunity to see the two surviving northern white rhinos Najin and Fatu and one of the likely surrogates Gauwo which was grazing and socialising with them. Najin, Fatu and Gauwo are now in the Ol Pajeta conservancy under 24 hour armed protection and in the tender care of rangers who look after these endangered rhinos.

Please join me in my best wishes and prayers for the success of the experiment and survival of the Northern White Rhino. That is the last opportunity for humanity to reverse the incredibly damaging harm they brought upon not just this majestic animal, but the whole planet and its delicate climate, flora and fauna.