There’s endangered, and then there’s critically endangered, and then there’s the northern white rhino. There are just four—four!—northern white rhinos left on earth. The population has been cut nearly in half—from seven to four—in just the last 12 months. Even using the word “endangered” to describe their predicament seems dishonest—if left to nature, they are gone. Their conservation status should read “hopeless.”
Except, wait a minute, there is hope! According to this report in the Los Angeles Times, officials at the San Diego Zoo and Ol Pejeta Sanctuary in Kenya have hatched “an ambitious, scientifically-complex plan” to keep the northern white rhino from going the way of the dodo.
Here are the details: there are three female northern white rhinos left: two in the Kenyan sanctuary, and a geriatric named Nola at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. There is also something called the Frozen Zoo at the Institute for Conservation Research, and they’ve got northern white rhino DNA on file. That’s not a whole lot of representation for a whole entire species, but officials do have some options. They can attempt in-vitro fertilization in Africa, or they can use the DNA sample to create a “stem cell line,” which could then be used to create an embryo. One way or another, there are going to be some northern white rhino embryos, because science.
The plan from there would require a little help from the southern white rhinos, who I assume are the mortal enemies of the northern white rhinos: a female southern white rhino would be used as a surrogate. Boom.
The plan isn’t without its challenges, of course. No one knows how to extract eggs from a living northern white rhino—it’s never been done before—so officials will have to wait for the northern white rhino population to shrink to three before they’ll have any eggs for in-vitro fertilization. Nola, the 41-year-old female in San Diego, will probably not be around to see her species return from the brink, certainly not with scientists and conservation officials waiting around for her to finally bite it before they can get started.
It’s also possible none of the other rhinos will survive until then, either. This is gonna take some time to pull off. We may, in fact, see the northern white rhino go extinct months or even years before the species is rescued, which, whoa. What.
Despite the difficulties, Richard Vigne, the sanctuary’s chief executive, said he remains optimistic.
“It’s been done in cattle, horse, and humans — it’s doable,” he said.
If this works, and the northern white rhino is brought back from the brink (or even from beyond the brink), the process could be used to rescue other endangered species.
Image via AP