The northern white rhino is on the verge of extinction... with only two remaining in the world... and both of THEM are FEMALES.
But technology might provide some hope for the species,... hopefully giving the northern white rhino a chance to sidestep extinction by the narrowest of margins.
Kim Bo-kyoung reports.
The last male northern white rhino died last year, and as the remaining two female rhinos, Najin and Fatu, are unable to carry a calf due to health problems,… it seemed the northern white rhinos were heading for extinction.
However,... it might be possible to save the species,... thanks to animal fertilization technology.
Wildlife experts successfully extracted eggs from the two remaining female rhinos last week,... five eggs from each rhino,... and these were transferred to lab in northern Italy.
Seven out of the ten eggs were in good enough condition to go through the fertilization process,… and were artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from the now-dead male rhino.
"After this procedure, the eggs are artificially activated because of the low quality of the semen, and then they will be put back in the incubator for the next ten days to assess, well we expect some of them will develop into an embryo."
Although it still needs to be seen whether the eggs will become embryos,... if this step is done successfully, the embryos could be implanted in a similar sub-species of rhino which would act as a surrogate mother.
The number of northern white rhinos has been decimated due to decades of poaching,... and now it is in a desperate situation where huge efforts are needed to save the species from extinction.
The ultimate goal is to create at least five northern white rhinos and return them back to the wild.
Kim Bo-kyoung, Arirang News.