Hope For The Northern White Rhinos
Northern white rhinos are one of two subspecies of white rhino, the other being the southern white rhino.
There were once thousands of northern white rhinos roaming East and Central Africa, but in the space of a hundred years, this species has been reduced to two - both female, unfortunately - Najin and her daughter, Fatu.
They belong to Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic but live at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where Sudan, the last male northern white rhino and Najin’s father, is buried. He had to be put down after sustaining injuries to his skin that refused to heal.
Rhino skin is extremely thick - 2 inches (5cm) - and while this protects them during fights, if it is cut or badly damaged in any way, it isn’t able to heal, and further damage and infection are often the results, leading to death.
They are under constant armed guard to protect them against poachers, who would kill them just for the sake of their horns, which are used in traditional “medicine” but actually have no health benefit being simply compressed hair - keratin. So people could gain as much effect consuming that as eating their own hair, but still the rhinos are slaughtered and those who try to protect them often are as well!!
With no male left and the two remaining females declared unable to breed naturally, it looked all over for the northern white rhino, but there is some hope for them in the form of science.
In 2019, 10 egg cells - 5 from Najin and 5 from Fatu - were harvested and fertilised using frozen sperm taken from dead male northern white rhinos. In total, three viable embryos were created, all having Fatu as their mother, and these are in storage until they can be placed into surrogate mothers, probably their closest relatives, the southern white rhino.
The DNA of a dozen northern white rhinos has been preserved in banks in San Diego and Berlin. It is hoped that future advances in artificial reproduction may enable this DNA to be reintroduced into the gene pool so creating more gene diversity and avoid excessive inbreeding.
The following video shows one of their carers, James Mwenda, caring for his precious charges with love and devotion.
I hope his dream comes true that these won’t be the last northern white rhinos to walk this Earth.
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