Scientists may have just saved the northern white rhino from extinction

© Najin (left) and Fatu (right) are the last two northern white rhinos on the planet. This photo was taken on Ol Pejeta Conservancy in their 700-acre enclosure. (Photo: Ami Vitale) With only two members of the species left, a successful egg harvest and fertilization could mean all is not lost. Things haven’t been looking very good for the iconic northern white rhinoceros. With the 2018 death of Sudan , the world’s last male of the species, only two females remain – and neither of them are able to carry a viable pregnancy. Once roaming across the grasslands of Uganda, Chad, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, years of widespread poaching and civil war have pushed the northern white rhino to almost sure extinction. But now, an international consortium of scientists and conservationists have completed a procedure that could save the species from being gone forever. On August 22, veterinarians were successful in harvesting eggs from the two females – Najin and Fatu – who live in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Never before attempted in northern white rhinos, the girls were given general anesthesia for the procedure – in which doctors used […]

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