![]() Once wandering the grasslands of Uganda, Chad, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, widespread predators and civil war have pushed the northern white rhino almost to extinction. With the 2018 death of Sudan, the world’s last male of the species, only two females remain – and neither of them are capable of carrying a viable pregnancy. Things don’t look too good for the iconic northern white rhinoceros. With only two members of the species remaining, a successful egg harvest and fertilization does not mean all is lost. Yet, we are not talking about saving a subspecies from extinction, but regenerating extinct subspecies – this is a more challenging proposition. If white elephant hybrids are planned to be resurrected by hybridization with Indian elephants, a white rhinoceros hybrid is not acceptable. The alternative is to produce genetically engineered baby rhinoceroses that are a hybrid of both northern and southern breeds. If these optimistic plans work, the first northern white rhino calf born since 2000 can be made before the death of two wives. I recently spoke with Thomas Hildebrand, a leading professor of reproductive breeding and the guide to this technique, and he believes it will work. The embryos produced were then transplanted into the surrogate female southern white rhinoceros. Scientists may have just saved the northern white rhino from extinctionĭNA has been preserved from the 3 northern white rhinoceros that have died in recent years, including Sudan, and will be similar to frozen eggs and sperm. Doing so can fill the empty ecological niche. The importance of the nearly extinction of northern white rhinoceros, is that white rhinoceros survives through southern sub-subspecies that (with help) may be able to replace the northern white rhinoceros in its historical range throughout Central Africa. The species as a whole is not endangered at present. The southern white rhinoceros, associated with it, is Ceratotherium cilium sycamore, of which about 20,000 remain. On the other hand, does it really matter? Despite being relentlessly abused in the media (and some controversy among scientists), northern whites are recognized as “simply” a tribe of white rhinoceros. Conservationists refer to this population as “living dead.” Northern white rhinoceros are not extinct The white rhinoceros in the north is extinct, it still does not know it. Sudan’s daughter-in-law, Nazan and granddaughter Fatu, are now both married and have mates, but they are both old and unable to reproduce. He was the last wild-caught northern white rhino, captured and removed from the wild in 1975. Sudan was the last surviving male northern white rhinoceros, to scientists a subspecies known as Ceratotherium simum suti, which was extinct in the wild for hunting nearly 20 years ago. After several months of ill health in “Sudan”, a 45-year-old northern white rhinoceros, Vets fell asleep after deciding that his condition had deteriorated to a point where pain and quality of life were unacceptable.įrom a conservation point of view, this doesn’t seem to matter. The good news is, Scientists may have just saved the northern white rhino from extinction.Ī stylish semi-captive rhino has died in Kenya recently. That means, northern white rhinoceros are not extinct. Are the northern white rhinoceros extinct? The answer is two white rhinos left. ![]()
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