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Science Can Bring Back The Northern White Rhino

scientists are working on bringing back the northern white rhino through IVF and eggs from najin and fatu

Scientists are looking into bringing back the northern white rhino using IVF (in vitro fertilisation), using sperm.

IVF-ready embryos have been created in hopes of one day bringing back the functionally extinct northern white rhino.

When Sudan, the last surviving male northern white rhino, died last March, the species went functionally extinct. Now scientists are hoping that technology could bring them back.

Sperm taken from male specimens of the species have been used to fertilize eggs from the closely related southern white rhino, which are now frozen and waiting to be implanted into surrogate mothers.

Scientists working on the efforts are now hoping to see the first IVF calf born within the next three years. It will be the first northern white rhinoceros born in decades.

The extinction of the rhino species is mainly blamed on poachers in central Africa, who kill the animals, saw off their horns and sell them for as much as $50,000 per kilogram.

Today, the only surviving northern whites are two females, a mother and daughter named Najin and Fatu.

However, both Najin and Fatou suffer from serious reproductive problems, making them both unable to bear children

But once the researchers gain permission from authorities in Kenya – where Najin and Fatu live, they will be able to fertilize eggs extracted from them.

These are however not the only efforts working on bringing back the northern whites. A separate group of scientists are currently working on creating both new sperm and eggs from stem cells.

These efforts will most likely take decades to yield results however.

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