World first IVF rhino pregnancy could save northern white rhinos from extinction, scientists say

News8 ^ | 1/25/24 | Jessie Gretener, CNN

[DallasBiff]

CNN) — A world first in rhinoceros reproductive health could save northern white rhinos from extinction, scientists said Wednesday.

The team at the BioRescue project successfully impregnated a southern white rhino via in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to a press release, creating a possible path for restoring the northern white rhino species.

Northern white rhinos are critically endangered and the only two remaining rhinos, Najin and Fatu, are infertile females that live under constant surveillance in Kenya

[DallasBiff]

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist the irony of the headline, which is a metaphor for modern US politics, with democrat money, saving "the great northern white rhino(RINO).

All that aside, hope the pregnancy is successful.

[Tell It Right]

Scientists have spotted another giant white rhino:

[aMorePerfectUnion]

So, white is only bad in humans??

[BigEdLB]

Now that represents the, “HORNS OF A DILEMMA”

[BigEdLB]

We b raschuus, by definition

[No name given]

For braindead Marxist lefties and SJWs (but I’m just repeating myself), yes, but not for the rest of us

[butlerweave]

Every white rhinos gets it’s own body guard

[11th_VA]

Story says last two Rinos were female. I don’t have a PhD in biology, but I’m pretty sure you need a male and female to make this happen - just wondering

[DallasBiff]

It was by (IVF) Intro Vitro Fertilization, basically a test tube baby.

[11th_VA]

I get the test tube part - don’t you need sperm as well ?

[DallasBiff]

I get the test tube part - don’t you need sperm as well ?

Yes, and I don't want to visualize how they they got the sperm, a human probably died.

[exDemMom]

I don’t have a PhD in biology, but I’m pretty sure you need a male and female to make this happen - just wondering

Well, I do have a PhD in biochemistry, which is close enough to biology to verify that you are, indeed, correct.

Mammals are not known to reproduce by parthenogenesis.

[exDemMom]

If northern and southern white rhinos are the same species, then they can use this to create rhino calves to reintroduce in the north.

If they are not the same species, then I don’t see how this can work unless there are stored ova and spermatozoa for future IVF.

[Ezekiel]

Perhaps they gave Mr. Rhino his choice of National Geographic magazines and movies.

Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was a failure though because he just binge-watched.

[11th_VA]

So the theory is, they harvested the sperm from a male Rino that no longer exists - ok, I get that. Hopefully they have a good supply.

[11th_VA]

Here’s a good video on the whole effort. They have a lot of embryos that can stay frozen for years, to bring back this species - video answers a lot of questions:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccd4kS6Oi_I

[DallasBiff]

This is nothing against you, but this reminds me of the Ted Nugent song, “The Great White Buffalo”, great song.

[11th_VA]

Rino Update - so the embryo died after 70 days from an infection - but the ‘proof of concept’ worked. Now they are building a sterile building to repeat the experiment in hopes of birthing the next white Rino, and avoid the infection - good video in the above link

[11th_VA]

And the last male died in 2018

[Scott from the Left Coast]

When I saw “northern white RINO “ I immediately thought it was John Sununu trying to stay relevant.

I like these rhinos a lot better.