![]() ![]() However, they did nudge them through the very early stages of embryonic development. The eggs were old and in bad shape, Stejskal said, so researchers knew from the start that they would never be the basis for a viable pregnancy. So far, they've tried it only on southern white rhinoceroses, because northern white females are too rare to take any risks.Īvantea, a veterinary assisted-reproduction company in Cremona, Italy, has also successfully taken an ovary posthumously from Nabire, a northern white rhino who died at Dvůr Králové Zoo in 2015, and coaxed eggs out of it that were healthy enough to be fertilized, Stejskal said. In the nearly two years since the meeting, researchers have made some progress in egg-harvesting, though, Stejskal said. Trying to puncture the follicle to collect an egg at such a distance, with only ultrasound to guide you, is "not really easy," Stejskal said. Their goals included developing a way to collect eggs from females, a hard-enough task in itself, Stejskal said, because a rhino's ovaries are tucked a good 5 feet (1.5 meters) inside her body, and the egg follicle is a mere millimeter or two in diameter. In May 2016, the research group published their plan in the open-access journal ZooBiology. In December 2015, experts from around the world met in Vienna to hash out a plan to save the northern white rhino. The process of gaining this knowledge is painstakingly slow, however. ![]() He also said that knowledge gained through developing IVF for the northern white rhino could potentially help breeding programs for other endangered rhino subspecies, particularly the Javan, Sumatran and black rhinos. "So we actually brought to conservation resources that would be likely spent on a different subject," he told Live Science. ![]() A substantial portion of the donations for saving the northern white rhino come from parties more interested in the development of IVF technologies for different species than in rhino conservation in particular, Stejskal said. Stejskal and other researchers active in the IVF project see it differently. Focusing efforts on poaching prevention - rhino horn is coveted for its "medicinal properties," which are just a myth - and saving habitat would be more beneficial for the other rhino species that have a better chance at survival, according to the organization. "Much of the sub-species’ former range has lost rhinos in its entirety, with limited conservation programmes or expertise for managing a rhino population, and large-scale habitat loss," according to Save the Rhino's position statement on northern white rhino IVF. The organization argues that the northern white subspecies is functionally extinct already saving it with IVF and surrogacy is more akin to reviving dead woolly mammoths than saving a critically endangered subspecies. "revention is better than cure," according to Save the Rhino. This vision of extinction has spurred debate in conservation circles, with some arguing that saving the northern white rhino is a poor use of resources. Still, the last male's death is likely not far in the future, given his advanced age. ![]()
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