Fighting To Save The Last White Rhinos

Noble Giant

Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, died last week in Kenya after battling with complications of old age and a series of infections.

With only two females of the subspecies remaining, scientists are resorting to innovative techniques to save the northern white rhino from extinction.

Conservationists recently relocated Sudan, 45, to Kenya in hopes that reuniting him with the last remaining female northern white rhinos – his daughter and granddaughter – would result in a mating process that could save the subspecies from extinction. Poaching and habitat destruction in sub-Saharan Africa had reduced its numbers to a lonely three, CNN reported.

But due to the rhinos’ ailments, the mating setup didn’t take – Sudan had a low sperm count, and neither female is able to carry a calf to term.

In a last-ditch attempt to save these noble giants, conservationists will try in vitro fertilization, a process that has not yet succeeded in rhinos, the New York Times reported.

Eggs from the females will be fertilized with banked sperm from northern white males and implanted in their southern counterparts, a separate subspecies.

Though the procedure has risks, geneticists say the long process is worth it due to the backdrop of the probable extinction of this particular rhino, the Times reported.