Only 2 Northern White Rhinos remain alive in Kenya, and the COVID-19 pandemic is halting progress to keep the species alive
Groundbreaking efforts to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies, the population of which is down to two, by using in-vitro fertilisation, which has been stalled by travel restrictions due to COVID-19, and time is running out.
The two remaining northern white rhinos in Nanyuki Kenya are female, meaning that the goal is to create feasible embryos in a lab by inseminating their eggs with the frozen sperm from dead male rhinos. These embryos would then be transferred into a surrogate mother, which would be the more common southern white rhino.
Since January, three viable embryos had been created and frozen in liquid nitrogen. But further key actions now have to wait.
Richard Vigne, managing director of Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, home of the two remaining rhinos, said:
“It has been disrupted by COVID-19, like everything else,”
“That is, the process of collecting more eggs from the females as well as the process of developing the technique to introduce the northern white rhino embryo into the southern white rhino females.”
Protecting this subspecies of rhino has become an international effort including supports by conservationists from Kenya, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, many of these countries have so far been affected by closed borders or restricted travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This comes after the German government relaxed their border controls earlier this month, as officials in the country continued to ease their nationwide lockdown measures.
Due to the eggs being limited, scientists are working with embryos from southern white rhinos until a successful pregnancy can be achieved.
Seven or eight embryo transfers so far have failed to take hold successfully. A receptive female rhino is needed, as well as the knowledge of when she ovulates precisely.
Cesare Galli, an in-vitro fertilization expert based in Italy, has said:
“We know time is working against us,”
“The females will age and we don’t have many to choose from.”
He hopes international travel restrictions will start to loosen in the coming weeks so action regarding to the rhinos can resume in August. “The problem is quite serious,” he said. “Certainly as soon as international travel is resumed, it will be the first priority to go” to Kenya and collect more eggs from the two females.”
According to Galli, even when travel restrictions are lifted, they also have the issue that the Ol Pejeta Conservancy is also home to non-human primates, which are susceptible to COVID-19.
“If you bring in the virus accidentally, it’s an additional risk,” he said. “You threaten one species to save another.”
For now, the two remaining northern white rhinos will have to wait. Fatu and her mother, Najin, continue to roam and graze, within sight of rangers, in the company a southern white rhino named Tewa one of the intended surrogate mother.
Zachariah Mutai, one of the rhinos’ keepers, was sympathetic:
“They won’t have a chance anymore to have babies in a natural way, but the only hope is to save them with the scientific way,” he said.
Several decades of poaching have taken a heavy toll on rhino species. The animals are killed by poachers for their horns, which have long been used as carving material and prized for their supposed healing properties in traditional Chinese medicine.
The last male northern white rhino to live was 45-years-old and was named Sudan; he had previously been in the news in 2017 when he was listed as “The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World” by the dating app Tinder as part of a fundraising effort. Sudan was sadly euthanized due to age-related illnesses in 2018.
The Sea eagle, also known as the white-tailed eagle, became extinct during the 18th century in the UK but has now been successfully reintroduced to the west coast of Scotland and on the Isle of Wight following conservation efforts last year.
