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Scientists racing to save the northern white rhino from extinction have harvested 10 more eggs from the last two females alive which they hope will help create viable embryos that can be incubated by other rhinos acting as surrogates.

Neither of the remaining northern white rhinos on Earth - a mother and her daughter - can carry a baby to term, so scientists want to implant the embryos into southern white rhinos instead.

The last male northern white rhino, named Sudan, died in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2018.

The northern white rhino once wandered through east and central Africa but, as with other rhino species, its numbers plummeted due to heavy poaching.

Northern white rhinos - now the world’s most endangered mammal - have hairier ears and tails, are shorter and stockier and have different genes than their southern cousins.

Scientists first harvested eggs from the females a year ago, as part of a team from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya Wildlife Service, Italian-based Avantea Lab, the Czech Republic’s Dvůr Králové Zoo, and the Germany-based Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research.

They produced three pure northern white rhino embryos that are now frozen. But the scientists realised they must synchronise implanting embryos with the reproductive cycle of the surrogate mothers. The more embryos they have, the better.

One potential snag is that humans do not know how to detect when the time to insert the embryo is right.

Enter the romantic decoy.

A southern white rhino bull will be sterilised, transported to Ol Pejeta and set loose among potential surrogate mothers. His response will signal when they are on heat.

“Thanks to his activities we would be able to identify the right time for inserting the embryo,” team coordinator Jan Stejskal, from Dvůr Králové Zoo, told Reuters.

“We start early in the morning, the first female is immobilised and then the procedure lasts for about two hours,” Stejskal said of the egg harvest.

The eggs are so delicate they must be immediately flown to a laboratory in Europe in an incubator hand-carried by a scientist.

“If you want to start a population of the northern white rhino, one baby is not enough, you need as many babies as possible,” Stejskal said

chukxie:
Sometimes I can helping thinking a different God made white people. I know this thinking is wrong but I can't helping along that line sometimes. The rhinos are in Africa but the scientists working round the clock to ensure the continued existence of the endangered species are whites or mostly whites. Why is the black man rarely seen playing pivotal roles in global affairs?

Kekereekun123:
it is when you conquer hunger and poverty you go get time for such things. The zoo and anti poaching units are mostly blacks with a white oga
So we self contribute our own little share. When most of Europe was suffering the scientific and technological advancements came from places like Egypt, turkey. For me extinction is a natural phenomenon. Survival of the fittest. Animals like dinosaur, sabre tooth tiger, mammoth have gone extinct. The world did not end

chukxie:


Some cogent points you've raised. One question amongst many is: Why are a number of sub Saharan African countries still unable to conquer hunger and poverty while their counterparts in other parts of the world are winning the war against hunger and poverty?

Kekereekun123:
leaders and former colonial masters plus current indirect masters (china) working hand in hand. Imagine a develop Sub-saharan africa china will lose as no one will buy their goods here, sub sahara African is also close to Europe and america cheaper shipping costs. Imagine ivory coast is the top producer of cocoa it cannot determine price of the product the western and middle eastern buyers determine it. In summary black man no get sense. Its just like dog some breeds are more intelligent than others. German Sheppard and local dog no get same level of intelligence.

chukxie:
Sometimes I can helping thinking a different God made white people. I know this thinking is wrong but I can't helping along that line sometimes. The rhinos are in Africa but the scientists working round the clock to ensure the continued existence of the endangered species are whites or mostly whites. Why is the black man rarely seen playing pivotal roles in global affairs?

EVILFOREST:
Does an AFRICAN MAN know its value..?
Except for HUNGER termination

chukxie:
Sometimes I can helping thinking a different God made white people. I know this thinking is wrong but I can't help thinking along that line of thought sometimes. The rhinos are in Africa but the scientists working round the clock to ensure the continued existence of the endangered species are whites or mostly whites. Why is the black man rarely seen playing pivotal roles in global affairs?

poachers are evil

chukxie:
Someone perpetually takes advantage of you; uses your resources to better himself and his community while you rot and swim in the murky waters of deprivation and penury. What does that make you - a benevolent or asinine person