Can Scientists Bring the Northern White Rhino Back from Functional Extinction?

Scientists are debating the morality of de-extinction as a fascinating initiative to preserve the northern white rhino raises complex considerations.

Bringing the Giants Back to Life

Dr. Natalie Cooper, a scientist at the Natural History Museum, understandably worried that the northern white rhino subspecies was on the verge of extinction when she first met Sudan, the last male northern white rhino left alive in Kenya, just before he passed away the age of 45. This was largely because of poaching, fueled by human greed for the prized horn. She recalls the interaction from 2013 and says, "The sensation of grandeur while staring extinction directly in the eye is tough to understand. By that time, it was apparent that the breeding effort wouldn't succeed since the subspecies appeared to be hopeless and that its extinction was only a matter of time.

However, over ten years later, the rarest big mammal in the world may be on the verge of an astounding comeback from functional extinction. Alongside a contentious broader de-extinction movement that aims to revive extinct animal varieties like woolly mammoths, there are rising initiatives to conserve existing but gravely threatened species.

Researchers aim to be able to implant embryos into a relative of the northern white rhino as part of emerging repopulation efforts, which, if successful, would be unprecedented. They obtained semen and eggs from the last remaining rhinos intending to do so. For 15 years, researchers collected 300ml of semen from Sudan and four other guys, who he outlived. This was accomplished by several means, including one researcher leaping on the final male's back. It is kept in liquid nitrogen in a cryogenic tank at a lab outside of Berlin. A group under the direction of Thomas Hildebrandt, head of reproduction management at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, successfully collected eggs from the last fertile female rhino.

Also Read: Can Science Bring Back Extinct Species

Ambitious Project

According to Jan Stejskal, head of international initiatives at the Dvůr KrálovFé zoo in the Czech Republic, where the last northern whites were born, "this is truly cutting edge in terms of endangered animals." The final two men and females were sent to Kenya, hoping they would be more inclined to procreate. However, previous attempts to implant hormonal implants or surgically inseminate females were unsuccessful. Stejskal served as the point person for Hildebrandt and colleagues as they increased their efforts to gather eggs and sperm.

Ryder's self-described "very ambitious and demanding ambition" is to take a technically extinct species and employ cutting-edge reproductive and genetic technology to create northern white rhinos that can breed, rebuild their gene pool, and return to the environment they previously inhabited. He asserts, "That's a new paradigm in conservation. I believe we will not be able to achieve this for five to ten years."

Mammoth De-extinction

In other places, controversial efforts to bring back a kind of woolly mammoth that hasn't been seen in 4,000 years are still taking form. De-extinction initiatives center on whether fossils and other genetic material may be used to resurrect the enormous beast. That is, raising from the dead entirely extinct creatures (whose sperm has not been stocked). Although many experts think it is impossible, a biotech business called Colossal, created last year, managed to raise $15 million in private finance for the amazing project to make a woolly mammoth and elephant hybrid.