1st-ever white rhino IVF sparks hope that 'doomed species' could still be saved, despite there being no males left

For the first time, researchers have successfully used a form of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to impregnate a female white rhinoceros. This breakthrough means there is a slim chance the "doomed" northern white rhino could still be saved, despite there being no known males left alive. Other critically endangered rhino species could also benefit.

The scientists used an embryo transfer technique that's very similar to IVF used in humans. The technique involves scientists taking the gametes, or sex cells, from a male and female rhino and combining them artificially to create an embryo — a fertilized egg that has started developing. The embryo is then transplanted into a surrogate female and, if everything goes to plan, she will become pregnant and give birth. 

The transfer usually takes place after the mother-to-be has mated with a barren male so that both parents will think the offspring is their own and raise it after it is born. The same technique has been used in dogs and as part of the process to clone horses and create a cloned wolf born to a beagle surrogate.       

In 2019, the international consortium BioRescue began exploring the possibility of using this technique to save one of the world's rarest subspecies — the northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni). After the death of the species' last known male "Sudan" in 2018, there are just two known females left on the planet — a mother and daughter pair named Najin and Fatu, who are both protected by armed guards at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. 

Without any males left to father new offspring, northern white rhinos are "functionally extinct," meaning it is only a matter of time before they are wiped out. 

Related: Which animals could go extinct by 2050?

In September 2023, BioRescue scientists took their biggest step yet to prove the technique can work in white rhinos by implanting two embryos into a southern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) — a closely related rhino subspecies that is also critically endangered. The embryos were created from the gametes, or sex cells, of captive southern white rhinos in Belgium and Austria and were implanted into a surrogate that also lives in Ol Pejeta Conservancy.