KENYA-WHITE RHINO/IVF FUNDS Kenyan conservancy seeks funding for IVF treatment to save rare white rhino species

Record ID: 142911

  • Title: KENYA-WHITE RHINO/IVF FUNDS Kenyan conservancy seeks funding for IVF treatment to save rare white rhino species
  • Date: 24th August 2015
  • Summary: NANYUKI, KENYA (RECENT) (REUTERS) WIDE OF FEMALE NORTHERN WHITE RHINOS RHINOS GRAZING RANGER CHECKING ON RHINO VARIOUS OF OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY ENTRANCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) RICHARD VIGNE, CEO, OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY, SAYING: "What we are looking at is what would be referred in human beings as in vitro fertilization. In other, words we are taking the eggs, we hope to be able to take the eggs from the remaining females to mix their eggs with stored sperm from various different white rhinos that has been collected over the past five or ten years, to create embryos which would then be implanted into surrogate southern white rhino females."
  • Embargoed: 8th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABTCEAW54PQNVMY7YUMCCVDV2Y
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Najin and Fatu are two of the last four northern white rhinos left on the planet. The two are female rhinos and live at the Ol Pejeta ranch in Nanyuki, Kenya where they share 90,000-acres of private wildlife conservancy-land, with only one male known as Sudan.
    The rhinos live under 24-hour armed guard at the wildlife sanctuary located at the foot of the snow-capped Mount Kenya, to protect them from poachers looking for rhino horns.
    The northern white rhino once roamed parts of Uganda, Chad, Sudan, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo but they are now considered to be extinct in the wild.
    Attempts to get the rhinos here to breed over the years proved unsuccessful and now they are past breeding age or have reproductive issues making the reality of extinction very imminent.
    In an effort to try and save the species, Ol Pejeta has decided to partner with scientists to develop assisted methods of reproduction instead.
    Vet checks indicate that In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is a possibility. This will be the first time the procedure is performed on a rhino and experts say it may have significant risks and costs.
    "What we are looking at is what would be referred in human beings as in vitro fertilization. In other words we are taking the eggs, we hope to be able to take the eggs from the remaining females to mix their eggs with stored sperm from various different white rhinos that has been collected over the past five or ten years, to create embryos which would then be implanted into surrogate southern white rhino females," said Richard Vigne, the chief executive at Ol Pejeta.
    The conservancy has launched several campaigns over the years to get people to notice the plight of the northern white rhino and do something about it.
    A cricket tournament held earlier this year brought teams made up of Maasai warriors bat it out against the British Army Training Unit based in Kenya, to raise awareness on the conservation of the rhinos among other social problems.
    Players spent time with 'Sudan' - who is the world's last male rhino in the world capable of breeding.
    Scientists say Sudan's sperm count is low, but DNA from northern whites has been stored in the past in hopes that new reproductive technologies might allow scientists to bring them back from the brink of extinction.
    Ol Pejeta hopes to raise about 800,000 US dollars to help fund research to develop the new breeding techniques in this latest campaign.
    "The idea is to try and get the international public behind it to try to save the species the point being without the money, it's impossible to develop the science that's necessary to create the embryos that will eventually save the species. So, we have to raise the money first, and then we will develop the protocol and technique for making it happen, and then hopefully once that technique is available to us, we would be able to replicate it on the remaining white rhinos that are left," said Vigne.
    Studies are under way to determine if southern white rhinos, of which some 20,000 remain in the wild, are close enough genetically to serve as maternal surrogates for implanted white rhino sperm.
    Scientists remain unsure whether northern and southern whites are two distinct species or subspecies of each other.
    Kenya's parliament has passed strict anti-poaching laws and the government has beefed up security at parks to stop poaching, which threatens the vital tourism industry.
    Poaching across sub-Saharan Africa is on the rise as armed criminal gangs kill elephants for tusks and rhinos for horns, usually to be shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines.
    A 2014 U.N. and Interpol report estimated that about 20,000 to 25,000 elephants were killed in Africa every year, out of a total population of as many as 650,000.
    "Thousands of species across the planet are on the brink of extinction as we speak today, and it's all to do with over exploitation of those species by humans. So, you know what's happening today to the northern white rhino and the fact that we got down to the last remaining four white rhinos left in the world is simply a signal to what is happening to the planet as a whole, and I think what it means is that we as humans will have to change our habits a little bit," said Vigne.
    Kenya has also started using high-tech surveillance equipment including drones to track poaching gangs and keep tabs on elephants and rhinos found in its national parks.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register