There are only two northern white rhinos left in the world, and efforts to save the species are in jeopardy because of the pandemic. The groundbreaking work by conservationists has stalled because of travel restrictions.
FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 23, 2019 file photo, female northern white rhinos Fatu, 19, right, and Najin, 30, left, the last two northern white rhinos on the planet, are fed some carrots by a ranger in their enclosure at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya. Groundbreaking work to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino - population, two - by in-vitro fertilization has been hampered by travel restrictions caused by the new coronavirus.
The two northern white rhinos are female. The goal is to create viable embryos in a lab by inseminating their eggs with frozen sperm from dead males, then transfer them into a surrogate mother, a more common southern white rhino.and stored in liquid nitrogen. But further key steps now have to wait. For those involved in the effort, acutely aware of time, the delay can be painful. The procedure to create viable embryos has proven to be safe, they say, and can be performed regularly before the animals become too old.
“We know time is working against us,” said Cesare Galli, an in-vitro fertilization expert based in Italy. “The females will age and we don’t have many to choose from.” “If you bring in the virus accidentally, it’s an additional risk,” he said. “You threaten one species to save another.”
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