Northern White Rhino

[Lisbeth]

Inevitable if they want to re-introduce the species! But do they?

[Klipspringer]

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-virus-sta ... rhino.html



MAY 25, 2020

Virus stalls work to keep alive a rare rhino subspecies
by Joe Mwihia and Khaled Kazziha



It's not quite a case of coitus interruptus, but efforts to create a very special baby are definitely on hold. Blame the pandemic.

Groundbreaking work to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies—population, two—by in-vitro fertilization has been stalled by travel restrictions. And time is running out.

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.

As of January, three embryos had been created and stored in liquid nitrogen. But further key steps now have to wait.

"It has been disrupted by COVID-19, like everything else," said Richard Vigne, managing director of Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, home of the two remaining rhinos. "That is, the process of collecting more eggs from the females as well as the process of developing the technique to introduce the northern white rhino embryo into the southern white rhino females."

It's an international effort that includes conservationists from Kenya, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy—many affected by closed borders or restricted travel.

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.

In January, the transfer of the embryos to surrogates had been planned for the coming months. In March, the plan had been to collect another round of eggs from the two remaining females.

Because those eggs are limited, scientists are working with embryos from southern white rhinos until they can establish a successful pregnancy. Seven or eight transfers so far have failed to take hold. A receptive female is needed, along with the knowledge of exactly when she ovulates.

"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."

He hopes restrictions on international travel will loosen in the coming weeks so key steps can resume in August. "The problem is quite serious," he said. "Certainly as soon as international travel is resumed, it will be the first priority to go" to Kenya and collect more eggs from the two females.

Even when travel can resume, another problem looms. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy also is home to primates—non-human primates—which are susceptible to the coronavirus, Galli said.

"If you bring in the virus accidentally, it's an additional risk," he said. "You threaten one species to save another."

So for now, the two northern white rhinos wait. Fatu and her mother, Najin, roam and graze within sight of rangers in the company of one intended surrogate mother, a southern white rhino named Tewa.

One of the rhinos' keepers, Zachariah Mutai, was sympathetic.

"They won't have a chance anymore to have babies in a natural way, but the only hope is to save them with the scientific way," he said.

The ultimate goal is to create a herd of at least five animals that could be returned to their natural habitat in Africa. That could take decades.

Decades of poaching have taken a heavy toll on rhino species. The animals are killed for their horns, which have long been used as carving material and prized in traditional Chinese medicine for their supposed healing properties.

The last male northern white rhino was a 45-year-old named Sudan, who gained fame in 2017 when he was listed as "The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World" on the Tinder dating app as part of a fundraising effort. He was euthanized in 2018 because of age-related ills.

This effort to keep the northern white rhino subspecies alive has been a good way to draw the world's attention to the issue of extinction, Vigne said.

"The rate of extinction of species on this planet is now the fastest that has ever been recorded, much faster than the rate dinosaurs went extinct, and that is as a result of human activity," he said. "So there comes a time where we have to draw a line … and say no more."

[Richprins]

Best to go to Australia!

[Lisbeth]

Who should go to Australia?

[Richprins]

Lots of white rhino there now for safety, so a good place for experiments, I think!

[Lisbeth]

They still have to fly there and it's much further. And also the rhinos, which is dangerous for them.

[Richprins]

They must just take the eggs, and those rhinos are safe with no primates!

[Klipspringer]

The lab is in Italy.

[Klipspringer]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... ceDaily%29


Oocyte collection and embryo creation in southern white rhinos
Date: June 17, 2020
Source: Forschungsverbund Berlin
Summary: In order to prevent the extinction of species such as the northern white rhino, experts are developing new methods and technologies for conservation.

In order to prevent the extinction of species such as the northern white rhino, the BioRescue consortium is developing new methods and technologies for conservation. An important part of this work is basic research in cooperation with zoological institutions. This partnership has enabled the BioRescue team to continue working even during the Corona pandemic. On May 26, 2020, the team extracted oocytes from the southern white rhino female "Makena" in Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen, Germany, and then fertilized them in the Avantea laboratory in Italy to create four viable embryos. This was the team's most successful procedure of its kind and nourishes the hope that advanced assisted reproduction technologies (aART) are well established to ensure the survival of the northern white rhino in the near future.

Problems with natural reproduction are often a major factor in the decline of wildlife populations, both in the wild and in human care. Therefore, techniques and methods of assisted reproduction are of crucial importance for science-based conservation. The northern white rhino is no longer able to survive on its own as a species since both remaining individuals are females. In order to perpetuate the species' existence, immature egg cells (oocytes) were collected from them in the past, which were then fertilised in the laboratory with thawed sperm collected from already deceased bulls and kept frozen. These embryos will be transferred at some stage to southern white rhino surrogate mothers and could ensure the birth of a northern white rhino calf.

Southern white rhinos in European zoos also have reproduction problems. Basic research for complex assisted reproduction technologies can therefore be carried out as a win-win situation for southern and northern white rhinos. To achieve this, cooperation with zoological institutions is an essential component of the BioRescue Consortium. On 26 May 2020, Prof. Dr. Hildebrandt , the leader of this Consortium, and his team extracted 12 oocytes from the seven-year-old southern white rhino female "Makena" in the Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen, Germany. This was made possible because a suitable partner for Makena could not be transported to the zoo because of the corona pandemic. Subsequently, the extracted occytes were matured in the Avantea laboratory in Italy and seven of them were successfully fertilised with sperm from a southern rhino bull from Salzburg Zoo. Four embryos developed, which are now preserved in liquid nitrogen. This is BioRescue's most successful egg collection and embryo creation in white rhinos so far.

Owing to restrictions on international travel, the BioRescue team had to postpone a procedure in Kenya planned for May. It will be rescheduled as soon as circumstances permit. BioRescue is an international consortium of research institutions, zoological gardens and conservation organisations. Its goal is to develop advanced assisted reproduction technologies (aART) and stem cell-associated techniques (SCAT), and to apply them as new science-based interventions for conservation. The consortium is led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt, head of the Department of Reproduction Management at Leibniz-IZW. Further consortium partners are the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), the AVANTEA Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies, the Safari Park Dvur Králové, the Universita degli studi di Padua and Kyushu University. BioRescue is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Statements Prof. Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt, head of the Department of Reproduction Management at Leibniz-IZW and the BioRescue consortium: "We are glad that we could restart with BioRescue project after the COVID-19 lockdown. We have found a very competent partner in the Serengeti Park Hodenhagen, so that we achieved our best result collection and embryo production ever. Based on this outcome our optimism regarding a successful rescue of the practically extinct northern white rhinoceros has improved significantly."

Dr. Fabrizio Sepe, owner and managing director of Serengeti Park Hodenhagen: "Conservation is a central task for us. In 1996 our bull Kai in Namibia was the first European-born white rhino in the world to be released into the wild. Giving something back to nature was also a very moving moment for me personally. In this context I am even prouder today that we can make a valuable contribution to the BioRescue project with our Makena. I am confident that with our joint efforts we can secure a long-term future for many species on this planet!"

Prof. Cesare Galli, Head of Avantea Laboratory: "We are pleased that international activities have resumed after the pandemic and we were able to store additional embryos that will be crucial to achieve our main milestone now i.e. the establishment of a pregnancy after the transfer of a frozen embryo. This will be crucial when we come to transfer the few and precious NWR embryos that we have produced so far and will be producing in the future. The laboratory procedures are now well established, reproducible. To achieve this milestone, we will need the support of the rhino community as we do not know how long it will take to master this final aspect of the technology."

Jan Stejskal, Director of communication and international projects at Safari Park Dvur Králové and coordinator of the international efforts to save the northern white rhino: "All the methods and protocols that we now use in Kenya to save the northern white rhino were developed thanks to a collaboration between scientists and European zoos. The results from Hodenhagen are very promising and show that research that helps animals in human care can be beneficial even for saving species in their wild environment. We believe that experience and knowledge gained through work with southern white rhino females in European zoos will lead to a successful pregnancy with the pure northern white rhino embryo in Kenya in the foreseeable future."

[Lisbeth]

For two rhino species on brink of extinction, it’s collaboration vs. stonewalling

by Lauren Evans on 6 July 2020

- An ocean apart, and genetically separated into two distinct genera, the Sumatran and northern white rhinos have something in common: populations so small that researchers are looking to artificial reproductive technologies (ART) to ensure their survival.

- The situation is particularly dire for the northern white rhino, with just two known living individuals, both female. However, in 2019, a team of international experts successfully created northern white rhino embryos in a lab.

- With an estimated population of 80, Sumatran rhinos are more numerous, but ART efforts have been slowed by strict regulations imposed by the Indonesian government.

Fatu doesn’t seem to care about the carrot she’s been offered by her caretaker. She raises her enormous head and gives it a sniff before returning to what she was doing, which is nipping delicately at the dry, scraggly grass at her feet. A few yards away, her mother, Najin, is doing the same.

“They’re very happy. Happy ladies,” their caretaker, Jacob Anampiu, says with a grin, continuing to hold the carrot outstretched. At 3 p.m., Kenya’s equatorial heat is brutal, but neither Fatu nor Najin seem bothered — not by the carrot, not by the heat, not by anything.

Fatu and Najin are northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni). And though they don’t know it, they’re at the center of an intensive international effort to rescue their subspecies, of which they are the only two left on the planet.


Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, died in March 2018. He spent his final years under constant guard in Ol Pejeta. Photo by Make it Kenya Photo / Stuart Price.

More than 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) away, in Indonesia, Sumatran rhinos are facing a similar crisis. Though smaller and hairier than their northern white counterparts, Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) have also been driven to near extinction, with fewer than 80 remaining. The crisis with Sumatran rhinos is unfolding similarly to the northern whites: population estimates have plummeted by 70% in a little over a decade, and efforts to breed them naturally in captivity have yielded few offspring. But the assisted reproductive technology (ART) pioneered for the northern white rhinos has yet to be widely applied to the Sumatrans.

Scientists have made great strides creating technology that has become the northern white rhinos’ sole chance at survival. In August 2019, an international team of experts successfully harvested an initial round of eggs from Fatu and Najin from their home at Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The eggs were then rushed to Italy, where a private lab created embryos using sperm preserved from a now-deceased male northern white rhino. If all goes well, the embryos will eventually be implanted in a genetically similar southern white rhino surrogate, since health issues mean that neither Fatu nor Najin can give birth. While success is by no means guaranteed, researchers from around the world are working single-mindedly to reach their goal.

But a litany of political restrictions and differences in ideology have thus far prevented the high- tech tactics being tried on the northern white rhinos from being successfully used on the Sumatran rhinos.

Thomas Hildebrandt, of Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, is one of few researchers directly involved with ART programs for both species of rhino. He led the oocyte extraction from Fatu and Najin in Kenya in August 2019. One month later, he performed the process on Iman, Malaysia’s sole surviving Sumatran rhino. But scientists were unable to create a Sumatran rhino embryo, pointing in part to the poor quality of the available sperm after negotiations for healthier samples from Indonesia failed to yield an agreement.

Iman died in November, meaning that all remaining Sumatran rhinos on Earth now reside in Indonesia. Hildebrandt told Mongabay that while he has been asked to share his expertise, he has never been invited to the country to perform an extraction.

“We met some authorities in Jakarta, but were never allowed to work on Sumatran rhinos on Indonesian ground,” he says.


A juvenile Sumatran rhino at the Way Kambas SRS. Successes in natural breeding, plus debate over whether resources that could potentially be used to protect wild populations should be channeled to ART, mean that not all conservationists support ART efforts for the species. Image by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.com.

Indonesia has long been wary of foreign meddling when it comes to its natural resources. The country’s environment ministry recently cut ties with WWF over a perceived social media slight, throwing its rhino breeding program into limbo. And years of negotiations to transfer genetic material between Indonesia and Malaysia were waylaid by bureaucratic obstacles.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry did not respond to a request for comment.

Cesare Galli, who created embryos with Fatu and Najin’s eggs at the Avantea lab in Italy, says he actually began learning the technique in Malaysia starting in 2014, working with Hildebrandt and his team on Iman. He never managed to create a Sumatran rhino embryo, however, due to a series of setbacks: “One female died because of age, the semen was really poor quality, and the Indonesians were not cooperative,” he said. “So we basically stopped.”

Still, the work he did on the Sumatrans did lay the groundwork for the process he would eventually use for northern white rhino gametes. With Fatu and Najin, the relative ease of airlifting the eggs to Italy allowed Galli and his team to “speed up the research that led to the success in 2019 of producing the first embryos.”

Indonesia’s tight restrictions on its rhinos, however, means that researchers are going to have to take a different tack.

“When it comes to the Sumatran Rhino, it’s been made pretty clear to us by Indonesia that the biological material needs to stay in-country,” said Terri Roth, who heads the CREW research facility at Cincinnati Zoo and pioneered the process of breeding Sumatran rhinos in captivity. “If assisted reproduction is going to be done with Sumatran rhinos, it needs to be done at laboratories that are in Indonesia, with experts in Indonesia who know how to do what needs to be done. And that’s just the way it is.”


A multi-national team works to harvest eggs from Sumatran rhino Iman in Malaysia in May 2014. Experts involved in the effort include (far background to near foreground): Vasil Galat (Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, Chicago); Alvin Erut (BORA assistant field manager); Oliver Ryder (Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo); Zainal Zainuddin (BORA veterinarian, with cap); Robert Hermes (Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin); Cesare Galli (Avantea, Italy); Thomas Hildebrandt (IZW); and Frank Goeritz (IZW).

While Hildebrandt has helped train local experts on many aspects of rhino ART, from safely administering anesthesia to identifying oocytes, he said the process of collecting eggs from a rhino isn’t something a vet can simply be trained to do overnight.

“It is not easy to repeat what we do because it requires a lot of experience,” he said. Were it more straightforward, “there would be many more teams performing it.”

The anatomy of rhinos — both northern white and Sumatran — makes egg extraction an incredibly delicate process, one in which the risk of puncturing a major blood vessel is high. One false move by inexpert hands can kill the rhino. And with so few left, that’s a gamble that Hildebrandt finds hard to take.

“Some of the techniques we perform can be dangerous if you do not have the knowledge we have,” he says.

Unfortunately, Roth says, researchers need to balance scientific needs with political realities.

“There’s this tendency for experts to say, ‘I’m the expert, I need to do it, or I need to do it in my lab,’” Roth said. Since it’s not going to happen that way, the best thing experts can do now is focus on sharing their knowledge. “We have to think about who is best suited to train and prepare some other people and some other labs to do this.”


One of the last known surviving northern white rhinos. With just two females and no males left alive, the only hope for the survival of the species lies with technology. Image by Lauren Evans.

While collaboration has occurred over the years, competition among researchers has hampered knowledge sharing, Roth said. As scientists are increasingly responsible for finding funding for their work, the pressure to be the first to achieve a breakthrough has become more intense. “When we’re always challenged with trying to raise money, then we become a little bit more like marketing people. We’re trying to market our work, and market how good we are.”

One benefit of Indonesia’s tight restrictions on its rhinos, she says, is that it cuts down competition for headline news.

“It’s not going to be Cincinnati. It’s not going to be San Diego. It’s not going to be Berlin. It’s going to be Indonesia that does it, if anybody does it,” Roth says. “We’re working for the greater good, so that’s okay. We need to share what we can that might be helpful for this species.”

But Muhammad Agil, a veterinarian and faculty member at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture in Indonesia, attributes the hold-up to something even more powerful than international rivalry or government foot-dragging: COVID-19.

According to Agil, the Indonesian government is well aware of the critical importance of ART, and has requested that Agil and his colleagues assemble a team to begin the program in earnest. In collaboration with Hildebrandt, Roth and others, Agil said they were doing just that, and had even identified a viable female Sumatran rhino from which to harvest the eggs. Then, COVID-19 struck.

“We had to stop all the preparations we already discussed,” he said.

COVID-19 may have slowed progress, but it hasn’t stopped it. Currently, there are plans in place to assemble a subcommittee of the Sumatran Rhino Husbandry and Propagation Expert Advisory Board, which will focus exclusively on developing an ART plan for Indonesia’s Sumatran rhinos.

Though the subcommittee is still in development, Hildebrandt said it’s important to get everyone in the same room as soon as possible, even if they aren’t necessarily on the same page.

“We’re not always friends,” he said. But to lose the rhinos over personal differences would be “very tragic for the rhino, because they have nothing to do with it.

“We have a common goal, and we want to save the Sumatran rhinos for the next generations, and I think it’s our responsibility to do that.”


One of two rhino calves born at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park. Seven Sumatran rhinos are currently held at the SRS, including two rhinos born in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo, and two born at the sanctuary. These births have renewed hope that the species can breed in captivity without resorting to ART. However, all of the male Sumatran rhinos currently in captivity are closely genetically related. Image by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.