Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The world's last surviving male northern white rhino has died after months of poor health, his carers say. Sudan, who was 45, lived at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. He was put to sleep on Monday after age-related complications worsened significantly. His death leaves only two females - his daughter and granddaughter - of the subspecies alive in the world.
"His death is a cruel symbol of human disregard for nature and it saddened everyone who knew him," said Jan Stejskal, an official at Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic, where Sudan had lived until 2009. "But we should not give up," he added in quotes carried by AFP news agency. "We must take advantage of the unique situation in which cellular technologies are utilised for conservation of critically endangered species. It may sound unbelievable, but thanks to the newly developed techniques even Sudan could still have an offspring."
[...] Sudan, who was the equivalent of 90 in human years, was the last surviving male of the rarer variety after the natural death of a second male in late 2014.
[...] Sudan's genetic material was collected on Monday, conservationists said, to support future attempts to preserve the subspecies. The plan is to use stored sperm from several northern white rhino males, and eggs from the remaining younger females, and implant the embryo in a surrogate southern white rhino.
-- submitted from IRC
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Scientists Hope Lab-Grown Embryos Can Save Rhino Species From Extinction
Rhino embryos created in a lab are raising hopes that high-tech assisted reproduction may help save the northern white rhino, the most endangered mammal in the world. [...] The last male, a rhino named Sudan, died in March. But before the males died off, wildlife experts collected and froze sperm. Now, in the journal Nature Communications, scientists say they successfully have used this stored sperm [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04959-2] [DX] to fertilize eggs taken from a closely related subspecies, the southern white rhinoceros.
The resulting hybrid embryos started to develop in a lab dish. Two were frozen for later implantation into a surrogate rhino, although the researchers note in their paper that "the embryo transfer procedure has yet to be developed and validated in rhinoceroses." Still, the researchers are hopeful that once they get this working with hybrid embryos, they can use the same techniques to produce pure northern white rhino embryos.
To make those, they'll need eggs from the two remaining northern white rhinos. Jan Stejskal, of the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic — where rhinos Najin and Fatu were born — says the team has requested permission to obtain the eggs, "but it's not granted yet." Still, he hopes the research team can go to Kenya to collect them by the end of the year.
Previously: Last Male Northern White Rhino 'Sudan' Falls Ill as Species Edges Closer to Extinction
Last Male Northern White Rhino Dies
Northern white rhino: New hopes for IVF rescue
A new study raises hopes of saving one of the last animals of its kind. A victim of poaching, the northern white rhino population has been reduced to just two females, which are both unable to breed.
DNA evidence shows the rhino is more closely related than previously thought to its southern white cousin. Creating rhino hybrids using IVF is likely to have a positive outcome, say scientists, although this option is considered a last resort.
The white rhino split into two divided populations living in the north and south of Africa around one million years ago. But an extensive analysis of DNA from living rhinos and museum specimens shows the northern and southern populations mixed and bred at times after this date, perhaps as recently as 14,000 years ago.
[...] In July, one team took eggs from female southern rhinos - which number around 20,000 in the wild - and fertilised them with frozen sperm from a male northern white rhino, to create hybrid embryos.
The new study suggests this sort of approach might pay off, given that the two rhinos are closer genetically than once thought. "We think it improves the chances," said Prof Bruford. "It is difficult to predict what might happen if we cross the two subspecies but given the current options for the northern white rhino it becomes a more viable option, should other approaches fail."
Other options include using frozen tissue from a wider pool of northern white rhinos to generate stem cells that have the capacity to develop into eggs and sperm. This would avoid diluting the gene pool, but is more challenging to achieve.
Previously: Saving the Northern White Rhinoceros with Science
Last Male Northern White Rhino 'Sudan' Falls Ill as Species Edges Closer to Extinction
Last Male Northern White Rhino Dies
Genetic Intervention Could Save the Northern White Rhino From Extinction
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Friday March 23 2018, @09:21PM
Maybe Barbara Streisand will pay to clone it!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2018, @09:27PM (4 children)
Like I learned in College that gender is like not set, it's on a spectrum. So like one of the Female Rhinos can seriously like transition, and then there will be a Male and Female, and then they can like totally have babies. But because these are like White Rhinos, I hope they don't. Cause like White Rhinos have been the worst thing that ever happened to Rhinos everywhere, so they should just die out already for the good of the planet.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2018, @09:55PM
" Cause like White Rhinos have been the worst thing that ever happened to Rhinos everywhere, "
Especially the white males. Was he middle-aged, even more if so. Good riddance.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday March 23 2018, @11:05PM (1 child)
Well I learned in the movies that frogs can sometimes transition genders too. So if they implant frog DNA into them, the White Rhinos could change gender, reproduce, and finally replenish their numbers. I bet they could also go amphibious, jump, and catch prey with their tongue. Then we'd really be screwed.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 23 2018, @11:21PM
*I learned from Jurassic Park
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday March 23 2018, @11:21PM
Math major here. Most interesting result I learned was that 2+2=5 for sufficiently large values of 2.
/ am I kidding?
// Do you have a degree in Applied Mathematics from a good University?
/// Then STFU and have a seat over there, in the SuperDooperPutinPooper section.
//// It's right next to Trump's syncophants
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by cocaine overdose on Friday March 23 2018, @09:42PM (3 children)
Predictably. "So sad ... We are to blame, as a species ... you will be in our hears and minds forever ... Fuck humanity ... This is a human failure of epic proportions; thanks to our greed and irresponsibility, a species is one significant step closer to extinction. [https://donate.olpejetaconservancy.org/projects/sudan]"
Give it a week.
These rhinos also look absolutely retarded up close in the face. And look like south american liveleak videos after they've been de-horned.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 23 2018, @10:19PM (1 child)
While it does help, you do not have to be ignorant to not care.
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Friday March 23 2018, @11:01PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2018, @11:04PM
The editors certainly forgot it. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday March 23 2018, @11:02PM
Unless the rhino was too old to make it, it which case there is still hope Trump won't make any more kids.
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 23 2018, @11:53PM
Listening to the convoluted plans for surrogate parenthood reminded me of a friend's finch breeding operation. You know the ViewSonic finches? Very colorful, but apparently they don't breed very quickly - so, to run a competitive commercial finch breeding operation what you do is get a few of the expensive colorful breeding pairs, and then a bunch of the cheap as dirt Society finches. When the pricey finches lay an egg, you steal it from their nest, causing them to lay and fertilize another one more quickly, and give the egg to the Society finches to hatch and raise... Weird enough yet? Even weirder, the finch-feed had a high egg content, obtained from domestic laying hens. The daily feeding routine was to collect the chicken eggs, cook them up and blend with the other finch-feed ingredients, then feed all the finches, check progress of which ones have laid, hatched, etc. Oh, and keep the whole birdhouse something like 78F year round (crucial mistake they made was not insulating the bird house, was costing them >$400/month in the winter to heat it...)
After about 18 months of being a literal slave to the grind (grinding up the hen's eggshells to go into the feed...) the appeal wore off and they sold the business.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @09:08AM
It's sadly not just the rhino. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction [wikipedia.org]