Egg harvesting crucial in Saving the Nothern White rhino species

On Thursday, a group of scientists and conservationists successfully harvested 10 eggs from the two remaining northern white rhinos.

The scientists carried out the egg harvesting at the Ol Pejeta conservancy.

The eggs were harvested from the two rhinos Najin and  Fatu.

A statement from the conservancy read: "Najin and Fatu are the last two northern white rhino in the world, both of them female. Sadly, neither of them are able to carry a pregnancy, but a groundbreaking procedure carried out yesterday means they still have the chance to mother the next generation of northern white rhinos, and that there is very real hope for the future of this species."

Authorities said while  Najin and Fatu were under general anesthetic, a team of vets successfully harvested eggs from the females, in an operation that has never been attempted in this species before.

According to the conservancy, the eggs will now be artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from a northern white rhino bull, and in the future, the embryo will be transferred to a southern white rhino surrogate mother. 

"On the one hand Ol Pejeta is saddened that we are now down to the last two northern white rhinos on the planet, a testament to the profligate way the human race continues to interact with the natural world around us," Richard Vigne, Managing Director of Ol Pejeta remarked.

"However, we are also immensely proud to be part of the groundbreaking work which is now being deployed to rescue this species."

He says they hope it signals the start of an era where humans finally start to understand that proper stewardship of the environment is not a luxury but a necessity.

In March 2018, the world's last standing male northern white rhino, died aged 45.