Northern White Rhinoceros
Two females are all that remain — kept alive while scientists race to save the species through IVF
No photo available for Northern White Rhinoceros
Population
Two individuals alive — both female, both at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya
Location
Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya (the last two individuals); originally central Africa
Overview
The northern white rhinoceros is functionally extinct. The last male, Sudan, died at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya in March 2018 — he was 45, arthritic, and unable to breed naturally. Two females remain: Najin (Sudan's daughter) and Fatu (his granddaughter). Both have reproductive complications that prevent natural pregnancy. The only path to survival is laboratory-assisted reproduction using frozen sperm from deceased males and eggs harvested from the two living females — an IVF program that has never been attempted at this scale in any rhinoceros species.
Why they're at risk
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Poaching eliminated the wild population — from around 2,000 in 1960 to zero in the wild by the early 2000s, driven by demand for horn in Asian traditional medicine markets.
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The last wild population in Garamba National Park, DRC, was wiped out by heavily armed poaching gangs in the 1990s and 2000s, operating in an area destabilized by civil conflict.
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The two surviving females cannot carry a pregnancy to term — Najin has weak hind legs and Fatu has uterine abnormalities. Even successful IVF would require a southern white rhino surrogate mother.
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The genetic bottleneck from so few founding animals limits the long-term viability of any recovered population.
Reasons for hope
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In 2019, scientists successfully harvested eggs from Najin and Fatu and fertilized them with frozen sperm from deceased males — producing viable northern white rhino embryos for the first time in history.
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As of 2024, multiple viable embryos are cryopreserved and waiting for surrogate southern white rhino mothers to be prepared.
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The BioRescue project has successfully transferred embryos into southern white rhino surrogates — the surrogate pregnancies are ongoing.
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Frozen genetic material from 12 different northern white rhinos is stored, providing more genetic diversity than the two living individuals alone could offer.