The northern white rhinoceros or northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is one of two subspecies of the white rhinoceros (the other being the southern white rhinoceros). This subspecies is a grazer in grasslands and savanna woodlands. Formerly found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara, since 19 March 2018, there are only two known rhinos of this subspecies left, named Najin and Fatu, both of which are female; barring the existence of unknown or misclassified male northern white rhinos elsewhere in Africa, this makes the subspecies functionally extinct. The two female rhinos belong to the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic but live in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya where they are protected by armed guards.
According to the latest International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment from 2020, the subspecies is considered "Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct in the Wild)."
Taxonomy Following the phylogenetic species concept, a study in 2010 suggested the northern white rhinoceros may be an altogether different species, rather than a subspecies of white rhinoceros, in which case its correct scientific name would be Ceratotherium cottoni. According to the study, distinct morphological and genetic differences suggest the northern white rhinoceros and southern white rhinoceros have been separated for at least a million years. However, the results of this research were not universally accepted by other scientists. A study in 2016 concluded that the two populations diverged between 0.46 and 0.97 million years ago and found their mitochondrial genomes to be 1.8% divergent. Based on these findings, the study concluded that classification as a subspecies was appropriate.
Living rhinos Ol Pejeta Conservancy
There are now only two northern white rhinos left in the world: Najin, a female, was born in captivity in 1989. She is the mother of Fatu. Her mother was Nasima and her father was Sudan.Breeding Experience With Northern White Rhinos At Zoo Dvur Kralove. Zoo Dvur Kralove (1990) Retrieved 31 August 2017. Fatu, also a female, was born in captivity in 2000. Her mother is Najin and her father was Saut. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
They both belong to the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic, but live in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, Africa.Northern White Rhinos . Olpejetaconservancy.org (20 December 2009). Retrieved 16 April 2015. They arrived at the conservancy after an air and road trip on 20 December 2009,Northern White Rhinos Arrive on Ol Pejeta , Ol Pejeta Conservancy website, Saturday, 23 December 2009 along with two male northern white rhinos from the Dvůr Králové Zoo, Suni and Sudan. However, Suni, a male born at Dvůr Králové Zoo in 1980, died from natural causes in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2014.Gap, Frontier. (27 October 2014) The Death Of Suni, A Rhino Conservation Icon. Thedodo.com. Retrieved 16 April 2015.Vzácný nosorožec Suni sešel stářím –. Novinky.cz. Retrieved 16 April 2015. Sudan, caught from the wild in 1975, died on 19 March 2018."Last male northern white rhino dead" Reuters. Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
After the transport, the four rhinos were under constant watch by specialists and staff and lived in specially constructed bomas with access to a paddock area, allowing them to acclimatize to their new surroundings. Ol Pejeta provides 24-hour armed security for the rhino enclosure. To prevent any unnecessary injuries they might inflict on each other while interacting in their fenced area, and give their horns an opportunity to regrow to a natural shape (as their front horns had grown bent from excessive rubbing against enclosure bars in captivity), all the rhinos were sedated and their horns were sawn off. This also made them less vulnerable to the poaching that drove their species to the brink of extinction, as the horn is what the poachers are after. In place of their horns, radio transmitters were installed to allow closer monitoring of their whereabouts.Northern White Rhinos Progress , Ol Pejeta Conservancy (15 January 2010). They are protected round-the-clock by armed guards.At home with the world's last male northern white rhinoceros | Environment. The Guardian. Retrieved on 27 November 2015. Poachers have been selling their horns for $110,000 per kilogram ($50,000 per pound).
Since May 2010, the northern white rhino male Sudan was moved from the initial holding pens to a much larger semiwild enclosure. There he roamed among many African animals, including several southern white rhino females and many plains animals. On 26 October 2011, the females were coaxed into the larger enclosure.
Until 2011, the progress of this attempt at saving the northern white rhinoceros was documented on the initiative's website;"Last Chance to Save the Northern White Rhino" (2014) Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Web.archive.org. Retrieved 16 April 2015. and their life in Ol Pejeta Conservancy is commented on the Conservancy's website. Several documentaries are in the works, including an episode of Ol Pejeta Diaries titled "Return of the African Titans" for Oasis HD Canada in fall 2010, and a follow-up half-hour episode to follow. This translocation was also the subject of a special edition of the BBC's Last Chance to See, titled "Return of the Rhino","Return of the Rhino". BBC, 2010, first aired on 31 October 2010, on BBC2 (UK). presented by Stephen Fry and the zoologist Mark Carwardine.
On 25 April 2012, and on 27 May 2012, Suni and Najin mated.Hope for the northern white rhinos Suni and Najin mate; Twice! . olpejetaconservancy.org (11 June 2012). Pregnancy of the female rhinos was monitored weekly.Meeting the Northern white rhinos – Al Jazeera Blogs. Al Jazeera.com (4 January 2013). Retrieved 7 April 2013. Rhinoceros gestation takes 16 to 18 months,"A Day in the Life of a Northern White Rhino" . Ol Pejeta Conservancy. 11 June 2013 so in January 2014 the Conservancy considered Najin not pregnant, and a male southern white rhino from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy was put to Najin and Fatu enclosure in Ol Pejeta to at least intercross the subspecies. To achieve this, both female northern white rhinos were separated from their male counterparts, which prevented them from producing a pure northern white rhino offspring."Ol Pejeta's Northern White Rhinos to Embark on Plan B" (7 January 2014) . Ol Pejeta Conservancy (7 January 2014). Retrieved 16 April 2015."Male Southern White Rhino Introduced in Endangered Species Boma" . Ol Pejeta Conservancy. 12 February 2014 In 2015, however, tests conducted by Czech specialists revealed that neither of the females are "capable of natural reproduction".And then there were three.... Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Retrieved on 27 November 2015.Northern white rhinos . Ol Pejeta Conservancy (20 December 2009). Retrieved on 27 November 2015. According to the director of the Dvůr Králové Zoo, it was possible Najin became pregnant but miscarried shortly thereafter, which resulted in pathological changes in her uterus, preventing another impregnation.
Assisted reproduction At the end of 2015, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, San Diego Zoo Global, Tiergarten Schönbrunn, and Dvůr Králové Zoo developed a plan to reproduce northern white rhinos using natural gametes of the living rhinos and induced pluripotent stem cells. Subsequently, in the future, it might be possible to specifically mature the cells into specific cells such as neurons and muscle cells, in a similar way in which Katsuhiko Hayashi has grown mouse oocytes out of simple skin cells. The DNA of a dozen northern white rhinos has been preserved in genetic banks in Berlin and San Diego.
In August 2019, ten egg cells (five from Najin and five from Fatu) were harvested to be artificially inseminated with the frozen sperm of a northern white rhino as part of a project by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Dvůr Králové Zoo, Kenya Wildlife Service, and Avantea. In September 2019, scientists announced that they fertilized in vitro the eggs with frozen sperm taken from dead males; two of the resulting embryos were viable. In January 2020, it was announced that another embryo was created using the same techniques; all three embryos are from Fatu. These embryos are being stored in liquid nitrogen until they can be placed into a surrogate mother, probably a southern white rhino. In December 2020, 14 egg cells were retrieved from Fatu; eight of them were fertilised by the sperm of the dead northern white rhino Suni, resulting in two viable embryos. No egg cells were retrieved from Najin. , there are 38 northern white rhino embryos that have been created by BioRescue. The embryos are cryopreserved in labs in Berlin, Germany and Cremona, Italy. The BioRescue team successfully implanted a southern white rhino embryo in a southern white rhino surrogate named Curra in 2023 in a complicated procedure, but Curra died in November due to a rare bacterial infection. Efforts to reproduce the pregnancy with a northern white rhino embryo are ongoing.
Recently deceased rhinos
Wild population The northern white rhino formerly ranged over parts of northwestern Uganda, southern South Sudan, the eastern part of Central African Republic, and northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their range possibly extended as far west as Lake Chad, into Chad and Cameroon.
Poachers reduced their population from 500 to 15 in the 1970s and 1980s. From the early 1990s through mid-2003, the population recovered to more than 32 animals.International Rhino Foundation. 2002. Rhino Information – Northern White Rhino. 19 September 2006 Since mid-2003, poaching has intensified and further reduced the wild population.
Garamba National Park The last known surviving population of wild northern white rhinos was in Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
In January 2005, the government of the DRC approved a two-part plan for five northern white rhinos to be moved from Garamba National Park to a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya. The second part commits the government and its international partners to increase conservation efforts in Garamba, so the northern white rhinos can be returned when it is safe again.IUCN. (25 January 2005). Reprieve planned for Garamba's rhinos: extra efforts promised to safeguard their homeland. Gland, Switzerland. However, the translocation did not occur.
In August 2005, ground and aerial surveys conducted under the direction of African Parks Foundation and the African Rhino Specialist Group (ARSG) had only found four animals, a solitary adult male and a group of one adult male and two adult females.IUCN. (6 July 2006). West African black rhino feared extinct. Gland, Switzerland. They were the last known wild northern white rhinos, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.