@valth, very interesting article, what to do with a species which is all but extinct.
Obviously the two females will not be able to give birth to any new members of the species, so the are at least ecologically extinct at this point.
It's nice to see they are opting for cryogenics and impregnating the two remaining females, or using surrogates for them
it seems they have been looking at how to optimize the thawed sperm for some time in this species
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.theriogenology.2008.07.009
lets hope they can have some positive results in bringing forth more offspring at least until they can have a male to do the job naturally.
just think though it will be a very unique sub species all with a lineage back to this one male I guess he should be called Adam.
Hi, @robmenzies. Thanks for the link! I didn't really think about the problems of having "non-optimal sperm donors" in endangered species, but it makes a lot of sense that they need better methods to make sure the sperm is stored as best as possible.
It would be really cool to see if they actually manage to get a new living Northern white rhino from all this. While it does not seem all that tricky in theory, actually doing it would be a great accomplishment.
Naming him Adam would actually be really cool! But he is already named Sudan, so I guess it is a little too late for that.
Hi @valth you’re welcome. Yes in principle it should be straightforward, however i suspect as with everything there will be a curve ball in the whole process, and I suspect this is why they have not being able to impregnate the females already. I suspect the male probably as less than perfect sperm quality already, which if frozen may just kill off any decent sperm.
Lets hope they can fine tune the process so that the world can celebrate the birth of a northern white rhino and if we are lucky its a male and he can take the honour of being called Adam.
Yeah, we should just cross out fingers and hope they are able to successfully impregnate one of the females. It really seems like the last chance for this subspecies.