2020 – Posted in: Daily News

Northern White Rhino

Researchers have successfully created an embryo of the nearly extinct northern white rhino.

The viable embryo is just the third to be created in a lab with eggs taken from the females and inseminated with frozen sperm from dead males.

The northern white rhinoceros, or northern square-lipped rhinoceros, is one of two subspecies of the white rhinoceros.
Formerly found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara, this subspecies is a grazer in grasslands and savanna woodlands.
According to the latest International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment from 2011, the subspecies is considered “Critically Endangered”.

IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations.
Created in 1948, it is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. It is headquartered in Switzerland.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.
The IUCN Red List Categories define the extinction risk of species assessed. Nine categories extend from NE (Not Evaluated) to EX (Extinct). Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) and Vulnerable (VU) species are considered to be threatened with extinction.