NORTHERN WHITE RHINOCEROS

The northern white rhinoceros, or northern square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), is one of two subspecies of the white rhinoceros (the other being the southern 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. As of 19 March 2018 there were only two known rhinos of this subspecies left, 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 and are protected round-the-clock by armed guards.

According to the latest International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment from 2011, the subspecies is considered “Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct in the Wild).”

The zoo population is declining, and northern whites have rarely reproduced in captivity. There are now only two northern white rhinos left:

• Najin, a female, was born in captivity in 1989. She is the mother of Fatu.Her mother was Nasima and her father was Sudan.
• Fatu, also a female, was born in captivity in 2000.Her mother is Najin and her father was Saut.

They both belong to the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic, but live in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, Africa. They arrived at the conservancy after an air and road trip on 20 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. Sudan, caught from the wild in 1975, died on 19 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 400×400-metre paddock area, allowing them to acclimatize to their new surroundings. 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 by much 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 near extinction, as the horn is what the poachers are after. In place of their horns, radio transmitters have been installed to allow closer monitoring of their whereabouts. They are protected round-the-clock by armed guards. Poachers have been selling their horns for $50,000 per kilo.

Since May 2010, the northern white rhino male Sudan was moved from the initial holding pens to a much larger 700-acre (2.8 km2) 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. Because Najin was overly protective of her daughter Fatu’s chance at mating, one of the two moved back into the smaller enclosure two weeks later.

Until 2011, the progress of this attempt at saving the northern white rhinoceros was documented on the initiative’s website; and their life in Ol Pejeta Conservancy is commented on on the Conservancy’s website. Several documentaries are in the works, including an episode of Ol Pejeta Diaries entitled “Return of the African Titans” for Oasis HD Canada fall 2010, and a follow-up half-hour episode to follow. This translocation was also the subject of a BBC Last Chance to See special entitled “Return of the Rhino”, presented by Stephen Fry and the zoologist Mark Carwardine; the TV program reported at the end that the two pairs of rhinos were “flirting”.

On 25 April 2012 and on 27 May 2012 Suni and Najin mated. Pregnancy of the female rhinos was monitored weekly. Rhinoceros gestation period takes 16 to 18 months, 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. In 2015, however, tests conducted by Czech specialists revealed that neither of the females are “capable of natural reproduction”. According to the director of the Dvůr Králové Zoo, it was possible Najin became pregnant but miscarried shortly after, which resulted in pathological changes in its uterus, preventing another impregnation.

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 mice out of simple skin cells. The DNA of a dozen northern white rhinos has been preserved in genetic banks in Berlin and San Diego.

Following the phylogenetic species concept, recent research has suggested the northern white rhinoceros may be an altogether different species, rather than a subspecies of white rhinoceros, in which case the correct scientific name for the former is Ceratotherium cottoni. Distinct morphological and genetic differences suggest the two proposed species have been separated for at least a million years. However, the results of the research were not universally accepted by other scientists.