World's Last 2 Rhinos: IVF Lab Embryos, Kenyan Surrogates, German Nitrogen Vaults
Northern white rhino embryos, 30 in total, chill in German labs while Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy guards Najin and Fatu—the world’s only survivors—under 24/7 watch. As IVF science finally lands a southern white rhino pregnancy after 13 attempts, trending searches like 'can you bring extinct animals back' and 'IVF success rate in large mammals' spike. Dr. Susanne Holtze dryly notes, “Placing an embryo inside a 2m reproductive tract is a unique challenge.”
With 30 northern white rhino embryos in cold storage and only two living females too frail for motherhood, scientists now eye southern white rhinos as unwitting surrogates. Search queries such as 'cross-species IVF in animals' and 'what happens to rhino embryos' peak, while the Biorescue team ponders if Berlin’s nitrogen vault will outlast its tenants. One might imagine a rhino baby born to a surrogate who’s never met its own kind—“a huge step,” says Holtze.
The first IVF rhino embryo took 13 tries and required inserting it nearly two meters deep—leaving the world’s rarest pregnancy hidden somewhere between Belgian eggs, Austrian sperm, and Kenyan soil.
