rhino san diego safari park

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African Rhinos

• Conservation Status: Threatened

Black rhinos and white rhinos are the same color—a brownish gray! Both live in eastern and southern Africa but eat different foods. The wide mouth of the white rhino is perfect for grazing on grasses. The more narrow, prehensile lip of the black rhino is great for pulling leaves and shrubs into its mouth. Other names used for these two species are broad-lipped and hook-lipped. Guess which name belongs to which rhino!

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species lists black rhinos as Critically Endangered and southern white rhinos as Near Threatened. Northern white rhinos are extinct in the wild, and only two adult females are left on Earth.  

Of the five rhino species, the white rhino is the largest: it can weigh 5,000 pounds (2,300 kilograms). A group of rhinos is called a crash. It’s fitting for this large, ponderous animal that can crash through just about anything in its way! The Safari Park has the largest crash of rhinos and the most successful captive breeding program for rhinos anywhere in the world.

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New Baby Rhino at San Diego Zoo Safari Park Gets a Name: Edward

Three-day-old Southern White Rhino Calf, Conceived Through Artificial Insemination, Is Thriving, Bonding with Mother

A 3-day-old southern white rhino calf at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park—San Diego Zoo Global’s first rhino to be born following hormone-induced ovulation and artificial insemination—has been named. To honor the Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation’s generous investments in research to prevent extinction of the northern white rhino, the conservation organization has named the calf Edward, after a legendary figure in the Scripps family’s history. 

The young rhino, with his giant feet and big ears, is spending quality time bonding with his mother, Victoria, at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center. Victoria gave birth to the 148-pound calf on Sunday, July 28, 2019. Since then, mother and calf have spent most of their time in a quiet nursery setting in the barn, but have begun venturing outdoors into the maternity yard, enjoying time in the sun. While keepers report Edward is very brave and curious—boldly approaching them, checking out his surroundings, and reacting to new sounds and movements—he never ventures far from his mother’s side.

“We could not be more pleased with how well mom and baby are doing,” said Jonnie Capiro, lead keeper, San Diego Zoo Safari Park. “Victoria is such a good, protective mom, and so attentive to her calf. We are so proud of her.”

“Edward is nursing well, full of energy, curious and much braver than expected,” Capiro added. “We will continue to keep a close watch on mom and baby—but so far, we couldn’t ask for things to be better.”

 Victoria was artificially inseminated with frozen semen from southern white rhino Maoto on March 22 ,  2018, following hormone-induced ovulation. White rhino gestation is estimated to be about 485 days—Victoria carried her calf for 493 days. The artificial insemination and successful birth of the rhino calf represents a critical step in San Diego Zoo Global’s ongoing work to develop the scientific knowledge required to genetically recover the northern white rhino, a distant subspecies of the southern white rhino. Only two northern white rhinos currently remain on Earth and, unfortunately, both are female. Artificial insemination of rhinos has rarely been attempted, and this is the first successful artificial insemination birth of a southern white rhino in North America.

  San Diego Zoo Global has a history of expertise with rhino species. With the birth of this calf, there have now been 99 southern white rhinos born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, in addition to births of 73 greater one-horned rhinos and 14 black rhinos at the Safari Park. The challenges associated with limited gene pools and severely reduced numbers facing Javan rhinos, Sumatran rhinos and northern white rhinos mean that some form of assisted reproduction may be their only hope for the future.

Victoria is one of six female southern white rhinos that reside at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center. To increase genetic diversity and the number of reproductively fit individuals in North American zoos, these rhinos were relocated to the Safari Park from private reserves in South Africa in November 2015.

Five keepers are dedicated to the full-time care of the six female rhinos. The keepers spend each day building a relationship with and gaining the trust of the animals. The animals are trained, through positive reinforcement, to receive any needed medical procedures, as they could potentially serve as future surrogate mothers for a northern white rhino. “We absolutely could not do the work we do with these rhinos without the keepers,” stated Barbara Durrant, Ph.D., Henshaw endowed director of Reproductive Sciences, San Diego Zoo Global. “The incredible trust and solid relationships they have built with these animals is essential. Victoria is doing so well, due in part to her trust in her keepers.”

  To reach the ultimate goal of successfully producing a northern white rhino, multiple steps must be accomplished. One of the first steps completed involved sequencing the genome of the northern white rhino to clarify the extent of genetic divergence from its closest relative, the southern white rhino. The analysis revealed that they are distinct subspecies. Another step requires conversion of cells preserved from 12 individual northern white rhinos in the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research’s Frozen Zoo ®  to stem cells that could develop into sperm and eggs—a process successfully begun in the laboratory of Jeanne Loring, Ph.D., of The Scripps Research Institute, with details of the process published in 2011.

Reproductive options include artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, working with southern white rhinos. When these techniques are perfected, the southern white rhinos would serve as surrogates for northern white rhino embryos. The reproductive system of rhinos is very complex, and there is still much to be learned. There are many challenges ahead, but researchers are optimistic that a northern white rhino calf could be born from these processes within 10 to 20 years. This work also may be applied to other rhino species, including critically endangered Sumatran and Javan rhinos.

Victoria and Edward will remain off exhibit to the public for a period of time, to allow continued bonding. The calf will eventually be introduced to the other five female rhinos at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center—including Amani, also pregnant through artificial insemination and due to give birth in October or November.

There are an estimated 18,000 southern white rhinos remaining in the wild. The southern white rhino is classified as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, due to poaching threats and illegal trafficking of rhino horn. Currently, a rhino dies every eight hours in South Africa as a result of poaching.

The public can help support San Diego Zoo Global’s rhino conservation efforts through the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy at endextinction.org/rhino or endextinction.org/Victoria .

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White Rhinoceros

• Class: Mammalia (Mammals)
• Order: Perissodactyla
• Family: Rhinocerotidae
• Genus: Ceratotherium
• Species: simum
• Subspecies: C.s. simum (southern), C.s. cottoni (northern)

GREEN HEADLINE

Vanishing giants. The classic vision of an African savanna would be incomplete without rhinoceroses, colossal icons of their grassland homes. White rhinos Ceratotherium simum, in particular, are known for their formidable size. While large and tough-appearing, white rhino populations are fragile. Demand for their horns had led to rampant poaching and plummeting populations. Just two northern white rhinos C.s. cottoni remain in the world. Southern white rhinos C.s. simum are more abundant, but still in dire need of assistance if they are to have a secure future on our planet.

White rhinos are identified by the two horns on the end of their nose, with a larger front horn and a small inner horn. Rhino horns don’t have a bony core like other mammal horns. The outside is rather soft and can be worn down or sharpened after years of use. If a horn breaks off, it can gradually grow back. It is made of keratin, the same material that makes up our fingernails and hair.

Like other rhinos, white rhinos have a broad chest, thick skin, poor eyesight, and excellent hearing. Because rhinos are nearsighted, they often charge when startled. This defense mechanism has given them an undeserved reputation for having a bad temper. Their ears can move independently of each other, and one may be cocked forward while the other is directed backward, or both may perk straight up when an interesting sound that requires total concentration is detected.

Despite their name, white rhinos are gray in color. How the white rhino came to be called “white” is uncertain. One account says that it comes from the Dutch word wijde , or “wide,” referring to the white rhino’s wide lip or large size.

HABITAT AND DIET

Shrinking habitat. While once abundant throughout sub-Saharan Africa, white rhinos now live in small pockets of southern Africa, in long- and short-grass savanna and shrubland habitats. Only five countries are home to 99 percent of white rhinos: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Of those, the vast majority are found in South Africa.

Chow down: White rhinos are herbivorous. Their broad, square lip is built for grazing. As they eat, they crop grasses so short that they create “grazing lawns” that benefit smaller plant-eating wildlife and serve as firebreaks. At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, rhinos eat hay and high-fiber biscuits, along with carrots and apples.

FAMILY LIFE

Home turf: Dominant male rhinos occupy small territories. They only allow one or two subordinate males to share the territory. Neighboring dominant males respect one another’s space and rarely trespass, except to reach water during the dry season. Adult white rhino females are more social, often staying in groups of up to a dozen that include calves and subadults. A group of rhinos is known as a “crash.”

Females enter a dominant male’s territory when they are ready to mate. White rhino males can be persistent about courtship, pursuing females for 5 to 20 days. The male approaches females with a series of breathy “hic-pant” vocalizations, and may rest his chin on her rump to test whether she will tolerate mating. If successful, a calf is born 15 to 16 months later.

Big vocabulary. Like other rhinos, white rhinos make a variety of sounds to communicate with others. Long and short snorts are used to express anger or alarm. When startled, high-pitched screams indicate fear. A deep, resonant “mmwonk” means that they are content.

Smelly signals. Dominant male rhinos spend much of their time patrolling their territory and marking it with urine and dung, to communicate with neighboring rhinos. Subordinate males put little effort into such communication with scent, always deferring to the dominant male when they meet up.

In 1971, 20 southern white rhinos arrived at the Safari Park to become the founding generation of the Park’s white rhino herd. Since then, more than 100 southern white rhinos have been born at the Safari Park.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance was one of the last organizations in the world to care for northern white rhinos. Nola, a 41-year-old female, passed away in 2015. As of 2021, the world’s only two remaining northern white rhinos live at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is leading efforts to save the northern white rhinoceroses at the Safari Park’s Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, through development of assisted reproductive technology, the use of biobanked genetic material, and work with southern white rhinos that may someday become surrogate mothers for a northern white rhino calf.

CONSERVATION

White rhinos’ large size protects them from savanna predators like lions and cheetahs. People pose the biggest threat to white rhinos’ survival. While rhinos have an excellent sense of smell, their poor eyesight makes them an easy target for poachers.

Hunted for horn: White rhinos once roamed widely across sub-Saharan Africa without much threat from other wildlife, thanks to their immense build. But the advent of high-powered weapons brought a new and deadly enemy: humans. Rhino horn—which is made of keratin, like human fingernails and hair—has been used as an unproven folk remedy to treat illnesses, and it has also been sold as a “status” item because of its rarity. Thousands of rhinos are slaughtered each year just for their horn, and their population has plummeted. To try to prevent this rampant poaching, many African countries have implemented measures to protect their rhinos. However, the increasing demand and high price paid for rhino horn encourages their continued slaughter and the international sale of their parts.

Hope for white rhinos: Currently, southern white rhino are listed as Near Threatened and northern white rhinos are listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. With our conservation partners, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is contributing to efforts to secure a future for white rhinos. In Africa, we collaborate with our longtime partner, the International Rhino Foundation, to protect vulnerable populations in South Africa while also developing innovative methods to combat and reduce poaching. In the United States, conservation scientists from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Reproductive Sciences team are developing cutting-edge technologies that will allow northern white rhinos to be born through southern white rhino surrogate mothers. These methods include artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and embryo transfer. Meanwhile, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Conservation Genetics team is analyzing white rhino genome sequences to eventually generate embryos. We have hope that, one day, their work will result in healthy northern white rhino calves.

The Safari Park has one of the most successful conservation breeding programs for rhinoceroses under human care in the world. By August 2020, more than 100 southern white rhinos had been born at the Safari Park, representing hope for the future. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance was one of the last organizations in the world to care for northern white rhinos. The last two remaining northern white rhinos live at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya as of 2021.

By supporting San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, you can help us save and protect wildlife around the globe.

Length: Up to 16 feet, from head to tail

Weight: 1.6 to 4 tons (4,000 to 6,000 pounds)

Weight at birth: 88 to 132 pounds (40 to 60 kilograms)

About 50 years

Gestation: 16 months

Number of young at birth: One

Age of maturity: 6.5 to 7 years for females; 10 to 12 years for males

White rhinos are tied with greater one-horned rhinos as the second-largest land mammals; only elephants trump them in size.

Like other rhinos, white rhinos wallow in watery depressions in the earth to cover their skin in mud, which acts as a natural sunscreen and insect repellent.

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White rhino calf born at San Diego Zoo Safari Park

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The San Diego Zoo Safari Park on Monday announced the arrival of a male white rhino born to a first-time mother.

The park tweeted a video of the curious new calf following its mom, Livia, around at the Nikita Rhino Resource Center.

The unnamed calf conceived through natural breeding with the father, J Gregory, was born Aug. 6.

“Wildlife care specialists report the calf is healthy, confident and full of energy, and that Livia is an excellent mother, very attentive and protective of her offspring,” the park said in a statement.

Livia and the calf will remain in a private habitat to allow time for bonding before being introduced to the other rhinos living at the resource center.

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At A Glance

• Location: Urban Jungle
• Conservation Status: Threatened

Rhinos may look tough, but their skin is actually quite sensitive. They can sunburn, and biting insects "bug" them. That's why they like to wallow in mud—it puts a layer between their skin and the sun, and insects. Greater one-horned rhinos look as if they are wearing armor, but they are actually covered with a layer of skin that has many folds. Formerly called Indian rhinos, they are native to humid, swampy areas of Northeast India and Nepal. Greater one-horned rhinos are listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and white rhinos are listed as Near Threatened. Black, Javan, and Sumatran rhinos are all listed as Critically Endangered.

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San Diego Zoo welcomes male baby rhino, celebrates breeding initiative

The calf is bonding with its mother and playing in the habitat's muddy wallows.

The San Diego Zoo has welcomed a small but mighty addition to its safari park. A baby male white rhino was born Aug. 6 to two of the zoo's adult rhinos, according to zoo officials.

The calf, staying at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center at the zoo, was born through natural breeding to first-time mother Livia and father J Gregory, the zoo said.

Wildlife care specialists at the center said the baby rhino, which has yet to be named, "is healthy, confident and full of energy," according to a statement from the zoo.

"Livia is an excellent mother, very attentive and protective of her offspring," the zoo added.

"We are so pleased Livia and her calf are doing so well," Jonnie Capiro, lead wildlife care specialist, San Diego Zoo Safari Park told San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV . "Seeing this energetic little rhino running around, wallowing in the mud and just being generally curious is very rewarding."

Capiro added that while this is the first time Livia has given birth, specialists aren't surprised she is a great mother.

MORE: National park in South Africa addresses rhino poaching problem

Prior to giving birth, Livia cared for an orphaned rhino named Arthur, who came to the center at the San Diego Zoo in 2020, zoo officials said. Specialists told KGTV that experience helped Livia become a very attentive and protective mother to her new baby.

Zoo officials are especially pleased by the new calf's birth because of the success it brings for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance's Northern White Rhino Initiative.

The initiative is dedicated to saving the northern white rhino through innovative reproductive technologies, including artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, according to a statement from zoo officials.

Officials said an interdisciplinary team at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center is working with southern white rhinos as a model to better develop its technologies.

The ultimate goal for the team, made up of wildlife care and health teams, reproductive physiologists and geneticists, is to establish a sustainable population of northern white rhinos.

MORE: Rhino population gets a new sanctuary in Mozambique

"All rhino births are significant, and this calf's birth represents an essential step in San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance's Northern White Rhino Initiative, showing Livia can carry a calf to term and care for her offspring," Barbara Durrant, director of reproductive sciences, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, told KGTV.

Durrant added that Livia is now among the female rhinos at the rhino center who could potentially serve as a surrogate mother to a northern white rhino embryo.

The calf will remain in a private habitat with its mother to allow for bonding time before the pair is introduced to other rhinos at the center. officials said.

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San Diego Zoo Safari Park announces birth of southern white rhino

The birth is encouraging for the San Diego Zoo-owned park’s breeding initiative

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A male southern white rhino born Aug. 6 at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and his mother are doing well, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance reported Monday.

“We are so pleased Livia and her calf are doing so well,” lead wildlife care specialist Jonnie Capiro said about the first-time mother and still-unnamed calf. ”Seeing this energetic little rhino running around, wallowing in the mud and just being generally curious is very rewarding.”

A video of the calf frolicking at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center can be seen in a tweet by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance .

The calf was conceived through natural breeding of Livia and father J Gregory.

“All rhino births are significant, and this calf’s birth represents an essential step in San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Northern White Rhino Initiative, showing Livia can carry a calf to term and care for her offspring,” said Barbara Durrant, director of reproductive sciences, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

“This is vitally important, as Livia is now among the female rhinos at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center who could potentially serve in the future as a surrogate mother to a northern white embryo,” she said.

“While this is the first time Livia has given birth, we expected she would be a great mother, and she proves this every day,” Capiro said. ”Livia had prior experience in caring for an orphaned calf named Arthur.”

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Northern White Rhino Initiative is focused on saving the northern white rhino through innovative reproductive technologies such as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.

At the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, an interdisciplinary team is working with southern white rhinos as a model for developing reproductive technologies with the goal of establishing a sustainable population of northern white rhinos using banked genetic material from the Frozen Zoo, a critical component of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Wildlife Biodiversity Banking efforts.

An estimated 18,000 southern white rhinos remain in native habitats worldwide, but only two northern white rhinos remain on Earth, both living at a wildlife conservancy in Kenya. Both are females and unable to reproduce naturally.

The work being done to conserve the northern white rhino also may be applied to other rhino species, including critically endangered Sumatran and Javan rhinos.

The calf will remain with Livia in their private habitat while they continue to bond, and then he will be introduced to other rhinos at the rescue center, including five adult females, one adult male, 2-year-old Arthur, and Edward and Future, both born at the center in 2019 following hormone-induced ovulation and artificial insemination.

The southern white rhino is classified as near-threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, due to poaching threats and illegal trafficking of rhino horn. Poaching in South Africa is estimated to cause the death of one rhino every eight hours.

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San Diego Zoo Safari Park Names Baby Southern White Rhino: Neville

The birth of neville shows mother livia could potentially serve in the future as a surrogate mother to a northern white embryo, a critically endangered species, by city news service • published september 20, 2022 • updated on september 20, 2022 at 4:01 pm.

Just in time for World Rhino Day on Thursday, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Tuesday announced a six-week-old male southern white rhino calf at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park has been given a name: Neville.

The name was chosen by a supporter of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, in honor of a South African doctor who made a positive impact on the donor's life.

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According to the zoo, the energetic and confident calf is thriving and has been experiencing many new firsts since his birth on Aug. 6, including meeting other rhinos, and gaining enough stamina and bulk to now explore the 2- acre main habitat at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center.

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He can be seen running at top speed around the habitat, frequently stopping to splash around and roll in mud wallows. Rolling in mud is a natural behavior of rhinos. Rhinos coat themselves with a thick layer of mud that acts as a sunscreen and bug repellent, and helps to keep them cool.

In addition to spending time with his mother, Livia, Neville was recently introduced to two of the other adult females residing at the Rhino Rescue Center: Victoria and Wallis. Under the watchful eyes of Livia, the calf often interacts with the two adults -- sometimes engaging in playful behavior, including head-butting, or just curiously watching their activities.

Neville was born at around 110 pounds and is gaining 3 to 5 pounds a week. He currently weighs 250 pounds. When full-grown, at around 3 years of age, he could weigh between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds, and stand 6 feet tall at the shoulder.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance leaders said all rhino births are significant, and Neville's birth shows Livia can carry a calf to term and care for her offspring. Livia is now among the candidates at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center who could potentially serve in the future as a surrogate mother to a northern white embryo.

Only two northern white rhinos remain on Earth, residing at a wildlife conservancy in Kenya. The work being done to conserve the northern white rhino may also be applied to other rhino species. The zoo's Northern White Rhino Initiative is attempting to save the northern white rhino through reproductive technologies, including artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.

At the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, a team that includes wildlife care and health teams, reproductive physiologists and geneticists is working with southern white rhinos as a model for developing these technologies, with the ultimate goal to establish a population of northern white rhinos using banked genetic material.

There are five species of rhino: white, with a population estimated at 18,000, and black, estimated at 5,600, in Africa; and greater one-horned, estimated at 3,600, Javan, estimated at 74, and Sumatran, estimated at 80, in Asia.

Rhino numbers are dwindling, primarily due to poaching and habitat loss.

According to the zoo, southern white and black rhinos are mega- herbivores, grazing on grasses -- which helps maintain the diverse African grasslands, increasing plant diversity and providing grazing areas for other animals that share their native habitat, such as elephants, zebras, antelope and gazelles.

This article tagged under:

The $20 Million Bioengineering Gambit to Save the Northern White Rhino

We have the science and technology to bring animals back from extinction. But should we use it?

At age 45, Sudan was the final progenitor of the earth’s most endangered animal species: the northern white rhinoceros . As the last male northern white in the world, he was both a global icon for conservation and a two-and-a-half-ton target—because the horn of even the most precious rhino is not safe from poachers. He lived out his final years under 24/7 armed protection at the conservancy, along with two of his female relatives.

Half a world away, Barbara Durrant felt it. She had never met Sudan, but she knew Nola. Most people in San Diego knew Nola, though not the way Durrant did. Nola was a northern white rhinoceros, one of only four that remained by the middle of the last decade, along with Sudan and his kin. She lived at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, located at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, about 30 miles north of the city, and not far from where Durrant reports to work every day at the zoo’s Wildlife Biodiversity Bank.

Nola had also been euthanized, after age and infection caught up with her, in 2015. She was 41.

“She was just the most amazing animal,” says Durrant, recalling Nola’s wide mouth, her skin the color of clay stone, and her distinctive horn, which curved toward the ground. “It’s not only losing that animal that you know personally and you love; it’s another step in losing the whole species.”

Durrant is director of reproductive sciences at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and one of a handful of scientists around the world who are trying to save the northern white rhino. In Europe, another group, under the direction of wildlife researcher Thomas Hildebrandt, is also working on the problem. And while their scientific approaches may be slightly divergent, the scientists’ end goal is the same: to rescue the northern white rhino before the bell of extinction rings.

Hildebrandt is the project head for BioRescue , an international consortium of scientists and conservationists. His group is harvesting eggs from female rhinos in Kenya; eventually the team hopes to create embryos using the frozen sperm of long-deceased northern white rhino males.

Meanwhile, Durrant’s team in San Diego is undertaking an ambitious bioengineering challenge. Inside the Wildlife Biodiversity Bank is the Frozen Zoo , a cryopreserve where 10,000 still-living skin cells from 1,100 different animal species are stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen at extremely low temperatures. Among them are 12 cell lines taken from 12 different northern white rhinos, dating back to 1979.

.css-2l0eat{font-family:UnitedSans,UnitedSans-roboto,UnitedSans-local,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;padding:0.9rem 1rem 1rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:1.75rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:1.875rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1;}}.css-2l0eat b,.css-2l0eat strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-2l0eat em,.css-2l0eat i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;} The Frozen Zoo is a cryopreserve where 10,000 still-living skin cells from 1,100 different animal species are stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen.

As recently as two decades ago, the next step amounted to the stuff of science fiction: taking those skin cells, reprogramming them into sperm and egg, combining them in a test tube, and then implanting that embryo into a surrogate host. Recreating a whole new northern white rhino. And then another, and another, and then, once nature took its course, dozens more. Breathing life back into that which is dead. De-extinction, in other words, the purposeful resurrection of animals that have died off. Animals like Sudan.

“People are seeing a species go extinct right before their eyes,” says Durrant. “Can we really even make a dent? The answer is, well, we have to. We have to do this.”

Astronomical costs and enormous risks stand in the way. An investment of at least $20 million is required to realize the ultimate goal of reconstituting a population of wild northern white rhinoceroses. Retrieving oocytes (eggs) is a delicate endeavor, because if scientists puncture blood vessels near the uterus, the animal will bleed to death. And preserving a species through bioengineering is a fraught, messy process, one that calls into question the sophistication of current reproduction techniques and the merits of meddling with nature.

If the project succeeds, it would be a scientific breakthrough like no other. What was once outside the realm of possibility is almost within our grasp. At some point in the not-too-distant future, a rhinoceros calf—a cultivated northern white—may very well take its first steps.

Of the world’s five rhino species, the northern white—one of two subspecies of white rhinos—drew the short straw. Northern whites once roamed East and Central Africa, enjoying an herbivorous lifestyle with few natural predators. Humans prized them for their horns, which can grow over four feet. In Europe circa 1900, rhino horn was fashioned into ornamental accoutrements, like walking sticks and pistol grips. It remains a common ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, which prescribes powdered rhino horn mixed with boiling water as a cure for fever, gout, and rheumatism.

Poaching and war rapidly thinned their numbers, from the thousands to the hundreds to the tens. Nola arrived in San Diego in 1989; by the end of that decade, fewer than 40 northern whites remained in the northeast corner of what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The last northern white was spotted in the wild in 2006. By then, the only survivors were those that had been relocated to zoos in the 1970s. They included Sudan, his daughter, Najin, her daughter, Fatu, and another bull, Suni, who were all taken to Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2009. They were the eligible breeders, yet no calves were born. Suni died four years before Sudan.

Four became three, then three became two, and now only Najin and Fatu remain. They are old and getting older, and even if they could mate, veterinarians have determined that neither is capable of carrying a pregnancy to term. It’s a foregone conclusion then, yes? The line of northern white rhinos dies with Najin and Fatu.

“Sometimes we feel kind of helpless,” says Durrant. “We’re battling such a huge wave of extinction.”

Southern white rhinos, on the other hand, largely escaped their cousins’ misfortune. There were fewer than 100 remaining in the late 1800s, but a tenacious conservation effort followed and continues today. More than 20,000 of these rhinos currently roam the earth, mostly in South Africa. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has six females, which will play a crucial role in its effort to produce a pure northern white rhino. Summarizing the idea is easy enough: An embryo made of northern white sperm and egg is implanted into a surrogate—a female southern white rhino. Sixteen months later, a northern white calf is born.

“I can say pretty clearly that this would be the first time a robot has ever been used in animals like this.”

Durrant and her colleagues have already cleared several hurdles in the past five years. Using ultrasound technology, the team deciphered the inner workings of the rhino’s reproductive system. Mapping the cervix was a key first step. A rhino cervix is a tight, convoluted maze of rings, a foot of anatomy that’s fairly common to the two subspecies. Navigating it can be tricky. To practice, the zoo artificially inseminated two southern white females in 2018 using preserved southern white male sperm. Two healthy calves, Edward and Future, were born in 2019.

When female rhinos are ovulating, circulating estrogen helps relax the rings of the cervical tissue. For that reason, Durrant and her team were able to inseminate the zoo’s rhinos by hand. The future embryo transfer, however, will be much tougher. Once the team has produced a viable pure northern white rhino embryo, they will stimulate ovulation in one of the southern white rhinos residing at the Safari Park. Then they’ll have to wait another 10 days to let the embryo mature in vitro before implantation. But the surrogate’s estrogen levels will have decreased by then, causing her cervix to tighten once more. Navigating it by hand will be impossible, because the risk of severely damaging cervical tissue is too great. Instead, Durrant and her team are currently collaborating with roboticists at the University of California San Diego to develop a workaround.

“I can say pretty clearly that this would be the first time a robot has ever really been used in animals in any kind of major computation effort like this,” says Michael Yip, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSD and director of the Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory.

Yip’s lab is outfitting a noodlelike catheter with miniaturized robotic controls. Imagine a tiny metal cylinder, thinner than the circumference of a headphone jack and sheathed in a flexible filament. A camera on one end will give zoo workers a view of where they’re going, while a PlayStation-like controller will bend the catheter with sub-millimeter precision—enough to ensure that they can navigate the rings without scraping tissue or puncturing blood vessels.

“We’ll do very little, if any, tissue damage, but we’ll be able to get through that tightened-down cervix,” Durrant says.

In March 2020, Durrant completed the zoo’s first oocyte pickups. Because the scientists had already done the ultrasound mapping, they had a clear idea of where the ovaries and follicles were located.

Eggs were collected from each of their six southern white females using a four - foot-long double-lumen (two channeled) needle, which is capable of flushing out the follicles and sucking out the oocytes. They collected a total of 22; in the lab, each oocyte was fertilized with a single sperm. In the end, while half of the fertilized oocytes matured, none developed into blastocysts, the final stage of embryo growth. But the effort allowed the researchers to start piecing together some novel rhino science: What nutrients do rhino embryos need, in vitro, to mature?

This was a critical juncture in the team’s de-extinction work, as valuable practice for the fertilization procedure to come. You don’t transfer an embryo on the initial try. Fail to navigate the cervical maze, and you might damage tissue, imperiling the pregnancy. Fail to mature a reprogrammed egg into a blastocyst, and there’s no embryo to even transfer. Everything Durrant’s team has done with southern whites is a dress rehearsal for the premiere event, when it finally comes time to make a southern white female the surrogate mother of the main character: a northern white rhino embryo.

The task of generating the sperm and egg falls to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Marisa Korody, a conservation geneticist who is trying to create stem cells from the functionally extinct northern white rhinos. She starts with cryopreserved fibroblasts, cells that compose the connective structural tissue of all animals. The Frozen Zoo has fibroblasts generated from skin samples of 12 different northern whites—eight of which are unrelated—that contain enough genetic diversity to save the species. These fibroblasts are then reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells—that is, cells that can turn into any cell type in the body. By directing these stem cells to specific developmental paths, the researchers can generate primordial germ cells, precursors to what eventually become sperm and eggs.

This is as far as the science goes—at least for now, and at least with rhinos. Korody is optimistic she’s managed to generate the germ cells. Generating northern white rhino sperm and northern white rhino egg, though, is a long-term process, one that involves figuring out the hormones and growth signals needed to get the germ cells to differentiate further.

“Maybe in 10 years or so, we’ll be close,” she says.

It’s a different strategy from the one Thomas Hildebrandt and BioRescue are focused on right now. While the team in San Diego is trying to generate northern white rhino embryos from cells, BioRescue is attempting to fertilize eggs collected from Fatu and Najin with cryopreserved northern white rhino sperm.

“We can use this approach to transfer the embryos into a southern white rhino surrogate, and then let the calf grow up with Najin and Fatu,” says Hildebrandt, who also leads the department of reproduction management at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany.

In 2019, Hildebrandt’s team accomplished a scientific first: It transferred a rhino embryo fertilized in vitro into the uterus of a female rhino. In this case, it was a southern white. As of July 2021, BioRescue has completed seven southern white rhino embryo transfers.

In the next few years, Hildebrandt says, BioRescue will be ready to transfer a northern white rhino embryo into a surrogate southern white female.

In the 55-million-year evolutionary history of the rhino, 10 years is nothing but a heartbeat. In the here and now, however, a decade is enough time to exacerbate an annihilation crisis that’s already underway.

In 2019, a landmark report from the United Nations revealed that a million animal and plant species are careening toward extinction. A subsequent report issued by the World Wildlife Fund in 2020 indicated that wildlife populations have declined by two-thirds in the past half century due to human activities; deforestation, insecticides, and poaching are all complicit. Various species we hardly think of but are nonetheless important for humans and ecosystems to thrive are in the crosshairs.

“If we can think of this as a leaky bucket right now, the bucket is pouring out water and more and more species are falling out,” says Tierra Curry, a senior scientist with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, based in Arizona. “Trying to put a couple more species back in the bucket isn’t going to fix the problem.”

Criticism of de-extinction efforts often begins with something like Curry’s premise. Her preference would be to “fight like hell” for everything still alive. After all, the natural world is at the brink, but animals aren’t the problem.

Instead, the ultimate problem is “uniquely and definitely humans,” says Ross MacPhee, a curator in the mammalogy department of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. There’s no way to guarantee that a population of northern white rhinos wouldn’t need around-the-clock protection the way Najin and Fatu do today. Southern white rhinos, despite their resurgence, are already considered a species on the way to endangered, as lust for rhino horn continues unabated. Some horns fetch a purse of $300,000. How much might a rare northern white rhino horn go for?

While the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance hopes to generate a self-sustaining population of northern white rhinos back in part of their native range, Durrant says that would only happen if it’s safe to put the animals there. But not making the effort isn’t an option, she says.

“Everything is connected,” says Durrant. “When you take any species, plant or animal, out of an ecosystem, it starts to unravel.”

As it stands now, most of the African species of rhinos—the southern white and black rhinos—are concentrated mainly in southern Africa. Very few black rhinos are roaming around central Africa where northern white rhinos once predominated: The pointed mouth of the black rhino is good for eating branches and leaves, while the wide mouth of the white rhino is better adapted for grazing on grass.

Scientists keenly interested in saving the northern white rhino often cite the good that such a keystone species provides. A megafauna creature like the white rhino directly and indirectly affects the well-being of dozens of other creatures. By eating long grass, they help keep vegetation at a reasonable level so predators can see their prey. Their feet carve avenues in the grass so prey can escape. Their droppings fertilize the grass and provide nutrients for insects. It’s a tiny biosphere where nonhuman life thrives. Upset the balance, and that life has to migrate elsewhere. Maybe to urban ecosystems. Maybe carrying disease.

Under any other circumstances, a group of people kneeling around Fatu inside the Ol Pejeta Conservancy would be a cause for concern. But on this Sunday in December 2020, the scientists and veterinarians in attendance were monitoring Fatu as she lay under general anesthesia. Near her backside was Hildebrandt. He was collecting eggs.

Over the past two years, with the permission of the Kenyan government, Hildebrandt and BioRescue have performed six separate egg pickups on Najin and Fatu. The latest one, in December 2020, yielded 14 oocytes from Fatu. Collection is done by anesthetizing the rhino and then inserting an ultrasound wand into the rectum. The wand is there only to provide a picture, a way to guide the needle that flushes out the rhino’s follicles and grabs the eggs. Both times the eggs were rapidly transported to Avantea, an advanced biotechnology lab in Italy. There they were fertilized with frozen semen that had been extracted from Suni before he died. To date, BioRescue has cryopreserved nine embryos that combine northern white sperm and northern white egg.

“The rhino hasn’t failed in evolution. It’s at the brink of extinction because humans have poached it and killed it.”

It’s a monumental step, one that represents the closest any group of scientists has come to bringing a northern white rhino calf into the world. Hildebrandt doesn’t just consider it fascinating science; he likens it to a moral imperative. Picking and choosing which animals to de-extinct is easy when nature hasn’t selected against them.

“The rhino hasn’t failed in evolution. It’s at the brink of extinction because humans have poached it and killed it,” he says. “So it is actually our human responsibility to fix this problem, because we have caused it.”

While BioRescue’s current endeavor is separate from the work being conducted by Durrant, Korody, and others at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the two groups are working toward common goals. Hildebrandt and his counterparts in San Diego held the first international conference on rescuing the northern white rhino in 2015 in Vienna. He says the work being conducted on pluripotent stem cells in San Diego is an important component of the overall effort. BioRescue has created embryos made with eggs from Najin and Fatu and sperm from Suni; the embryos the San Diego team hopes to create will come from multiple other northern white rhinos, which will increase the genetic diversity of a future population. In turn, that should help improve the animals’ overall health by serving as a safeguard against disease.

Yet Hildebrandt wants to bring a baby northern white rhino into the world as quickly as possible. While the two subspecies are related, northern white rhinos are wider, with straighter backs, flatter skulls, and a different neck structure. The differences are stark enough that a baby northern white rhino might not learn how to graze properly if it comes up in a herd of its southern white cousins. Hildebrandt wants the animal to socialize with Najin and Fatu before they, too, die. Sudan’s granddaughter is only in her early 20s and still playful. Najin, on the other hand, is in her early 30s, and lives with a large tumor on her abdomen.

“There’s a lot of things morphologically which are links to behaviors,” says Hildebrandt. “The social knowledge, how to behave as a northern white rhino, is something we can preserve. But there is no way to do that unless we produce a calf very soon.”

Still, a de-extinction project inevitably requires two finite resources: time and money. Hildebrandt thinks it will take about 20 years to reintroduce a healthy population of the animals back to Africa, at a cost of approximately $1 million per calf. But how much is one northern white rhino worth to the world?

Depending on BioRescue’s progress this year, there might be a baby northern white rhino walking with Najin and Fatu within two years. The bioengineering tools required to accomplish the incredible—resurrecting a herd of 6,000-pound animals—are here, in the hands of Durrant, Korody, Hildebrandt, and their respective teams of researchers.

We have the technology. We can rebuild them. Now comes the hardest question of all: Should we?

It’s perhaps too soon to tell if a new birth in a species that is on the brink of extinction would be heralded as a success. After all, humans nearly killed off every northern white rhino in existence. What’s to say that people won’t poach the animals for their horns, and do it flippantly, openly, even expectantly? You created a bunch of northern white rhinos before , we may cry out . Just do it again. This, we might incorrectly believe, is the promise of something like the Frozen Zoo. We preserve natural history, only to reanimate it according to our whims.

“Yes, science can save species. But don’t rely on science to save species,” says Durrant. “We can’t do this for every species. We don’t want to do this for every species. We want species to be preserved in their native habitats before they go extinct.”

Cryopreservation and embryo transfers aren’t blueprints for managing the planet. But they might preserve a legacy that the death of Sudan left behind. If we’re paying attention, maybe one new rhino will wake us up.

Andrew Zaleski, a writer based near Washington, D.C., covers science, technology, and business.

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Black Rhino

Conservation Status: IUCN Red List - Critically Endangered

Threats to survival: Poaching; habitat loss and fragmentation; disease

Challenges for Wild Populations

The international trade in rhino horn is the main cause of the decline of the black rhino. Civil unrest and armed conflict have made effective protection of the species very difficult. In addition, disease, low reproductive rates, and uneven sex ratios all serve to restrict the ability of rhino populations to achieve desired growth rates and preserve genetic diversity for the future. Together with our partners, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is committed to securing wild populations of black rhinos and achieving population sustainability. Eighteen black rhinos belonging to two different subspecies have been born at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park and educating the public about the plight of all rhinos is a high priority for us.

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Our Frozen Zoo® includes viable cell cultures from 78 black rhinos, including animals born in the wild. Eleven black rhinos were sampled in Zimbabwe when rhino de-horning was being tested as an anti-poaching strategy, resulting in the successful establishment of frozen cell cultures. Our Conservation Genetics team has conducted research into the evolutionary diversification of black rhinos and identified variation in chromosomal patterns indicative of limited gene flow that support subspecies designations. Diseases, including the bacterial infection leptospirosis and iron storage disorder, have impacted black rhinos in zoos. A vaccine now reduces risk of leptospirosis, but dietary accumulation of iron to toxic levels remains an ongoing management concern. Our scientists are contributing to collaborative efforts to understand the genetic basis of iron storage disease risk in black rhinos using genomic technologies.

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Translocations of black rhinos have been an important conservation tool to expand rhino populations and to remove black rhinos from areas with high poaching risk to more secure locations. Our Recovery Ecology team has devised new methods for improving translocation success by pre-seeding release sites with rhino dung in order to reduce aggression between resident and newly arrived black rhinos. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has assisted other organizations with the costs associated with black rhino relocations to protect animals from intensifying poaching pressure.

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Your symbolic adoption is helping save critically endangered northern white rhinos. Reaching up to 6 feet in height and up to 5,000 pounds, rhinos may look fierce but are gentle giants.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance works with partners to save the northern white rhino through a groundbreaking surrogacy program as part of our savanna conservation hub. Only two are left on Earth, and your support is helping bring them back.

Conservation is at the heart of everything we do. As an ally, you offer hope to wildlife worldwide and we cannot thank you enough. Because when wildlife thrives, all life thrives.

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Share your passion for wildlife with friends and family by sending your loved ones a Virtual Northern White Rhinoceros Adoption. Your gift will be sent through email and will include a Virtual Northern White Rhinoceros Adoption card! This option does not include a mailed adoption package.

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Join the Alliance today, and help save and protect rhinos and other wildlife worldwide. Your $50 Northern White Rhinoceros Adoption package includes a soft 8" rhino plush and a 5” x 7” Northern White Rhinoceros Adoption card.

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Your generous gift fuels critical conservation worldwide and offers hope to the world’s most extraordinary wildlife, including rhinos. Your $100 Northern White Rhinoceros Adoption package includes 1 soft 12" rhino plush, a 5” x 7” Northern White Rhinoceros Adoption card, and a limited edition San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance pin.

$500 Rhinoceros Adoption

Your generous gift fuels critical conservation worldwide and offers hope to the world's most extraordinary wildlife, including rhinos. Your $500 Rhino Adoption package includes 1 soft 12" Rhino plush, a 5" x 7" Rhino Adoption card, a drawstring backpack, a thermos, and a limited edition San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance pin.

$1,000 Rhinoceros Adoption

Your generous gift fuels critical conservation worldwide and offers hope to the world's most extraordinary wildlife, including rhinos. Your $1,000 Rhino Adoption package includes 1 soft 12" Rhino plush, a 5" x 7" Rhino Adoption card, a backpack, a beach towel, a thermos, a limited edition San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance pin, and a 50% discount gift voucher for one guest on select tours at the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park.

For questions on San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Adoption Program, please contact us at  [email protected] .

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