Latest news with #OlPejeta
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Baraka, Kenya's blind rhino - adventurous soul with a sweet tooth
Completely unfazed by camera clicks and luring calls, Baraka munches on the grass of the savannah. With his massive body, thick grey skin and the pointed horn, the black rhino appears invincible. But life for Baraka, whose name means "the blessed one" in Swahili, is challenging. The 30-year-old rhino bull is blind, afer he lost one eye in a fight with another rhino in 2008, and the other due to a cataract. If Baraka were to roam freely through the savannah of the Kenyan highlands, he would be an easy target – in clashes with rival rhinos, or for poachers. In the private sanctuary Ol Pejeta in the Mount Kenya region, however, the black rhino lives in the safety of a 100-acre compound, protected by caretakers. He is not the only rhino celebrity of the sanctuary. Ol Pejeta is also home to the last two remaining northern white rhinos in the world. After the death of the male Sultan in 2018, the species is functionally extinct. The two remaining females, Najin and Fatu, are protected around the clock by armed rangers. Efforts to ensure the survival of the northern white rhino include attempts to facilitate reproduction through IVF. Yet while scientists have successfully created northern white rhino embryos, there have been challenges in implanting these embryos into surrogate southern white rhino mothers. Hope, however, dies last. Baraka, on the other hand, is a kind of ambassador for his critically endangered species. Almost 200 black rhinos live in Ol Pejeta, the largest population in Kenya. Unlike their slightly larger relatives, the white rhinos, black rhinos are very shy and are rarely found in the open savannah - they prefer forest areas for browsing. Thanks to Baraka, visitors to Ol Pejeta are guaranteed to see a black rhino. His caretakers know how to lure the rhino to the fence of his enclosure with a piece of sugar cane or some carrots. Even though he is blind, Baraka isn't helpless. He orients himself primarily by scent and markings from urine or feces, says Grace, one of the rhino's keepers. "Sometimes, when he gets bored in his enclosure, he does an escape run," she says about the adventurous heavyweight with a smile on her face. "We've even found him at the other end of the sanctuary. He just follows his nose whenever something smells interesting." There are only about 6,000 black rhinos and about 18,000 white rhinos left in all of Africa. Therefore, security is as important in Ol Pejeta as it is in state national parks. In Ol Pejeta, around 260 employees are responsible for protecting the wildlife. The rangers of the Rhino Patrol Unit track and record rhino sightings. Every black rhino must be sighted at least once every three years by the rangers who roam the sanctuary with binoculars and notebooks. Armed rangers with paramilitary training and a dog unit are also deployed in the area to deter poachers. Rhinos are the second largest mammals living on earth, who were once hunted for sport and meat. Today, poacher kill them to meet demand from Asia and the Middle East, where rhino horn is considered to have medicinal properties and is used to make ornamental dagger handles. A kilogram of rhino horn can fetch up to $60,000 on the black market. Yet while elephants are poached because of their ivory tusks, rhino horn is just made of the same substance as human fingernails – keratin.
Khaleej Times
27-02-2025
- Science
- Khaleej Times
'We will save them': The quest to rescue nearly extinct rhino
Two rhinos munch serenely on grass as the sun rises over Mount Kenya, oblivious to the massive global endeavour to prevent them being the last of their kind. Najin and her daughter Fatu are the only northern white rhinos left on Earth. The clock is ticking before they become the latest in a long line of animals that humans have poached to extinction. But a recent breakthrough means this could be the year the world celebrates a new northern white rhino foetus. It would be an unprecedented comeback for the subspecies, declared functionally extinct after the death of the last male, Sudan, in 2018. Uterus problems mean neither Sudan's daughter Najin nor his granddaughter Fatu can carry a pregnancy to term. But Fatu still produces viable eggs, making her a candidate for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). For years, scientists have been collecting her eggs at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where the rhinos remain under 24-hour guard. The eggs are sent to Europe where they are fertilised in a lab with sperm from dead male northern whites. There are now 36 fertilised eggs -- or embryos -- ready to be implanted, said Jan Stejskal, project coordinator for BioRescue, the most prominent of numerous such initiatives worldwide. It is thought Fatu can produce around 10 more eggs before she is too old. "We hope to achieve the first successful pregnancy with the northern rhino embryo this year," Stejskal said. "But I cannot promise it." - 'Mixed with sadness' - The plan is to use a female southern white rhino -- a closely related subspecies -- as a surrogate. A year ago scientists announced a breakthrough: a surrogate was pregnant with a male southern white foetus, the first time IVF had worked for rhinos. But like so much about this long and difficult process, the joy was "mixed with sadness", Ol Pejeta head of research Samuel Mutisya told AFP. By the time the 6.4-centimetre, 70-day-old foetus was discovered, the surrogate had already died from an unrelated bacteria infection. Worse still, a sterilised male who had played the role of "teaser bull" -- to help identify when the female is ready for impregnation -- also died from the infection, and finding a replacement has proved tricky. The team is determined to try again, this time with a northern white embryo. - How many chances? - There are other avenues, including a Japanese effort using stem cells to create northern white rhino eggs and sperm. This could dramatically boost the number of embryos and create a wider gene pool for future inseminations. The stem cell efforts are roughly halfway there, Stejskal said, estimating they could produce embryos in around four years. Meanwhile, another initiative at Oxford University is attempting to use ovary tissue from dead rhinos to create eggs. It could mean that even after Najin, 35, and Fatu, 24, have died, scientists could retrieve immature eggs from their ovaries. Suzannah Williams, a researcher leading the effort, said her "best guess" was they could retrieve a few hundred eggs, even if not all would be viable. But scientists hope for a solution while Najin and Fatu are still alive to teach the future baby how to be a northern white rhino. - 'When, not if' - No one knows how likely it is that an individual IVF attempt will result in pregnancy. It took three attempts for the southern white surrogate, but that is a tiny sample size. Plenty else could go wrong during a rhino pregnancy, which lasts up to 18 months. Stejskal remains optimistic, saying: "We will save them," while Williams agreed it was a matter of "when, not if". Others are unconvinced. Even if babies were born from the embryos, the genetic diversity would still be "too low" to revive the species, Save the Rhino International CEO Jo Shaw told AFP. It is probably too late for northern rhinos, she said, and the focus should be on the Javan and Sumatran subspecies, which each have fewer than 50 surviving. The northern white researchers say the techniques they are developing will help all rhinos, as well as other species. BioRescue's work is already contributing to saving the Sumatran rhino, Stejskal said. Back in the Ol Pejeta enclosure, Najin and Fatu's main handler Zacharia Mutai said that it was humans who poached northern whites to the edge of extinction, so it is our responsibility to bring them back. Mutai, who was there when Sudan died, said the birth of a new baby would be a cause for "world celebration". "And I will be looking after the baby," he said with a smile, as Fatu and Najin kept on munching behind him.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'We will save them': The quest to rescue nearly extinct rhino
Two rhinos munch serenely on grass as the sun rises over Mount Kenya, oblivious to the massive global endeavour to prevent them being the last of their kind. Najin and her daughter Fatu are the only northern white rhinos left on Earth. The clock is ticking before they become the latest in a long line of animals that humans have poached to extinction. But a recent breakthrough means this could be the year the world celebrates a new northern white rhino foetus. It would be an unprecedented comeback for the subspecies, declared functionally extinct after the death of the last male, Sudan, in 2018. Uterus problems mean neither Sudan's daughter Najin nor his granddaughter Fatu can carry a pregnancy to term. But Fatu still produces viable eggs, making her a candidate for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). For years, scientists have been collecting her eggs at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where the rhinos remain under 24-hour guard. The eggs are sent to Europe where they are fertilised in a lab with sperm from dead male northern whites. There are now 36 fertilised eggs -- or embryos -- ready to be implanted, said Jan Stejskal, project coordinator for BioRescue, the most prominent of numerous such initiatives worldwide. It is thought Fatu can produce around 10 more eggs before she is too old. "We hope to achieve the first successful pregnancy with the northern rhino embryo this year," said Stejskal. "But I cannot promise it." - 'Mixed with sadness' - The plan is to use a female southern white rhino -- a closely related subspecies -- as a surrogate. A year ago scientists announced a breakthrough: a surrogate was pregnant with a male southern white foetus, the first time IVF had worked for rhinos. But like so much about this long and difficult process, the joy was "mixed with sadness", Ol Pejeta head of research Samuel Mutisya told AFP. By the time the 6.4-centimetre, 70-day-old foetus was discovered, the surrogate had already died from an unrelated bacteria infection. Worse still, a sterilised male who had played the role of "teaser bull" -- to help identify when the female is ready for impregnation -- also died from the infection, and finding a replacement has proved tricky. The team is determined to try again, this time with a northern white embryo. - So how many chances? - There are other avenues, including a Japanese effort using stem cells to create northern white rhino eggs and sperm. This could dramatically boost the number of embryos, and create a wider gene pool for future inseminations. The stem cell efforts are roughly halfway there, Stejskal said, estimating they could produce embryos in around four years. Meanwhile, another initiative at Oxford University is attempting to use ovary tissue from dead rhinos to create eggs. It could mean that even after Najin, 35, and Fatu, 24, have died, scientists could retrieve immature eggs from their ovaries. Suzannah Williams, a researcher leading the effort, said her "best guess" was they could retrieve a few hundred eggs, even if not all would be viable. But scientists hope for a solution while Najin and Fatu are still alive to teach the future baby how to be a northern white rhino. - 'When not if' - No one knows how likely it is that an individual IVF attempt will result in pregnancy. It took three attempts for the southern white surrogate, but that is a tiny sample size. Plenty else could go wrong during a rhino pregnancy, which lasts up to 18 months. Stejskal remains optimistic, insisting: "We will save them," while Williams agreed it was a matter of "when, not if". Others are unconvinced. Even if babies were born from the embryos, the genetic diversity would still be "too low" to revive the species, Save the Rhino International CEO Jo Shaw told AFP. It is likely too late for northern rhinos, she said, and the focus should be on the Javan and Sumatran subspecies, which each have fewer than 50 surviving. The northern white researchers maintain the techniques they are developing will help all rhinos, as well as other species. BioRescue's work is already contributing to saving the Sumatran rhino, Stejskal said. Back in the Ol Pejeta enclosure, Najin and Fatu's main handler Zacharia Mutai argued it was humans who poached northern whites to the edge of extinction, so it is our responsibility to bring them back. Mutai, who was there when Sudan died, said the birth of a new baby would be a cause for "world celebration". "And I will be looking after the baby," he said with a smile, as Fatu and Najin kept on munching behind him. dl/er/rlp/jxb
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'We will save them': The quest to rescue nearly extinct rhino
Two rhinos munch serenely on grass as the sun rises over Mount Kenya, oblivious to the massive global endeavour to prevent them being the last of their kind. Najin and her daughter Fatu are the only northern white rhinos left on Earth. The clock is ticking before they become the latest in a long line of animals that humans have poached to extinction. But a recent breakthrough means this could be the year the world celebrates a new northern white rhino foetus. It would be an unprecedented comeback for the subspecies, declared functionally extinct after the death of the last male, Sudan, in 2018. Uterus problems mean neither Sudan's daughter Najin nor his granddaughter Fatu can carry a pregnancy to term. But Fatu still produces viable eggs, making her a candidate for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). For years, scientists have been collecting her eggs at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where the rhinos remain under 24-hour guard. The eggs are sent to Europe where they are fertilised in a lab with sperm from dead male northern whites. There are now 36 fertilised eggs -- or embryos -- ready to be implanted, said Jan Stejskal, project coordinator for BioRescue, the most prominent of numerous such initiatives worldwide. It is thought Fatu can produce around 10 more eggs before she is too old. "We hope to achieve the first successful pregnancy with the northern rhino embryo this year," said Stejskal. "But I cannot promise it." - 'Mixed with sadness' - The plan is to use a female southern white rhino -- a closely related subspecies -- as a surrogate. A year ago scientists announced a breakthrough: a surrogate was pregnant with a male southern white foetus, the first time IVF had worked for rhinos. But like so much about this long and difficult process, the joy was "mixed with sadness", Ol Pejeta head of research Samuel Mutisya told AFP. By the time the 6.4-centimetre, 70-day-old foetus was discovered, the surrogate had already died from an unrelated bacteria infection. Worse still, a sterilised male who had played the role of "teaser bull" -- to help identify when the female is ready for impregnation -- also died from the infection, and finding a replacement has proved tricky. The team is determined to try again, this time with a northern white embryo. - So how many chances? - There are other avenues, including a Japanese effort using stem cells to create northern white rhino eggs and sperm. This could dramatically boost the number of embryos, and create a wider gene pool for future inseminations. The stem cell efforts are roughly halfway there, Stejskal said, estimating they could produce embryos in around four years. Meanwhile, another initiative at Oxford University is attempting to use ovary tissue from dead rhinos to create eggs. It could mean that even after Najin, 35, and Fatu, 24, have died, scientists could retrieve immature eggs from their ovaries. Suzannah Williams, a researcher leading the effort, said her "best guess" was they could retrieve a few hundred eggs, even if not all would be viable. But scientists hope for a solution while Najin and Fatu are still alive to teach the future baby how to be a northern white rhino. - 'When not if' - No one knows how likely it is that an individual IVF attempt will result in pregnancy. It took three attempts for the southern white surrogate, but that is a tiny sample size. Plenty else could go wrong during a rhino pregnancy, which lasts up to 18 months. Stejskal remains optimistic, insisting: "We will save them," while Williams agreed it was a matter of "when, not if". Others are unconvinced. Even if babies were born from the embryos, the genetic diversity would still be "too low" to revive the species, Save the Rhino International CEO Jo Shaw told AFP. It is likely too late for northern rhinos, she said, and the focus should be on the Javan and Sumatran subspecies, which each have fewer than 50 surviving. The northern white researchers maintain the techniques they are developing will help all rhinos, as well as other species. BioRescue's work is already contributing to saving the Sumatran rhino, Stejskal said. Back in the Ol Pejeta enclosure, Najin and Fatu's main handler Zacharia Mutai argued it was humans who poached northern whites to the edge of extinction, so it is our responsibility to bring them back. Mutai, who was there when Sudan died, said the birth of a new baby would be a cause for "world celebration". "And I will be looking after the baby," he said with a smile, as Fatu and Najin kept on munching behind him. dl/er/rlp/jxb
