Berlin researchers are trying to raise new calves in the wild
A drawn out moan can be heard from the corner of the enclosure for several minutes. Fatu, a 1.8-ton northern white rhinoceros, is given general anesthesia. The female sinks to the ground, surrounded by German and Kenyan veterinarians who check the animal’s oxygen levels and pulse. Nothing can go wrong, because Fatu and her mother Najin are the last of their subspecies.
The two animals have lived in the Ol Pejeta sanctuary at the foot of Mount Kenya since 2009 and are guarded by armed rangers. “Fatu is a gentle giant,” says veterinarian Stephen Ngulu, who has been looking after the animals for six years. The rhinoceros is trusting and often comes to greet them with a grunt and trots to be petted. The mud on Fatu’s gigantic belly has dried up, her gray skin feels rough. As the species name suggests, it has a wide mouth with which it gently scours the ground. Najin and a southern white rhinoceros keep company.
For some time now, Fatu has been a bearer of hope. Under the leadership of Thomas Hildebrandt from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, an international consortium is trying to prevent the extinction of the northern white rhinoceros. “If we save the northern white rhinoceros, we will directly and indirectly save hundreds of other species that are closely related to this animal,” says Hildebrandt. As a key animal, the northern white rhinoceros fulfills a number of functions in the ecosystem – such as distributing seeds for many plants. At intervals of several months, his team from Fatu removes egg cells that are fertilized in a laboratory in Italy with the sperm of deceased males. So far, twelve embryos of the northern white rhinoceros have been created, all egg cells come from Fatu. The egg retrieval from her mother Najin was less successful.
The embryos are to be implanted in a surrogate mother of the related subspecies of the southern white rhinoceros. Fatu himself has cysts on his uterus, the much older Najin has cancer. Egg retrieval is precision work.
The team from Berlin arrives with 500 kilograms of luggage – with a gigantic ultrasound probe specially developed for the procedure: “No weapon – scientific equipment” is written on the black suitcase. As soon as the animal is anesthetized, his colleague Robert Hermes kneels behind the animal and empties Fatus’ intestines with warm water.
Then he inserts the probe with which Hildebrandt punctures the ovaries. His colleague Susanne Holtze operates a hand pump with which she pumps a red liquid, in which the valuable egg cells swim, into a bottle. This is immediately taken to a nearby corrugated iron container and cooled.
Rhino protection despite Corona
Not a single rhino fell victim to horn predators in Kenya in 2020. The International Fund for Animal Welfare IFAW initially feared that poaching would increase, as ranger salaries had to be cut due to a lack of tourism income during the pandemic.
The Kenya Wildlife Service has set up a forensic laboratory with a DNA database of rhinos and elephants and a monitoring system. The data are used to create movement patterns of endangered species. Suspects can be convicted of poaching. thk / FR
More information: www.ifaw.org
The rhinoceros hardly move, every now and then you can hear it snort, its nostrils move. Anesthetist Frank Göritz is responsible for the anesthesia. Devices that monitor Fatus vital functions beep in the background. The entire procedure is monitored by the Kenya Wildlife Service, which has been responsible for the welfare of the wild animals living in the country since 2009.
The northern white rhinoceros was never native to Kenya. Fatus and Najin’s ancestors lived in swampier parts of Africa, such as Uganda, Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There they were temporarily hunted, got caught between civil war fronts or were sold to foreign zoos – such as the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic, where Najin and Fatu were born.
If it were possible to breed a herd, some experts would like to release them back to their original home. But there is a long way to go. The planned embryo transfer will first be tested with embryos of the southern white rhinoceros before the valuable embryos of the northern white rhinoceros are implanted.
The Kenyan Wildlife Service is currently advising whether the procedure should be allowed on rhinos living in Kenya. The scientists hope for better success with the Kenyan animals, whose fertility is often better than that of their conspecifics in European zoos.
Time is of the essence, warns Göritz. A live calf is important for the development of a new population. People who are skeptical about the project are also more likely to convince if the subspecies is not yet completely extinct. And a newborn calf must still have the opportunity to live with the last of its kind and learn species-specific behavior, explains Holtze. These include social behavior and their own dialects that distinguish the northern from the southern white rhinoceros.
After the egg collection has been completed, Fatus Horn is shortened with an electric saw towards the end of the anesthesia. This is to prevent poachers from injuring or even killing Fatu in order to get the horn of the last northern white rhinoceros.
The smell of burned hair – keratin – lingers in the air. Fatu stands up slowly, she is still wobbly on her feet. Somewhat dazed, she trudges around the enclosure, and doctors and nurses watch her for several hours. While she is recovering from the procedure, she is joined by her mother Najin and a southern white rhinoceros. Naveena Kotoor, dpa
