By Morgan Sung From Mashable

Humanity may be able to save the northern white rhino after all, thanks to scientists who managed to create two in vitro embryos. 

When Sudan, the last male northern white rhino left at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, died in 2018, the two female rhinos Fatu and Najin were the only ones left of their species. Since they couldn’t procreate, it seemed to be only a matter of time before the species would go extinct. 

But on Wednesday, there was a breakthrough. An international consortium of scientists announced that they’d successfully extracted immature eggs from Fatu and Najin, and then airlifted them to Avantea laboratory in Italy. 

When the eggs were ready for fertilization, they were injected with the sperm of two now-dead male northern white rhinos. Najin’s eggs didn’t make it, since the sample quality of the sperm used for her eggs was poor. But Fatu’s fertilized eggs did develop into viable embryos, and were promptly frozen, according to a statement from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, one of the partners in the consortium. 

The two viable embryos will be transferred to a surrogate mother, since neither Najin nor Fatu can carry a pregnancy. 

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