By Roland Bjerke
Najin and Fatu are a mother and daughter pair of northern white rhinos. Together they are living in a protected, predator-free enclosure inside the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. They have all the food and water they can eat, freedom to roam, and people watching over them at all times. It seems that everything is as it should be. But is it really? The reason that these two rhinos are so different is because they are the last of their kind. To truly understand the sad story behind Najin and Fatu, you have to go back and look at how they became the last two northern white rhinos.
Poachers have been hunting rhinos for a very long time. They primarily rely on high-powered rifles and automatic weapons to shoot and kill the animals quickly from a distance. The whole reason that poachers almost eliminated the species is because of their horns. After they kill the rhino, they cut off its horn and sell it on the black market. The only reason that Najin and Fatu survived is because they were born and raised entirely within a protective captive breeding program. Normally in the wild, they would live to 40 years old, but when poachers came around, their lifespan is cut by more than 50%, from 40 to 15 years.
Northern white rhinos can live up to 50 years in captivity, and with Najin being 37, and Fatu being 26, the species is in constant veterinary care. Unfortunately for them, they are the very last of their kind, and with both being female, they have been classified as functionally extinct. The fact that they are a mother and daughter pair makes everything even more emotional, but at least they have each other. They also act like a mother and daughter pair would. Fatu is the bold and adventurous one. Keepers say that she is highly energetic, inquisitive, and a bit of a trouble maker. She often loves exploring her enclosure and is usually the first to investigate anything new. Najin on the other hand is a calm, protective mother. As an elderly rhino, Najin prefers to take things at a slower pace. She is very gentle, and has spent decades protecting Fatu, though Fatu now often takes the lead during their daily walks. Just like humans, they have comfort food. They are both obsessed with carrots and sweet potatoes, which keepers use to reward them during health checks. Another thing they love, like most rhinos, is a good mud bath. Najin gave birth to Fatu on June 29, 2000, and she was the last northern white rhino ever to be born, and most likely the last to die. Although there might be a way to save their lineage.
Scientists have been attempting to save the northern white rhino from extinction. They are trying to achieve this by using advanced biotechnology, in vitro fertilization, and genetic engineering. Veterinarians regularly perform advanced procedures to harvest immature egg cells straight from Fatu’s ovaries. The eggs are then flown to a specialized laboratory in Italy, where they are thawed and fertilized using sperm collected from several different northern white rhino males before they died. As of right now, this process has successfully produced 39 pure northern white rhino embryos. Because Najijn and Fatu cannot safely carry a pregnancy, these precious embryos are then stored in very low temperature until highly trained veterinarians can transfer them into the closely related southern white rhino females as surrogate mothers. So far there have been six attempts to transfer the embryos, but none of them have turned into long term pregnancies, though there is still a chance that one could because scientists are working around the clock to make it happen.
Unfortunately, because all 39 current embryos rely entirely on the genetics of Fatu, a long-term population would suffer from severe inbreeding. To solve this, scientists are extracting DNA from historical museum specimens such as preserved skins, bones, and organs of northern white rhinos that died decades ago. The goal of this is to use gene editing to introduce genetic diversity into rhino cell lines. Scientists are working around the clock to hopefully save the last of the northern white rhino species. Will they be able to succeed? I sure hope so.
Roland Bjerke is a Spring Grove High School student, one of 8 area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 28th year.
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