Page 10 - De-Extinction: The Science of Bringing Lost Species Back to Life

94 DEEXTINCTION

With only two egg donors, Najin and Fatu, it will not be
possible to create a genetically diverse northern white rhino
population. Researchers will try to add diversity by turning
frozen somatic cells saved from other northern white rhinos
into stem cells, which can then be turned into eggs and
sperm. Even if this succeeds, genetic diversity will remain low,
since all the available northern white rhino cell cultures are
genetically very similar.
Still researchers are hopeful. “Other species... have
come back from numbers that small so we think there is
good reason we can do this with the northern white rhino,”
said Barbara Durrant. But not everyone is a believer. Paul R.
Ehrlich of Stanford University says that rather than genetically
engineering endangered animals, the world needs to address

Park rangers and conservation groups sometimes intercept shipments of rhino
horns bound for the black market. To raise public awareness about the illegal
killing of rhinos and to prevent anyone from profiting from the horns, authorities
sometimes burn them in big bonfires.