Wednesday 28 January 2015

First step in plan to save northern white rhino

28 January 2015 Last updated at 09:54

By Paul RinconScience editor, BBC News website

Experts are pinning their hopes on in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) to save the northern white rhino from extinction.

Just five of the animals remain on the planet, after two adult males died within months of each other at the end of 2014.

At a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday, conservationists decided to harvest eggs from the remaining females.

The eggs will be stored with a view to being used for IVF in the future.

While offering some hope for the rhino sub-species, it also underlines the dire prospects for the last animals.

The eggs will join frozen northern white rhino sperm already stored an institute in Berlin, Germany.

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