Pregnant Rhino In San Diego Could Help Save Subspecies

ESCONDIDO, CA – A southern white rhino has become pregnant through artificial insemination at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, researchers announced Thursday. The pregnancy is part of a larger effort to save the northern white rhino, a distant subspecies of the southern white rhino, according to the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

There are only two northern white rhinos alive in the world and both are female. Researchers hope to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.

"The confirmation of this pregnancy through artificial insemination represents an historic event for our organization but also a critical step in our effort to save the northern white rhino," said Barbara Durrant, director of reproductive sciences at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

The newly pregnant rhino named Victoria is one of six southern white rhinos that the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research is testing to see whether they can serve as surrogate mothers for northern white rhino embryos. The rhinos could eventually be impregnated with eggs and sperm in storage from northern white rhinos in an attempt to save the subspecies. Cells from 12 different northern white rhinos are preserved at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research's "Frozen Zoo."

Artificial insemination of rhinos has rarely been attempted in zoos and there have only been a few births from this procedure in the past, according to the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

Rhino gestation lasts from 16 to 18 months, and Victoria is only about seven weeks along, researchers said. If Victoria is able to carry the calf to term, the first southern white rhino calf born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park's Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center could arrive in the summer of 2019.

Photo taken on May 15, 2018 by Tammy Spratt, San Diego Zoo Global