![]() ![]() In May 2016, the research group published their plan in the open-access journal ZooBiology. In December 2015, experts from around the world met in Vienna to hash out a plan to save the northern white rhino. The process of gaining this knowledge is painstakingly slow, however. He also said that knowledge gained through developing IVF for the northern white rhino could potentially help breeding programs for other endangered rhino subspecies, particularly the Javan, Sumatran and black rhinos. "So we actually brought to conservation resources that would be likely spent on a different subject," he told Live Science. A substantial portion of the donations for saving the northern white rhino come from parties more interested in the development of IVF technologies for different species than in rhino conservation in particular, Stejskal said. Stejskal and other researchers active in the IVF project see it differently. Focusing efforts on poaching prevention - rhino horn is coveted for its "medicinal properties," which are just a myth - and saving habitat would be more beneficial for the other rhino species that have a better chance at survival, according to the organization. "Much of the sub-species’ former range has lost rhinos in its entirety, with limited conservation programmes or expertise for managing a rhino population, and large-scale habitat loss," according to Save the Rhino's position statement on northern white rhino IVF. The organization argues that the northern white subspecies is functionally extinct already saving it with IVF and surrogacy is more akin to reviving dead woolly mammoths than saving a critically endangered subspecies. "revention is better than cure," according to Save the Rhino. This vision of extinction has spurred debate in conservation circles, with some arguing that saving the northern white rhino is a poor use of resources. ![]() ![]() Still, the last male's death is likely not far in the future, given his advanced age. ![]()
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