San Diego ‘Frozen Zoo’ could be key to saving endangered species

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MEXICO: Scientists at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park are working on a project that, they hope, may be a last chance solution for many of the planet’s endangered species. Their “frozen zoo,” as it has been called, contains cell samples from thousands of creatures.
The complicated technology that researchers are refining converts animals’ skin cells into stem cells. These, in turn, will become the egg and sperm necessary for in-vitro fertilization in a surrogate mother of a similar or related species. Theoretically, the process would eventually result in new offspring of the endangered animal.
The process has been tested successfully in mice, but now scientists are focused on a bigger target: the northern white rhinoceros. Only five northern white rhinos remain in the world, and friends of the animal kingdom are desperate to keep the species from dying out. Nola, a northern white rhino who lives in the Safari Park, is nearing 41 years old – the equivalent of about 80 in human years. “She’s at the end of her life,” said zookeeper Jane Kennedy.
Rhinos in the wild are being driven to extinction by human poaching, a practice which, scarily, seems to be on the increase. In 2014, a record 1,215 rhinos were killed by poachers, an increase of over 20 percent from the previous year. Rhinos are hunted mainly for their horns, which many mistakenly believe have medicinal values. “The horn is made out of keratin, the same thing as your fingernail,” said Kennedy. “If rhino horn cured cancer, then all you’d have to do is chew on your fingernails and there would be no more cancer in the world.”
While some breeding programs have been successful, scientists hope that if they perfect this new method of saving endangered species, some might even be introduced back into the wild. “Our focus, our mission is to save these animals through science,” said Barbara Durant, director of reproductive physiology at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.