The first baby rhino ever conceived by artificial fertilisation was born at Budapest Zoo on January, 23 at 6 pm local time. After 500 days of pregnancy, 25 year old Lulu – a Southern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) – gave birth without complications. The female baby weighs 58 kilograms.

The insemination was accomplished in September 2005. Scientists from the Berlin-based Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) performed the procedure only a few weeks after Lulu had given birth to a dead baby. This stillborn calf had also been conceived by artificial insemination (AI). The method was specifically developed for rhinos by three scientists of the IZW, Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt, Dr. Frank Göritz and Dr. Robert Hermes. They closely co-operated with A. Schnorrenberg, a Berlin-based company that develops surgical tools.

The success marks a break-through after seven years of research. It was only possible as a tremendous team effort, to which other specialists such as Prof. Franz Schwarzenberger as a hormone expert and Prof. Chris Walzer as specialist for rhino anasthesia and the Budapest zoo veterinarians Dr. Endre Sós and Dr. Victor Molnár contributed. Technical support for sonographical examinations was provided by General Electric.

“Of course, we were sad and disappointed after the first attempt of AI ended in a stillbirth but we were not discouraged”, says IZW veterinarian Robert Hermes. “We immediately planned another insemination. Although it ended with a stillbirth, that attempt had at least demonstrated that Lulu was able to give birth.

Now the researchers hope to use the artificial insemination procedure also with Northern White Rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), the most endangered subspecies world-wide. Only nine animals are known, four of them in the wild, five in captivity. Out of these five rhinos, only one female is still capable of bearing calves. Artificial insemination could help to secure the survival of this species. Furthermore, the method developed by the IZW scientists can be used to introduce genetic material from animals living in the wild without having to keep those animals in captivity.

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Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW)