Seven eggs that were extracted from the last two remaining female northern white rhinos have now been fertilised, scientists have confirmed.
In a bid to save the near-extinct species, 10 eggs were harvested from Najin, 30, and her daughter Fatu, 19, during a groundbreaking procedure in Kenya last week.
Seven of these have successful matured, and have now been artificially inseminated with the frozen sperm from two northern white rhino bulls, using a technique called ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection).
Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya has been sharing regular updates on Twitter, having explained last week that a team of vets managed to harvest five eggs each from Najin and Fatu while they were under general anaesthetic.
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The operation had never been attempted in this species before.
"Both of them have come around from the operation just fine," the conservancy said.
"These precious eggs will now be artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from a northern white rhino bull, and in the near future the embryo will be transferred to a southern white rhino surrogate mother."
Seven of their eggs have been successfully matured and artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from northern white rhino bulls, Suni and Saut.
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Ol Pejeta Conservancy said: "Scientists involved in this procedure had to thaw two batches of semen to find three live sperms needed to fertilise Najin's egg, as semen from Saut proved difficult to work with."
The project has been the result of 'years of planning and preparation', and has been a joint effort from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Berlin, Avantea, Dvůr Králové Zoo, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Cesare Galli, who led the team behind the procedure at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, said: "We were surprised by the high rate of maturation achieved as we do not get such high rate with southern white rhino females in European zoos.
"The semen of Saut was very difficult to work with and to find three live sperms needed for the eggs of Najin we had to thaw two batches of semen. Now the injected oocytes (cells) are incubated and we need to wait to see if any viable embryo develop to the stage where it can be cryo-preserved for later transfer."
Featured Image Credit: Ol Pejeta Conservancy
