This Is The Very Last Chance To Save Earth's Rarest Rhino

<p>Sheep81 / <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Northern_White_Rhinoceros_Angalifu.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a> (Public domain)</p>
<p>Sheep81 / <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Northern_White_Rhinoceros_Angalifu.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a> (Public domain)</p>

San Diego, CA: The last hope for the northern white rhinos.

There are presently only three northern whites left in Kenya and one in California.

All previous plans to breed and re-populate the species have heartbreakingly failed. It has come to the final hour.

In a last attempt to save the species, six southern white rhinos have been flown from South Africa to San Diego in an attempt to be implanted with embryos of the northern whites.

If the procedures are successful, they would be put to use to preserve endangered Sumatran and Javan rhinos as well.

Although researchers are optimistic, success will not be fast enough; as they estimate it could take 10 to 15 years to see a successful outcome. In the meantime, the four living rhinos are aging, and running out of time.

The northern white rhino used to range over parts of Eastern and Central Africa (Uganda, Chad, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Democratic Republic of the Congo). In 1960, 2,000 northerns existed.

For more on the northern white rhinos: "Watching the Sun Set on a Species," "The Last Male on Earth," "Look What You're Protecting"