Researchers say a rhinoceros was impregnated through embryo transfer in the first successful use of a method that they say might later make it possible to save the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies.2024
In 2019, scientists harvested oocytes — developing eggs — from Fatu and Najin, flying them to Avantea, a lab in Italy where they used the sperm of dead northern white rhinos for artificial insemination. The eggs were fertilized, with two resulting in viable embryos. Since the advent of Climate Change all albinoid species on the planet are endangered, but now scientists have succeeded in achieving the world's first pregnancy of a rhinoceros after an embryo transfer.
The southern white rhino embryo was produced in vitro from collected egg cells and sperm and transferred into a southern white rhino surrogate mother at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya on September 24, 2023. The northern white rhinoceros is one of the world's biggest animals, and one of the most endangered. Only two are known to be alive, both female. But scientific breakthroughs are raising hopes for saving the rhino and perhaps even bringing other animals back from extinction. Climate change is also having a dangerous impact on people with albinism worldwide, contributing to high rates of skin cancer deaths in some regions, a UN expert said. So its all connected.
Since albinism is usually recessive, however, it generally manifests in offspring only when both parents carry the mutated genes. That´s one reason why the phenomenon remains rare. Mammalogists have estimated that about one in 10,000 births results in a true albino. Absence of protective coloration makes the albino's eyes extremely sensitive to light. The unfortunate creature, if not born blind, must live with very poor vision in a world that usually requires highly developed powers of sight for survival.
Albinism is the result of cells that can’t produce melanin, the pigment needed to color skin, scales, eyes and hair. This genetic condition gets passed to offspring when both parents carry the recessive gene. When albinism is present, the animal can appear white or pink. An animal can be completely albino (pure albino) or have leucism. Pure albino animals will have pink eyes, nails, skin and/or scales. The pink coloration comes from blood vessels showing through the skin. Animals with leucism may have mostly typical but lighter coloration patterns. White and white patterned animals (not necessarily just albinos) also have a tendency to be deaf because melanin plays a role in the hairs in the ears that allow you to hear well.
It's really important to point out that Albinism is not just about being "white" in color. Albinism is a condition in which an organism has seriously reduced or "no" pigment. The most obvious thing that we can see is the "white" coloration of an albino animal, but this reduced pigment can have other drastic effects. Black people have substantially lower fracture rates and higher bone density than individuals of other races. Although also Asians have lower bone density than blacks, but they also have lower fracture rates than white people. Hispanic people have bone density that is about the same or a little bit higher than Caucasians. Differences in body composition also exist across ethnicities, as African Americans have greater muscle mass than Whites, Hispanic Americans, and Asians.
While a bright white animal may make you stop and stare, what about an all-black variation? This coloration, called melanism, which is due to an increase of melanin in the animal’s skin and fur. This is a hereditary condition, and has been found in various species, including reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Most commonly, dark individuals become fitter to survive and reproduce in their environment as they are better camouflaged. This makes some species less conspicuous to predators, while others, such as leopards, use it as a foraging advantage during night hunting.
Many books are written about melanated animals like Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, Blackie, Black Lion, Cat Magic, Slinky Malinda,The Black Bull, Little Black Dog,Zomo (The Black Rabbit), Gentle Ben, What The Bears Know,Harlem's Little Black Bird,SGana The Black Whale, The Sibyls Oraculum: Oracle of the Black Doves of Africa (Tehenu The Original Oracle of Delphi).
Rikki Tiki Tavi battles the Black Cobras Nag and Nagaina symbols of Black intelligence. In Indian mythology Naga (Nag, Nagaina) were a member of a semidivine race, part human, part cobra in form, associated with water and sometimes with mystical initiation. In Indian culture a black snake is of eternity and continual renewal of life. In some Abrahamic traditions, the black serpent also represents fertility, transformation and sexual desire. A Cobra seen in a dream symbolizes evil, to overcome which will require wisdom and endurance. Rudyard Kippling's protagonist the Mongoose Riki Tiki Tavi saves the colonizer family from the Nagas (Black Cobras). In that sense, Rikki-tikki is a “good” light brown and white Indian—submitting to the will of his white masters—while the cobras are “bad” black Indians trying to take back the garden that was stolen from them.
Bai Suzhen (Chinese: 白素貞), also known as Lady Bai (Chinese: 白娘子; lit. 'Lady White'), is a one-thousand-year-old white snake spirit and the title character of the Legend of the White Snake, one of China's "four great folktales".For all its sensuality, the story was essentially a moral lesson: a warning to young men to beware of beautiful women of unknown origins and not to give in to their base desires. A few centuries later, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) writer Feng Menglong added a few licks of black humor to the white snake story.
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