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Opinion How a newborn rhino could help to save his subspecies cousins from extinction

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August 12, 2019 at 6:20 p.m. EDT
A day-old southern white rhino calf beside its mother at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park July 29. The birth of this male calf marked the first successful artificial insemination birth of a southern white rhino in the United States. (Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Safari Park/EPA-EFE/REX) (Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Safari Park Handout/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Barbara Durrant is the director of reproductive physiology at San Diego Zoo Global.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s 99th baby southern white rhinoceros was born recently, but the arrival of “Edward” sparked much more widespread interest than the previous 98 births of his subspecies. That’s because Edward’s conception occurred not through natural mating but via artificial insemination. He is the first southern white rhino born through artificial reproduction in the United States.