Two rhinos munch serenely on grass as the sun rises over Mount Kenya, oblivious to the massive global endeavour to prevent them being the last of their kind.

Najin and her daughter Fatu are the only northern white rhinos left on Earth. The clock is ticking before they become the latest in a long line of animals that humans have poached to extinction.

But a recent breakthrough means this could be the year the world celebrates a new northern white rhino foetus.

It would be an unprecedented comeback for the subspecies, declared functionally extinct after the death of the last male, Sudan, in 2018.

Uterus problems mean neither Sudan's daughter Najin nor his granddaughter Fatu can carry a pregnancy to term.

But Fatu still produces viable eggs, making her a candidate for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

For years, scientists have been collecting her eggs at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where the rhinos remain under 24-hour guard. The eggs are sent to Europe where they are fertilised in a lab with sperm from dead male northern whites.

There are now 36 fertilised eggs -- or embryos -- ready to be implanted, said Jan........

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