Original subtitles

[heavy breathing]

[♪ Inspirational music playing]

[♪ Theme music playing]

[birds chirping]

[♪ Reflective music playing]

Fatu... Come on, guy.

Here.

These are the last two northern white rhinos on earth.

Their names are Najin and Fatu.

Hi, hi. Good Girl.

She loves to be stroked behind the ears and, um...

...under the belly also, just like here.

Yeah, I've had her for 15 years,

so we are good friends.

Good girl, Najin.

But because of human failure,

human greed, the result is just only the two we have.

Najin, she's 31 years old.

That is like about six years in human lifetime.

And her daughter, she's 20 years.

So they are mother and daughter,

watching each other get older every day with no new

babies to teach and care for.

Hi, Fatu. Hi, Fatu.

She's had some good mud baths, it looks like.

In the early 1900s,

there were thousands of northern white rhinos

roaming the plains of Central Africa.

But due to poaching, that number was down to only

15 by the 1980s.

Today, there are only these last two females left.

I've been following this story for over 15 years,

documenting a team called BioRescue as they attempt a new

scientific procedure to save the northern white rhino here

on a protected preserve in Kenya.

You see the young 21-year-old female and then

the 32-year-old female.

So it's a clear difference in body shape.

We have a clock ticking on us always with this project.

The last two northern white rhinos are getting old.

They will not be here forever.

The males are already gone.

There's no natural breeding anymore.

The only chance would be via IVF.

[Ami] IVF is a reproductive procedure where eggs and sperm

are combined in a laboratory.

The embryo is then implanted into the uterus of the mother

to grow into a baby.

But IVF in a rhino has never been done before.

The first step is collecting oocytes, or eggs,

from the last living northern white rhinos.

That's what the scientists will attempt to do tomorrow.

[Thomas] She's beautiful. Beautiful lady.

And hopefully you will have a baby soon.

We are scientists doing a procedure which was

never done before.

And if we fail, then the northern white rhino is gone.

And that is on our shoulders.

My colleagues and I have poured our life into this project,

so tomorrow is a very big day.

[♪ Upbeat music playing]

The night before the ovum pick-up is

always quite challenging.

You have all these ideas what can go wrong.

If we make a mistake,

it can have such consequences that

there is an internal bleeding,

there is an anesthesia which is too deep and

the animal never wakes up again.

[Zacharia] The first thing we do is to check

how they're doing.

We don't want him to be nervous.

Fatu, come on, Fatu.

[Ami] Zacharia, you can feel his stress.

He knows what the stakes are.

This is like his baby.

[Zacharia] Fatu.

I've looked after them for 11 years,

and they do recognize my voice.

This way. One more. OK.

OK, wait. Wait, wait, wait.

OK, let her go.

Back.

Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Leave her.

Make sure that she stacks the horn in the corner.

That's fine. Leave her like this.

Cool, guys.

[Ami] The anesthesia is a really important piece of it.

This is what Frank does.

If he doesn't get the formula exactly right,

these animals can die.

[Frank] Two milligram deto, 100 milligram ketamine.

Okay, you can go higher now.

[Ami] These procedures can be incredibly risky.

I mean, can you imagine a 2,000-pound animal with

a horn waking up?

[Frank] Oxygen is deep in.

[Thomas] We had some accidents.

I lost a disc in my backbone because working with elephants.

I broke my collarbone with a rhino.

So there's some risk,

but we have to know that our patient is dangerous.

It's not a teddy bear.

But doing this procedure is for us the only chance.

[speaking in foreign language]

This one, small one.

There's two, actually.

Have you seen that? Next to each other. Yeah.

[speaking in foreign language]

[Frank] Remember that this ovary is down on the

lower side, yeah?

[Thomas] Yeah. Okay.

Is this left or right?

[Thomas] Left, and it's on the lower side.

[Frank] Okay.

[Thomas] Good. Good for the kids.

Yep. Perfect.

[Frank] Okay guys, crossed one hour border time.

They're keeping close track of the time.

You know, they can't keep her under anesthesia

for that long.

[Thomas] Okay, stop. Yep.

[overlapping chatter]

Okay, okay. Very good.

Okay, let's go.

At the end, when we finish the harvest,

the second phase happens, and we have to find the oocyte.

Searching for the eggs or oocyte takes place in a form of

shipping container, which gets very hot.

And also, it is very attractive for flies,

and you have to focus very strongly on the microscope.

You play with the light and then suddenly you see this

purple light coming out of a cell and then you know

that is what you want.

Is that a good one?

-Yeah. -Yeah, it looks good.

That is what we do.

The reason why we are here.

This is the beginning of new life.

Robert, 19 oocytes.

Yay!

[cheering]

Good.

Best result ever.

[Robert] Yes!

Yep.

[Ami] 19 oocytes means 19 potential chances to create

new baby northern white rhinos.

We never had such result before.

Never. The best in any rhino.

We are extremely grateful.

Okay, now I have to pack again, sorry.

Sorry, that is the second part.

Otherwise we miss our flight and lose our harvest.

Okay.

As soon as they're done, it's complete chaos.

They quickly get all their suitcases and then

whizzed to the airport.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[laughter]

[Ami] It's a race against the clock to deliver the eggs to

the lab in Italy and turn those oocytes

into viable embryos.

[Thomas] We have maximum 48-hours after collection

when the oocyte needs to be processed.

Otherwise, the project will fail.

[♪ Inspirational music playing]

[Ami] I have been documenting the story of

the northern white rhino since 2009.

[camera shutter clicking]

I have probably made 40 trips which I have largely

self-funded because this is one of the most important

stories of our lifetime.

[camera shutter clicking]

My goal is to reach as many people as possible and inspire

them to care.

[audience applause]

Hello!

Hello, SLO!

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. Wow. I thank you all for coming out.

I am so excited to be back here.

Back in 2009, I met a rhinoceros named Sudan

for the first time.

And quite unexpectedly, this gentle,

hulking creature changed the way I see the world.

I literally felt like I had just seen a unicorn.

I was so moved by him, and I couldn't believe that we,

humanity, had reduced them to this.

[reporter] The world's last male northern white rhino

has died.

A wildlife conservancy in Kenya says the

45-year-old rhino named Sudan died from

age-related complications.

Sudan was euthanized after his condition

worsened significantly.

[Zacharia] I cared for Sudan every day for almost 10 years.

He was so special because he knew he was so

strong and so powerful.

But I think he also knew he needed our help.

I can still remember the last day we lost him.

Everything stands still.

[Ami] The moment when Sudan died,

the last male northern white rhino,

it was just this realization that this is what we've done.

I only took two frames of that because I didn't want the sound

of my camera to disturb the sacredness of the moment.

And that picture,

I never expected it to be so symbolic.

I think people saw it and recognized it's our last chance.

[♪ Reflective music playing]

It was actually Sudan's death that was a real spark.

Everybody began to understand there's no more time.

After the eggs are extracted, they have to be fertilized

within 48 hours.

Cesare's laboratory is amazing.

There's this high-tech thing going on,

but then right outside are all of these cloned animals.

That's where you get this feeling like, oh,

we're playing God here.

But this technology means saving the northern white rhino

just might be possible.

[Thomas] The eggs will be fertilized with a sperm which

comes from two different bulls.

Both are passed away, one in 2015, one in 2014.

It's quite a challenging operation.

The sperm which is injected will develop into

this new cell and then new life starts to grow.

The miracle of life is something that is so fragile.

It can be destroyed so easily.

Rhinos survive for millions of years against drought,

predators, and the forces of nature.

But in just a few decades,

humans nearly wiped them out.

Now every day that passes without a new baby on the

ground is one day closer to the northern white rhino

being gone forever.

So there's always this clock ticking on us.

And our time is almost up.

[Ami] This is how we imagine wildlife roaming the

open plains of Africa.

That's not actually what it's like today for rhinos.

This is what it's like.

They have to be guarded around the clock 24-7 by

heavily militarized men because the value of their horn

is worth more than gold.

They are being poached to extinction.

And it's not just the northern white rhino.

It was just announced that we have lost 73% of the

world's wildlife in the last 50 years.

I just could not stop thinking about this.

And I started researching and reading everything

I could about this story.

I wanted to understand, what do we do?

Is there hope?

How do we stop this?

And I just started asking one simple question,

which I could not find in any of the stories.

What do the people who live right next to the animals think?

Do they care about them?

And actually, it has led me down this amazing path of

finding the most extraordinary people that do care.

We can often forget that the best protectors are those

people who are living alongside the animals.

They are the ones out there fighting that fight

every single day.

[Thomas] There are only two animals on earth capable of

providing the eggs needed to make

northern white rhino embryos.

But even that is in jeopardy now.

One of these tumors may even become malignant,

so that's the risk we don't want to take.

[Thomas] The results of Nadine's recent health check

shows that sadly she is too sick to provide any more eggs

to the program.

So the number of new embryos we can make now rests

solely on Fatu.

The extinction of this species is on a razor's edge.

Every day that passes is one day closer to losing the

last northern white rhinos on Earth.

[♪ Somber music playing]

[Zacharia] I remember the first time I saw a rhino,

it was so exciting.

[Zacharia] I want these rhinos to be here for my daughters.

And for the next generation.

[Ami] Only five rhino species remain on Earth.

Three are in Asia, and two are in Africa.

Losing any of these rhino species brings us one step

closer to losing all rhinos forever.

Unfortunately, neither of the last two surviving

northern white rhinos

are healthy enough to carry their own pregnancy.

Saving the northern white rhino depends on scientists

using closely related southern white rhino females as

surrogate mothers to carry the embryos created in the lab to a

full-term pregnancy.

But none of this has ever been done before.

It's a scientific first.

We're in Amsterdam. I'm about to board the plane.

This has been the most stressful and also

exciting 24 hours.

I got a call.

I was in the middle of a talk in California,

scrambled to get here, and it is just so exciting.

We're at the enclosure now.

We're driving up to the northern white rhinos.

And right next door to them are the southern white rhinos.

And the sun is coming up.

And there's just so much anticipation.

Here we are.

[Thomas] Good morning, everyone.

We are extremely proud to be here today because

it will be the first time that an embryo from

a rhino source will be implanted into a wild rhino.

That is a very big step.

[Frank] 50 milligram butorphanol,

which is five milliliter from this stuff.

[Thomas] We agreed in a quite intensive discussion that it

would be more wise to use a

southern white rhino embryo first.

If the embryo transfer of our southern white rhino

embryos is successful,

then we would continue with the northern white rhino embryos.

Everything of these steps are new ground,

and therefore it is so important to, to practice.

[♪ Intense music playing]

It's a little bit like sending a man to the moon,

because as everyone knows,

not all of these missions were successful.

[Frank] Okay, let's go.

Okay, good luck. Good luck.

[♪ Intense music playing]

[overlapping chatter]

[Frank] Ready to go?

[overlapping chatter]

[Zacharia] Okay.

[Thomas] And more here, here.

It's 36.

OK.

[overlapping chatter]

[♪ Suspenseful music playing]

[Thomas] We will see.

[reporter] An international team of scientists has

successfully implanted an embryo into a southern white rhino

for the first time.

[reporter] It's a historic international effort from teams

all across the world,

working quickly to save a species before it's too late.

[reporter] The procedure was carried out with

southern white rhinos,

which are closely related to northern whites.

The surrogate in Kenya is healthy and 70 days

into its pregnancy.

[Thomas] Now it is a waiting game to see if it's actually

possible to grow a healthy baby rhino via IVF.

But on a personal level, putting so much time and energy

into this project has been especially difficult recently.

My wife is a cancer patient,

and she had finished her first chemotherapy

in May last year.

But unfortunately and very tragically it turned out

she had a relapse of her cancer and it is

not treatable anymore.

So she will die soon.

But we both agreed that this is important for both of us.

It's a mission we want to achieve together.

So that is our agreement and that is my dream.

I think all these wonderful people working with us,

they have the same mission.

We have to provide the final proof.

When the first northern white rhino calf is born,

I think I can relax a little bit more and give the...

...the flag to someone else.

But first we have to achieve that.

[Ami] Last time I was here, I had to race to the airport,

fly to Kenya, and they implanted that embryo into the

southern white rhino surrogate.

But then something terrible happened.

Six weeks after the procedure,

we got word that something was wrong at the preserve.

Tragically, both rhinos died before anyone could help.

It took weeks before we really even understood

what had happened.

[Ami] In this tragic moment came a ray of hope.

During the autopsy,

they found this viable 70-day-old male embryo

in her womb.

It was this heartbreaking moment,

but at the same time, this huge breakthrough.

[Thomas] Three and a half years working very hard,

and that's really a milestone.

It's the first ever pregnancy caused by an embryo transfer

in a rhino source.

[reporter] In another world first,

a southern white rhino became pregnant by IVF,

but the mother and the baby died from an infection.

[Thomas] Unfortunately, we lost it when it was 70 days.

But this little baby provided us with a complete success

story that everything was working,

and we could start immediately with the

northern white rhino embryos.

Now, next time we come with very precious cargo.

[Ami] The pregnancy proved the process works.

But the loss of the surrogate and teaser bull was a big hit

to the project.

[Thomas] It took months of work on the ground in Kenya to get

the project back on track.

Introducing a new southern white rhino surrogate.

And then capturing and sterilizing a new teaser bull.

[overlapping excited chatter]

Now we are finally ready to bring a new northern white rhino

baby into the world.

We begin by preparing the frozen embryos for the long

trip to Kenya.

I have a number 2.

Can you write that?

-Yeah. -2 minus 3, 1.

Everything is very fragile.

If they heat up, they are dead.

Okay, perfect.

A lot of pressure.

A lot of pressure on our shoulders.

[♪ Upbeat music playing]

[Ami] Now the stakes are much higher using the precious

northern white rhino embryos for the first time ever.

It's easy for people who may not be close to these animals

to think that these are habituated creatures.

They're not.

These were wild rhinos that we are working with.

You realize so many things have to be perfectly

in place for it to go right,

and it doesn't take a lot for things to go wrong.

[Frank] Our new teaser bull, Jomo.

He's not approachable like the other one.

And he is known for ramming vehicles.

So we have to do the darting this time by helicopter.

Julia is with you and has prepared the ketamine dart.

[♪ Dramatic music playing]

[Thomas] The plan is to dart the female so we can perform

the embryo implantation procedure.

And hopefully we can keep Jomo away without having

to dart him.

He wants to be near the female,

but it's too dangerous during the procedure.

So we are a little bit under time pressure.

Our team is already in the air.

As soon as they dart the female,

we have 30 minutes to thaw the frozen embryo and

get it implanted.

[Frank] Okay, just get as close as you can to the female.

Yeah!

[Frank] The first dart only slows her down.

It takes two darts to put her on the ground.

[♪ Intense music playing]

[Frank] Jomo is running away now as well.

We're clear. He has left the area.

[Thomas] The surrogate is down, the bull is away,

and now Frank is preparing the anesthesia.

[overlapping chatter]

[Frank] Yeah.

Can we have some water here for, to clean the ear?

Yeah, yeah.

You okay? You need help?

Yeah.

Wait. Push it a little bit over there.

Get the leg out.

Okay guys.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

Get the leg out. One, two, three.

Yeah, good.

Yeah, have a look, wait.

[Thomas] So we get a call and then we start our

procedure here and joining them very soon

for the transfer.

[Julia] This perfect little embryo,

which is barely visible with the eye,

to thaw it in a safe way, it is very stressful, yes.

[Thomas] Embryo delivery is coming!

[cheering]

[Thomas] We have in our catheter,

this little tiny 100 micrometer big object which

we transfer into this gigantic uterus.

It's a very complicated procedure.

So we are aware that every step of that is so sensitive,

it can easily fail.

It's a very tense procedure for everyone involved.

[cheering]

[Thomas] It's in, yeah.

The embryo was released and this incredible

moment we have all been dreaming of for so long has

finally been achieved.

We placed it in an optimal position,

so we are quite hopeful that this first attempt in the world

ever has success.

Now it's on nature and praying and we will see

what, what happens.

[Ami] This moment, I haven't actually fully processed it yet.

Today, I am reminded that it takes these kinds of people

reimagining a world where we can save species

literally from the brink of extinction.

[Thomas] Historical moment.

Good. Now...

[sighs]