All language subtitles for the_last_rhinos_a_new_hope_2025

Go to... Come on, girl. Here.

These are the last two northern white
rhinos on Earth.

Their names are Najin and Fatu.

All right. Good girl.

She loves to be stroked behind the ears
and under the belly also,

just like here.

We have had her for 15 years, so we are
good friends.

Because

of

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

She's 31 years old.

That's 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

new babies to teach and care for.

Hi, Fatou.

Hi, Fatou.

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

rhino here on a protected preserve in
Kenya.

You see the young 21 -year -old female
and then the 32 -year -old female.

So there'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.

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

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.

She's beautiful.

Yeah. 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 all on our shoulders.

My colleagues and I have poured our life
into this project. So tomorrow is a

very big day.

The night before the ovum pickup 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's an
internal bleeding, there's an anesthesia

is too deep and the animal never wakes
up again.

The first thing to do is to check how
they're doing.

We don't want him to be nervous.

Zachariah, you can feel his stress.

He knows what the stakes are. This is
like his baby.

I've looked after them for 11 years and
they do recognize my voice.

This way.

One more. Okay.

Okay, wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Okay, let her go. Back.

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

Leave her.

Make sure that she's stuck with the horn
in the corner. That's fine. Leave her

like this.

Cool, guys.

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.

Two milligram DETO, 100 milligram
ketamine.

Okay, we can go higher now.

These procedures can be incredibly
risky.

I mean, can you imagine a 2 ,000 -pound
animal with a horn waking up?

Oxygen is deep in?

Yeah. 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, It's

It's not a teddy bear.

But doing this procedure is for us the
only chance.

Here we go.

This one,

small one. That's two actually. Have you
seen that?

Next to each other.

Okay. Good.

Good for Likert.

Yep. Perfect.

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.

Okay, stop.

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 O -side.

Searching for the eggs or oocytes takes
place in a former shipping container,

which gets very hot.

And also it is very attractive for
flies.

And you have to focus very strongly on a
microscope.

You play with the light, and then
suddenly you see this purple light

of a cell. And then you know that is
what you want.

Is that a good one?

Yeah, it looks good.

That is the reason why we are here.

This is the beginning of new life.

Robert, 19 all -sides.

Best result ever.

19 oocytes means 19 potential chances to
create new baby northern white rhinos.

The hard work paid off.

Thank you.

We never had such results before. Never.
The best in any

rhino. We are extremely grateful.

Okay, now I have to pack again. 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 whiz to the airport.

It's a race against the clock to deliver
the eggs to the lab in Italy and turn

those oocytes into viable embryos.

They have maximum 48 hours after
collection when the oocyte needs to be

Otherwise, the project will fail.

documenting the story of the northern
white rhino since 2009.

I have probably made 40 trips which I
have largely self -funded

because this is one of the most
important stories of our lifetime.

My goal is to reach as many people as
possible and inspire them to care.

Hello!

Hello, Chloe!

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Wow. 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...

By him and I couldn't believe that we,
humanity, had reduced them to this.

The world's last male northern white
rhino has died. A wildlife conservancy

Kenya says the 45 -year -old rhino named
Sudan died from age -related

complications. Sudan was euthanized
after its condition worsened

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
loved him, everything stands still.

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.

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.

This technology means saving the
northern white rhino just might be

The egg will be fertilized with 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 survived for millions of years
against drought, predators, and the

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.

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

They are being poached to extinction.

And it's not just the northern white
rhino. It was just announced that we

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

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

alongside the animals.

They are the ones out there fighting
that fight every single day.

My family lives in the northern part of
Mara.

It can take me like 10 to 12 hours by
bus.

It's quite different.

I do spend most of my time here.

This is Brenda, and this is Avon.

They are my two beautiful daughters.

My last time I've been with them is
almost two months now.

Sometimes it's very hard, but sometimes
we have to accept it.

It's more like having two families.

I have my immediate family at home, and
my second family is a rhino.

And I have to care for all of them.

The weight is on our shoulders and the
whole world is waiting for us.

There are only two animals on earth
capable of providing the eggs needed to

northern white rhino embryos.

But even that is in jeopardy now.

issues in her reproductive tract for a
long time.

Everything's done.

Everything's done.

She has benign tumors and

potentially malignant tumors that are in
the uterus.

One of these tumors may even become
malignant, so that's the risk we don't

to take.

The results of Nojin's recent health
check show 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.

I remember the first time I saw a rhino.

It was so exciting.

My father used to work here in Okpejeta
as a fencer and I caught a visit when I

was very young and that's how I started
building up being a conservationist.

I want these rhinos to be here for my
daughters and for the next generation.

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

in the lab to a full -term pregnancy.

But none of this has ever been done
before.

It's a scientific first.

The best time to implant a rhino embryo
is at the peak of the surrogate female's

fertility cycle.

Mating behavior tells us when this is
happening.

Right there are the two surrogates and
the teaser bull.

The one by himself on the left is the
male.

When the teaser bull starts mating, we
know it's the right time through the

implantation of the embryos.

The teaser bull is a sterilized male, so
it's still mate, but it can't make the

surrogate mothers pregnant.

I think one of the surrogates is ready.
I can see the male is just following

them behind.

And this is a really good sign.

This tells us that it is the perfect
time to implant the embryo.

So now my job is to call the team and
tell them to get here as fast as they

We're in Amsterdam.

I am 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.

right next door to them are the southern
white rhinos.

The sun is coming up, and there's just
so much anticipation.

Here we are.

Good morning, everyone.

We are extremely proud to be here today
because it will be the first time that

an embryo from a rhinoceros will be
implanted into a wild rhino. That is a

big step.

50 mg butofenol, which is 5 ml from this
stuff.

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
practice.

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

because everyone knows that not all of
these missions were successful.

Okay, let's go.

Okay, good luck.

Good luck. And please go to Freie Feld.

A little prayer?

Yeah, prayer. Now it's your turn.

I do it inside.

Yeah, I do it inside.

I have to work.

All right, let's go.

Be a doctor?

Yes.

And more here.

It's 36.

Turn on the ultrasound device.

Now it's very sensitive phase.

Give the ketamine, please.

I'm in.

Okay.

We are in with the needle.

Okay, now we have to concentrate.

100 milligram ketamine.

And now let's... implant the embryo.

An international team of scientists have
successfully implanted an embryo into a

southern white rhino for the first time.

It's a historic international effort
from teams all across the world, working

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

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.

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.

Unfortunately, it very tragically 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

my dream.

I think all these wonderful people which
are 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 flag to someone
else.

But first we have to achieve that.

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.

El Nino, which is a climate phenomenon
made by global warming, produced so much

rain here in Kenya that the surface of
the soil was flushed away and 100 -year

-old carcasses, mummies, buried by the
Maasai here, were released. And in these

mummies, there are the bacteria which
can live up to 500 years.

And they released extremely powerful
toxin. And this toxin killed our rhinos

one hour.

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.

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's horse.

In another world first, a southern white
rhino became pregnant by IVF, but the

mother and the baby died from an
infection.

Unfortunately, we lost it when it was 70
days.

This little baby provided us with a
complete success story that everything

working and we could start immediately
with another wet rhino embryos.

Now, next time we come with very
precious cargo.

The pregnancy proved the process works.

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

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.

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 two. Can you write that?
Two minus three, one.

Everything is very fragile. If they heat
up, they are dead.

Okay.

Perfect.

A lot of pressure.

A lot of pressure on our shoulders.

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

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.

There is Jomo, the sterilized male.

It's a really huge male.

Unutilizable Jomo.

He is 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 help prepare the
ketamine dart.

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

As soon as they dart the female, we have
30 minutes to thaw the frozen embryo

and get it implanted.

Okay,

just get as close as you can to the
female.

The first dart only slows her down. It
takes two darts to put her on the

The first dart is in, so we're just
going for the second dart now.

Okay, got it. So first dart is in, and
we start sewing the embryo. Thanks.

Second dart is in.

Jomo is running away now as well. We
will clear.

He has left the area.

It's dawn, the bull is away, and now
Frank is preparing the anesthesia.

Can we have some water here to clean the
ear?

You okay?

You need help?

yeah wait push it a little bit over
there to get the leg out okay guys one

three one two three one two three one
two three get the leg out one two three

yeah good yeah have a look

wait

So we get a call and then we start our
procedure here and joining them very

for the transfer.

This perfect little

embryo, which is barely visible with the
eye, to thaw it in a safe way, it is

very...

Emryo delivery is coming.

These little tiny hundred micrometer big
objects which we transfer into this

gigantic uterus with 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.

Pregnant.

Yeah, Emery was in. She's pregnant.

Is she in? Yeah, yeah.

The emerald was released and this
incredible moment we have all been

for so long has finally been achieved.

We placed it in an optimal position so
we are quite hopeful that this first

attempt in a world ever has success.

Now it's on nature and praying and we
will see what happens.

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.

Historic moment.

Always, rain is good.

I hope it's a good sign for the embryo.

It's sort of a blessing.

I'm dreaming that we will see many, many
more of these beautiful northern white

rhinos alive on the earth once again.