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Rhinos have become the face of extinction.

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But in this place, they have been offered
a narrow path to survive.

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Between 1970 and 1980,
98% of Kenya's black rhinos

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were killed, the victims of
human greed and desire.

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Kenya's response was desperate.

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With just 300 black rhinos left,
they fenced them in.

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The protected zones were
called conservancies,

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enclaves guarded by laws and lethal force.

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Elite rangers were recruited from the
edges of the new zones.

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The poachers learned to fear them.

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And for much of Kenya, poaching has become
a memory.

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The rhino population rebounded.

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In the north, Liberana and
Lewa, together, they are

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one of the most successful
rhino habitats on earth.

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They have become a paradise.

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Conservancies united by an open border and
a single mission.

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Save the species.

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Kiloku is the lead rhino monitor and one
of Kenya's best trackers.

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His knowledge has been inherited over
generations.

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His team must find every rhino,
every day.

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When night falls, the armed anti-poaching
rangers take over.

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They are always watching.
Always ready.

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Kenya stopped the poaching of rhinos

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but now faces a crisis born from its success.

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Rhinos are killing each other for
territory.

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The conservancies are vast,
but the very fences that save the rhinos

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also define the
perimeters of gladiatorial arenas.

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Each male will take a territory 10 square
kilometers in size to find a mate.

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And they will fight to the death for it.

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The ranger's connection here is deep.

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For centuries, their ancestors have shaped
this land,

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leading their cattle along invisible
paths to pastures hidden to the untrained.

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The villages on the Conservancy's edge are
the birthplaces of most of the rangers.

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Kiloku is Maasai.

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As a child, he tended his family's
livestock.

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And as a young warrior, he protected the
herd from predators and bandits.

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Borana exists in the shadow cast
by this forest.

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But there's a curse amongst these trees.

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The villages between the Conservancy
boundaries and the Mukogodo

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are besieged by
raids from cattle-stealing bandits.

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A contest fought with fists and
spears has become a deadly

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game played with firearms
from the continent's civil wars.

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The rangers rely on whispers from
informants to stem a resurgence of poaching.

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Deeper in the forest, villages lie empty.

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Ghost towns abandoned after months of
banditry violence,

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made worse by a drought, slowly
creeping through the landscape.

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On the fringes of the ranger's territory
lives Teresa, the final resident.

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She has become their eyes.

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Cattle are not just livestock here.

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They're currency.

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And the bandits are Kenya's bank robbers.

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A rhino horn can be worth more than a
hundred thousand dollars on the black market.

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Each rhino carries a death sentence on
their head.

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As long as banditry thrives, rhinos cannot
exist in this forest.

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Opening wildlife corridors gives male
rhinos an escape route from large arrivals.

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This buys the Conservancies time,
but it's only a temporary fix.

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They need more space.

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West of Borana is Loisaba Conservancy,
a perfect new habitat.

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It's a hundred miles away,

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but moving rhinos is fraught with danger
and must be a last resort.

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A recent attempt to translocate rhinos to
a different Conservancy ended in disaster.

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All eleven rhinos moved to Savo East
National Park... died.

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This time it is an even more
ambitious relocation,

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moving over 20 rhinos under the
watch of a new team.

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Rita is university educated and the next
generation.

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The habitat is almost ready

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but Rita is green in the field.

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The black rhino can be an extremely
violent animal.

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And if Rita is to survive being around
them, she must learn from the best.

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Each and every rhino in Kenya has a unique
number, given at birth.

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The team must know exactly which rhinos
need to be moved.

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Marking them through ear notching is a
cornerstone of Kenya's strategy.

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They waited.

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But rain didn't come.

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And another season passed
under cloudless skies.

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As the drought swept deeper into Borana,
the land withered.

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Predators thrived on the weary.

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But rhinos continued to be born.

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The number of black rhinos in Kenya broke
1,000 for the first time in 50 years.

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What should be a moment of triumph is
overshadowed by a difficult reality.

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Without space, survival may be fleeting.

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The fight for territory became more
fierce.

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Food for rhinos was scarce.

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Outside the fences, pastures became
scorched earth.

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And livestock people depend on couldn't
survive.

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Desperation became starvation.

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Radicalized by hunger, poaching surged.

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But not for profit, for food.

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Animals and humans were forced into small
pockets of pasture.

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Conflict was simmering
and the bandits were ready.

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The few people left fled their homes.

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The rangers, once guardians of wildlife,
were forced into a new role.

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They became protectors
of their communities

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Johnson Saruru's patrol was ambushed.
He was killed.

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Five other members of his team were
injured.

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150 rangers fall in silence each year,

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fighting not for riches or glory,
but for nature.

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They protect places not heard of by many.

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They die not as heroes or martyrs,
but as stewards.

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Their names fade to the ether,
yet they represent the best in all of us.

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After four years of drought,
the rains fell upon this land

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with a ferocity that the most
seasoned couldn't anticipate.

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Blood was washed from the soil into
rivers that swelled beyond their banks,

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as the landscapes erupted with color.

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Clouds retreated to reveal the beauty of
life restored.

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Animals and humans feasted to replenish
lost flesh.

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With food abundant, the rhinos could
finally be moved to Loisaba.

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Rhinos are returning to the place they
were wiped out from just 60 years ago.

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Rita as their guardian.

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Good morning.

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What we are doing today is correcting
mistakes that were done many years ago.

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Had we not started the process of
protecting the rhinos and ensuring that

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they are not hunted and they
don't die and they are taken care of,

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today we'd be talking about
rhinos being extinct.

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So this is being done to ensure that we
continue growing the population of rhinos.