1
00:00:41,820 --> 00:00:43,500
Sudan, come on, boy.

2
00:01:23,700 --> 00:01:27,380
This is the remarkable story
of an animal who survived

3
00:01:27,380 --> 00:01:29,980
the destruction of the rest
of his species.

4
00:01:31,420 --> 00:01:36,060
He's travelled the globe,
from the open savannahs of Africa,

5
00:01:36,060 --> 00:01:37,500
to a closed world behind
the Iron Curtain.

6
00:01:39,220 --> 00:01:42,380
Now as the very last male
of his kind,

7
00:01:42,380 --> 00:01:47,220
he's become an unwitting celebrity
in an astonishing modern-day fable.

8
00:01:47,220 --> 00:01:50,700
The whole story is not only about
animals, but it's a story

9
00:01:50,700 --> 00:01:52,460
about our human nature.

10
00:01:52,460 --> 00:01:56,780
And the focus of a battle to save
a species we pushed to the very

11
00:01:56,780 --> 00:01:58,620
brink of extinction.

12
00:01:58,620 --> 00:02:01,460
You look at that great big lumbering
dinosaur and you think, hey,

13
00:02:01,460 --> 00:02:04,700
what did we do wrong? Why did we end
up in this crazy situation?

14
00:02:20,820 --> 00:02:24,820
Sudan is inside a pen and we will
maintain the right-hand side

15
00:02:24,820 --> 00:02:28,060
and we will avoid talking. We will
talk when we come out of Sudan.

16
00:02:32,140 --> 00:02:34,180
So maybe one person at a time can
have a chance

17
00:02:34,180 --> 00:02:36,260
to have a photo with Sudan.

18
00:02:39,460 --> 00:02:41,340
It's amazing for us to have
him here.

19
00:02:41,340 --> 00:02:42,700
He's really popular.

20
00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:47,140
I mean, he's like a little star,
you know, a Hollywood star.

21
00:02:47,140 --> 00:02:49,100
This is the last male.

22
00:02:49,100 --> 00:02:51,620
People of all over the world have
written about him

23
00:02:51,620 --> 00:02:53,460
and people are coming here
to film him,

24
00:02:53,460 --> 00:02:55,420
people are coming here
to photograph him.

25
00:02:57,300 --> 00:02:59,060
We have a calendar for Sudan,

26
00:02:59,060 --> 00:03:01,980
because we don't want to have more
than one film crew or one journalist

27
00:03:01,980 --> 00:03:04,940
coming to visit him during a day,
because he needs to rest.

28
00:03:06,060 --> 00:03:09,500
He's got followers on Facebook,
on Instagram, you know,

29
00:03:09,500 --> 00:03:11,380
he's got his own hash tag.

30
00:03:11,380 --> 00:03:13,580
So if you search for
#LastMaleStanding on Twitter,

31
00:03:13,580 --> 00:03:15,580
you will see that he's
quite popular.

32
00:03:15,580 --> 00:03:18,260
I would go as far as saying that
he's the most popular

33
00:03:18,260 --> 00:03:19,660
rhino on the planet.

34
00:03:22,180 --> 00:03:23,900
A lot of people have
heard about Sudan

35
00:03:23,900 --> 00:03:27,380
because of what's happening to
the species.

36
00:03:27,380 --> 00:03:28,980
This is not a Kodak moment.

37
00:03:30,420 --> 00:03:34,100
It's a real shame that it's now that
people are coming to see Sudan, but

38
00:03:34,100 --> 00:03:37,100
the bottom line is, people are
interested in crisis, aren't they?

39
00:03:38,300 --> 00:03:39,540
And this is a crisis.

40
00:03:42,060 --> 00:03:46,460
Sudan's kind have roamed our planet
for some 50 million years.

41
00:03:47,660 --> 00:03:50,380
He's a northern white rhino,
a subspecies,

42
00:03:50,380 --> 00:03:52,700
once abundant in central Africa.

43
00:03:54,180 --> 00:03:58,660
But which today is on the edge of
extinction, with just three animals

44
00:03:58,660 --> 00:04:04,540
known to be alive. Sudan
and his two female companions.

45
00:04:33,300 --> 00:04:37,620
This is a very big problem because
how can you save a species which is

46
00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:39,100
already declared as extinct?

47
00:04:41,220 --> 00:04:43,540
That's why science has to come in.

48
00:04:46,860 --> 00:04:49,420
So, everybody,
welcome to this meeting.

49
00:04:49,420 --> 00:04:52,060
We are very, very privileged
to have very,

50
00:04:52,060 --> 00:04:54,700
very expert people at this table.

51
00:04:54,700 --> 00:04:58,500
There are veterinarians here, there
are reproductive experts here,

52
00:04:58,500 --> 00:05:01,420
there are conservationists here.

53
00:05:01,420 --> 00:05:05,180
I spent 22 years living with the
northern white rhinos in the wild.

54
00:05:05,180 --> 00:05:06,900
Despite everything we've done,

55
00:05:06,900 --> 00:05:08,220
you know, we're down to,

56
00:05:08,220 --> 00:05:11,820
reduced to a small known number.

57
00:05:11,820 --> 00:05:15,220
It's terrible to have got to
this stage.

58
00:05:15,220 --> 00:05:19,220
This meeting of experts,
global experts,

59
00:05:19,220 --> 00:05:25,340
is going to try to find a way of
introducing emerging technology

60
00:05:25,340 --> 00:05:28,180
into the northern white rhino
rescue programme,

61
00:05:28,180 --> 00:05:30,100
which is extremely challenging.

62
00:05:31,620 --> 00:05:34,140
We're trying to find a way of making
sure these animals

63
00:05:34,140 --> 00:05:35,340
continue to exist.

64
00:05:36,380 --> 00:05:37,860
We're racing against time,

65
00:05:37,860 --> 00:05:41,100
because there's only three animals
left on the planet,

66
00:05:41,100 --> 00:05:43,180
of which only two are females.

67
00:05:44,700 --> 00:05:47,220
And Sudan is an old rhino.
He could die tomorrow.

68
00:05:49,180 --> 00:05:53,500
This rhino lived for several
millions of years on our planet.

69
00:05:53,500 --> 00:05:55,660
Yeah, he looks quite
active. Yeah.

70
00:05:55,660 --> 00:05:58,740
And it would still live
another several millions,

71
00:05:58,740 --> 00:06:01,340
but the perversity of going for
the horn

72
00:06:01,340 --> 00:06:03,180
brings them into this situation.

73
00:06:06,220 --> 00:06:08,060
And I think humans did that,

74
00:06:08,060 --> 00:06:11,460
and humans have the responsibility
to correct it.

75
00:06:15,380 --> 00:06:19,220
The tale of how Sudan came to be the
last male on the planet

76
00:06:19,220 --> 00:06:22,260
begins 40 years ago,
when he was just a baby.

77
00:06:32,060 --> 00:06:35,500
There's no picture, photograph
of Sudan as a baby.

78
00:06:36,660 --> 00:06:38,740
He was actually born in the
South Sudan,

79
00:06:38,740 --> 00:06:41,380
in an area where there were
not many people.

80
00:06:43,340 --> 00:06:48,060
But like all baby rhinos, he would
have stuck close to his mother.

81
00:06:52,540 --> 00:06:55,180
When it was really hot, he might
have been sheltering under her

82
00:06:55,180 --> 00:06:59,100
to be in the shade, or they would
both be sitting under a tree or,

83
00:06:59,100 --> 00:07:00,700
you know, by a bush.

84
00:07:03,060 --> 00:07:06,540
He'd be very close to her
everywhere, going everywhere,

85
00:07:06,540 --> 00:07:07,980
very close with her.

86
00:07:10,820 --> 00:07:13,860
At his age, he would have been going
between the grass but his mother

87
00:07:13,860 --> 00:07:16,300
would have been holding her head
over the grass.

88
00:07:21,220 --> 00:07:26,260
And they call to each other,
a little meow, meow, meow.

89
00:07:26,260 --> 00:07:27,900
Meow, meow.

90
00:07:27,900 --> 00:07:31,740
Little mews that rhinos call to each
other with as a contact call,

91
00:07:31,740 --> 00:07:33,140
so they don't get lost.

92
00:07:37,180 --> 00:07:38,860
It's the one time in a rhino's life

93
00:07:38,860 --> 00:07:40,500
when they are hugely vulnerable

94
00:07:40,500 --> 00:07:44,780
is when they're small. Probably the
biggest threat are hyenas,

95
00:07:44,780 --> 00:07:49,420
number one. Number two, probably
lion, and of course, human beings.

96
00:07:50,940 --> 00:07:54,100
That little fellow, all he wants to
do is just be with his mum and he

97
00:07:54,100 --> 00:07:55,500
knows that's his only chance.

98
00:07:55,500 --> 00:07:58,660
If he gets separated from his mum,
he's terribly stressed out.

99
00:08:01,460 --> 00:08:03,580
Sudan was two years old.

100
00:08:05,300 --> 00:08:09,300
He was the youngest of the whole lot
that we caught.

101
00:08:13,220 --> 00:08:16,700
It was the Chipperfield family's,
sort of, brainstorm

102
00:08:16,700 --> 00:08:18,380
to start safari parks.

103
00:08:20,700 --> 00:08:25,820
And it was a new concept, totally
new way of showing animals, wild

104
00:08:25,820 --> 00:08:29,620
animals. Longleat was the first one
in the world

105
00:08:29,620 --> 00:08:33,580
and I happened to get a job there.

106
00:08:35,940 --> 00:08:40,340
Richard Chipperfield started setting
up safari parks in many other

107
00:08:40,340 --> 00:08:41,660
countries in Europe.

108
00:08:42,820 --> 00:08:45,660
So obviously, he needed more and
more animals.

109
00:08:51,980 --> 00:08:53,620
It was exhilarating.

110
00:08:53,620 --> 00:08:54,940
It was great fun.

111
00:08:54,940 --> 00:08:56,220
I enjoyed it.

112
00:08:58,100 --> 00:09:00,940
You roped the animals and then
everybody grabs the animal

113
00:09:00,940 --> 00:09:02,340
from all angles.

114
00:09:05,860 --> 00:09:08,700
And then take it back to camp.

115
00:09:09,860 --> 00:09:14,300
You have to remember, in those days,
there was SO much wildlife around.

116
00:09:14,300 --> 00:09:17,980
Herds of thousands or more
elephants.

117
00:09:17,980 --> 00:09:19,980
It was not uncommon at all.

118
00:09:21,420 --> 00:09:25,500
I don't think anybody sees that many
elephants in one herd today.

119
00:09:25,500 --> 00:09:32,060
So it was like, sure, you take a few
individuals to go to safari parks

120
00:09:32,060 --> 00:09:36,020
and people in Europe can see these
animals and appreciate them.

121
00:09:38,900 --> 00:09:42,540
When the Chipperfields wanted
someone to go out

122
00:09:42,540 --> 00:09:47,860
and join the capture team, I quickly
volunteered and was accepted

123
00:09:47,860 --> 00:09:51,100
and within a few days,
there I was in Africa.

124
00:09:56,980 --> 00:10:03,340
In 1974, Richard asked me to take
some of our crew and go up to Shambe

125
00:10:03,340 --> 00:10:05,500
in South Sudan, because he had heard

126
00:10:05,500 --> 00:10:08,300
that there were northern
white rhinos up there.

127
00:10:12,820 --> 00:10:15,460
In the years preceding
Sudan's birth,

128
00:10:15,460 --> 00:10:17,900
a wave of heavy poaching
dramatically reduced

129
00:10:17,900 --> 00:10:21,740
the number of northern white rhinos,
driving the survivors

130
00:10:21,740 --> 00:10:23,980
into increasingly remote areas.

131
00:10:25,620 --> 00:10:30,180
Well, it was an adventure, because
South Sudan was seriously primitive.

132
00:10:31,500 --> 00:10:34,180
This was quite a rare species

133
00:10:34,180 --> 00:10:37,820
and we had an actual order to
catch six -

134
00:10:37,820 --> 00:10:39,620
two males and four females.

135
00:10:44,300 --> 00:10:47,740
We had to find the right sort
of size.

136
00:10:47,740 --> 00:10:52,660
Something that is definitely weaned,
but not too grown either.

137
00:10:52,660 --> 00:10:56,180
So that they were pretty easy
to shape, you could say.

138
00:10:56,180 --> 00:11:00,580
They would tame down and adjust
easier to a different life.

139
00:11:05,060 --> 00:11:07,460
When we went to catch it, the first
job in the morning,

140
00:11:07,460 --> 00:11:11,340
I used to go up with a pilot and
float around in the sky

141
00:11:11,340 --> 00:11:14,900
like a vulture and we'd fly round
until we found the rhinos.

142
00:11:14,900 --> 00:11:20,660
And then, it was just a question of
being able to get them on the move,

143
00:11:20,660 --> 00:11:22,860
nip in, steal one.

144
00:11:27,220 --> 00:11:30,420
My pole was going directly behind
the animal's head, that's so

145
00:11:30,420 --> 00:11:32,620
he couldn't see me. Couldn't
see my rope.

146
00:11:35,500 --> 00:11:38,540
It came to that split second and
then I knew

147
00:11:38,540 --> 00:11:40,780
that all I'd got to do was that.

148
00:11:44,020 --> 00:11:45,860
I can remember catching Sudan.

149
00:11:46,980 --> 00:11:49,900
He put his head straight through my
noose and...got him.

150
00:11:52,460 --> 00:11:56,540
I don't think I ever felt that I was
doing wrong,

151
00:11:56,540 --> 00:12:00,740
but I suppose I couldn't help but
have some sympathy.

152
00:12:02,100 --> 00:12:05,020
An animal's being taken away from
the herd, or from mothers.

153
00:12:06,020 --> 00:12:07,580
It can't have been easy.

154
00:12:11,020 --> 00:12:14,300
Sounds crazy, but in a way,
we were saving them

155
00:12:14,300 --> 00:12:16,300
from the risk of poaching.

156
00:12:18,540 --> 00:12:22,220
What would have happened to Sudan
if you hadn't captured him?

157
00:12:23,220 --> 00:12:24,740
He'd be dead.

158
00:12:26,660 --> 00:12:28,780
For sure. A long time ago.

159
00:12:30,780 --> 00:12:32,180
They all would.

160
00:12:37,860 --> 00:12:40,860
Annie stayed with the six rhinos,
and then eventually,

161
00:12:40,860 --> 00:12:43,900
they moved them out from there and
took them into Uganda

162
00:12:43,900 --> 00:12:45,860
and on the train down to Mombasa.

163
00:12:47,020 --> 00:12:48,940
Then they shipped from Mombasa
to Europe.

164
00:12:50,060 --> 00:12:54,100
And then headed into the communist
bloc to the Czech Republic.

165
00:12:54,100 --> 00:12:55,620
Czechoslovakia, as it was then.

166
00:13:02,420 --> 00:13:06,940
The rhinos were an actual order
from Jo Vagner.

167
00:13:06,940 --> 00:13:13,780
He was a TV personality in
Czechoslovakia as it was then.

168
00:13:13,780 --> 00:13:19,220
He had a weekly show about
wildlife and he was the director

169
00:13:19,220 --> 00:13:23,540
for Dvur Kralove Zoo, collecting
all sorts of various species.

170
00:13:35,780 --> 00:13:38,780
THEY ARGUE IN CZECH

171
00:13:45,940 --> 00:13:47,620
Oh, she will not talk
English at all.

172
00:13:51,220 --> 00:13:52,780
This is Sudan.

173
00:13:52,780 --> 00:13:58,100
Yes. My father took six to Czech
Republic, to Czechoslovakia.

174
00:13:58,100 --> 00:14:00,740
And actually, I remember
my grandfather,

175
00:14:00,740 --> 00:14:02,780
whenever he had time, he came,

176
00:14:02,780 --> 00:14:06,620
he jump in this little corridor,
I don't know how you say it,

177
00:14:06,620 --> 00:14:11,100
and he was talking to them.
They always came.

178
00:14:11,100 --> 00:14:13,820
He whistled on them. He has his own
special whistle.

179
00:14:13,820 --> 00:14:15,780
He whistled and they were far,
far away.

180
00:14:15,780 --> 00:14:18,020
He whistled, and they came to him

181
00:14:18,020 --> 00:14:20,260
and he was just like patting them

182
00:14:20,260 --> 00:14:22,580
and telling them, everything will be
all right.

183
00:14:22,580 --> 00:14:24,820
And they're in safe place
in the world

184
00:14:24,820 --> 00:14:27,860
and it was a really touching
story. Yeah.

185
00:14:30,180 --> 00:14:32,820
This is a white-lipped rhinoceros

186
00:14:32,820 --> 00:14:35,060
and it's got this wide mouth,

187
00:14:35,060 --> 00:14:36,860
because it eats lots of grass.

188
00:14:38,100 --> 00:14:39,460
We don't have a fence.

189
00:14:39,460 --> 00:14:43,580
It's much nicer when you can look
them in the eyes.

190
00:14:43,580 --> 00:14:46,860
Of course, there has to be some kind
of protection, because otherwise,

191
00:14:46,860 --> 00:14:48,940
the rhinos could kill the visitors.

192
00:16:24,660 --> 00:16:29,060
TRANSLATION: Our aim is not only to
display these animals.

193
00:16:29,060 --> 00:16:30,820
We want them to reproduce.

194
00:16:31,860 --> 00:16:36,740
I want these animals to survive in
their new home so in the future,

195
00:16:36,740 --> 00:16:39,220
our nation's children will have the
chance of coming

196
00:16:39,220 --> 00:16:41,340
face-to-face with them.

197
00:18:25,220 --> 00:18:28,300
Don't get me wrong, certainly the
folk who had the northern whites in

198
00:18:28,300 --> 00:18:32,340
captivity, you know, they're good
people and they tried terribly hard

199
00:18:32,340 --> 00:18:35,300
to give them as natural an
environment as possible.

200
00:18:36,580 --> 00:18:39,460
But unfortunately, they never could
give them what they had in the wild.

201
00:18:40,620 --> 00:18:43,660
And that is one of the huge issues
about what happened

202
00:18:43,660 --> 00:18:45,580
to the northern whites.

203
00:19:05,020 --> 00:19:07,740
Well, this is a stained-glass window
that's...Garamba.

204
00:19:09,140 --> 00:19:13,540
I wanted to put something here that
was really Garamba.

205
00:19:13,540 --> 00:19:16,460
As you can see, there's a rhino at
the bottom,

206
00:19:16,460 --> 00:19:21,020
the long grass and the blue is
supposed to be the Garamba River,

207
00:19:21,020 --> 00:19:24,140
curving away, and Mount Bagunda
in the background.

208
00:19:24,140 --> 00:19:28,500
Sort of a memorial?
Well, sort of, yes.

209
00:19:32,820 --> 00:19:35,060
I've been reliving so much of it.

210
00:19:37,420 --> 00:19:39,580
I just thought it was...

211
00:19:39,580 --> 00:19:42,060
..a nice thing to have
in one's house.

212
00:19:48,940 --> 00:19:50,620
It was at the end of the '70s.

213
00:19:52,340 --> 00:19:54,660
I started working in
rhino conservation.

214
00:19:56,220 --> 00:20:00,180
We found that northern white rhino
populations were going downhill

215
00:20:00,180 --> 00:20:01,820
very rapidly.

216
00:20:01,820 --> 00:20:04,940
Doctor Kes Hillman,
a young zoologist,

217
00:20:04,940 --> 00:20:07,660
has been investigating the rhino
slaughter in Africa.

218
00:20:07,660 --> 00:20:11,420
Kes, just how endangered are the
rhinoceros at the moment?

219
00:20:11,420 --> 00:20:13,700
Well, some species of rhinos,

220
00:20:13,700 --> 00:20:16,900
there's only about a tenth of the
numbers that there were in the past,

221
00:20:16,900 --> 00:20:18,660
so if anything desperate
was to happen,

222
00:20:18,660 --> 00:20:20,220
the species could be wiped out.

223
00:20:21,820 --> 00:20:25,500
In Africa and Asia, the rhinoceros
is being ruthlessly hunted

224
00:20:25,500 --> 00:20:28,660
and in some parts, it's in danger
of extinction.

225
00:20:28,660 --> 00:20:30,140
And all because of its horn,

226
00:20:30,140 --> 00:20:33,380
which in many places is regarded as
an aphrodisiac.

227
00:20:37,060 --> 00:20:40,700
All the countries where the northern
white rhino unfortunately naturally

228
00:20:40,700 --> 00:20:43,420
occurred were incredibly unstable.

229
00:20:44,860 --> 00:20:50,260
And instability and civil war,
et cetera, means increased
poaching.

230
00:20:50,260 --> 00:20:54,580
And poaching, it makes money to keep
the war going.

231
00:20:56,580 --> 00:21:01,180
Armed conflict across central Africa
in the 1970s and early 1980s

232
00:21:01,180 --> 00:21:03,820
helped wipe out the northern white
rhino population...

233
00:21:07,100 --> 00:21:10,340
..except for a small stronghold
in the Garamba National Park.

234
00:21:14,780 --> 00:21:17,380
Garamba is 5,000 square kilometres.

235
00:21:17,380 --> 00:21:20,140
It's a long, narrow park
up in the north

236
00:21:20,140 --> 00:21:22,940
of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

237
00:21:24,100 --> 00:21:27,820
The remaining northern white rhinos
in the world were living there.

238
00:21:27,820 --> 00:21:29,460
In March 1984,

239
00:21:29,460 --> 00:21:33,820
we were asked to come in to help to
protect this precious population.

240
00:21:39,620 --> 00:21:44,460
When they first counted, there were
about 14 rhinos left in Garamba.

241
00:21:44,460 --> 00:21:49,340
But clearly,
enough to turn things around

242
00:21:49,340 --> 00:21:51,340
and get a nice population going.

243
00:21:57,820 --> 00:22:00,500
Obviously, security is the most
important issue.

244
00:22:01,660 --> 00:22:04,380
We started up law
enforcement monitoring,

245
00:22:04,380 --> 00:22:06,980
training groups of guys from
the local town.

246
00:22:08,660 --> 00:22:12,260
It was always a concern when you've
got a very small population

247
00:22:12,260 --> 00:22:16,140
like that and they are in a
relatively dangerous area,

248
00:22:16,140 --> 00:22:19,380
because there was still war
going on in Sudan.

249
00:22:19,380 --> 00:22:20,420
It's a risk.

250
00:22:22,020 --> 00:22:25,140
But I believe it's really important
to protect them

251
00:22:25,140 --> 00:22:28,420
in their natural habitat,
rather than in zoos.

252
00:22:30,180 --> 00:22:33,020
Because it's clearly a perfect
habitat for them.

253
00:22:37,100 --> 00:22:39,940
The survival of the northern white
rhinos was now dependent

254
00:22:39,940 --> 00:22:43,380
on the success of two
tiny populations.

255
00:22:43,380 --> 00:22:47,620
15 who roamed free in Africa, and
seven kept behind the Iron Curtain

256
00:22:47,620 --> 00:22:49,060
in Czechoslovakia.

257
00:23:50,700 --> 00:23:53,660
TRANSLATION: It's pretty obvious
that we can't leave it up to nature

258
00:23:53,660 --> 00:23:55,700
to make sure this species survives.

259
00:23:56,700 --> 00:23:59,940
There are so few of these animals
left, we've got to step in and help.

260
00:24:43,780 --> 00:24:46,700
TRANSLATION: Here in
chilly Czechoslovakia,

261
00:24:46,700 --> 00:24:50,140
we're breeding these tropical
African animals.

262
00:24:50,140 --> 00:24:54,980
Our zoo is famous because it's one
of the few zoos around the world

263
00:24:54,980 --> 00:24:58,260
involved in reproducing
these rare rhinos.

264
00:26:55,260 --> 00:26:57,660
Well, I guess by the early '90s,

265
00:26:57,660 --> 00:27:01,140
Kes and her team
had stabilised the situation.

266
00:27:01,140 --> 00:27:04,020
The rhino were breeding up nicely.

267
00:27:04,020 --> 00:27:07,820
Population increasing, and I think
she was now comfortable to say,

268
00:27:07,820 --> 00:27:10,500
"Let's get to know a bit more
about these rhinos."

269
00:27:17,020 --> 00:27:21,260
In Garamba, I was trying to observe
the northern white rhinos' natural

270
00:27:21,260 --> 00:27:26,380
behaviour and you were trying to
understand what makes a population

271
00:27:26,380 --> 00:27:30,380
survive and grow under
natural conditions.

272
00:27:39,540 --> 00:27:42,940
What I found was that, like with
every African rhino species,

273
00:27:42,940 --> 00:27:46,460
the dominant males fight for and
hold a territory

274
00:27:46,460 --> 00:27:49,700
and they defend that against other
dominant males.

275
00:27:51,100 --> 00:27:54,380
And you would get fighting between
males at that stage.

276
00:27:56,820 --> 00:27:59,820
With all rhino, the
dominant male basically,

277
00:27:59,820 --> 00:28:02,700
he's got to strut his stuff,
hold his area.

278
00:28:06,780 --> 00:28:10,660
All of this competition is terribly
important to fire them up.

279
00:28:10,660 --> 00:28:14,260
Their testosterone levels are up and
they're good for breeding.

280
00:28:17,940 --> 00:28:22,580
The males will leave dung and
urinate around their territory,

281
00:28:22,580 --> 00:28:26,940
so another male coming in will
think, "Oh, dear.

282
00:28:26,940 --> 00:28:31,540
"He's here. I'd better stay away or
I'd better be wary or..."

283
00:28:31,540 --> 00:28:32,940
And a female would, "Woohoo!

284
00:28:32,940 --> 00:28:35,300
"He's here!", you know,
"Let's go in there."

285
00:28:46,100 --> 00:28:48,820
In Garamba, it was just a very
healthy situation

286
00:28:48,820 --> 00:28:51,860
and they were just producing
babies all the time.

287
00:28:53,220 --> 00:28:55,860
That was wonderful. Whenever you
see, you know, see a new calf,

288
00:28:55,860 --> 00:28:57,820
"Oh, so-and-so's had a baby!",
you know,

289
00:28:57,820 --> 00:29:00,420
and we'd decide what we were
going to call it.

290
00:29:03,500 --> 00:29:06,140
Kes was hugely successful.

291
00:29:06,140 --> 00:29:09,100
These animals were now safe
in Garamba.

292
00:29:09,100 --> 00:29:10,940
You know, this is where they
had evolved.

293
00:29:10,940 --> 00:29:13,980
This is where they had always, you
know, done well.

294
00:29:13,980 --> 00:29:15,860
You know, the white rhinos were
in paradise.

295
00:29:19,580 --> 00:29:21,380
By the mid-1990s,

296
00:29:21,380 --> 00:29:24,940
the rhino population in Garamba had
more than doubled to 31.

297
00:29:26,420 --> 00:29:29,580
In captivity, there had been
three births.

298
00:29:29,580 --> 00:29:31,660
But also two deaths.

299
00:29:31,660 --> 00:29:35,860
And as Cold War tensions eased,
three were lent to San Diego zoo

300
00:29:35,860 --> 00:29:37,940
in the hope that they would
breed there.

301
00:29:39,580 --> 00:29:43,220
In 12 years, the rhinos in Garamba
had doubled

302
00:29:43,220 --> 00:29:46,500
and the rhinos in captivity
weren't doing so well.

303
00:29:47,940 --> 00:29:51,380
You know, they were in concrete
enclosures and of course,

304
00:29:51,380 --> 00:29:55,540
they would be leaving dung in those
areas and then going back

305
00:29:55,540 --> 00:29:59,940
and another one would be coming out,
and so, it was quite confusing

306
00:29:59,940 --> 00:30:00,980
for the rhinos.

307
00:30:02,660 --> 00:30:05,580
They seemed to develop the most
peculiar shaped horns,

308
00:30:05,580 --> 00:30:07,660
because they can't rub them in
the same way

309
00:30:07,660 --> 00:30:09,100
that they do in the wild.

310
00:30:11,660 --> 00:30:13,940
It's a very unnatural situation
for them.

311
00:30:17,580 --> 00:30:22,060
TRANSLATION: I'm no longer very
optimistic.

312
00:30:22,060 --> 00:30:24,860
They're just vegetating here.

313
00:30:24,860 --> 00:30:27,860
They're living in conditions
which look good

314
00:30:27,860 --> 00:30:31,180
but don't provide for their
biological needs.

315
00:30:32,900 --> 00:30:36,860
By that stage, Sudan had spent
almost 20 years in captivity.

316
00:30:38,220 --> 00:30:40,740
Who knows what went on in his mind,
we'll never know.

317
00:30:43,820 --> 00:30:48,860
Physiologically, I think there must
be something negative happening,

318
00:30:48,860 --> 00:30:51,900
something, you know, less
than perfect.

319
00:30:51,900 --> 00:30:55,900
It must have taken a long time to
make peace with his different

320
00:30:55,900 --> 00:30:57,580
environment he's in.

321
00:33:58,380 --> 00:34:02,460
You can imagine, it was clearly
a very difficult situation.

322
00:34:02,460 --> 00:34:05,100
As the numbers of northern whites
became less and less,

323
00:34:05,100 --> 00:34:09,380
these animals became more of a
valuable drawcard for the zoo.

324
00:34:09,380 --> 00:34:13,620
I'm just saying it's a possibility
that folk might have hung on to them

325
00:34:13,620 --> 00:34:15,100
longer than they should have,

326
00:34:15,100 --> 00:34:17,260
because they knew people
were fascinated.

327
00:34:17,260 --> 00:34:19,700
"Let's go and have a look at them
before they're all gone."

328
00:34:21,540 --> 00:34:25,020
Keeping rhinos in zoos
is not totally natural,

329
00:34:25,020 --> 00:34:28,300
but on the other hand,
it's important for people...

330
00:34:29,740 --> 00:34:30,940
..you know, in the West,

331
00:34:30,940 --> 00:34:33,300
to be able to see these animals
and to realise the

332
00:34:33,300 --> 00:34:39,260
importance of conserving them
in the wild and as we now see,

333
00:34:39,260 --> 00:34:43,060
they're an important back-up,
because, you know,

334
00:34:43,060 --> 00:34:46,820
you can't always predict what's
going to happen in Africa.

335
00:34:46,820 --> 00:34:49,180
THUNDER RUMBLES

336
00:34:49,180 --> 00:34:51,940
'Congo is sliding
ever deeper into chaos...'

337
00:34:51,940 --> 00:34:53,620
'The Sudanese government

338
00:34:53,620 --> 00:34:55,660
'says it's putting down
a rebellion in Darfur...'

339
00:34:55,660 --> 00:34:58,100
'There is fighting on the streets
of Kinshasa tonight,

340
00:34:58,100 --> 00:35:00,620
'and this war could spread across
central Africa...'

341
00:35:04,660 --> 00:35:09,220
Kes had no illusions about,
you know, the potential

342
00:35:09,220 --> 00:35:11,900
for instability in Garamba.

343
00:35:11,900 --> 00:35:15,340
She knew that it had always been a
very unstable part of Africa,

344
00:35:15,340 --> 00:35:17,780
so anything could happen, and yes,
anything did happen.

345
00:35:20,860 --> 00:35:25,300
In 2004, we suddenly detected these
groups of horsemen.

346
00:35:26,700 --> 00:35:30,580
These guys are actually a sort of
mix of tribes,

347
00:35:30,580 --> 00:35:32,860
but generally known as the Umberoro.

348
00:35:32,860 --> 00:35:37,900
And they are age-old elephant
hunters from Sudan...

349
00:35:39,420 --> 00:35:41,660
..but the war had changed things.

350
00:35:41,660 --> 00:35:46,820
They're now armed with AK-47s and
rocket launchers and hand grenades.

351
00:35:52,540 --> 00:35:56,900
We set up observation posts on hills
and reinforcement posts.

352
00:36:00,860 --> 00:36:03,460
But still they were sort of
advancing towards

353
00:36:03,460 --> 00:36:05,220
the elephant and rhino areas.

354
00:36:06,460 --> 00:36:09,420
One day, I was, I happened to be in
the radio room,

355
00:36:09,420 --> 00:36:12,020
and they suddenly started calling on
the radio about

356
00:36:12,020 --> 00:36:13,860
"Cheval, cheval!"

357
00:36:13,860 --> 00:36:15,900
There were horses in the park.

358
00:36:20,980 --> 00:36:24,380
We jumped into the plane and flew
out over that area.

359
00:36:25,900 --> 00:36:29,420
We flew along the Aka Garamba River.

360
00:36:32,340 --> 00:36:34,780
We found a couple of guys
on horseback...

361
00:36:36,420 --> 00:36:38,940
..and a trail of donkeys,

362
00:36:38,940 --> 00:36:42,780
loaded with what was probably
ivory and rhino horn.

363
00:36:47,860 --> 00:36:51,100
When we went back and we surveyed
the area where they'd been,

364
00:36:51,100 --> 00:36:55,300
it was just a devastation of rhinos
massacred everywhere.

365
00:36:55,300 --> 00:37:00,060
There was a nine-year-old female,
who was killed just down here.

366
00:37:01,380 --> 00:37:04,820
You know, she'd had her horn
absolutely hacked off at the front.

367
00:37:04,820 --> 00:37:06,860
You know, and she was quite young.

368
00:37:06,860 --> 00:37:09,900
She was a perfect,
reproductive age female.

369
00:37:09,900 --> 00:37:12,180
You know, it was a real tragedy.

370
00:37:12,180 --> 00:37:15,420
It is every time
that you find them dead.

371
00:37:26,180 --> 00:37:30,540
Later on, any rhino skulls that were
found were brought in and we,

372
00:37:30,540 --> 00:37:32,860
you know, identified them for sure.

373
00:37:34,980 --> 00:37:37,780
We did a survey in July that year

374
00:37:37,780 --> 00:37:40,780
and we could only find...

375
00:37:42,140 --> 00:37:45,660
..14 rhinos at that stage
in the park.

376
00:37:47,300 --> 00:37:52,220
By December, I did another survey
and could only find nine rhinos.

377
00:37:53,300 --> 00:37:57,660
And then, in 2008,
they didn't actually see any.

378
00:38:02,420 --> 00:38:04,540
We didn't quite get it right
in Garamba.

379
00:38:06,380 --> 00:38:09,660
I know that
we did the best we could,

380
00:38:09,660 --> 00:38:14,580
that circumstances that were not
usually conservation issues,

381
00:38:14,580 --> 00:38:18,780
they were political
and power issues, were what,

382
00:38:18,780 --> 00:38:23,020
generally, caused the problems.

383
00:38:23,020 --> 00:38:26,500
And that's so often,
so often the case.

384
00:38:28,580 --> 00:38:32,100
It's been the story across Africa
in the last 30, 40 years,

385
00:38:32,100 --> 00:38:35,460
how our wildlife populations
have been decimated

386
00:38:35,460 --> 00:38:37,460
as a result of
political instability.

387
00:38:37,460 --> 00:38:39,500
And they were all killed?

388
00:38:40,820 --> 00:38:42,300
They were all killed.

389
00:38:42,300 --> 00:38:45,980
There are no northern white rhino
left in Garamba.

390
00:38:45,980 --> 00:38:47,420
That's for sure.

391
00:38:57,940 --> 00:39:01,860
My predecessors spent about
40 years trying

392
00:39:01,860 --> 00:39:06,300
to keep the northern white rhinos
alive and, you know,

393
00:39:06,300 --> 00:39:08,620
to give them the best possible
conditions for breeding.

394
00:39:08,620 --> 00:39:11,380
But it's difficult to change

395
00:39:11,380 --> 00:39:14,020
decisions that were made
in the past.

396
00:39:14,020 --> 00:39:18,700
But today, it's obvious that we
still feel responsibility for them.

397
00:39:21,940 --> 00:39:24,580
Now we are in the basement
of the zoo.

398
00:39:28,340 --> 00:39:32,220
And as we enter into archive,
we have a library here.

399
00:39:32,220 --> 00:39:37,340
And we have diaries, in which we
wrote all the main things

400
00:39:37,340 --> 00:39:39,820
that happened to animals
that we breed here.

401
00:39:42,460 --> 00:39:45,180
From 1975 to 2009,

402
00:39:45,180 --> 00:39:47,100
Sudan's life is here.

403
00:39:50,940 --> 00:39:57,380
By 2009, the situation in the zoo
was like, I wouldn't say desperate,

404
00:39:57,380 --> 00:40:00,860
but people believed it would be
good to do something,

405
00:40:00,860 --> 00:40:03,060
to try something else.

406
00:40:07,060 --> 00:40:08,660
Time was running out, you know.

407
00:40:10,220 --> 00:40:12,620
These are five animals
in captivity,

408
00:40:12,620 --> 00:40:14,980
who are now some of the last
representatives

409
00:40:14,980 --> 00:40:17,020
of this subspecies in the world.

410
00:40:19,220 --> 00:40:23,460
But it was sort of my idea to see if
putting the four most healthy ones

411
00:40:23,460 --> 00:40:26,740
back in a natural environment
would improve their breeding.

412
00:40:26,740 --> 00:40:29,180
We just had to get them out
and give them a go.

413
00:41:43,180 --> 00:41:45,700
I was there when Sudan
walked out of his crate

414
00:41:45,700 --> 00:41:48,300
and put his foot on African soil
for the first time in 30 years.

415
00:41:48,300 --> 00:41:50,220
It was a pretty extraordinary
experience.

416
00:41:58,180 --> 00:42:03,220
KEEPER CALLS TO HIM IN CZECH

417
00:42:10,580 --> 00:42:12,380
The keeper's from the
Czech Republic.

418
00:42:12,380 --> 00:42:14,540
He had this sort of crazy Czech
language, you know,

419
00:42:14,540 --> 00:42:17,860
and the keeper's talking to them
and, hey, somewhere along the line,

420
00:42:17,860 --> 00:42:20,300
I guess Sudan had learned Czech!

421
00:42:24,780 --> 00:42:27,380
You could just see happy rhinos.

422
00:42:27,380 --> 00:42:30,100
You could see definitely an
improvement in their health,

423
00:42:30,100 --> 00:42:32,100
their whole sort of demeanour.

424
00:42:32,100 --> 00:42:36,420
They had more freedom and loved the
climate here and things were looking

425
00:42:36,420 --> 00:42:39,500
very positive. We might just
have pulled it off.

426
00:42:42,780 --> 00:42:46,260
So a lot of things changed for the
better and gave us hope that this

427
00:42:46,260 --> 00:42:49,820
process of bringing them back
to Africa was going to result

428
00:42:49,820 --> 00:42:53,620
in, not only mating activity,
but successful pregnancies.

429
00:42:53,620 --> 00:42:56,100
They started mating pretty quickly.

430
00:42:56,100 --> 00:42:59,820
Now, the problem was,
when mating activity happened,

431
00:42:59,820 --> 00:43:01,980
it never resulted in a pregnancy.

432
00:43:01,980 --> 00:43:06,620
It was then that we started looking
more closely at the reasons why.

433
00:43:17,820 --> 00:43:23,020
We work with elephants, tigers,
lions, giant panda, octopus.

434
00:43:24,300 --> 00:43:28,540
The main goal of our activities
is to understand

435
00:43:28,540 --> 00:43:32,420
reproduction in wildlife,
especially in endangered species.

436
00:43:36,500 --> 00:43:39,140
Two years ago,
they brought our team in

437
00:43:39,140 --> 00:43:43,260
to examine the two remaining females
in Ol Pejeta.

438
00:43:43,260 --> 00:43:45,700
We did ultrasound examination.

439
00:43:45,700 --> 00:43:50,100
We found dramatic pathological
changes on them.

440
00:43:50,100 --> 00:43:55,380
We found that if there
is no ongoing reproduction,

441
00:43:55,380 --> 00:44:00,900
then it has a negative impact
on the ovaries, the uterus,

442
00:44:00,900 --> 00:44:03,740
these females already
shut down their reproduction.

443
00:44:03,740 --> 00:44:05,660
They were not more
reproductively active.

444
00:44:08,940 --> 00:44:10,740
Sadly, the truth of the matter is,

445
00:44:10,740 --> 00:44:13,860
because the females hadn't bred for
such a long period in zoo conditions

446
00:44:13,860 --> 00:44:16,940
they were now no longer
able to conceive.

447
00:44:16,940 --> 00:44:19,940
By the time this discovery was made,

448
00:44:19,940 --> 00:44:24,340
the remaining captive rhinos in
San Diego and the Czech Republic

449
00:44:24,340 --> 00:44:25,820
had all died.

450
00:44:27,020 --> 00:44:30,300
And in Ol Pejeta, one of the
four rhinos who had returned

451
00:44:30,300 --> 00:44:32,740
died suddenly of a heart attack.

452
00:44:34,140 --> 00:44:38,020
The world population
now stood at just three.

453
00:44:39,460 --> 00:44:40,860
Hello, big boy.

454
00:44:42,060 --> 00:44:43,860
Hello, big boy.

455
00:44:45,020 --> 00:44:47,060
Hello, big boy.

456
00:44:47,060 --> 00:44:51,220
Hello, big fella.

457
00:44:52,700 --> 00:44:54,460
Hello, big chap.

458
00:44:54,460 --> 00:44:56,100
Hello, fella.

459
00:45:17,020 --> 00:45:18,620
Hello, big fella.

460
00:45:20,180 --> 00:45:22,100
Hello, big chappy chap.

461
00:45:22,100 --> 00:45:24,540
Hello, boy. Hello, boy.

462
00:45:27,020 --> 00:45:31,300
Maybe having some small dreams
of when he was a little fellow

463
00:45:31,300 --> 00:45:33,060
in Sudan all those years ago.

464
00:45:36,380 --> 00:45:39,100
He's definitely a bit more
rickety on his legs.

465
00:45:39,100 --> 00:45:40,860
He's definitely a bit more frail.

466
00:45:40,860 --> 00:45:43,020
He struggles to get up
in the morning.

467
00:45:43,020 --> 00:45:45,940
His back leg hurts him, so you know,
yeah, he's an old man.

468
00:45:45,940 --> 00:45:49,540
We have to expect that he will die
sometime soon.

469
00:45:52,820 --> 00:45:57,300
I'm just afraid now, if the other
leg starts to become weak,

470
00:45:57,300 --> 00:46:00,100
the right leg becomes weak...

471
00:46:01,220 --> 00:46:02,940
..we've got a problem.

472
00:46:02,940 --> 00:46:05,980
Either what'll happen
is he'll have a heart attack

473
00:46:05,980 --> 00:46:07,580
and he'll fall over, dead,

474
00:46:07,580 --> 00:46:09,220
or he will...

475
00:46:09,220 --> 00:46:11,860
If he gets into a position
where he can't move,

476
00:46:11,860 --> 00:46:14,420
which brings lots of complications
for big-bodied animals,

477
00:46:14,420 --> 00:46:16,580
then eventually, you'd have
to think of euthanasia.

478
00:46:16,580 --> 00:46:18,540
You'd have to put him
out of his misery

479
00:46:18,540 --> 00:46:20,180
just like you would do an old dog.

480
00:46:21,940 --> 00:46:25,860
But the truth is, even if Sudan
dies, we can still save the species.

481
00:46:26,900 --> 00:46:31,260
And it's morally incumbent upon us
to try to make this happen.

482
00:46:45,300 --> 00:46:49,460
These are specially protected
cryo containers,

483
00:46:49,460 --> 00:46:51,860
which have an alarm system
which calls us

484
00:46:51,860 --> 00:46:54,020
when something is going wrong.

485
00:46:59,620 --> 00:47:03,460
And in here are the samples
from the different rhinos.

486
00:47:06,660 --> 00:47:09,340
It is really the backbone
of the programme.

487
00:47:11,900 --> 00:47:13,620
That's sperm samples.

488
00:47:13,620 --> 00:47:15,700
We have to have a quick look.

489
00:47:15,700 --> 00:47:19,100
That straw is where
the sperm is stored.

490
00:47:19,100 --> 00:47:23,380
We have samples here from northern
white rhinos which are all dead.

491
00:47:23,380 --> 00:47:28,780
And we also have samples
from Sudan in Ol Pejeta,

492
00:47:28,780 --> 00:47:31,420
and that makes four males
which we can use

493
00:47:31,420 --> 00:47:34,540
for the in-vitro
fertilisation programme.

494
00:47:34,540 --> 00:47:39,260
There is no way that these animals
can reproduce natural wise.

495
00:47:39,260 --> 00:47:43,340
The only way to help
would be to use science.

496
00:47:43,340 --> 00:47:46,100
They advance the product of science.

497
00:47:48,580 --> 00:47:51,620
Although there's plenty of sperm
stored in Berlin,

498
00:47:51,620 --> 00:47:54,020
the scientist will also need eggs

499
00:47:54,020 --> 00:47:57,020
from the two remaining females
in Ol Pejeta.

500
00:47:57,020 --> 00:48:01,380
They plan to harvest these eggs,
known as oocytes,

501
00:48:01,380 --> 00:48:04,980
fertilise them with
northern white rhino sperm,

502
00:48:04,980 --> 00:48:08,980
and transfer the embryos
into a herd of surrogates.

503
00:48:08,980 --> 00:48:13,740
The closely related, but less
threatened, southern white rhinos.

504
00:48:15,420 --> 00:48:19,420
The resulting calves could form
the basis for a new generation

505
00:48:19,420 --> 00:48:21,460
of northern white rhinos.

506
00:48:25,140 --> 00:48:28,980
In-vitro fertilisation in cattle and
horses is a regular occurrence.

507
00:48:28,980 --> 00:48:31,940
The problem is,
it's never actually been done

508
00:48:31,940 --> 00:48:34,060
in rhinos as a species.

509
00:48:34,060 --> 00:48:36,580
This process has to be perfected

510
00:48:36,580 --> 00:48:39,140
before the last remaining
females die.

511
00:48:39,140 --> 00:48:43,620
If those females die tomorrow, which
could happen for whatever reason,

512
00:48:43,620 --> 00:48:47,740
then the last remaining repository
of northern white rhino eggs

513
00:48:47,740 --> 00:48:49,340
would be lost.

514
00:48:53,980 --> 00:49:00,340
We have to act very quickly, because
Najin is already 26 and Fatu is 15,

515
00:49:00,340 --> 00:49:04,340
so the biological clock and the time
window we can be successful,

516
00:49:04,340 --> 00:49:05,940
it's very short.

517
00:49:07,780 --> 00:49:13,260
It's quite a big burden when you do
something new that you can't fail,

518
00:49:13,260 --> 00:49:15,500
but, in this case...

519
00:49:17,740 --> 00:49:19,340
..no failure allowed.

520
00:49:33,580 --> 00:49:35,220
That's the female we do.

521
00:49:37,140 --> 00:49:39,700
Before they act as surrogates
for the northern whites,

522
00:49:39,700 --> 00:49:42,100
captive southern white rhinos have
another role to play.

523
00:49:43,740 --> 00:49:47,220
IVF has never been successfully
carried out on rhinos before,

524
00:49:47,220 --> 00:49:50,900
so the scientists will practise on
this closely-related sub species.

525
00:49:50,900 --> 00:49:54,100
In any other animal, this
procedure's pretty straightforward,

526
00:49:54,100 --> 00:49:57,540
but a rhino,
being so large and long,

527
00:49:57,540 --> 00:49:59,980
and it needs all
these special equipment

528
00:49:59,980 --> 00:50:03,620
which makes the whole procedure
very, very difficult.

529
00:50:05,460 --> 00:50:08,540
A two-tonne animal is challenging.

530
00:50:08,540 --> 00:50:12,380
It's a very long distance, we can't
reach the ovaries with the hand.

531
00:50:12,380 --> 00:50:17,060
Therefore, we have to go 1.5 metres
inside and that's impossible to do

532
00:50:17,060 --> 00:50:21,700
it via the vagina approach, which is
the standard procedure in humans,

533
00:50:21,700 --> 00:50:24,700
cattle and horses. We have to go
through the rectum.

534
00:50:26,180 --> 00:50:27,860
Carla is her name.

535
00:50:27,860 --> 00:50:30,020
Do you think that she's nervous?

536
00:50:30,020 --> 00:50:32,420
Oh, I think we are more nervous!

537
00:50:54,420 --> 00:50:56,860
I see the obstacles.
I am not stupid.

538
00:50:56,860 --> 00:51:00,860
I'm a scientist. There are a lot
of still unsolved problems.

539
00:51:00,860 --> 00:51:04,420
But we have a species here
which is nearly extinct

540
00:51:04,420 --> 00:51:06,260
due to human activity,

541
00:51:06,260 --> 00:51:10,140
and we have, maybe, the tools
in our hands to stop that.

542
00:51:13,140 --> 00:51:17,100
We take the mounted ultrasound probe
about a metre inside the animal

543
00:51:17,100 --> 00:51:18,620
and then inside the animal,

544
00:51:18,620 --> 00:51:22,340
you have to find the ovary, and then
hold it at the right position

545
00:51:22,340 --> 00:51:25,700
for Thomas to go with the needle
into the ovary,

546
00:51:25,700 --> 00:51:27,940
aspirating the oocyte out.

547
00:51:29,340 --> 00:51:33,820
It's a lot of effort, a lot of time
and also money and resources,

548
00:51:33,820 --> 00:51:37,220
but there's not many other options.

549
00:51:39,260 --> 00:51:41,740
If we operate,
there's our needle very close

550
00:51:41,740 --> 00:51:44,140
to a very large blood vessel.

551
00:51:46,980 --> 00:51:51,300
And if we puncture that,
then we would lose the patient.

552
00:51:54,140 --> 00:51:55,260
Good.

553
00:52:00,660 --> 00:52:04,180
So far, so good. The whole procedure
went really well.

554
00:52:04,180 --> 00:52:06,500
We aspirated the oocytes,
hopefully,

555
00:52:06,500 --> 00:52:10,180
and Thomas is trying to find them at
the moment under the microscope.

556
00:52:12,620 --> 00:52:14,060
Yeah.

557
00:52:18,940 --> 00:52:21,700
We found six oocytes.

558
00:52:21,700 --> 00:52:25,100
I lost one, so we have five oocytes.

559
00:52:25,100 --> 00:52:29,460
We'll send them off to a lab
and then they add the sperm,

560
00:52:29,460 --> 00:52:31,340
they inject the sperm.

561
00:52:31,340 --> 00:52:34,380
OK. And we'll know more
in about three days,

562
00:52:34,380 --> 00:52:36,300
whether this works or not.

563
00:52:43,900 --> 00:52:44,900
OK.

564
00:52:46,140 --> 00:52:50,820
If we can prove that this procedure
is not doing harm to animals,

565
00:52:50,820 --> 00:52:54,300
and we are capable to produce
embryos out of that...

566
00:52:54,300 --> 00:52:59,620
..then we would test that
on Fatu and Najin.

567
00:52:59,620 --> 00:53:01,580
Cheers. Cheers.

568
00:53:02,900 --> 00:53:06,060
The rhinos' eggs are couriered
nearly 800 miles

569
00:53:06,060 --> 00:53:08,540
to a specialist lab
in northern Italy.

570
00:53:10,620 --> 00:53:14,180
There, after they are fertilised,
they should begin dividing.

571
00:53:19,260 --> 00:53:22,500
Within days, they'll grow into
a bundle of cells

572
00:53:22,500 --> 00:53:24,260
known as a blastocyst.

573
00:53:24,260 --> 00:53:28,380
Only if they reach this stage
have they got a good chance

574
00:53:28,380 --> 00:53:30,820
of becoming a healthy baby rhino.

575
00:53:40,580 --> 00:53:43,140
Science is characterised
by failures.

576
00:53:43,140 --> 00:53:45,580
By successes, but also by failures.

577
00:53:45,580 --> 00:53:49,540
We are quite disappointed
about this outcome.

578
00:53:49,540 --> 00:53:53,460
One of the oocytes
developed into an embryo,

579
00:53:53,460 --> 00:53:58,060
but at a very early stage,
it stopped.

580
00:53:58,060 --> 00:54:01,900
We have a problem with the whole
development of the blastocyst.

581
00:54:08,100 --> 00:54:11,220
The failure to produce
a viable rhino embryo

582
00:54:11,220 --> 00:54:14,300
means the scientists have had
to recruit more southern whites

583
00:54:14,300 --> 00:54:16,540
from zoos across Europe
to practise on.

584
00:54:21,620 --> 00:54:22,820
We are close.

585
00:54:22,820 --> 00:54:24,700
We are not there, but we are close.

586
00:54:24,700 --> 00:54:27,580
We made a lot of progress
over the last months.

587
00:54:27,580 --> 00:54:31,460
But science is not predictable.

588
00:54:31,460 --> 00:54:36,220
We can't say at the end
we will be for sure successful.

589
00:54:36,220 --> 00:54:37,460
We can't.

590
00:54:40,140 --> 00:54:43,140
We now know that we have the power
to destroy the rhinos.

591
00:54:45,180 --> 00:54:50,100
What we try to do now is actually
to see whether we have the power

592
00:54:50,100 --> 00:54:51,860
to save them.

593
00:54:54,140 --> 00:54:57,140
We have to accept
that we might fail.

594
00:55:10,900 --> 00:55:15,620
The day Sudan goes, it's going
to be... It's going to be hectic,

595
00:55:15,620 --> 00:55:19,740
you know, in terms of media and
people are going to want pictures

596
00:55:19,740 --> 00:55:22,580
and they're going to want to write
about him and stuff like that,

597
00:55:22,580 --> 00:55:24,700
so I'm afraid to say that
we are ready.

598
00:55:24,700 --> 00:55:27,100
We've got a press release ready,
just for the day he goes,

599
00:55:27,100 --> 00:55:28,260
because we need to be.

600
00:55:28,260 --> 00:55:31,900
I don't know if the zoo is going to
want his bones back, to be honest,

601
00:55:31,900 --> 00:55:34,620
because, you know, in the end,
he's their animal.

602
00:55:34,620 --> 00:55:37,500
And if we are not allowed
to keep his bones,

603
00:55:37,500 --> 00:55:39,620
then we would definitely
put a headstone for him

604
00:55:39,620 --> 00:55:41,020
at the rhino cemetery.

605
00:56:26,100 --> 00:56:28,540
In an ideal world, we wouldn't need

606
00:56:28,540 --> 00:56:31,580
to try to save the northern
white rhinos.

607
00:56:31,580 --> 00:56:33,260
Sudan.

608
00:56:33,260 --> 00:56:35,660
The breeding programme
in Czechoslovakia,

609
00:56:35,660 --> 00:56:38,380
it would have been really
successful, you know,

610
00:56:38,380 --> 00:56:40,980
they would flourish
in the central Africa.

611
00:56:40,980 --> 00:56:43,620
They would roam the large
savannahs there.

612
00:56:43,620 --> 00:56:46,420
Unfortunately, this didn't happen

613
00:56:46,420 --> 00:56:49,740
and it's only due
to human activities.

614
00:57:05,100 --> 00:57:08,580
I think this dilemma we're going to
face more and more in the years to

615
00:57:08,580 --> 00:57:12,660
come, you know, there are,
with so many species just, you know,

616
00:57:12,660 --> 00:57:16,940
tiny populations left, and would it
be best to put them in captivity

617
00:57:16,940 --> 00:57:19,340
or best to take their chances
in the wild?

618
00:57:20,940 --> 00:57:24,820
There are some species which have
done extremely well in captivity,

619
00:57:24,820 --> 00:57:28,900
but I think we understand now that
some animals just don't do very well

620
00:57:28,900 --> 00:57:32,220
in a zoo environment, that they
probably shouldn't be there.

621
00:57:32,220 --> 00:57:34,540
You know,
safety from being poached...

622
00:57:36,220 --> 00:57:41,780
..but not breeding, ultimately,
it's as lethal, essentially,

623
00:57:41,780 --> 00:57:44,780
as having them in the wild,
with the threat of poaching.

624
00:57:47,820 --> 00:57:51,820
The northern white rhinos are just
a symbol of what we do to

625
00:57:51,820 --> 00:57:53,660
the natural world.

626
00:57:53,660 --> 00:57:55,540
It's visible with
the northern white rhinos,

627
00:57:55,540 --> 00:57:58,340
because we witnessed the last
three animals and we witness,

628
00:57:58,340 --> 00:58:01,340
you know, they're disappearing,
actually, in front of our eyes.

629
00:58:02,620 --> 00:58:06,420
But there are many, many other
species disappearing

630
00:58:06,420 --> 00:58:07,980
but we cannot see it so clearly,

631
00:58:07,980 --> 00:58:10,780
like we see it with
the northern white rhinos.

632
00:58:24,980 --> 00:58:28,140
# Oh, nobody loves
the rhinoceros much

633
00:58:28,140 --> 00:58:30,860
# If you ask the reason why

634
00:58:30,860 --> 00:58:33,900
# They will tell you because
of his scaly touch

635
00:58:33,900 --> 00:58:36,100
# Or his hard and glittering eye

636
00:58:36,100 --> 00:58:38,820
# But should you ask a truthful man

637
00:58:38,820 --> 00:58:41,420
# You will get this quick response

638
00:58:41,420 --> 00:58:44,540
# I do not trust
that thing on his nose

639
00:58:44,540 --> 00:58:47,300
# The bodger on his bonce!

640
00:58:47,300 --> 00:58:49,740
# Oh, the bodger on the bonce!

641
00:58:49,740 --> 00:58:52,220
# The bodger on the bonce!

642
00:58:52,220 --> 00:58:56,020
# Oh, pity the poor old rhino with

643
00:58:56,020 --> 00:58:58,260
# The bodger on the bonce! #