Video: Najin and Fatu, the last northern white rhinos

OL PEJETA, Kenya – Najin, the last remaining northern white rhino matriarch, spends much of her time alone these days, as her daughter Fatu prefers to hang out with her best friend. While this may sound like a typical family dynamic, Najin’s situation is far from ordinary. She and Fatu are not just a mother and daughter—they are the last two northern white rhinos on Earth.

Once roaming the savannas of East and Central Africa, the northern white rhino is now considered functionally extinct. Their population dwindled due to poaching and habitat loss, and after the death of Najin’s father, Sudan, in 2018, the species lost its last male. With no viable male to mate with, the future of the northern white rhino species has become a race against time.