ALICE, STANLEY Y NAJIN, KENIA

Floods destroyed Alice and Stanley’s house in central Kenya in 2017. They were too frightened to stay in case more floods came in the future. They had a little money to start a new life, so they moved to Nanyuki and looked for a small house. Initially, they were only able to find menial jobs like washing cars and tilling land. Stanley now works as an electrician and Alice does laundry.

Najin is one of the last two northern white rhinos in the world. When her daughter Fatu dies, the species will be extinct. Once upon a time, the northern white rhino’s range extended through central Africa. But decades of poaching have taken its grim toll.

Najin and Fatu were both actually born in captivity and had been living, along with two males, in Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic. In 2009, the four rhinos were moved to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya in the hope that they would have a better chance of breeding. Sadly it never worked out. Sudan, the last male, died in 2018.

So now, complex in vitro fertilization procedures—never before attempted in rhinos—are conducted several times each year in a final attempt to keep the species from going extinct.
In the meantime, Ol Pejeta has around-the-clock armed security for Najin and Fatu.

Photographed at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya, October 2020.