Talk about a privilege. I’m tentatively stroking the leathery flank of a 33-year-old rhino as I eye her impressive horn. Touching the scaly skin of any rhino is special, if slightly scary, considering their volatile tempers. But Najin and her daughter, Fatu, 23, aren’t your average animals – they are the last two northern white rhinos anywhere in the world. And they seem quite happy being papped while they munch on veggies in a corner of their 280-hectare guarded enclosure.

Part of a pioneering IVF program in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta conservancy, the zoo-raised duo could be the saviours of their subspecies. Their eggs have already been used to create more than 22 embryos with sperm belonging to Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, who died here in 2018, and two other deceased bulls. No pressure then, girls. “We are now at the most critical stage of embryo implantation,” says Samuel Mutisya, head of wildlife conservation at Ol Pejeta. “That will take place in the near future.”