Ami: Very little was being said about the people out there protecting these animals. I realized that people are numb to the images of death, and I wanted to focus on the stories of hope. I also learned while covering this story that, this is the biggest story out there. It's about our future and where we're going.

This is a story I'm currently working on. It began in 2009, when some of my friends from the Czech Republic called me and they said, Ami, we've got this incredible story. There are four of eight Northern white rhinos that are being moved from a zoo in snowy Czech Republic, back to Africa. This is Fatu as she's taking her last steps out of a zoo, and today, there's actually only three of them left. So it really is the end of a species. I mean, they were able to survive thousands of years, but they couldn't survive mankind. The rhinos were flown on a cold, snowy night from the Czech Republic, were brought to roam free at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Northern Kenya. But this is what roaming free really looks like, because these rhinos, and a lot of rhinos, have to be protected by armed guards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And so much attention has been focused on the poaching, but very little was being said about the people out there protecting these animals And that's what I decided, you know, it's sort of like the conflicts I covered, I realized that people are numb, you know, to the images of death and I wanted to focus on the stories of hope.

This is Adin, and he's feeding three orphaned rhinos at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, and I think he, and all the people living next to these species, hold the key to saving these animals. This is so touching. This is Yusuf, and he's sleeping with Kilifi and Hope, and their work is so incredible. They're so committed, they're literally risking their lives to save these animals. This is Kamara on the right and Kilifi, and he raised this rhino since it was a day old. Kamara watches over him twelve hours a day, even fought off a lion who was trying to attack Kilifi. These relationships are so beautiful, and I think that's what motivates action. Images like this. Stories like this. And then, this was one of the best moments of my life, I was there when- they bring all of these Samburu warriors. They don't even know what rhinos look like because they're extinct in much of Northern Kenya already, locally extinct. And they bring these warriors to come and see these rhinos. These guys were so excited. They had never seen a rhino before. Some of them hadn't even seen a photograph of them, and they were like, “Oh my goodness, we thought that their skin would be soft like our cows. We thought the horn would be flexible like an elephant.” And they even yelled at the rhino keeper and said, “There's ticks on him, you're not taking very good care of him.” And now their dream has come true, because just last May, they moved some of these black rhinos to Northern Kenya to a new conservancy called Sera, where they've been extinct for thirty years. They've actually shaved off the rhinos' horns to help protect them a little better. But what surprised me was all of the warriors' response. So when they let these rhinos go, they're all waiting in the background. As soon as those rhinos left, they all go running out to the ground and they start reading the sand, and they explain to me, “We read the sand like you read a map. You know, we can tell if you've been in our village. We can see your footprints. We know who's been here and who hasn't. And we just want to know, does a rhino print look like an elephant print or like an ostrich? We need to know so we can protect them.” It was just incredible. So now they have rhinos there and they're out there monitoring them.

So now, I'm going to move to a story I'm working on right now for National Geographic, pandas. Adored by billions. This is an incredible moment. China is performing a minor miracle right now. They are taking captive-born pandas and releasing them back into the wild. They're also creating corridors and creating more habitat for pandas and a whole host of other species. So, I had front row access to this, and this was quite a big privilege, because no foreigners have ever been allowed to cover this. I was there with a film team and we were covering this incredible moment as Hope, that was her name, was taking her first trepid steps out into the wild for the first time. I dressed up in a ghillie suit because I didn't want to scare her when she was taking those steps out into the wild. And the director of the panda program, Director Zhang Hemin, also called Papa Panda, saw me and he came running up to me and he gave me a hug and he said, “You will get to hold two baby pandas. President Obama, he only held one.”

I know! It's so crazy! So they laid out their bumper crop that year of baby pandas. And then I got to go back, and this is very recent, this is this year. They actually had even a bigger bumper crop, I think it was twenty six baby pandas born. It's incredible. They will melt your heart, truly. So they did something amazing. They cracked the code how you breed them. Because for a long time, for fifteen years, they couldn't figure out how, you know, how you successfully breed the pandas. But it turns out, pandas are like humans. They're picky. They don't have eHarmony or Match.com. So, it took sort of realizing they needed to find a partner that they liked. And the females only are able to have a baby-- they basically have 24 to 72 hours to get pregnant. That's it, an entire year. So it's a very narrow window and you have to find the right partner for her. So they've done that.

And what is so incredible is they're born blind, deaf and just a little squiggle of a thing. And completely helpless. But the mothers are incredible, they just take such good care. They won't-- for days, they go without water and food and they just hold on to their babies and take care of them. - They're one of the fastest-- fastest growing mammals. So, this little guy is maybe a month old. So they grow fast. And literally every week I'd go into the incubator room and they would just grow in front of your eyes. Incredible. Pandas have evolved over millions of years to mainly eat a diet of bamboo, but they eat a lot of bamboo. Up to forty pounds a day. It's really hard to imagine, but these beautiful animals that are adored by billions today, they were only really discovered and the first one was only caught, captured in 1927. Can you imagine? And I find it so fascinating because, if you look at ancient Chinese art, you will see every other animal in Chinese art. Other kinds of bears, you'll see pictures of bamboo, you will never see a panda.

So-- This is my favorite part of the story. My assignment, I got to wear a panda suit every day. Because captive born pandas, they don't actually ever want them to get used to people when they're going to turn them back into the wild. They don't know how to survive out in the wild after one generation in captivity. So they have to teach them. It's a combination of people and their mother teaching them these skills. How to survive in the wild. They need to learn how to pick the best bamboo, how to get leeches off of them, and how to run away from predators. It's kind of like karate. If you pass all the, you know the next level, you get your next belt, and that's the same thing for the pandas. So they go into bigger and bigger enclosures and if they pass all the tests then they go back into the wild. This is them waiting for one of the captive pandas to come out into a new enclosure. And I love this. Like who is the wild one, right? The tables really turned. It was just so surreal. This was the zookeeper's room. And this is not a common scene. They were just checking this panda after two months just to do a health check and it's on it's way to-- in two years, it could, if it passes all tests, could be released into the wild.