A Nakuru National Park rhino evaded a crane truck and panicked rangers by sprinting into dense Kenyan thickets after a tranquiliser dart failed to slow her down. The Kenya Wildlife Service resorted to an antidote just minutes later, fearing the 2-tonne animal would collapse in the wrong spot and suffocate. “The rhino is the worst one to translocate,” muttered helicopter pilot Taru Sheldrick, still circling above the chaos.

Instead of a routine rhino relocation, the young female’s wild dash forced rangers to abandon the move and leave her in her birthplace. The International Rhino Foundation says only about 28,000 rhinos remain in the world, making each one especially precious. “Every animal is just so important,” Sheldrick declared, as the 4x4s retreated in defeat, bush victorious.

Rhinos can weigh up to 2 tonnes but can still outmaneuver both trucks and helicopters, as Nakuru’s rangers learned when dense bush proved mightier than modern machinery.