Vanishing Act

From fossils entombed in tar to cells frozen in hope, Shane Campbell-Staton traces the arc of extinction from prehistory to the present. On an epic global journey, he meets species at the brink of oblivion… and the people who won’t give up on them.

Paleontologist Emily Lindsey uncovers the past beneath the streets of Los Angeles at the La Brea Tar Pits — home to the richest Ice Age fossil deposit in the world. Once mined for oil, this sticky site has revealed giant ground sloths, saber-toothed cats, and over five million fossils. It's a fossil jackpot that tells a 40,000-year-old story of life, extinction, and climate change.

Orca researcher Dr. Deborah Giles and her scent-detecting dog, Eba, are racing to save the southern resident killer whales — an endangered group with just 73 members left. By tracking orca poop, they gather vital data on stress, pregnancy, diet, and health. With Chinook salmon populations collapsing, these orcas are starving, and Giles is fighting to change their fate — one scat sample at a time.

Billions of American chestnut trees once shaped life in Appalachia, but a foreign fungus erased them in a matter of decades. Today, only sickly sprouts remain — ghosts of a vanished ecosystem. Sara Fern Fitzsimmons and The American Chestnut Foundation are racing to breed resistance and restore the tree's ecological role. It’s slow, painstaking work — but it may hold the key to revival.

In Kenya, elephants and humans often live side-by-side — but not always peacefully. Shane meets David Mwiti, a farmer impacted by crop-raiding elephants, and John Pameri, a security expert at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, who helps prevent conflict. With fences, GPS collars, and deep community investment, Lewa is rewriting the rules of coexistence between people and megafauna.

The northern white rhino teeters on the brink of extinction. At Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the San Diego Zoo’s Frozen Zoo, scientists, vets, and caregivers like Zach Mutai, Marlys Houck, and Dr. Florence Kang’ethe are racing against time to bring the species back. Through groundbreaking science and deep compassion, they’re writing a hopeful final chapter — before the book closes for good.