Original subtitles

They just jumped on the roof.

Oh, that's a big bird.

You know, it seems like we're kind of like in a horror movie.

We're in this little shack, and then there's these big birds

just jumping all around us.

For the next several hours, we will

be in this blind attempting to trap some condors.

You ready?

Recently, I had the privilege

of working alongside wildlife biologist, Molly Astell, where

I assisted in gathering the biometrics

of several critically endangered California condors.

Molly has invited the team back to the Bitter

Creek National Wildlife Refuge to help with another task.

This time, the goal is to trap birds

that need to have their health evaluated for the season.

So how do you safely trap a bird that

has a home range of over 100 miles

and is capable of soaring as high as 15,000 feet?

The answer is quite simple.

Ring the dinner bell by serving up

one of their favorite dishes, a smelly cow carcass.

We will be setting up in a blind.

This structure will allow us to stay completely

hidden as the hungry condors are drawn

in toward the tempting bait.

The name of the game is patience and silence.

We want to create as little noise

as possible so that we don't spook our dinner guests.

You get the wild condors there,

and then the ones that we're going

to be releasing right there.

Molly, what are you doing right now?

I'm trying to get the IDs of all the birds here.

OK.

So then we know who's in the area,

and who we've seen lately, and we can kind of keep track

of what birds are around, and what birds

we haven't seen for a while.

OK, thanks a lot.

The team's goal

is to trap birds whose health has not

yet been evaluated this season.

Molly can quickly look at the birds' numbered wing tags,

reference her notes, and then determine

which birds she needs to trap.

Look at this.

Look at this.

This is fantastic.

It's a condor overload.

That one's pruning.

That's number 20.

Some adults are chasing each other.

They just jumped on the roof.

Oh, that's a big bird.

You know, it seems like we're kind of like in a horror movie.

We're in this little shack, and then there's these big birds

just jumping all around us.

For the next several hours, we will

be in this blind attempting to trap some condors.

You ready?

Right, so I think we're about ready to open up that door,

and then we'll see if our kids in there

are going to walk out into the wild for the first time.

So I'm going to slowly open up this door here.

So here's what's going to happen.

When Molly opens up that door, the hungry, wild condors

on the outside of the enclosure are going to be lured inside

because of the cow carcass.

This also allows the two condors that were already inside,

which were born and raised in captivity,

to exit the enclosure.

945 just walked out of the trap.

It's taking his first steps into the wild.

That's quite amazing.

And 870 maybe.

The juvenile?

Yeah.

Yeah, right there.

Right there?

Oh, look at that.

870 is out and at the pond.

So the two birds that we were going to release

are out in the wild for the first time.

When you see something like them,

how do you feel?

Oh, man, it's such a great moment.

When you see them take their first flight,

and they're kind of like, whoa, whoa,

like I can actually fly, and it's-- it's amazing to watch.

Yeah, you're kind of like a proud mom.

Yeah, a little bit.

It's great to see them out there.

So Molly, is there a hierarchy

when it comes to feeding?

Yeah, and you can kind of see it as we're watching them here.

You'll notice like 216, she's one of the more dominant birds

out here, and she has no problem just chewing off any other bird

that's getting in her way.

But some of the younger ones, they're a little skittish.

Oh, we got a little fight going on here.

Little fight.

What's the next step?

The next step is basically, we wait until the birds that we

want are in the trap, and the ones that we don't want

are outside.

Sometimes, that can just take a while.

So essentially, we

wait in this cozy cabin shack.

Exactly.

OK, so in the meantime,

might do some photography.

This is one-way glass, so they can't actually see us,

but we can see them.

So we could actually get the lens right up to the glass

and potentially get some pictures.

We got one coming in.

That's a big boy.

That's a big one.

Wow.

Check that out.

You got that massive wingspan, and check out

those primary feathers right there.

So that's really distinct on condors.

Look at that, and those feet.

Those feet kind of just dangle down.

Got some snacks for everyone.

Here you go, buddy.

One for you.

You know, watching those condors devour

that carcass got me hungry.

Yeah.

So there you go.

Thank you very much.

Wow, they're just digging into that carcass.

There's actually not that much blood.

They're getting all the tendons and stuff, ripping in there.

Wow, look at all the guts.

I think what we're going

to do is we're going to drop the trap door

and see if we can finesse some of these birds

that we definitely want to trap up into the main playpen.

What would prompt them to fly into that?

Well, they can see that there's another carcass

in the flight pen.

OK.

And there's no competition for that one.

It's-- it's looking pretty good.

Let's see if this guy will go up.

I think so.

I think we got him.

Yep.

Yes.

All right, that one is officially

inside of the flight pen.

We trapped our first bird.

Now, of course, when we mean trapped,

we mean it's going into the flight pen.

The flight pen is a larger enclosure where the birds are

kept temporarily until the biologist actually process them

and then release them again.

The condors have consumed all the soft tissue of the carcass

very fast, very efficient birds.

Their whole design, their whole-- whole head structure

is designed to actually fit into the crevice of a carcass

and be able to get in there and pick

away all the choice morsels.

We've been in this blind for hours, and we're almost done.

We just have one final bird that needs

to get into that main flight pen, and it's no 839.

But it's kind of tricky, because we also

have three other birds in here that we do not want

to get into that flight pen.

It's a matter of Molly being quick with that gate.

The perch is clear.

839 is on.

All right, Molly, be ready, because these two on the ground

are restless.

Yeah.

This is your chance, dude.

Yeah, OK, 839 is in.

Yes.

Great job, Molly.

We got it.

Got him.

Heck yeah.

All right, so we got all the target birds that we wanted

to get into that fly pen, and the rest of these, actually,

we will be able to release back into the wild.

So that's fantastic.

Yeah, mission accomplished.

Mission accomplished.

OK, we've been in this dark blind for several hours.

Oh, it is bright out there.

We are done.

It was a successful day.

OK, Molly, we were in that blind for about four hours.

How did we do?

Yeah, we did great.

So we got those eight birds that we were trying

to trap, which is fantastic.

And then we saw our two birds that we were releasing

into the wild for the first time,

make their way out into the world

with the rest of the free-flying population.

Nice.

Great day.

Very successful day.

Well, thank you for having me on the team.

Thank you.

We had a wonderful time helping out with the California

Condor Recovery Program.

What these biologists are doing is critical.

All the hard work that you saw us doing,

they're doing this on a regular basis

to save this endangered species.

All right, all that hard work deserves some lunch.

You ready?

Yeah, let's go.

All right.

The survival of the California

condor depends on continued monitoring and conservation

efforts conducted by dedicated people like Molly and her team.

However, the protection of the species

is a collective endeavor shared by all of us.

One simple way to directly help this species

is by encouraging hunters to use non-lead-based ammunition.

This reduces the risk of condors consuming lead fragments left

behind in the spoils of a hunt which

causes lead poisoning and high mortality rates in these birds.

The actions don't have to be big,

but over time, small actions can have the potential

to create big results that can safeguard our planet's

amazing biodiversity.

Can't get enough of these fascinating birds?

Then check out the live cameras at explore.org to catch

a glimpse of them in real time.

I'm Coyote Petersen.

Today, we're at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum,

and I'm standing right outside of the hummingbird aviary.

Let's head inside and see if we can

get the cameras up close to some of these speedy, little birds.

The Arizona Sonora

Desert Museum, located in the heart of Tucson, Saguaro

National Park, is world renowned for its collection

of amazing animals.

Considered a living museum, the conservation

work they do helps to protect and preserve a number

of native, desert species.

From Mexican wolves, to bighorn m their species survival

programs have helped sustain and reintroduce populations

of threatened animals to the wild

where they once had vanished.

However, not all of the animals that

call the desert museum home are as large as wolves and sheep.

And today, we are getting, or should I say,

we'll be trying to get up close with the smallest

birds in the southwest.

So excited.

I absolutely love hummingbirds.

All right, let's head into the aviary.

Got to move quick.

We've got to go through a set of double doors.

In you go, go, go, go, get that door closed,

and into the aviary we go.

COYOTE PETERSON This

is also where we met up with Shawnee Peterson, an expert

in the world of hummingbirds.

She spends nearly every morning walking the aviary to monitor

this flourishing population.

OK, now here in the aviary,

how many species do we have?

We have four.

OK.

Costa's, Anna's, Broad-Tailed, and Broad-Billed.

Awesome, so we have the chance of seeing

all four of these today.

I'm hopeful.

There's one flying right behind your head.

Is it right behind me?

It's right behind you.

What kind is that?

SHAWNEE RIPLOG-PETERSON: A little female Anna's.

Oh, cool, so the females

are a little bit duller in coloration than the males.

The males usually have a brighter throat, right?

Really, really bright gorget area.

That would be the throat area.

Hummingbirds are tiny masters

of the sky, and before we began searching,

Shawnee wanted to give us a quick lesson

so that we would have an appreciation

for their amazing abilities.

OK, so let's talk about wing speed.

If there's one incredible trait that the hummingbird has,

it's the fact that its wings can go so fast.

Now, how many strokes can that hummingbird do this a minute?

Almost 4,800.

Wow, 4,800 strokes in a minute.

Can you imagine that, and I'm sure if I sat here and did

this, it would take me half a day,

and I'm not going to lift off the ground,

and these hummingbirds, I mean, I'm watching them.

Look at this.

They're just flying back and forth, hovering.

And they can move forward, backwards, up and down.

That's crazy.

SHAWNEE RIPLOG-PETERSON: That's great, yeah.

Now, your heart rate must be going pretty quick

if you're flying that fast.

How fast are their heart rates?

Over 1,200 beats per minute.

This is one impressive, little animal.

That is for sure.

All of that power packed into--

I mean, these guys are tiny.

They're like that.

Yeah, about three grams.

So that's about the weight of a penny.

Wow, so you're telling me that a bird this size--

I mean, he is tiny, but he only weighs as much as a penny.

SHAWNEE RIPLOG-PETERSON: Yeah.

That is impressive.

Walk quietly, keep alert,

and with just a little patience, you

will soon begin to see hummingbirds

darting left and right.

I certainly wasn't allowed to capture any of these birds,

so for me, this experience was all

about having a close encounter of the hummingbird kind.

SHAWNEE RIPLOG-PETERSON: One thing

I think that we did that was really smart

is we made this aviary pretty low.

So the birds do, they nest very close to people,

and people get to enjoy them very close instead of the birds

being up very high.

And the temperature in here

is significantly lower than it is outside of the aviary,

and I notice you have a lot of shade, kind of netting

and the mesh top.

Does that help to keep the temperature down?

SHAWNEE RIPLOG-PETERSON: It does.

It's really nice in the summertime.

I see that there are spider webs

all over the place in here.

Now, is that something that hummingbirds like?

Are they eating spiders?

No, but that is the glue that keeps a nest together.

Oh, really?

SHAWNEE RIPLOG-PETERSON: And when we opened this exhibit,

our nests were sort of falling apart,

and we were like, what are we missing?

And it was because we'd had to pretty

much start from ground zero.

We were missing spiders.

So we brought in labyrinth spiders,

and they started spinning their webs,

and immediately during breeding season,

the females would come in and start stealing all that

and weave them into their nests.

I can feel that,

that that webbing is very strong and, like you said, stretchy.

So as the chicks are growing, then the nest actually

expands with the baby birds.

Exactly.

That is really, really cool.

Symbiotic relationship between a bird and a spider.

Never heard of that one before.

Shawnee, what I love so much about this aviary

is that it feels like we're out there in the wild.

Now, you do have the enclosure over top,

but you barely notice it, and you can get so incredibly

close to these hummingbirds.

I know, it's a terrific experience.

Oh, jeez, look how close this one is right here.

SHAWNEE RIPLOG-PETERSON: Absolutely.

Look at that.

Look at how comfortable he is getting that close to us.

Wow, is that normal for them to just come this close?

I mean, we've been standing still for a minute.

Well, they know that they're getting

their lunch from us so--

So he might think Coyote has my lunch.

SHAWNEE RIPLOG-PETERSON: Maybe.

Oh, there he goes.

Wow, how cool was that?

I mean, we were literally inches from that hummingbird.

Oh, that's truly an experience I'm never going to forget.

Shawnee, thank you so much for having us out here today

to the hummingbird aviary.

Yes, oh my gosh, the next time you guys are in the Southwest,

make sure you come and visit the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

So many amazing animals to get up close with.

I'm Coyote Petersen.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

I'm Coyote Petersen, and this is baby toucan feeding time.

Watch this.

The Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary

has a very clear mission when it comes

to Costa Rica's wild animals that are in need of help.

Rescue, rehabilitate, and ultimately, release them back

into their natural environment.

But what about the animals who cannot make a full recovery?

Located in the coastal town of Dominical,

Alturas also calls itself home to nearly 50

permanent residents.

These animals cannot be released back

into the wild because of disability

or severe over domestication.

And while some of these permanent residents

are covered in fur--

It's sloth off feeding time.

COYOTE PETERSON - many are

actually of the feathered kind.

So this morning, I will be sitting down

for breakfast with one of their newest

additions, a baby toucan.

This is the real Fruit Loops right here.

This is fresh cut fruit.

What I'm about to do is feed it to a baby toucan.

It smells really good.

This looks like something that I would eat for breakfast,

so I have a feeling that this toucan

is absolutely going to love it.

Oh, boy, here it comes.

Oh, look at that.

That is a baby toucan.

I have never seen one of these before.

That is so amazing.

You look like a little dinosaur.

Look at that curious head.

Look what I've got.

Now, if I was a mama toucan, I would come in with some fruit

just like this.

There you go.

Oh, he's eating the spoon.

Look at that beak.

Quite the chomper. Here we go.

Coming in.

Coming in hot.

There we go.

And although it's a juvenile, that beak

could still give me a pretty good chomp, so I want to keep

my fingers away from there.

That's why I'm using a spoon.

There you go.

When fully grown,

the toucan's bill can be nearly seven inches in length

and will continue to evolve in coloration being a mix

of red, orange, and green.

Just is like a mama bird.

Got to get that way down in there.

OK.

So have you ever fed a toucan before?

I have never fed a toucan before.

There's a first time for everything.

Do you know that Fruit Loops is actually my favorite cereal,

and as a kid, I used to love Toucan Sam.

So hanging out today with this baby toucan,

getting to feed it real Fruit Loops,

is a pretty cool experience.

Oh, give me back the spoon.

He's trying to eat the whole spoon.

Oh, we've got all kinds of good stuff in here.

We've got cantaloupe and pineapple and banana.

There you go.

You got some of it on your beak.

Look at those eyes.

Look at how big and buggy his eyes are.

And without the feathers fully developed on the neck,

you can see the curve of that vertebrae.

Look at the feet.

Can you see that?

You know what it looks like?

Reminds me of a baby pterodactyl.

COYOTE PETERSON These birds

have what is known as zygodactyl feet

with toe sets facing in opposite directions.

This foot structure, with two toes in the front

and two toes in the back, allows them

to easily maneuver in the lush rain-forest canopies.

And a baby toucan of this size obviously

up in the trees, it's very important

that he uses these claws to keep himself in the nest

and on the tree branches.

Now, this baby toucan eats four times a day,

and quite a bit of food.

Oh, I know.

I hear you.

More, more, more, he says.

You're OK.

Here you go.

It's always nice to have a friend over for a breakfast

conversation.

And right now, we're talking about what

it's like to be a baby toucan.

It's a rough life if you fall out of the nest.

If a baby toucan falls

from the nest, it's almost certain

to be picked off by a predator.

However, in the case of this lucky little bird,

it was found by a human who did the right thing

and brought it to the sanctuary.

Now, hopefully, this baby toucan

will be able to be rehabilitated and eventually

released back into the wild.

So we don't want it to become too acclimated to humans,

but it is important that this bird does eat several times

a day to keep up its nourishment.

You are one sloppy eater, you know that?

He is a sloppy eater.

I think you're getting

more of this fruit on the log and not in your mouth.

Oh, look at his little tail.

Look at that little tufter.

Want some more?

Yes, that's a good breakfast, isn't it?

This right here is the breakfast of champions.

Fruit for the Fruit Loops toucan.

There you go.

Oh, it's like feeding a baby dinosaur.

Because this toucan could not

be returned to its nest, it will be raised in captivity

and will become a permanent resident at Alturas.

And whether you are covered in fur or feathers,

each and every member of this incredible family of animals

is living a happy and loved life.

How awesome was that spending the morning

feeding a baby toucan.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

Eat your breakfast.

We'll see on the next adventure.

The Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary

is constantly welcoming new volunteers

to help with the rescue, rehabilitation,

and release of Costa Rica's beautiful animals.

For more information on how you can become a part of the team,

visit their website, alturaswildlifesanctuary.org.