All language subtitles for Taronga s01e06 103-Year-Old Tortoise

Famous the world over, Sydney Harbour is
home to some of Australia's most iconic

landmarks and one of the world's most
celebrated zoos.

Throughout its 101 -year history,
There's never been a more exciting time

granted access to both of Taronga Zoo's
locations.

From caring for a single animal.

Just hang on to him and keep calm. To
saving an entire species.

She's a gorgeous little girl and one of
our most critically endangered.

We'll take you Inside Taronga.

On this episode, when Charlie met Nala.

She's going to come down and have a play
date with him. But will this blind date

result in a sea lion puff?

We are hoping that they are going to
absolutely love each other from the get

-go, but it's not always the case.

103 years old and still going strong.

She's seen it all. She's right in her
prime, really. A surprise birthday party

for the zoo's oldest resident.

Final finishing touches.

She's going to love it.

and the dangerous business of X -raying
a snake.

Gaining the

animal's trust is an important part of
every keeper's job.

Good. It's called conditioning, and it
helps staff get up close and take care

animals if they're suffering from health
problems.

Well, our male Komodo Naga is lame.

We're going to try to take some x -rays
to see if there's any orthopedic

problems.

It's also used to help train animals to
interact with keepers in a safe manner.

Hello. Want to do a session?

And down at the seal enclosure, keepers
are using these techniques to help with

their important sea lion breeding
program.

Hello, tiny.

Crystal's been working with Nala, our
Australian sea lion, on training her for

ultrasound so we can check on any
potential pups.

But Nala's already in.

This is Nala, and she's a 10 -year -old
Australian sea lion. She was born here

at the zoo. She's been my favourite
amongst us all. She's absolutely

Australian sea lions are the only seal
species that lives in Australia. They're

found off the coast of southern and
western Australia, and their numbers are

really, really low. They're a highly
endangered species, so the more we can

a lovely breeding population here, the
better it is for the species as a whole.

Her safe place is the water, so we
always want to give her a lot of room.

makes her feel a bit safer.

She can just go to the water if she
feels uncomfortable at any time. And if

doesn't want to participate, we won't
push it at all. We want this to be

positive.

Today, Lindsay's not only training Nala,
she's also teaching Keeper Crystal a

few tricks.

All right, Nala, let's go.

So you just let me know when you'd like
me to come in, yeah?

Pretend ultrasound probe to simulate
what the real one would be like. All

Nala.

You're right to come in now. Coming in,
Nala.

Coming in. Here I am. Touching.

Monitoring any future pregnancy is an
important requirement so vets can

intervene should something go wrong.

Excellent. Nice work, Nala.

Luckily for Keeper, Nala is an excellent
student.

Nala absolutely loves to learn. She's
very cooperative and very switched on,

very intelligent.

She's all comfortable on your end? She's
really relaxed. So what we want to do

is maybe we'll bridge soon, do a short
one. So as soon as you bridge, I'll pull

away. Good girl.

So that bridge just tells Nala that
she's done the right thing and that fish

on the way.

If you want to give her a break at any
time too, that's quite okay.

Yeah. One of the harder things for seals
is to stay still, so we like to break

it up with a bit of energetic stuff as
well.

Good girl.

All right, I'm going to bring it back if
you're okay.

We might just try for a bit of a longer
one, maybe not quite as long as what we

were trying for before.

Ready?

Touching.

Maybe sort of a decent length, but not
as long as what we were pushing for

before. And then we'll probably leave it
at that, I think. Yep. She's done

really well.

Good girl.

Good job, sweetie.

All right, might leave it there. Cool.

While the ultrasound training went off
without a hitch, keepers are hopeful her

upcoming introduction to the male
feline, Charlie, goes just as smoothly.

Stay there, Nala.

Good girl.

The playful felines have a great
relationship with their keepers.

But on the other side of the zoo lives a
collection of animals that could kill

their keepers in a heartbeat.

A fact never too far from Keeper Chris's
mind.

So this is our off -display venomous
snake holding room. This is where we

all of our venomous snakes when we're
not housing them on display.

At the zoo, we have about a dozen or so
venomous snakes.

Most of those are native Australian.

The local snakes may be more venomous,
but the most recognisable snake comes

from Southeast Asia.

So in this enclosure here, we have a
monocled cobra.

Isn't that quite a vocal snake?

This species of snake could be
responsible for hundreds if not

deaths every year.

Their venom is quite toxic, and they're
not afraid to inject it.

But what it's made up of is largely
neurotoxins that very quickly stop our

neurons firing in our nervous system. So
that can mean that the heart stops

beating, the lungs stop breathing, and
all of those little...

neurological processes can break down
very, very quickly.

So we've got an interesting little snake
in here.

This is a species of snake that not many
people know about.

Now this here is called a broad -headed
snake.

It is another venomous snake.

And it just goes to show that in
Australia,

It's not just the big dangerous snakes
that we need to be aware of.

It's the smaller cryptic ones that still
pack a punch.

The broad -headed snake has a few
records of human deaths.

There isn't a specific broad -headed
snake antivenom, but tiger snake

has shown to be effective to treat bites
of species.

But up the other end of the room lives
the most venomous snake of all.

But in here...

We've got a species of snake that plenty
of people have heard of before and

never had the privilege of seeing.

But they're a very beautiful snake.

These guys are at the top of their game.
Inland Taipan.

Considered the world's most toxic land
snake.

We've got three in this enclosure.

We've got two boys and a female.

They're only found in western Queensland
and parts of South Australia.

So their venom is said to...

pack the punch whereby one bite can be
enough to knock out 200 ,000

mice and approximately 100 full grown
men in an individual bite.

Others right up there in the count would
be the eastern brown snake and the

tiger snake and those two species have
been attributed to probably most

Australian snake bite envenomations
whereas This species is simply

far less frequently than the others.

If you see any snake here in Australia,
you're really best standing still,

letting the snake pass you by.

If you're far enough away from it, it's
safe to walk away.

But definitely don't try to catch a
snake. Definitely don't try to kill the

snake. Just enjoy the moment that you've
had with the snake if you can contain

yourself enough to.

And then, as I said, if it's in your
house or in your yard...

to definitely call a trained
professional to come and safely remove

Thankfully, not all snakes at Taronga
are stone -cold killers.

Like Olive, the olive python.

Found all across northern Australia,
these gentle giants can grow up to four

metres in length.

But Olive has a history of chronic back
pain, which is getting worse.

And when your back is more than three
meters long, the question is, how do you

find where it hurts?

Every year, Taronga welcomes new animals
to their family.

Some have just been born, while others
have just arrived.

But today, they're celebrating an
animal.

that had been around Taronga from almost
the start.

Good morning, guys.

Morning, Ezzie.

Hey, Lance, where are you going?

Here, mate.

Here at Taronga, we have two giant
tortoises. They are giant Aldabran

This is Lance.

Lance is our male Aldabran tortoise.

Just giving you a bit of a neck scratch
at the moment. It's something that he

appears to like.

for use of a better term. You know, he
really tends to stretch his neck out. We

really like to get into all these little
nooks and crannies.

The Aldabran tortoises are from the
group of islands off the coast of

lot of people have heard of Galapagos
tortoises, but these are the other

existing giant tortoises that are found
on the earth today.

As an adult, they don't have any
predators really in the wild, but as a

tortoise, there would be several animals
that would take them.

Lance would weigh about 180 kilos.

But if he was to walk into any water, he
would float like a cork.

The structure in their shell is a
honeycomb that has air pockets, so

able to actually bob in the ocean, and
that's how they would have inhabited

different islands.

You might notice these lines that are
over her shell.

This is one what we refer to as a scute.

Often in snakes and lizards, we have
individual tortoises and turtles. They

individual scutes, and these will shed
off the tortoises growing larger.

The skin on the Aldabra tortoise is so
tough and so leathery, it's to make sure

it's not getting damaged by the harsh
land that they're living in. It really

a very strong leather. It's just like,
it's stronger than your boots.

You hungry this morning?

I tend to work a lot with snakes. It can
be a bit, you know, a bit whippy and

these guys are very controlled.

Good girl.

and they just go about their business
just slowly and steadily.

They're not an aggressive animal, very
easy to feed, and no real hazards when

comes to them. But if we think that the
Aldabra is getting too close, you just

take a step to the left or the right,
and it takes them 10 minutes to reach

anyway, so you're out of danger.

Now, Lance is a sort of a young bloke.
He's at approximately 70 years of age.

And Esmeralda, she's the old dame of the
zoo.

She would have arrived here in the zoo
in the 40s, just after World War II.

They do guesstimate that some giant
tortoises can live to be 200 years of

So she might only be in that middle age,
so she's right in her prime, really.

And with her birthday just around the
corner, the keepers have a very special

surprise for this 103 -year -old dame.

Coming up, Handle With Care.

Unravelling the mystery of Olive's
chronic pain.

She has some changes in her spine, sort
of like arthritis.

And pressure builds as keepers count
down to Nala's date night.

Fingers crossed we'll be able to end up
with an Australian sea lion pup, which

is the ultimate goal here.

Olive the python has a history of
chronic back pain, which is getting

But when your back is more than three
metres long, it's a hard thing to

So it's off to the animal hospital for
some urgent x -rays.

She has had some x -rays in the past
that have not looked great, but we just

want to check that she is in the best
condition possible and she's doing well

for her age. So hopefully the x -rays
come back good and there's no further

spinal changes for her.

Now, I don't know what her personality
is like. I don't know if she's bitey.

I'll just treat her like a wild snake.

We've got a 17 -year -old olive python,
and Liz is going to restrain her while I

inject her to start off her anaesthetic
so that we can radiograph her.

Harmless or not, the team know whenever
you're handling a snake of this size,

you can never let your guard down.

A 10 kilo python is extremely strong.

So the way that they get their prey is
they constrict them.

This is 10 kilos of muscle.

So yeah, it's not so much her bitey
bits, it's more her wrapping herself

And 10 kilos doesn't seem that big, but
in a python it's quite hefty.

See how she's

quite strong.

She's bending the needle.

Okay, that'll do for now. That will
sedate her somewhat.

So the time is 10 .49.

A couple of years ago, she had her spine
x -rayed and in her neck region in a

snake, she had some changes on her x
-ray where her spine had

extra bone in it and it was quite stiff.

The team are hoping that today's X -rays
show no further deterioration, but

judging by Olive's recent behavior, they
fear the worst.

Esmeralda, the giant Aldabra tortoise,
is the oldest resident of Taronga.

She's been at the zoo since just after
World War II.

Being here at the zoo for over 70 years,
I think Esmeralda would have met more

people than any other animal here at the
zoo.

She's met politicians, movie stars,
music stars, sports people.

She's seen it all. She's met all the
VIPs.

I mean, I remember visiting the zoo as a
young bloke and I can specifically

remember seeing Esmeralda because she
always had a different shell to the

tortoises that were in the exhibit. So I
have fond memories of Esmeralda as a

young boy, definitely.

And today, Esmeralda turns 103.

So Sue has organised the nutritionist
team to make something to celebrate the

occasion.

Quite a concoction, I think.

It's very colourful, very full, lots of
green leafy vegetables. All the

vegetable families here, tomatoes on the
side, peas, broccoli, capsicum.

Yeah, some beautiful squash and tomato
shaped in flowers.

It's very, very exciting.

And head chef is Michelle Shaw,
Australia's first and only zoo

Okay, final finishing touches.

Does it look good?

She's going to love it. So this is the
birthday cake for a wonderful animal, a

very special animal.

This cake is based on her natural diet,
but we've just designed it in a way

that's special for her. So she might get
this variety of vegetable three times a

week. She gets meadow hay, which we've
made the base of the cake for, and

a really good high -fiber thing.

We've got her carrots.

Candle. Candle.

Great idea.

Oh, look at that.

Oh. Oh.

Okay, we're ready to go.

Gosh, I'm going to be thrilled. I can't
wait. I'm salivating just thinking about

it. And like all great surprise parties,
Esmeralda has no idea.

Taronga Zoo is taking part in a breeding
program designed to boost numbers of

the endangered Australian sea lion.

And the first female this season to be
mated is one of the marine team's

favorites. Nala.

She's absolutely amazing.

She loves learning new things. She's so
playful.

Nala is being paired with Charlie, who's
waiting patiently in another pool at

the opposite end of the marine precinct.

And the two couldn't be more different.

Nala here weighs about 60 kilos.

whereas her boyfriend, Charlie, weighs
about 260.

What would you like to check with
Charlie today?

We'll just do his general checks. We'll
just double -check those gums before he

had those little scratches and that
scratch on his flipper. OK.

Just make sure it's healing up.

Before they breed, animals at Taronga
must be in good health, so Charlie needs

to undergo a quick physical exam.

You going to unlock the door?

Charlie, rock.

Good boy.

All right, Brad, what I might do is I'll
put him in the water.

In the water.

Charlie, water.

Water.

Luckily, Charlie is as well behaved as
Nala.

because you can't give a 300 -kilo sea
lion a health check if he doesn't want

one. Hello, big fella.

Would you like to come out?

Good.

That's it.

Come over here, big boy.

I love everything about Charlie.

The same sea lions are one of my most
favourite animals in the entire world.

I've been working with them for 23
years.

He's big, he's gorgeous.

He's just like a big, wet dog.

Have a look at the gums for us. Check
his mouth? Okay.

Just checking behind the two lower
canines where he had a little rub mark.

Checking that worn down a bit there,
Brad.

Charlie plays quite rough with toys, and
so we just keep an eye on his feet. He

had a little scratch on one of his gums
earlier this week, but it's all healed

up and pretty much gone.

Good. Yeah.

Good boy. That's it.

Over.

We want them to be comfortable being
touched all over, so that's what the

need to have a look at them. But it also
gives us an opportunity to see if

there's any tenderness or, you know, if
we see a different response from day to

day, we know that potentially there
could be a problem. But this is all part

their conditioning. We want them to be
pretty much bomb -proof in all of their

health care.

I think someone was mentioning he had
some rate marks on his flippers, Brad.

All right. On the rear one?

So these rear flippers here are unique
in the fact that a lot of people are

surprised by these little nails that
they have.

They're only to use for grooming that
fur coat.

They're exposing them by bending the
rear flippers over, exposing them. They

groom and scratch pretty much most of
their body with them.

Oh.

Nothing for that? Good.

It's all good news for Charlie.

and he's been given a clean bill of
health.

So Nala, our beautiful female Australian
sea lion, is about the quarter of size

of Charlie.

He's going to come down and have a play
date with him. They will spend maybe the

day, sometimes overnight, depending on
how they're both feeling, because we're

hoping that they will consider it
throughout Australian sea lion breeding

program.

With date night looming, the question
is, will Charlie and Nala find love?

Esmeralda the giant tortoise is turning
103 and Taronga staff have organised a

surprise for her.

We're so happy to see you two.

That looks amazing.

I'll jump over if you guys want to pass
it over to me.

Esmeralda has been here the longest
amount of time, more than any other

here at Taronga and so for that we are
going to give her a special treat. We're

going to do something special for her.

Happy birthday, Esmeralda.

Happy 103rd birthday, Stewie. 103rd
birthday for Esmeralda. You know what?

doesn't look a day over 95.

She doesn't. To be honest.

We do like to put on a special sort of
celebration for these milestone times,

but especially for our very iconic
animals. And Esmeralda is one of our

iconic species in the reptile
department.

Real variety today.

Oh, yeah.

Endive and broccoli and... Beautiful
hibiscus flowers, one of their

Which is one of the best foods for them
as well, hibiscus flowers, yeah.

Definitely.

Esmeralda came to the zoo in 1947 and
her diet previous to that would have

you know, she would have been having a
natural diet, really high fibre plants

and things.

Coming into a zoo environment, she would
have received really high fruit diets

in the past, and they would love it, but
it's like us eating chocolate every

single day, right? So it causes them to
have digestive upset, they get really

gassy and bloated. But, you know, we've
learned a lot about nutrition in the

last hundred years.

She's absolutely loving that celery,
isn't she? Absolutely. Looking for that

crunch. Yeah.

It's a very happy day for her.

But, you know, I don't think we can say
this is the happiest birthday for her.

Next year might be better.

We always think next year's going to be
better. But now you've set a standard.

So next year we're going to expect more.
And the year after that, more.

So just be careful.

Many happy returns, Esmeralda.

Olive. The olive python was brought to
the animal hospital with chronic back

pain. Now it's a waiting game as the
anaesthetic takes effect.

Let's have another look.

So it's been 15, 16 minutes.

Still there.

We are concerned about her and we've had
some other snakes with similar issues.

So once they have this...

Syndrome, it tends to progress and then
to the point where they can't move very

well at all.

She's a little bit, yeah, she's quite
sedated, but she can't support her own

head. Okay. But she's trying to, so I
reckon we can try and get her out.

As with any spinal injury, the staff
know they must handle Olive with great

care. Big girl.

I feel heavier than 10 kilos.

Lisa's going to change sides and I'm
going to intubate her.

There's a lot of snakes.

You may have to hang on to the back
because she'll probably start moving.

You can see that there's lots of very,
very fine teeth.

Their teeth are quite sharp and they're
all very fine, just like fist bones.

If you get bitten, it'll be quite
painful.

There we go. Beautiful.

Very snug.

Every part of this procedure takes great
skill.

So what we're going to do now is connect
her up to the anaesthetic machine, put

the anaesthetic gas, see her tongue
coming on.

Shall we turn her just to find her heart
and then we can put the Doppler on her?

Yes.

We're going to look along here, around
this area, to look for her heart and

attach the Doppler to it because you
can't use a stethoscope to hear it.

And this is a good way of monitoring her
anaesthesia. So we need to make sure

she's breathing and we need to make sure
her heart is, of course, going.

I reckon it must be around here.

Actually, I'll turn her up.

There you go.

That's her heart beating.

The heart rate sounds really good.

Nice and steady.

Take that off.

It's always nice to hear the heart.

Okay, so we're going to take her in and
weigh her.

It's rare that Olive has been sedated,
so the team take full advantage while

sleeps.

She's 10 .9 kilos, and we'll take her
back. Yep, measure her. Measure her.

Straight out along the floor.

We're measuring her just for the records
because snakes keep growing, so for

data, but also to assess her body
condition compared to what a wild

Would be pretty long, wouldn't she?

130 at her vent.

Importantly, the team now know Olive's
exact weight and length.

What they don't know is which part of
her three -metre spine is injured.

Still to come, a long walk for this
loved -up sea lion.

What's out here?

Hey, who are we going to go see?

And the secret world of Team CSI. You
can't really determine how an animal

unless you get right in there.

Wildlife CSI.

Like the huge collection

of animals on display, Taronga staff
come from all walks of life.

Oh, I lost it. Come on.

Get it.

I've never really liked seafood, even
from a young age. I absolutely hated the

smell of it, and now here I am, elbows
deep in seafood every day.

But I'm just really lucky. I feel really
lucky to be able to work with these

incredible animals every day and inspire
visitors about how important they are

and the ocean they live in.

So for me, I'm an ungulate keeper. So an
ungulate's just a fancy name for a hoof

mammal. So here at Taronga Zoo, I'm
looking after the bongo.

I look after giraffes, and I also look
after pygmy hippos.

I used to work, funny enough, as a
butcher before I started as a zookeeper.

A butcher to working at the zoo, but I
can tell you what, I know I cut a meat

like you wouldn't believe.

I'm very green in regards to the
environment, but at the end of the day,

still a carnivore. I like to eat meat,
so...

Saying that I'm a butcher has no
disrespect to the animals or the

It just means that I know them more
inside and out than other keepers, you

Erica, can you release that for us?

I was one of those annoying little girls
when I was sort of two or three years

old was determined to be a vet. But I
don't think, you know, certainly not at

that stage and not even through vet
school imagined that I'd be lucky enough

work in a zoo. But I've always been
interested in wildlife.

I feel really, really lucky to be
working in an environment like this.

a great zoo, so very lucky.

You wouldn't want those teeth sinking in
for anything other than a nice piece of

fruit.

Hi!

Best job in the world, hands down.

I guess most people are just a reaction
of, oh, wow, that's so cool.

People are, yeah, pretty impressed, but
we're very lucky.

This meerkat just here, his name is
Kumo. He's actually part of our largest

litter. We had six meerkats in a litter,
and he's what I call the pickpocketer.

So any time you sit down in the exhibit,
he loves to come up and explore what's

in your pocket. If you ever have a pen,
your pen will only last a few seconds in

your pocket before he's scratched it
out.

He's pretty disappointed, I think,
because I don't have a pen today.

We have 18 meerkats, so we have a huge
mob here.

I've worked with all but two since the
day they were born. So to me, they all

look completely different, believe it or
not. But, yeah, to most people,

obviously, they all look exactly the
same.

What are you doing?

What is Lawazi doing?

He's so noisy.

But it's not only the living animals
that the team at Taronga care for.

This here is like Taronga's morgue.

And what we do every day is conduct post
-mortems to find out cause of death of

any animals in our care. I think there
were some signs early on that I might

have been cut out for this job.

I always wanted to be a vet since a
little kid.

I didn't think I'd end up working in the
post -mortem room here.

I knew I was probably going to end up
working with the zoo in some way.

I think just having that fascination for
animals and a bit of the morbid kind

of... And how they work, because you
can't really determine how an animal

unless you get right in there.

Here at Taronga Zoo, I'm the supervisor
of the reptile amphibian department.

And here in my hand is a little female
southern corroboree frog.

She's a gorgeous little frog, one of
Australia's most iconic species and one

our most critically endangered.

And at the moment, they're right at the
brink of extinction.

There's a lot of interesting quirks
about the frogs and also about myself.

one of the interesting things with these
little guys is how we survey for them.

We actually yell at the habitat where
the frogs are. And if there's a male

sitting in the net, he calls back at us
because he thinks we're another male.

He's saying, get away from my girls, get
away from my pond, this is my area.

So we give off a real loud, deep, yeah.

And then these little guys give off
their little, back at us, yeah.

And that's how we know how many there
are in the wild, where they're

and so forth.

Back at the wildlife hospital, vets are
trying to find the exact position of

Olive's chronic back pain and check if
there's been any further damage to her

already painful spine.

She had some changes in her spine, so
sort of like arthritis, and it makes the

part of her spine quite stiff in the
neck region.

And so we're doing repeat x -rays on her
today to ensure that it's not getting

worse.

The reality is... If it is worse, she
may not be able to survive.

Okay, so we're going to start the X
-ray. Yep. And so you want to go from

first? Yes. And dorsal ventral? Yes.

X -ray.

There's quite a lot of the animal to X
-ray, so we have to do a lot more X

on snakes in particular.

So we're going to put tape on there so
they know where we're going.

At 40 centimetres.

At 40?

We just make sure we have our routine
down and make sure we do it properly. It

works out well.

Number two?

Yeah. We can turn her off at the next
one. Okay, that's much better. We can go

to the next one. Number three? Well, we
do in this job do a lot of radiographs.

That's part of our diagnostic work.

She's a bit twisted at the front.

Oh, she is? Yeah.

And that's how we determine, you know,
what's wrong with the animal, if there

anything wrong or not, and we can rule
out certain things.

Next extra? Yep.

They are a really good diagnostic tool,
so really taking them, to me, is quite

interesting.

Yep, that's good.

So we've finished taking our radiographs
of the python, and so now it's just the

wait for her to recover. We've given her
a reversal agent, but she's also had

anaesthetic gas, and so she just needs
to metabolise those anaesthetics until

she wakes up, and it can be a number of
hours.

and we're giving her the heat because
that'll speed up her recovery.

Being a reptile, they can't control
their own body temperature, so this is

called a bear hugger. It's full of hot
air, and she's also on top of a heat mat

as well, and that will maximise her
recovery.

Of course, now I'm going to do a little
doona.

Blanket. Got to get her a pillow.

So today's gone really well.

It's always a pleasure to work with a
beautiful snake like an olive python

because not many people get to do that.
We've got to have a look through the

radiograph to see what kind of changes
she has in her spine and if the changes

she had from about four years ago are
the same or if they've progressed.

But all will be revealed shortly when I
can have a look at her three metres of

spine.

And as the first x -rays come through,
it's not looking good for Olive.

really exciting day. We're hoping to
introduce Nala, our female Australian

lion, with Charlie, our big male
Australian sea lion.

We are hoping that they are going to
absolutely love each other from the get

-go, but it's not always the case, so
it's going to be exciting to see how

interact with each other and how things
go, which is really exciting.

But first, Nala must get to the other
end of the marine precinct, and the only

way is to walk.

Where are we going to go?

What are we doing?

So it's not a very easy task to get Nala
down to Charlie.

Nala's exhibit is at the top of a set of
stairs on a completely different level.

Thankfully, Nala is trained to walk
outside of her exhibit. We take her

regularly for her own enrichment,
something different for her to see, and

does that quite happily because she
enjoys going out for walks.

Good girl.

What's out here?

Hey.

Who are we going to go see?

She definitely will know what's
happening when we get in the proximity

Charlie is. She'll probably smell him
before she sees him.

Charlie probably has no idea what's
about to happen. He's probably in his

mindset, just enjoying a day in the
pool, and all of a sudden a female's

to arrive, so that's going to make him
pretty excited.

Nice work. Up you go.

Good girl.

So it's really important for us whenever
we introduce two animals, we want to

make sure both animals are happy and
comfortable throughout the entire

If they're not comfortable or happy, we
simply separate them again and we try

again at another date.

But fortunately for Charlie and Nala,
love is definitely in the air and

the water.

The introduction between Charlie and
Nala has been as fantastic as we could

imagined. They are both really
comfortable in each other's presence.

There's no aggressive behaviour,
anything to suggest that it's going to

escalate, which is great.

Definitely feeling the love.

Charlie's even been clucking, which is a
natural vocal or sound that the boys

make to let the girls know they're very
interested in them, which is really

great for us to hear.

And Nala's been quite receptive to that.
So a lot of the nose -to -nose

touching, that's really interesting and
great for us to see.

Absolutely stoked that this has gone so
well.

It's what we aim to do in the breeding
program of this incredibly rare species.

So to see two seals getting along so
well with each other really gives us

hopes for our breeding season.

So the loved -up pair will be left
overnight for some private time.

Fingers crossed we'll be able to end up
with an Australian sea lion pup, which

is the ultimate goal here.

Yesterday, Taronga Sets conducted a
series of x -rays on the zoo's 17 -year

female olive python.

She recovered from the anaesthetic
really well and she was awake, but there

large water body in her enclosure, so we
didn't want to send her back to her

enclosure just in case she went swimming
overnight and had a nap underwater.

So we allowed her to recover here in the
hospital and she's stayed nice and

warm, recovered really beautifully
overnight.

She's bright and alert now and we're
happy for her to go swimming if she

chooses. And so the reptile keepers are
going to come down, collect her and take

her back to their collection.

But first, keeper Emma is keen to get
the results of the X -ray, which Gabby

spent the night painstakingly stitching
together.

So here's Olive, her radiograph, and
we're just going to go down her body and

I'll show you some of the changes that
we've found.

So you can see in this radiograph that
you've got lots of detail of the

individual vertebrae. So up here you can
see a little space between each unit

and then along here they all start to
join together and you also get increased

bone development underneath and it's
reflected on this view looking down on

back where you get these widening which
are called paddles.

It is actually getting worse.

No one really knows what causes this in
snakes. It doesn't just happen in

pythons. It happens in venomous snakes,
like rattlesnakes overseas.

We used to think it was just from
handling, but the fact that it's found

in venomous snakes that are not handled
very often makes that unlikely.

So what we're going to do with Olive is
we're going to put her on a treatment

trial of anti -inflammatories, which is
essentially pain relief, and you're

going to monitor how she uses her
enclosure.

If she starts moving around with the
pain relief on board, that tells me that

she was painful.

If there is no difference, then we may
have to consider her quality of life

because we can't help her move around
more. If she's just spending all her

in one area and not doing anything, I
think it's a welfare issue that we have

consider. So we'll reconvene in about a
week when she's finished her medication.

OK.

We're going to pop her back.

It's a sad result for Olive, who's
called Taronga home for the last eight

Prognosis for her is not great.

The fact that it's deteriorated over the
five years means it's probably going to

continue to do so no matter what we do,
unfortunately. And if her welfare being

our primary can think that her quality
of life is poor or that she's in any

of discomfort, then euthanasia will
likely be the end result.

It's been two months since sea lions
Charlie and Nala spent a quiet night

together.

So her rear flippers will be here. Front
flippers will be here.

Rear flippers will be there.

If possible, it would be better for you
to be on this side.

We can shuffle that however you want,
just so she's got a clear access to the

water. Vet Larry has come down to her
enclosure to conduct the first

to see if the mating encounter was
successful.

What is happening out here?

Hey, sweetie.

Hey. Thankfully, we've been doing some
training sessions with Nala in

preparation for this in the hopes that
we are going to be potentially seeing a

pup today. Fingers crossed. That's their
dream.

Hey, beautiful girl.

Come here.

Good girl.

Ready to go when you are, Larry?

Good girl.

We've got a really good scan of her
whole abdomen here. Good job.

Nice work, Nala. She's an incredible
animal. I mean, look at her. She's just

perfect.

That's it.

Thank you.

Nothing obvious yet. I mean, I can see
organs, her abdominal organs. I've got a

great image of her bladder.

So it'd be good, actually, if we turn
her around. Okay. Just this whole set

Yep. So she's facing that way. With no
luck on the right side, Larry is hoping

the left -hand side gives him a better
view.

All right, Nala.

Come on.

No, no.

That's it.

That's it. It might be handy if she was
wet, though, but let's see. Good girl.

That's it. It's always exciting, I mean,
you know, and always hopeful. And I

suppose, you know, when you don't see
something in the back of my mind, I'm

going, have I missed it? Have I missed
it? And, you know, there's always hope

that maybe I have. But, oh, hang on a
sec.

Just hold on.

And suddenly...

Something catches Larry's eye.

Her left side of her abdomen, the lower
abdomen here, and just not far from the

bladder, I just spotted a sort of a
circular vesicle.

Okay, so that's a still image.

So that there is very likely to be an
embryonic vesicle

with the little embryo in it.

So this is very exciting. I think she's
pregnant.

Potentially we're seeing something?

Yeah, I'll show you. Are you kidding me?
No, I'm not kidding at all. That's

incredible.

Wow. So, you know, that's very typical
of what you'd expect of an embryonic

vesicle, and that little spot inside is
probably the embryo. So I've just

measured it there, and you can see it's
only 2 .4 by 3 centimetres, so it's only

small, very early days. Pretty good
evidence that she's pregnant.

Yay!

I definitely didn't expect it.
Obviously, we always hope. And being

on, we haven't seen any signs of her
being potentially pregnant. And

you wouldn't because it's still so
early.

But yeah, this is incredible news.

Sea lion pregnancies are just a few
weeks shorter than a human.

So it's still early days. But Nala's
pregnancy is a glimmer of hope.

for an endangered species.

It's fantastic news, obviously for Nala
and the keepers and us. And so having

this pregnancy and, you know, hopefully
a little pup in the future is going to

be a very, very important contribution
to the conservation program for the

species.