Original subtitles

World -famous Sydney Harbour is home to some of Australia's most well -known and

cherished landmarks and one of the world's most iconic zoos,

Taronga.

But never before in its 104 -year history has it ever faced a year with as

monumental challenges.

She doesn't have a heartbeat anymore.

First, it created a $60 million African savannah right here on the harbor's

edge. Nearly home, mate.

Now, it must move these majestic... That's a boy.

...but temperamental tenants into their new home.

Oh, it's okay.

Everyone stand as far apart as possible.

And it must do all this. Are you sure you've got your mask on?

Hamstrung by the restrictions of the COVID -19 pandemic.

It's really hard to see because I'm fogging up.

But the teams across both of Taronga's booths meet every challenge head on.

Two feet up now.

After all, they have 5 ,000...

... animals to care for, birthdays to celebrate,

and babies to welcome.

And our cameras are there every step of the way.

On this episode... Reproductively, she's in her prime at the moment. Naomi

struggled to become a mum. She seems to really want to be a mother.

She's tried and failed before. She has had two births, but unfortunately they

were both stillborn.

Is this the moment all of Taronga have been waiting for? I'm wondering what's

Larry saying.

After six months of fasting... Might have just come up to grab something for

Rach. Rachel makes an absolute pig of herself.

She's absolutely going to smash that.

And get ready for takeoff. Learning up the platform.

As baby Marley learned to fly.

Good boy.

Well, glide actually. So he's able to catch the wind and glide.

between different trees.

People come to zoos to marvel at the weird and wonderful animals that make up

our natural world.

But when you visit Taronga Zoo in Sydney, One of the first exhibits you

is full of animals that are a lot closer to humans than you'd think.

Chimpanzees share 99 % of our DNA, making them our closest living

relatives.

We've got a nice big group of chimps here at Toorunga. We've got 21 chimps in

our community all up.

They're actually one of the largest and most successful groups of chimpanzees in

zoos anywhere in the world.

Over the years we've had a lot of babies grow up in the community and they've

been sent to zoos all over the world.

But it's a two -way journey, with Taronga Zoo receiving chimps as well.

And Naomi is one of them.

She's just come into our community two years ago. We brought her over here from

a zoo in Denmark.

She's 17 years old, so she's still quite young.

Females in zoos can live into their 60s, so I guess reproductively she's in her

prime. Naomi came to Taronga with her sister Ceres, who has since given birth

new baby, the Belly.

Sadly, Naomi hasn't been as lucky.

Unfortunately, Naomi has had some struggles.

She has had two births, but they were both stillborn.

She's showed a lot of maternal instinct with those stillborn, so she seems to

really want to be a mother.

So we're trying to do as much as we can to help her along with the process.

Liz, can you hold that?

OK. Last year, the zoo brought in some specialist help to see if they could

out exactly what was going on with Naomi.

I'm an obstetrician and I deal with humans.

And we're going to slide her down.

Okay. It's a little bit different, but it should be interesting. Yeah, a new

experience, basically.

The team conducted a range of tests that they would normally do on humans.

We're just going to do a high... The swabs are coming. Yep.

Initially, everything seemed normal.

Oh, beautiful.

Look, that is gorgeous. Look at that.

Oh, yeah, that's beautiful, yeah.

But a few weeks later, the pathology results came back.

Naomi's record up here.

Naomi's placenta had an abnormality.

There was one antibody that they checked which was positive, something that is

related to risk of blood clotting.

At last, the team have an answer as to why Naomi has never had a successful

pregnancy. And so that the calcium improves that and the aspirin improves

So armed with that knowledge, they set back on the path of helping Naomi to

become a mum.

Ultrasound obviously would be a valuable tool in monitoring her, so can that be

done? Do you think we could achieve that?

I would say that the scanning that we're going to be doing would be through

training. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Would you have her trained to sort of stand and stretch her belly up?

Yeah.

Only problem is the plan they're hatching has never been attempted before

Taronga.

There are two sides to the world at each of Taronga's zoos.

One world faces the public and is a wonderful way for visitors to get up

and personal with thousands of animals.

The other world is hidden behind the walkways and exhibits.

Here,

hundreds of people work side by side, making sure every animal at Taronga gets

the best care possible.

There's the team doing the dirty work to ensure animal environments are in

pristine condition.

So we're just going to get the paddock nice and neat and tidy for them, and

they're going to come through and chop back all this long grass for us.

Teams of keepers.

making sure the marine animals have only the freshest water to swim in.

Just confirming we're all good to fill the penguin exhibit whenever you're

ready.

People think it's all just playing with animals and stuff like that, but no,

unfortunately, there's the messy jobs as well.

And there are departments devoted entirely to preserving species facing

extinction in the wild.

The loss of the devil from the Tasmanian ecosystem would have a devastating

impact.

You're right, buddy, you're nearly home.

But despite the massive amount of work that goes into keeping Taronga

I think normal training routine, people go down the stairs and everyone else

stay out of view.

When it comes to one of the most important jobs at the zoo, it all falls

shoulders.

of just one dedicated woman.

I'm Michelle. I'm the zoo and wildlife nutritionist here at Taronga, so I take

care of all of the menus for the 5 ,000 different animals that are across

Taronga Zoo and Taronga Western Plains Zoo.

I check our food basket while I'm at it.

And with more than 350 species represented at Taronga, Michelle is one

lady. Here at the zoo, we feed... So many different varieties of things.

Some of the things that we get you might find at your local grocery store. You

know, some of the supplements that we use, some of the different products that

we get from even your livestock supply stores.

We have haze and fruits and vegetables. We feed insects. Some of those are grown

on site.

This trolley is full of beetle, are they?

Most of these are going to our birds. As well as different plants. We have a

huge horticulture department that helps to collect plants every day for some of

our animals.

And we bring in different varieties. Some of them are native to Australia and

some of them are exotic. So they're from plants from all over the world.

Michelle is the only zoo nutritionist in Australia.

So not only does she have to be across what food comes into the zoo, but also

what animal needs to eat it.

Every animal at the zoo has different needs. These, for example, are bats.

They're going to our bird department. Our bird department has over 120

and they all have different needs. Some of them are herbivores, some of them are

carnivores.

Animals with different digestive systems, some animal that might need to

multiple times a day, like a herbivore who needs to keep its belly full in

to have good digestive function.

But then we have animals like reptiles that might not eat for six months of a

year, perhaps.

And we still have to watch their weight, because six months may be too soon. So

we might have to look at them and check their body condition, and maybe we wait

another month before we feed that big snake.

And we have to cater to each and every thing, whether it be the biggest

that's five tons to the smallest microgram insect that we might be

well. And today, Chef Michelle has added crickets.

to the menu that reptile keeper Delvina will be serving up to these funky little

frogs. Hi!

We're going to feed you again.

Do you want to eat?

So these are a couple of our white -lipped tree frogs as very voracious

Sometimes they try and eat each other. There we go.

They're excited for feeding time.

They don't actually swallow properly like we do. They use their eyeballs to

down the food.

See the way it's blinking down?

While these crickets look appetising, sometimes the frogs can get carried

No! Stop it!

You guys are horrible!

So anything that moves in front of them, they're going to try and eat.

This happens a lot, and if it's not on my face, it's usually my fingers.

It doesn't hurt at all. It just kind of feels... I can't describe the feeling,

actually. They're very soft inside, though. But you can see that he's trying

really, really hard.

Let's get you off gently.

Let go.

Let go.

They're tough little buggers.

Thank you.

No!

Thank you.

A little bit slimy as well.

We feed our reptiles and amphibians every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

And that's because they're not like us, like mammals or birds. They don't need

to eat as much as we do because their metabolism is so much more different to

ours. So for us, we exert a lot of energy. That means we need to...

take a lot of energy inside as well. So it's all about input -output. For these

guys, they're a little bit slower, especially reptiles. They don't need to

as much, which means that they don't need to eat as much either.

Very good. While these greedy guts must wait another two days before they eat

again... Hey, thank you, frog.

..our next diner has already been waiting a week.

OK.

This is a good day for Gracie Lou.

And she is famished. In that cricket, she gets all the nutrition she needs for

whole week. So obviously it's a very exciting day for her.

Bon appétit, Gracie Lou.

Coming up, the art of teaching a sugar glider to glide.

Lining up the platform.

What are you looking at?

And a firth for Taronga as Project Naomi ramps up.

If we can do this, it will be so much better for Naomi, for us, for the vets,

for everyone.

After discovering why chimpanzee Naomi has only ever given birth to stillborn

babies... Let me just get Naomi's record up here. Taronga's team has quickly

addressed the problem with a new medication routine. The calcium improves

and the aspirin improves that.

She's showed us that she really wants to be a mum and not only that, genetically

she's so important to our group. We haven't had any genetics in this

for 25 years.

Do you mind if we just go dark for a moment just so I get my bearings?

They're essential to monitor a baby's health during any pregnancy.

Yeah, you'd think the uterus would just jump out.

With chimpanzees, this usually involves anesthetizing the expectant mom.

Oh, beautiful.

That is gorgeous.

Look at that.

But because of Naomi's damaged placenta, the team want to avoid this and try a

different approach for her. A first for Turonga.

By using this rod and training her to participate in the ultrasound, we'll be

able to ultrasound her while she's still conscious.

That means we won't have to give her a general anaesthetic, take her out of the

group, take her all the way down to the vet hospital, so it's a lot less

stressful on anyone.

So it's a three -point plan.

Put Naomi on the pill, train her to allow an ultrasound while awake, then

take her off the pill, and have a baby.

If we can do this, it will be so much better for Naomi, for us, for the vets,

for everyone.

The training is really challenging.

We don't take Naomi out of the group.

the training at all. So I've got 20 chimps wandering around that might want

get involved.

They really have to read the behaviour of the group before I start a session as

well.

And because Katie knows the chimp so well, she starts simply

getting Naomi Youth to the new sensation.

No,

hand up please.

I train Naomi to put her hands up so they're completely away from the probe

she can't grab it easily.

This is an old ultrasound probe. It doesn't work anymore.

But team have lent it to me because it doesn't matter if Naomi grabs this off

me.

I've been getting her used to.

Put your hand up so it's me putting this on her tummy and applying pressure.

Now your hand.

Good girl. And then getting her to let me hold it there for a while.

I need to be able to get her to hold her tummy up for, you know, about 20

minutes. So that's a really big ask for a tip.

As each month passes, Katie introduces new steps during the session.

Almost.

The other thing I have to get in.

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