Original subtitles

Sydney Harbour is home to one of the world's most iconic zoos, Taronga.

Everyone stand as far apart as possible.

But never before... Make sure you've got your mask on. ...has it faced a year

with its many monumental challenges.

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

Attaboy, Jim. Nearly home, mate.

The teams across both of Taronga's zoos... Open. ...meet every challenge

on. And our cameras are there.

Every step of the way.

On this episode.

That would be amazing if we saw mating today.

Love is definitely in the air. He's a really great mate to have.

But while the big cats are feline groovy.

Hey, I'm Vivo.

The monkey business.

Nat to Laura. I'm going to send Ayaka and Pinky out now.

And here they come.

Send this frisky fellow.

He's been a little bit full on.

Straight to the hospital.

It does look like there's a fracture there in the jaw.

A very wild horse. They will kick and you do not want to be in the way of

animals kicking.

Gets a very wild pedicure.

This is an angle grinder with a special attachment that's designed for horses

hooves. That's the trail of burning hooves.

And, hey Siri.

So this is Siri. She's five years old.

What do you get when you put a cheetah...

with a puppy?

Who best mate?

Out at Taronga West and Plains Zoo in Dubbo,

there's room to roam.

And due to the limitless space, animals can be kept in larger herds.

But there's one very special herd that fulfills a very important role.

Native to the Mongolian plains, the Taki are the world's last true wild horse.

Taki's the Mongolian name. Spirit horse is basically what it comes down to.

These guys are the spirit of Mongolia.

They're an ancient horse and they're just an amazing animal.

They are very different to domestic horses.

These guys have more chromosomes, so more genetics, than a normal horse. A

normal horse would have 64.

These guys have 66.

They're entirely their own species.

They're very hardy animals. They have to exist in a country that has a very wide

range of temperatures. It goes down to minus 25.

But it also gets quite warm because it is a desert area.

In the 1970s, turkey numbers in the wild dwindled down to around only 20

individuals, putting them on a direct path to extinction.

But breeding programs in zoos have brought them back from the brink.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo have played a huge role in this reintroduction

program. We sent back seven animals in the mid -90s. They were released in the

wild in Mongolia. They've successfully bred. We're 20 years down the track.

They're still breeding. It's brought the numbers up to around 1 ,900 animals,

and they're doing really well.

This group of takis, they're very important. We've got 18 animals on

here, all made up of mothers and foals.

Like all wild animals at the zoo, keepers and vets need to be especially

when working with the takis.

They will kick, and you do not want to be in the way of those animals kicking.

Unlike domestic horses, hoof maintenance requires a general anaesthetic, and

today Senior Vet Ben is administering it, but from a distance.

Bacara is our subject animal today. We are going to target her with an

anaesthetic dart so she becomes anaesthetised and then we'll be able to

her to do some reparative work on her feet.

Taki usually wear their hooves down naturally, but some will grow at a

rate than others, which can cause big problems if left unattended.

It's a pedicure for an animal that has evolved to negotiate its life standing

one toe. A pedicure for a one -toed beast.

Herd animals are very sensitive to the perception of risk around being isolated

and targeted. I mean, that's how they avoid predation in the wild.

It's important that the herd doesn't suspect anything's out of the ordinary.

So approaching the yard is a stealth mission for Ben.

And with all 18 near -identical Taki in the holding area, Ben has to be sure he

gets the right one.

Taronga has a long and proud history of conservation.

And one of the main ways it achieves this is through its breeding program.

Some species are bred to increase the numbers of an animal doing it tough in

wild. But sometimes they're bred to stop a group of animals from turning on each

other.

Squirrel monkeys are from South America. They are found in Peru, they're found

in Bolivia, they're found across the Amazon basin.

They're small monkeys. They weigh around 600 grams for females, a little more

for males.

brightly coloured. They're this gorgeous yellow.

They have different shades. Some are lighter, some are brighter and they move

around the forest canopy with no issues at all.

They're really agile little monkeys.

Here at Toronto Zoo we have 10 female squirrel monkeys.

Squirrel monkey society is female dominated. So the females form the core

troop and they only allow males into that troop when they're in breeding

And this is the first breeding season that they are all sexually mature.

And we're going on now several years without a male in our troop and we risk

breakdown of the female group. So for the social dynamics in a squirrel monkey

group, females should breed. They should raise offspring and in breeding season

they should mate.

And to ensure the success of this important breeding season, Taronga has

imported two males from New Zealand who are just ending their quarantine period.

We have Vivo and Vampyr. Vampyr is 10 years of age. Vivo is nine.

Vampyr has bred before.

Vivo has not. This is all uncharted territory for him. So hopefully he takes

lead from Vampyr and is quite confident with the females.

In order to strike while the iron is hot, keepers are introducing Vivo and

Vampyr to the females straight away.

But like all introductions that happen at Taronga Zoo, animal welfare comes

first.

So we're just getting ready, doing our final checks for today because in just a

few moments we're about to introduce our females to our males.

There is a potential for some fights.

Female squirrel monkeys can be very aggressive animals at times. That's why

just checking all of this shade cloth. It's in place to stop anyone falling

the water.

Squirrel monkeys can swim, but they're not the best at it. So we just want to

make sure that we can help them stay out of trouble if we need to. That's also

why I'm in these waders. So in case anyone does fall in, I'm ready to jump

and help them out.

All right, boys.

Ready to go?

Fine.

Let the monkey business begin.

And here they come.

And from one breeding program to another, Taronga has a real focus on

numbers of their big cats.

And one species they've had great success with is out at Dubbo, where

find the fastest feline of them all.

Probably the most famous fact about cheetah, everyone knows they're very,

fast.

They are the world's fastest animal on four legs.

And their body is just superbly designed for speed.

They've got that really big, barrelly chest, which really, really large lungs

live in there. So those nasal passages connect up to those large lungs, pump

oxygen through their bodies.

They've got a really long, flexible spine. The flexibility in that spine

them to take really large strides. They cover a lot of ground whilst they're

running. And they've got that really long tail as well, that beautiful long

they'll use like a rudder.

Like most cats, they like to laze in the sunshine and warm up their distinctive

spotted coat.

Each cheetah, they reckon, has about between 1 ,000 and 2 ,000 spots on their

body. If you were to shave a cheetah, they're spotty underneath as well.

And unlike other carnivorous cats, keepers are able to move around in the

exhibit with the cheetahs.

Compared to the other predators like lions and leopards, they kind of are on

bottom of the pecking order when it comes to carnivores, I suppose, in

For example, if a cheetah was to go out in the wild and catch something to eat,

if a lion or a leopard or a pack of wild dogs or hyenas come along, cheetah 99 %

of the time will choose flight over fight. They're quite timid, they're

nervous animals, quite wary, definitely not overly aggressive.

They will generally just leave their food and let the other predator take it.

Because of habitat loss, cheetahs are vulnerable in the wild.

So breeding programs... like the one at Dubbo, are crucial for the survival of

the species.

We were actually the first zoo in Australasia to breed cheetah, so that

in 1986.

And since then, we've bred 56 cubs here at the zoo.

So we're one of the main breeding programs in the Australasian region.

So at the moment, we're just in our behind -the -scenes area for some of our

cheetahs. In this yard, we've got Hala, who's one of our king cheetahs. She is

10 years old. She was born here.

Despite their many breeding successes, it doesn't mean that everything always

goes to plan.

You're okay.

Coming up... We stepped in and hand -raised Siri. An orphaned big cat finds

puppy love.

And a squirrel monkey... Vivo is way more interested than I thought he would

..goes nuts in breeding season.

He's pushing his weight around and then the girls say, no, that's too much and

we're going to push you away.

In an effort to boost the numbers of Taronga's Bolivian squirrel monkeys...

Primate keepers are introducing two new males... Yeah, Vivo. ..that have just

cleared quarantine.

And are raring to go.

So Vampyr and Vivo are in den one.

So in a minute we'll put them out. We'll let them settle.

Breeding season for squirrel monkeys is a pretty crazy time.

As both males and females go through some significant changes.

The really interesting thing about squirrel monkeys is because they're

breeders. The females are hardwired to breed at this time of year. And males go

through what we call becoming fatted, where the males have this surge of

hormones that cause them to increase in size. So they can increase in weight by

up to 250 grams during the breeding season, particularly in their torso,

upper arms. They become like bodybuilders.

And with all these changes...

the initial introduction can get a bit fiery.

There is a potential for some fight.

Fitting whale squirrel monkeys can be very aggressive animals.

Nat to Laura, I'm going to send Ayaka and Pinky out now.

So to avoid too many scuffles... All right, girls, play nice.

..they're releasing the females two at a time.

Vivo and Vampyr are going to be introduced to our two most experienced

They happen to be our two oldest females. They're Pinky and A .A. Cut.

All right, guys.

Our hope is that we have two very confident male squirrel monkeys and that

see mating. I mean, that would be amazing if we saw mating today.

All right, boys.

Ready to go.

Out you go.

Good luck.

And here they come.

And once the boys find the females, they take a real liking to the

oldest, Aika.

So the boys are doing really well. Their vocals are soft.

The girls are responding well and positively to their approaches. So we're

seeing some really nice behaviours that we hope will be conducive to breeding.

So we've got one female who's been pursued by the two males. So that female

Ayaka. I don't know that the boys know what they're doing. They need to back

off. They need to back off a little bit.

I'm very surprised at Vivo that he's been as dominant as he has been. I was

of expecting him to hang back a little bit. I thought he'd go to ground. Yeah,

but he's been a little bit full on.

Any introduction, especially with a species that we know can have very large

bouts of aggression in their natural history and natural behaviour, we are

nervous that the boys will overreact and then the girls will respond with

aggression. We're worried that the girls will overreact and the boys will go to

the ground and they'll be harassed. So it can go either way.

And while today's introduction went smoothly, unfortunately some of Little

Vivo's advances...

didn't impress everyone.

At Taronga's Western Plains Zoo, senior vet Ben needs to do

some emergency work on Bakara, the Mongolian wild horse with a hoof

But first, he needs to tranquilize her.

With the dart finding its target, Ben and the team now need to wait for the

tranquiliser to take effect.

Bakara's had her dart and she's now progressing through the stages of

anaesthetic induction.

The team watch on anxiously.

They need to make sure Bakara doesn't hurt herself while keeping the hurt as

calm as possible.

We're administering anesthesia to an individual within a group, so in the

context of a herd, and trying to manage the collective psychological well -being

of the group as well.

But the herd is sensing something.

See the other horse is getting impatient with her. Her behaviour during this

induction event is really, really unnatural, and they're perceiving that.

You can see that of all the animals out there, she is sort of aimlessly walking.

And the other members of the group are getting a bit impatient with her.

Typically, a Taki that's just been dosed with anaesthetic drugs by Dart will

develop a stiff kind of propagate.

Their herd mates will start to become suspicious of them. That's a real herd

instinct to dispel the abnormal animal or the weak link in the chain.

During that induction phase, my role is to steer her about and keep her safe and

make sure she didn't bump her head on a wall.

Wild horses have the potential to do themselves and each other a huge amount

damage.

This is her. You can see she's not really seeing me now.

So Ben moves to the next step, blindfolding Bakara, which will assist

the anaesthesia.

Auto! With Bacara almost down, the keepers clear the yard of the other 17

How do you go? Come on.

A key part of a good outcome for an anaesthetic event like this is to manage

psychological wellbeing of the group. The group remembers this all as being a

calm event. Calm begets calm. And the good thing about this way is that if the

group remains calm, then their collective memory of these kinds of

is a calm one.

She'll have no memory of it because she's affected by drugs.

So the minute it's ticked by, she becomes deeper and deeper, more

affected by the anesthesia, and eventually she'll fall down for it.

The squirrel monkey breeding program got off to a flying start.

Who have we got over there? We've got Vivo and Pinky hanging out together.

And Vivo is way more interested than I thought he would be.

The boys are doing really well. We're seeing some really nice behaviours that

hope will be conducive to breeding.

But the keepers from the primate team have noticed some alarming behaviour in

the past few days.

If you look at the videos, it looks like it all went very smoothly, but I think

once the girls were no longer receptive, then the boys had a bit of a hard time.

You can see here, Vampyr pushes his luck. So he's pushing his weight around

then the girls say no.

The girls decide that no, no, that's too much and we're going to mob you and

we're going to push you away.

And so he now needs to retreat, which he does.

So if you're working up there and you hear those aggressive vocals, then you

need to go and watch. Yeah, of course. What's going on.

But today, Vivo may have been a little too frisky.

and keepers found him lying on the ground with an unusual injury.

Poor little Vivo looks like he's got a fractured jaw. You can see it's moved up

to the side a bit there.

His jaw is not able to close properly, but there'll be some further work

that needs to be done in terms of investigating what's going on.

Vivo is an extremely important breeding male.

and Larry is anxious to see just how badly he's injured.

There is definitely a fracture in the bone, which is just this part of the jaw

here called the ramus of the mandible. So just up there, which is a very odd

sort of place, you know, to see a fracture.

Interestingly, he does have a wound inside his mouth that sort of almost

corresponds with that position.

His jaw may actually be a little bit dislocated as well. It's pushed over to

side like that. So I think that's a result of a fracture just here.

Quite an unusual injury and a surprise, but this is the nature of work here at

the zoo, is that it's all full of surprises. Any day we can be confronted

any challenges, and this is certainly a challenging one for us and for little

Vivo. He's waking up, so you're just going to pop him straight back in there.

Another problem Larry and the keepers are facing is that squirrel monkeys are

social animals and can't be kept away from the group for extended periods of

time.

Taking him out of the group completely is a big deal so we did want to try and

avoid that if we could possibly so we're just keeping him under close odds over

the next day or so.

But Larry needs some answers and quickly before Vivo can return to his friends.

It would be good to get some more detailed information on exactly the

the fracture or the problem in his mouth.

With the x -rays, I can see something's going on there, but we just don't have

that sort of detail, and there's a lot of bones superimposed on, you know, that

just can't see exactly where the problem is and the type of fracture that's

there.

Knowing they have to move fast, the MRI is booked for first thing tomorrow

morning.

is home to Australia's most successful cheetah breeding program.

There you go.

But sometimes, even the most experienced teams suffer setbacks.

So this is Siri.

She's five years old. She is one of our hand -raised cheetahs. So she was born

here in Dubbo, and she was actually a singleton cub. Her mum unfortunately did

not raise her.

So we stepped in and hand -raised Siri.

And hand -raised animals can be, occasionally, it can negatively affect

breeding. They don't really know maybe how to act like a cheetah or how to act

around other cheetahs. And Siri had no siblings that we raised with her.

So we actually got a little puppy and we raised Siri and the puppy together.

Because we were hand -raising Siri, we were obviously quite hands -on with her.

So the puppy sort of filled that gap. The puppy was Siri's sibling, I suppose.

They could play together, they could stalk together, they could run around

together, they could snuggle up at night together. All those things that meant

that we could take a little bit of a step back and she wasn't so reliant on

And it paid off amazingly.

Siri's become such a well -rounded, beautiful animal.

I don't know if you can hear her purring.

a beautiful sound. It's obviously a very content sound. It sounds like a motor

sometimes.

Cheetah make the most amazing noises.

They can't roar like other big cats. They're actually not considered a true

cat, like lions and tigers can roar.

Cheetah don't have the voice box to be able to roar, but they do instead purr.

They make quite a number of little chirping noises, yipping noises, stutter

barks, all these amazing little sounds, but the purring's probably my favourite.

Hey, Siri.

Okay, I'm ready. Happy? Yeah.

Thank you. At the moment, we're just doing a training session with Siri. We

this with all of our cheetah. It's 100 % voluntary, and we're just training her

for hand injections, for vaccinations, anesthetic, anything like that that they

might need.

That's just a much more stress -free way to do these kinds of things.

Traditional ways would be darting, which is quite stressful.

As you can see, I'm using a pen now just to sort of simulate the needle. And

then on the day that the actual vaccination or injection happens,

so used to being in here, so focused on their food that they don't even react.

So they're wonderful patients helping us look after them, that's for sure. It's

just made everything much more stress -free. And she's going to leave now.

Normally I open it up for her, but she decided to... Is there more food in

there?

Keeper Jordan loves all the cats she cares for, but theory definitely holds a

special place in her heart.

She's just so affectionate. How can you not have a bond with an animal that you

helped hand raise and have known since they were so young?

There you go.

Good girl.

She's just got such a kind nature. Every day you come in, if you're feeling a

little down, you just have to go in and Siri will come up to you with her pad

and you hear her purring and how can you not love that?

Still to come, things go from bad to worse for little Vivo.

Having him in this situation is a little bit scary.

And a private tour of the zoo.

He's a really great mate to have.

for these birds of a feather. Pretty spectacular view.

It's early morning at the zoo, and while it may remain quiet until they

officially open in a few hours' time,

the wildlife hospital never closes.

And it's already shaping up to be a busy morning, as staff prepare to take

injured squirrel monkey Vivo off -site to his CT scan.

I've got some equipment ready for him.

So we actually have to take equipment with us to the specialist centre. So

going to anaesthetise him there.

This is his little face mask that we'll be using to anaesthetise him with. So

pop that over his nose and mouth.

And we've got some little tiny ET tubes. So they're very, very small because he

only weighs around, I think he's just under a kilo in weight.

So he's got a tiny little airway.

So he could be taking this tiny little size 2 tube, which goes down your airway

to keep your respiration going.

I'm just going to take a couple of little skulls with us to the specialist

centre where we're doing the CT scan this morning and I think it'll be useful

for the radiologist to actually see this as well.

While a CT scan is a fairly common procedure, that doesn't make it any

for the keepers who struggle to hide their true emotions.

Yeah, we've been through a lot with him.

Right from the start, when we knew we were getting these two boys, there's

a lot of challenges, a lot of hurdles to overcome. Every step of the way, we

seem to be throwing curveballs with these particular two males.

It's been a massive challenge, but it's meant that they kind of get into us a

little bit. Both of the boys, Vampyr and Vivo, are very special to us. We spend

a lot of time with them, getting them through the challenges that they've been

through. So having him in this situation is a little bit scary.

Will you sit there and talk to him, Laura? I will, yep.

We'll have a conversation.

Got everybody, got the squirrel monkey.

Concerned for Vivo's welfare and that of his group, food staff are hopeful that

today's procedure throws up no new challenges.

So we're just about to get Vivo's face out.

Laura's going to restrain him and his little face will come out and we're

to put the mask on to anesthetise him.

I got him.

Good boy.

There you go.

The hot little body.

Just put a little tube down his airway and that will...

Keep him asleep while the CT scan is being done.

He's on 3%. He's on 3%, Laura?

Can we pop that back a little bit?

All right, brilliant.

With Vivo in position, the procedure begins.

We did one of his whole body, and now we're just doing really fine detail

just through his skull, because that's where we're looking for the potential

mandible fracture.

There's a little head coming through now, so we're interested in looking at

mandible, and we can see there is a fracture.

And it's also looking dislocated. Yeah, it's completely offset.

Yeah, it's just strange looking there. It's like it's chronically in two

It's been there for a while.

What I'll do, Larry, is I'll just make some pictures and then we'll compare

the other side what his normal structure is.

This is his normal side, so we'll just use the normal side as a comparison.

So this is an obvious abnormality, is that ramus fracture.

I mean, it doesn't look like a fresh injury, that's the thing.

You can see how malaligned he is.

So these canine teeth should sort of match up.

There's really two injuries, a fracture in the bone and the dislocation.

And it looks like the fracture is actually not necessarily a new thing.

To do anything surgically with the injury would be extremely difficult and

result may be worse than what we've got now.

It's mixed news for Vivo.

While he doesn't need surgery... Hey, Vivo.

You want to start that now?

He'll need to be monitored closely in the coming week as his jaw hopefully

realigns naturally.

You like walking him up?

Yeah. So Vivo is going to go back into a den.

He'll be on his own, but he can have contact through the mesh with the rest

the group.

The introductions can get a little hectic and a little aggressive, so we

really closely monitor the behaviours before we look at putting him back in.

Look, who's that?

Although Vivo is now back with his brother Vampyr, the real test is to see

the females will accept him.

If not, Taronga faced the reality that this entire important breeding season

be a waste.

The alternative is that Vampyr and Vivo came out of the group until next

breeding season, which is a long period of time. So we'd be talking 11 months

out of the group.

So now we just watch and we just hope.

Ensuring the health and wellbeing of all animals across the zoo is the most

important job of vets and keepers alike.

Enrichment programs are tailor -made to keep animals challenged and engaged.

Whether they're the largest animal at Taronga or one of the smallest.

Today, Keeper Gray from West Virginia is taking a special feathered friend out

and about.

All right, Griff, let's go for a walk and see what we can see.

Who's out today?

Eight -year -old Griffin is a lesser sooty owl.

He came to the zoo as a rescue chick.

And Gray hand -reared him.

This morning, they're taking in the sights and sounds of the zoo together.

Oh, look at the turtle.

I'm not so sure about that.

Bringing Griffin out here gives him a chance to explore the world, see things

doesn't normally see on his day -to -day life. A bit enriching, just to get to

see what else is out there.

Sometimes he sees things that he might interpret as food.

Sometimes he sees things that he might interpret as a threat, and sometimes

those threats are only perceived because he's not used to them.

So, for instance, this turtle can be a very scary thing because he doesn't

actually know what that turtle is.

He's interested in it, but he wants me to keep my distance so that he doesn't

have to be too close to it.

Look at it. It's looking at you.

And you can see now he's starting to sway a little bit.

His wings are coming out from his body, and that's a defensive posture.

He's making himself look bigger so that he can look intimidating and scary, but

also it's a precursor to potentially wanting to take flight.

So I know that when I see that behavior, I'm not going to push him any further.

I'm not going to make him get closer to this ferocious owl -eating turtle that

exists.

I want him to be comfortable. This walk is all about him, and it's supposed to

be positive for him.

So I want to keep him at that range where it's interesting and something he

really wants to keep an eye on, but not something that's going to be scary for

him.

How's the turtle?

That's pretty cool. Let's see what else we can find.

What do you think? You want to take a trip to Africa?

Oh, Griffin, there's a giraffe right there.

You haven't spotted it yet. Look right there.

What's that?

Being out in this environment, everything is going to catch his

Things that he sees, motion of the animals, of the trees blowing in the

of the people walking around, the sound of the birds, everything is being picked

up on and evaluated in his brain to find out exactly what is around him.

I can tell he's a little bit more edge by his body posture, but also very much

by his feet, by the way they feel on my glove.

If he is seeing something that he's thinking might be food, his grip is

tighten up and I'm going to feel that. If he's seeing something that seems like

it might be scary, his grip is going to loosen up so that he has an easy access

to fly.

And I'm wearing the glove.

Because of the power in these feet, they are some of the most impressive killing

machines out there. They have those incredibly long, sharp talons. If he

to right now, he could drive that straight through my finger.

It's an incredibly powerful weapon.

Luckily, we get along pretty well.

A quick swing by the chimps is next on the list.

See the chimpanzees?

But despite Griffin's warm welcome...

They don't look that thrilled to see him. There's so much going on in this

exhibit with the chimpanzees. There are so many of them all around, and he seems

to be picking out each of them. He seems a lot more relaxed than he was with the

giraffes. I don't know if it's because he thinks I look like a chimpanzee, and

so they're not that foreign, but he's definitely interested.

I like to get Griffin out in the zoo whenever I can. Mostly it just helps

stimulate his senses.

It gives him a chance to be outside of the area he normally exists in. It's

really a great form of enrichment for him.

But you get the sense Gray gets as much out of these walks as his feathered

friends. He's a really great mate to have.

He's always happy to hang out, to spend some time together, and he doesn't talk

too much. He's a really good listener.

It's a pretty spectacular view.

Hello, Vivo. Next. Let's have a look at your jaw.

Vivo goes from jawbreaker to heartbreaker.

This one just in the middle here.

She's getting a little bit porky.

Taronga's Western Plain Zoo is home to a breeding herd of Mongolian Tarki.

With under 2 ,000 left in the wild, the health of every horse is crucial.

And today, Mayor Bakara is having some hoof work done.

The procedure needs to happen under general anaesthetic.

Bakara's had her dart, and she's now...

progressing through the stages of anaesthetic induction.

So as the minutes tick by, she becomes deeper and deeper, more profoundly

affected by the anaesthesia, and eventually she'll fall down for it.

Ben gets Bacara on oxygen straight away.

So she's just getting some intranasal oxygen.

then he and Nurse Jo need to work quickly to stabilise the anaesthesia.

Now I'm just locating a jugular vein and we'll put an intravenous catheter in

there and we'll run a fluid solution in there and that will enable us to

maintain venous access and we'll also continuously administer a muscle

which will improve the quality of the anaesthesia.

While it may look like a lot of effort for a hoof trim,

This type of work is vital for this valuable breeding female.

She's just an animal whose toes are a little bit predisposed to growing over

long. We provide abrasive substrates and a few other preventative measures to

help with that, which tends to keep the remainder of our group under control,

but she's an individual that just seems to require a bit of a trim every now and

then.

How are you going, Jo? Are you happy?

So like hair and human fingernails and toenails, the hoof is keratin, so it's a

mortified skin.

So we've got the hoof wall on which the animal bears its weight. The hoof's a

big capsule and it grows down from the coronet.

This wall just basically elongates.

And if it gets too long, it starts to exert unnatural

forces on itself.

It's about making sure that the foot remains in good balance and to ensure

that... We're not sort of called upon to deal with disaster feet that could have

been presented at the outset with a little bit of standard podiatry.

This nail salon for wild horses runs on a lot of skill, but some pretty basic

tools.

This is an angle grinder with a special attachment that's designed for horses'

hooves.

Yeah, that's the snail that's running here.

The nipping creates the basic shape of the foot and then the rasping just takes

away the rough edges and tidies up the job.

If you picked up a wild, free -ranging Taki's foot, then these are the

dimensions and the angles that you would like to see because you know that

that's a healthy foot.

She's a Ferrari again.

With Bacara's tune -up complete, Ben administers the reversal drug to wake

up. This animal will be on her feet and ready to rejoin a group.

probably wondering where the last hour went, and go out there and have a nibble

on some grass and a bit of hay.

These are very, very precious animals.

We're talking very limited numbers in the wild, very limited numbers in human

care worldwide, and every single individual is absolutely precious. So we

to invest to ensure that their health is managed optimally and that they're

absolutely in tip -top shape to contribute to the next generation of

And after a quick recovery, she's back safely with the herd.

Very good. Thank you, everybody.

Have a good time.

It's been six weeks since Squirrel Monkey Vivo has been reunited with his

troops, and Keeper Nat is amazed at his recovery.

Good boy. Hello, Vivo.

There we go.

Let's have a look at your jaw.

Oh, we have girls for company.

Vivo did sustain a significant injury to his jaw.

We were worried about putting him back in the group. Oh, good boy.

You're a good boy.

Nothing wrong with your jaw. Look at it.

It continues to improve.

The alignment is getting better. He's able to eat corn. He's able to pull

off the cob. He's able to eat hard vegetables like sweet potatoes, so we're

really happy with his progress.

You're looking good, Vivo.

And it's not just his recovery that has keepers over the moon.

As outside on the island, there's plenty more for the primate team to be happy

about.

This here is Inka. She's got a distended belly, which means that hopefully she's

pregnant.

Still a little while to go, but it's excellent news. We're very thrilled. It

means that we've done our job right.

It means that the boys have done their job right as well. So hopefully

everything will pay off. In a couple of months, we should see babies running

around.

This one just in the middle here, she's getting a little bit porky.

but that hopefully means that she's pregnant. So got a little baby growing

there.

That's being rude. This is the product of our introductions. So

that's what we did this all for, is new offspring, new genetic lines, and

breeding opportunities for our group as well. So fingers crossed, we've got

quite a few of those girls with babies on the way.

We're going to be watching those abdomens and then we're going to be

closely monitoring the births of these new babies.

If we get squirrel monkey births, it'll be fabulous for Taronga and it'll be

fabulous for the region.

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