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 as many monumental challenges.

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

Atta boy, 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... They've been extinct for over 100 years.

Operation Bilby Boot Camp.

This is our Bilby pre -release yard.

The secret mission to save a species from extinction.

For the zoo to be a part of the reintroduction of this species is just

incredible.

The mystery of Malachi.

What a scar. Yeah, yeah.

An unusual scar has the team dumped.

That's master thought.

That is quite dramatic.

And wait not, want not.

Just got some fresh giraffe and zebra feces that I can bring to you. Taking

creature comfort to a whole new level. We call it Feces Friday. It's like a

poodle over for them.

Taronga staff work day and night, giving the best possible care to the 5 ,000

animals that call both of their zoos home.

Good morning!

But behind the public exhibit, the teams also work on the breeding and

conservation of endangered species.

So these are all our females across the top and our males down here. And we want

to aim for dark green. That's the best genetics.

one of which has been extinct in some parts of Australia for more than a

century. We're very lucky to be able to see these bilbies.

We've got two here in our education centre. They're our ambassador species.

The male is Koba. He's the slightly darker and larger one.

Tanami is the smaller female.

They're here for kids to come and see, students to come and see, learn about

bilbies. see them in the daylight, which, you know, you don't get to do.

a nocturnal animal.

We've conditioned our guys here to come out during the day if they want to.

And luckily, today, that's exactly what they've done.

They're very elusive. They're very shy.

In the wild, they live in burrows. They live underground.

They come out at night time when it's nice and cool.

It's a very unique thing to be able to see them and work so close with them.

Strangely, despite their endangered status, bilbies are actually perfectly

suited to the Australian outback.

They are a desert species, an arid species, so it's very hot.

They also have those really long, big ears. It's a way that they can keep

themselves cool. It's like an air conditioning system.

But the scorching heat was never their real problem.

Bilbies in New South Wales have been extinct for over 100 years and they used

be across 70 % of the mainland.

The reason why they're not so widely dispersed anymore is a number of

The biggest one being introduced pest species, so foxes, feral cats.

As well as having bilbies on display, Taronga also manages a much -needed

breeding program.

Taronga has been breeding bilbies for many years.

But it's really been the last four years that we've upped our game to fight for

these little guys in the wild.

And that fight starts here.

Behind the scenes at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, there's a crucial

staging post for the return of bilbies to the wild.

The 110 hectares of fenced, predator -proof site is known as the sanctuary,

it lives up to its name.

In the sanctuary, it's almost like a bilby boot camp for these guys. They're

developing all of their natural survival skills, they're learning to forage, and

they're building up their populations in a very natural setting so that when

they do get released out in the wild, they're very comfortable in their

habitat.

While Koba and Tanami will remain at Taronga.

The rest of the bilbies in the Australian precinct will soon be heading

do their part in repopulating the wild.

Let's go and get Kate.

We're going to go in nice and quietly.

The radio's down?

Yeah. Great.

But before they take that journey, every bilby must have a health check. And

today, it's Kate's turn.

She's got very sharp teeth.

There you go. Nice and easy.

Vet Francis must ensure Kate is fit and healthy for her vital breeding role. Hi,

Simon. Hi, Tim. How are you going? Good. Kate here for you.

And how's she been?

She's been really good. I was watching the camera footage last night. She's

really active and been eating all of her food.

Good. Hello, Kate. Hello, beautiful.

All right. Check the glove.

Bit of an exciting day for her.

And almost immediately...

Something catches Frances' eye.

This is quite nasty looking.

With so many animals in one place, there's bound to be a lot of waste.

One of the first things we do every morning is we...

All the poo that our seals do throughout the day and night are down the drain.

We're pretty much the only division that would have to be sweeping our poo this

way. Most others are raking it up through the bin.

Giraffe poo 101, they're actually huge animals, but produce a very, very small

poo. Just a little pellet.

So obviously about 100 of them come out with every movement and there's lots of

them throughout the day as they're eating their leaves and their hay.

As you'd expect, keepers have to clean the enclosures daily.

Most of our job is making their beds and cleaning up their poo. You guys over

that side, do you want to just push pretty much all that back to this line?

Yeah, no.

I think we've found some over here, Harmony.

But it's what they do with some of that discarded waste that is really

surprising.

Emma to Deb.

Yep, go ahead.

Hey, Deb, I've just got some fresh giraffe and zebra faeces that I can

you. Where can I meet you?

I'm just at Limes at the moment. I can meet you at the back of the building.

Perfect. I'll see you there in five.

Poo has a lot of water in it, actually.

So it's a lot heavier than you think, even a small amount of poo, a few

shovelfuls. So it's a good workout in the morning to take the poo from one

exhibit to another.

Hey, Deb. Hey, how are you going? Good, thank you.

I have a morning present.

I got a nice fresh bucket of poo for Aso and Lilazi. Awesome. We got some

giraffe on the bottom and then, as an added surprise, zebra on the top.

Awesome, thank you. No worries, see you.

It's a really useful enrichment item.

Smelly or olfactory enrichment items are great in the fact that this is

completely natural. They would come across things like this in the wild. So,

yeah, it's a great, useful tool.

It may be on the nose to us, but for the lions, it smells just like home.

Obviously, if they were tracking herds and things like that, they need to

identify fresh feces in order to find prey species.

And we use it here to enhance those skills and to give them the opportunity

go through that olfactory sort of census as well. So they really have to breathe

it in and work out what it is.

Feces enrichment, we have it twice on our monthly enrichment schedule.

And so we call it...

Faces Friday, so it's like a poove -lover for them.

Taronga is about to take creature comfort to a whole new level.

Of all the Australian marsupials, when it comes to a contest of the cuddliest,

the koala is king.

Koalas are amazing. They are absolute specialists for the environment that

inhabit. They've got a number of adaptations that help them stay in the

big claws on hands and feet. They actually have two thumbs, which makes a

grip. And the paw size is exceptional.

But by far the thing that's the most amazing about koalas is their ability to

eat eucalyptus. There is not another thing on earth that can eat eucalyptus

a koala can.

To satisfy the unique appetites of the koalas they keep, Taronga manages three

eucalyptus plantations just outside Sydney.

How many do we need today? We need 60 of these. 60, yeah? We'll give them 65

because they're a bit short from last cut. Copy. We need 1 ,000 eucalyptus

planted in our plantation to feed just one koala here. Couple there, mate.

So with our 25 to 30 koalas, we do need 30 ,000 trees to feed them. Good.

Really good tip.

Bit dry on the bottom. Got 30 so far.

The staggering amount and variety of eucalypts required to feed the zoo's

underline just how much wild populations rely on their natural habitat.

In the wild, when we lose habitat through bushfires or development, we are

leaving them vulnerable because they don't have the ability to just quickly

change and eat that tree today instead.

It's at a biological level. It's not a choice thing. It's not like, I don't

my broccoli.

And so as we're seeing these impacts around their habitat and their homes,

seeing koala numbers plummet.

So breeding programs like the one at Taronga are more important than ever to

ensure the survival of the species.

We breed every year and we've had joeys every year and what you want in a

collection of captive animals is to have great genetic diversity so that if we

ever need to say breed to release we've got a robust viable future for koalas in

the wild.

One of our big guys, Thunder, he's a 10 kilo male. He's had a couple of years at

breeding and his genetics are in our population.

That's why we're looking at Malachi this year.

Becoming the breeding male is a big step up for three -year -old Malachi.

He is on the younger side, so in the wild he wouldn't really get a look in at

breeding yet because his job is to fight with the other males and gain a really

good territory.

And he's a little bit small for that. But at that young age, you're seeing a

change in their behaviour from being more babyish into these more dominant

behaviours. So this is a bit of a new experiment to see how Malachi goes.

Just three months into the breeding program, and keepers have been delighted

with how Malachi is interacting with the girl.

But without warning, all that progress is suddenly put in jeopardy.

So this is a real concern.

Hopefully it's something that we can do something about.

Coming up, a surprising find for Larry and the team.

Yeah, a really weird star.

X marks the spot.

And don't be fooled by this crocodile smile.

By the time he's finished growing, he'll eat prey items bigger than a human.

Australia has a global reputation as a land packed with dangerous animals.

There's the world's most venomous spider, the Sydney funnel web. So she's

her legs up, sticking her fangs out, showing me all that weaponry. She's

to me, please leave me alone.

The world's most venomous snake, the inland taipan.

One bite can be enough.

to knock out 100 full -grown men. And that's before you even get in the water,

where sharks and killer jellyfish lie in wait.

But apart from the sharks, Australia has very few of the larger animals found in

Africa and Asia.

While the cassowary and adult kangaroo can cause serious injury if provoked...

He's very suspicious of me already.

..there's really only one Australian predator that, when hungry enough... can

take down a fully grown human.

The saltwater crocodile.

Fortunately for Taronga Institute keeper Andrew, it takes years for them to grow

to this fearsome size, which makes his job a whole lot easier.

So I'm just about to pull out Miko, who is a juvenile saltwater crocodile.

And even though he's only a juvenile, I still do have to be a little bit careful

with my hands while I'm bringing him out of the water.

With row upon row of razor -like teeth, Andrew has to be quick.

So this is Miko.

He is about two years old. As you can see...

maybe about 50 centimetres long, head to tail.

But obviously saltwater crocodiles grow up to be, you know, over four or five

metres if they're really, really big.

It takes them a long time to get that big. So you can see Miko at two years

has a lot of growing to do.

But to get as big as, you know, that four or five metre mark, they have to be

or 50 years old before they can get that big.

You can hear him doing that really cute little vocalisation.

So even though by this stage he'd be well away from mum, That's how they get

mum's attention.

So you can see Miko's pretty small now and he's pretty calm.

But by the time he's finished growing, he will be a very, very dangerous

He'll eat prey items that are comfortably as big or bigger than a

You can see his little teeth there are only maybe a centimetre long. By the

he's fully grown, they might be up to 10 centimetres long.

They can be really, really big teeth.

Evolving over millions of years.

The saltwater crocodile is a silent killer.

You can see, too, he's got those eyes on the top of his head and the nostrils on

the top of his head, and that's because he is an aquatic predatory animal. So

having those on the top of his head means he can sort of float to the

and just have his eyes and his nose just sticking out of the water while the

rest of him remains hidden beneath the surface of the water. If you look at his

back, you can see these scales.

They're quite hard. They do offer him a lot of protection.

But more importantly, you can see these raised ridges.

They're called scoots or osteoderms, and they actually allow crocodiles to move

beneath the surface of the water without creating any ripples on the top. So

they actually create little countercurrents, and it means even if

metres long, 5 metres long, and you're not going to see any ripples from the

top. So absolutely amazing, stealthy predators.

And while Miko's not quite eating water buffalo just yet, he still has a

powerful appetite.

So we feed these guys about three times a week.

A big adult sort of water crocodile might only feed a couple of times a

depending on how big the prey item is.

But we just give these little guys insects or prawns and we try and keep a

little variety for them.

Miko appears cute now.

Got it.

But Andrew is well aware that he is still an apex predator in training.

Yeah, salties are amazing.

You just need to keep your distance.

At Taronga's Wildlife Hospital, Vet Francis is giving Kate the bilby a

comprehensive health check.

Kate is the first of the bilbies from here at Taronga anyway that is destined

be released into these predator -free areas in a part of New South Wales where

bilbies have been extinct for a long, long time.

So it's pretty momentous.

So as part of this health check, we need to know that she's in the very best of

health because she needs that if she's going to be released into a wild area.

Returning an animal to the wild is a huge commitment.

Bilby Kate needs to be in the best of health.

And to minimise the risk of contaminating the natural habitat, the

certain no uninvited pests hitch a ride into the wilderness.

This is quite nasty looking. I've just noticed these little specks on her ears

and one of the things that we want to collect is any ectoparasites.

And so these tiny little specks here.

One of the things that we want is to collect any parasites that live on the

outside of her. We need to know what she's got. We don't want to send her

parasites that are not meant to be on bilbies.

So this health check that we're doing on her is really important.

There's no point in us going through the whole process of providing an animal

for release into a wild site if she's not in a condition to cope with that.

So it would make it unsuccessful if she's not healthy.

So we're going to take her head out now so I can have a look.

And this is the face of a bilby.

Look at that huge big ears. She's got eyes set on the side of her head, but

very long snout and quite impressive sharp little teeth there.

So her teeth are in really nice condition, which is good.

And they're designed for chewing all those insects and so on that she's

It's important for us that we know what her level of teeth wear is and that her

mouth is healthy, her gums are healthy and there's nothing abnormal there.

It's important that we get young animals out who are of breeding age so that

they can really make their best contribution to the population size.

Because Kate's job is to increase bilby numbers, Frances must now check the

marsupial's most important assets.

This is her pouch.

A ton of little teats there.

It's nice and clean.

Her pouch is empty. She doesn't have any joeys in the pouch, so that's perfect.

We don't want to be sending out a bilby that has a large pouch young or a pouch

young that's not attached to the teat because then there's a risk of them

the joey.

So she's going to be an important part of this whole release process and she'll

hopefully have two or three young each time that she breathes.

Happily, Bilby Kate has passed her medical with flying colours.

There we go.

Pop her back in the bag.

It's very pleasing to know that we can make sure she's in the best possible

health so that her chance of survival in that wild situation is going to be as

best as we can get it. So good luck, Kate.

With the all clear, Kate's crucial journey back to the wilderness can

There you go, Kate.

At the animal hospital, Vet Larry is reviewing x -rays of Malachi the koala,

key member of the koala breeding program, who was just discovered by

lying paralyzed at the base of a tree.

It's unusual for a koala to fall out of a tree, but they do from time to time.

They will often leak from one branch to another, and he might have misjudged

that and then just fell to the ground.

The only thing I can see which would fit with the signs of paralysis in the

hindquarters is this third lumbar vertebra just seems to be a little bit

maybe dislocated a little bit and impinging on his spinal cord. But it

much worse. There may be something else going on.

Here you go, little man.

So we're going to take him for a CT scan, which hopefully will give us some

information as to what might be happening.

Such lovely animals to work with. The keepers did say he occasionally tries to

bite, but he's certainly been a great patient here with us so far.

As with all spinal injuries, the quicker the diagnosis, the better.

I'll just pop him here, and you can sit over there.

Keep an eye on him.

So the team wastes no time in getting Malachi to the off -site radiologist for

scan.

Hello.

Thanks for coming in.

Yeah, no problem, Larry, no problem.

We've had a couple of days in hospital. On Sunday morning it happened.

So Malachi and his number's there. Great, thanks.

Five, four, three.

Malachi must be absolutely motionless throughout the scan.

I'm just giving this a little injection.

So it's necessary for Larry to anaesthetise him.

11 .25.

You got him, Liz?

Yeah. So just put him in right lateral acupuncture.

Sure.

So this is the lumbar spine, and we think it's the third lumbar vertebra

the problem.

The CT is really going to give us much more information on exactly what's going

on.

All good when they're ready, Larry.

Okay, guys, out you come.

We'll start the scan, and we're going to see all the blood vessels light up.

That's interesting.

That whole area has got increased bacularity.

More blood vessels than normal.

This is where he's got this little hole in that part of the vertebra and his

spinal cord does look like it's being kind of compressed at that location.

So sadly, there's some process where there's infection or a tumour that's

eroding away one of his lumbar vertebra and it's impinging also on the spinal

canal and almost certainly accounting for his paralysis.

Do you want to carry on? Yes.

To determine whether it's an infection or in fact a tumor, Larry takes some

pathology samples from the skin.

Look at that.

What is that?

A really weird star or something.

But that reveals an even bigger mystery.

It's almost like an X.

X marks the spot.

Taronga is proud of its conservation work.

And there's one Australian marsupial that needs all the help it can get.

The greater bilby has been extinct in much of eastern Australia for over a

hundred years.

We'll get down there and we'll see if we can get a signal.

To reverse that trend, Taronga has been the driving force behind an ambitious

plan to return the species to the wild.

And the key to that... is this 110 hectare sanctuary just outside Western

Zoo in Dubbo. Have any of them triggered a trap yet?

Yes, several.

But there's also a sanctuary within this sanctuary.

This is our bilby pre -release yard. It's right in the middle of our

Here, Taronga's conservation manager, Andrew, teaches the bilbies all the

survival skills they'll need before being released into the wild.

Essentially, these yards are for getting the bilbies used to living... in

wildlife conditions. So they're living in burrows like this one here,

underground that they've dug themselves.

We scatter their food around the place and they can also forage for their own

food. So they're all getting ready for life in the greater sanctuary, which is

all around us.

We're going to release 20 what we call founders into our sanctuary. So they're

group of genetically unique individuals and they'll found our new population.

But before they can leave, the team has to catch them.

And it seems old habits die hard.

They've just become habituated a little bit. They are living underground and

they shouldn't really emerge from their burrows until after dark.

And we're just coming up to dusk now and the females are still underground, but

the males are coming out earlier. They're hungry, it's been winter, so

coming out for their food.

These precious Bilby founders will spend the next year in the sanctuary,

building up their numbers.

and getting the experience they'll need to survive in the outback.

And Big Brother will be watching 24 -7 as they learn.

We've got to attach some GPS transmitters to them.

These transmitters will log data points each night as they're moving around the

sanctuary.

That's really important for us to understand how they're using the habitat

there and what areas they're in. Also, so we can locate them and give them a

health check and make sure they're doing okay.

It's really important that the unit's not actually resting on the tail. We

actually hover it above the tail. If it rests on, it can cause ulcers and things

like that. So we're trying to keep the tracker a couple of mil above the tail,

which is why it's so fiddly and takes three of us to get it on properly.

That's about right.

Shall we weigh him? Yeah, we'll weigh him and we'll send him on his way.

Over the next couple of weeks we want to see them out using different habitats,

establishing really good burrows and hopefully in a month or two down the

we'll see evidence of breeding in the population as well.

I'll just take the head out.

The bilbies are finally released into the greater sanctuary.

and quickly vanish into the night.

Tonight's a really important night, but even though we've taken two years to get

here, it's kind of only the beginning of the story. So what we really need to

understand now is how they use this environment, how the population grows,

are the population limiting factors. So it's a really exciting night, but it's

only the beginning.

Still to come, I've got a nice fresh bucket of poo.

Who's poo in the zoo?

This is some zebra and giraffe feces.

How one animal's waste is another treasure.

It might be a bit gross and yucky, but they love it.

Hey, Deb.

Hey, how are you going? Good, thank you.

I have a morning present. I got a nice fresh bucket of poo.

At Taronga, no waste goes to waste.

It's a really useful enrichment item.

And the lucky recipients of this mucky mess will be the lion boy, Lawazi and

Atto. Might be a bit gross and yucky, but they love it.

This is some zebra and giraffe feces that our ungulate team kindly gave us

morning. The team aims to replicate the most natural wild environment possible

for the animal.

I'm hoping that they really get a lot out of it. It really is great seeing our

animals react naturally to the enrichment that we do give them.

So it'll be great if I see them trot out here and start rolling it and carry on

together. That'll be really awesome.

With the poo in place, it's time to see what Luazi and Atto think about the

stink.

Our previous lion group used to come and roll in it and carry on. It used to be

their most favourite day.

See how they go.

Our lions love the giraffe. They actually love using this tree.

And they both get up in it, which we didn't think this tree was going to be a

really good climbing tree for them, but they both love sitting in it and looking

at their giraffe and zebra neighbours.

Across there, and Atto the other day was up there for at least half an hour

watching the giraffes and the zebras.

But they're not here for the view.

They're here for the poo.

And it seems this poo -vlova is a bit of a hit.

With Atto, at least.

Maybe Lawazi will give it a go on the next Feces Friday.

Vet Larry and the team are investigating the cause of paralysis in Malachi the

koala.

Yeah, really worried about what's going on with Malachi. The lesion that we've

seen on the CT is a very, very significant problem.

Whether it's a tumour or infection, either are going to be very challenging

problems to deal with.

And on closer examination, they uncover something pretty unusual.

X marks the spot.

We can see now where we've clipped him, and this could have been a wound, which

could be an entry point for whatever infection he may have.

With potential infection sites, when you clip away, sometimes that's when you

see the trauma underneath all the hair.

That is quite dramatic.

But does this scar hold the answers to what has caused Malachi's paralysis?

If there has been an injury there, another koala's clawed him or something

that, then it would suggest that maybe it's more likely to be infection than a

tumour.

To make sure, the team take some samples from the site of the wound.

We're going to take this back to the Taronga lab and have a look at these

samples under the microscope. So the answer could be right here.

All right, Liz. Wake him up. Wake him up.

Very noisy.

While Malachi recovers from his procedure, the team wait for the answers

pathology.

There's a scar right over the area.

And it seems koala behaviour may have something to do with it. Although koalas

have the reputation of being cute and cuddly, it's not particularly accurate.

In fact, koalas are solitary by nature. The males are, by definition,

territorial. So if they come into contact with another male, they'll have

scrapped. And it can be pretty nasty. The bite is very powerful and they have

those huge inch -long claws that are great for climbing trees, but they will

them to defend themselves.

So there's nothing about them that makes me think that they're still cute and

cuddly, apart from that picture and sleeping in the tree.

But the moment they wake up, it's a different story.

A few hours later, and with Larry and the team back at the zoo, Malachi's

pathology is delivered to the lab.

Hi, Nat.

Hi. Here's the samples from the koala.

Yeah. So we actually are more suspicious of an infection as opposed to a

tumour. But, yeah, if you could get maybe some photos and send to Lids, or

might see straight away what's going on.

To limit any future distress to Malachi, Larry has asked for the results to be

fast -tracked. There you go. Good boy.

There you go, mate.

Let him settle in. We'll wait for the results to come out from the lab and

a decision on ongoing treatment. But I think there's quite a bit of work to do

on him, that's for sure.

Hopefully it is something that we can treat, and we'll certainly do our best

do that.

Coming up, the Bilby's big day out has finally arrived.

It'll be a big trip for them.

Cars, planes, and then, of course, the big moment will be the release.

Just incredible.

It's been almost a year since 20 bilbies were released into the sanctuary just

outside Taronga Western Plain Zoo in Dubbo.

Now, after five years of hard work, the big day of release has finally arrived.

Today is a very big and historic day. We're going to release our very first

batch of bilbies into the wild.

To be part of a team that's actually bred animals that are going to be used

re -establish a population that was extinct in New South Wales is so

Not many people get to say that they've done that and it's the absolute

highlight of my career so far.

The bilby, decked in for the outback, are now in the holding pen.

Still a quick chip scan.

All that's left is to get them to the departure lounge.

Today they're going on a massive trip right out to the very corner of New

Wales in Central Australia.

It's of such significance that going along for this important ride is Taronga

CEO Cameron.

It'll be a big change for them and a very long trip.

Cars, planes, boxing, unboxing, tagging them and then of course the big moment

will be the relief.

The last time they've got the tall gum tree, that's for sure.

Normally, bilbies don't fly.

But the most direct way to get them to their new desert home is by charter

flight.

Something of this magnitude and, you know, historic importance doesn't happen

easily and without the support of New South Wales University, the National

Team and Taronga all coming together to make this happen. Years and years of

work, getting rid of the predators out there, preparing the bilbies here,

breeding them up. Massive project, really exciting and when humans put

mind to it, they can make things happen.

With the tray tables up and the bilbies buckled in, it's time to take to the

sky.

Next stop, the Aussie outback.

Koala keepers found breeding male Malachi on the ground and unable to

So Larry and the vet team have spent the day trying to find out exactly what

happened. Yeah, actually, Larry, it is this.

Vertebra that's the abnormal one, that spinous process that we looked at.

We discovered a very significant problem. In fact, it wasn't what we

thought. It looks like there is definitely some damage to one of his

vertebra, and it's being eroded away by most likely an infection.

X marks the spot.

It's likely he had an injury and a puncture were in there that's allowed

infection to get in, and we've taken some samples.

Back at the zoo.

The lab has fast -tracked Malachi's pathology and koala keeper Laura is keen

get an update on his condition.

Hi, Nat.

I've just got Laura to show her what you discovered.

The results are in and it's not what anyone wanted to hear.

See these round blobs with a dark spot in the middle? Yep. So that is a very

typical cryptococcus. Right. So cryptococcus, of course, is a fungus.

As you know, commonly associated with eucalyptus leaves and koalas are quite

prone to it. There's a lot of it there, so definitely that's the cause of the

problem. Very, very unusual situation, an unusual lesion. But what possibly

happened is that when he...

was scratched by another koala. You know, a nail might have punctured into

skin at that point and inoculated some crypto under the skin in that site and

it's basically slowly just invaded the bone.

Yeah, he has been in a breeding group. So, yeah, it makes sense that there

have been some altercations. It's pretty normal.

Being a young male, he was relatively inexperienced and he had some older

females that used to like telling him off, which is really normal. So this

like a really unfortunate, like freak set of circumstances.

Yeah, yeah, completely.

I think the thing is, you know, already he's paralysed essentially. I mean, it's

possible, you know, over a very long period of time, you know, it could

But I think getting rid of that crypto at that site is going to be a very, very

difficult task.

It's very likely there's permanent damage to the spine.

Treating koalas is always a really difficult task.

Not a lot of great medicines have been developed for them, and they're so

specific. They're not like dogs, cats, kangaroos. They don't work the same way.

Oh, yeah. Breaks my heart, but... You know, he will suffer if we try and treat

him. Absolutely.

While it's a sad day for Malachi... OK, buddy.

..there's some truly wonderful news just around the corner.

We're really lucky. Very, very excited.

Taronga's two zoos and its partners set themselves the challenge to reintroduce

bilbies into the Australian outback.

And today, for the first time in over 100 years, it's finally happening.

This precious cargo is travelling to their new home in Australia's famous Red

Centre.

This is an area that the bilby has been extinct for a very long time now. So for

the zoo to be a part in the reintroduction of this species is just

It's not just a win for the bilby.

Having them back in the desert will also be a huge ecological success for the

entire region.

This is going to transform that desert because these animals are going to dig

away and make an environment that's going to be there not just for bilby.

but a whole lot of other threatened species out there.

The Philbys are returning to their ancestral home and traditional owner

has prepared a special welcome.

We do smoking ceremonies for a number of things.

Sometimes it's for welcoming and

it's just to get bad energy.

shifted from the land, so you're coming onto the land with no bad energy.

Just on sunset, the highly anticipated moment arrived.

And just like that, they're back.

It's been five years in the planning, with hundreds of people working

relentlessly, all with only one goal in mind.

The faces tell the story, but they know they're only getting started.

The holy grail, without a doubt, is those days when we are able to re

animals born here at the zoo back into their natural habitat.

Our first release of the bilby into Sturt National Park is just an

reward for a huge amount of hard work, and certainly this will be the first of

many to come as we work tirelessly to reintroduce this species and give it the

bright future that it deserves.

Sadly, Malachi, the young breeding koala, was euthanized after a eucalypt

infected his vertebrae, paralyzing him below the waist.

He was a really sweet koala. He had a nice personality. He wasn't a bully like

some boys can be.

He was, you know, easy to work with.

Unfortunately, when you look after any living thing, you know, there are times

where you have to say goodbye to them. And unfortunately, this is one of those.

We do still have 23 other koalas that I've got to get out of bed for, so

just got to keep on keeping on.

But Malachi, you know, we're definitely going to notice his absence, and I wish

I had better news today for sure, yeah.

It's been a few months since Malachi's passing, and Laura is still working

around the clock to ensure the 23 remaining koalas.

are well cared for.

We've got a few different varieties of leaf here for them.

This one here you can see is nice red tips here, and that's the part they're

going to eat. This is Eucalyptus robusta, but just in case they don't

today, they can be really fussy day to day about their leaves that you give

them. So we've always got to maintain variety.

And so you can see here, this one looks a little different. The leaves are

smaller. It's got more of a yellowy colour in the tip there. This is

one of their favourites. They eat it year round.

So she should climb up, and you'll see her choosing her food with her nose.

Spending every day with the koalas means Laura instantly notices the slightest

change. Don't eat me.

And last week, she got some awesome news.

Malachi's passing has been heartbreaking, obviously, with his young

Genetically, it was really valuable to the state. It's heartbreaking to lose

on that level.

The one great moment that we only just discovered is that we have in fact got a

joey in a pouch on Willow that Malachi has left behind.

So this is Willow. She's one of our eight -year -old females and she has

excellent mother to a number of joeys.

She was in the group that was paired up with Malachi and the one little piece of

Malachi that we have left is currently growing in her pouch.

So very, very excited.

After we lost Malachi about a week or two later, I noticed some development in

that pouch area.

We had a quick little peek. She doesn't like it, so it's not something we do

often. Just to check if what I suspected was correct, and there was about a

three -month -old joey in there. So we're talking about, oh, it's about an

a month.

So about that big, still pink, still fused to the teat, eyes are closed and

everything.

So absolutely tragic and heartbreaking that we lost Malachi.

There's a tiny little pearl of him growing in there that we can look

meeting in a couple of months' time.

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