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 sparking you 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... This is close enough.

Malu, the mighty red.

How a sore tooth brought down this boxing kangaroo.

So he's already lost a tooth on that side. Any kangaroo that shows signs that

something might be going on in their mouth, we take pretty seriously. You can

see that tooth is very loose.

We've got primate pellets. Chicken feed.

The hunt for the perfect pellet. If they don't eat it, it's worthless.

Taronga conducts a taste test. She likes them. But it's not to everyone's

liking. And three, the crowd.

As new babies arrive all across the zoo.

I think it's one of the most rewarding things for a keeper to be able to

an experience just so special.

Trunk. You good?

You can tell a lot about an animal's health by simple observation.

Good voice, Daddy.

Yeah, it's a bit soft. You can see, you know, he's got a bit of grooves in here

and rocks have made divots in here. With a quick once -over, keepers can often

detect the first signs of trouble.

I'm just going to check for any ticks or sick -class fleas.

All looking really good.

Happy with him.

In some cases, they can check an animal's health even in their absence.

Nothing too obvious here.

Today, gorilla keeper Amy is on the hunt for clues.

All right, doesn't look like there's anything here today.

To solve a delicate problem facing silverback gorilla Kibali.

Now, often we can find as well, the gorillas will use this ledge and they'll

off of the ledge. So we can sometimes find nuggets right here on the edge.

Our animal health and animal well -being comes in all different shapes and

forms. So behaviour is one way, but also looking at the animal's physiology,

what they're producing, are they urinating and defecating? It's a really

important part of our job as zookeepers.

To do this, we need to glove up. So really important from a biohazard for

zoonotic diseases, to make sure that we put some gloves on. Obviously, I'm not

going to get too close to the feces, but I can pick it up and have a good look

at it as well. See the texture, see the form of it, the size.

Even a strange odor of a gorilla feces as well can really indicate some health

issues.

Kabali has an extensive history of stomach problems.

And because gorillas have only a plant -based diet, keepers are becoming more

concerned as they watch Kabali straining to pass his feces.

For a Kabali -sized poo, this is a very small sample.

For a big gorilla like Kabali, he's weighing in 170, 180 kilos. He's a

big silverback, so we'd expect him to make quite a substantial deposit.

Right now, this is a really small little nugget, very dry.

This one is incredibly hard as well.

No one wants a constipated silverback, that's for sure.

So it's our job now to report it to our vets and to our nutritionist, Michelle,

who can hopefully come together and make the pieces of the puzzle click together

and work out a solution for him that if he is having a problem with defecating

or with draining, how we can help him out with that.

has 5 ,000 mouths to feed each day.

Every year, zoo kitchens process hundreds of tons of meat, vegetables,

grains, costing millions of dollars.

And this vast operation is all overseen by zoo nutritionist Michelle, who

designs meals aimed at keeping all the animals in the best possible condition.

Up until now, to feed all the zoo's herbivores, the animals that only feed

plants, Michelle has had to rely on sourcing a vast range of pellets.

Okay, so this is what arrived yesterday. But the problem is, there's far too

many of them. We've got some goat pellets.

We've got what we call like an all -purpose livestock pellet. So this is

something that would go to our giraffe, hippo. And we've got our kangaroo cubes,

which is a separate herbivore pellet.

We've got primate pellets. We've got chicken feed.

We've got various horse pellets of all different kinds. We have psyllium

pellets. There are so many different pellets here. And this is just Taronga

in Sydney.

So in an effort to simplify the feeding process, Michelle has developed

Taronga's very own pellet to replace all the others.

This pellet is great. It's going to be something that's really high in fiber,

low in starch, so it's going to be better for their digestion.

Over the coming week, Michelle and her assistant Angie will be trialing the

pellet on a wide variety of animals.

Oh, that's very nice. If there's any left, that is.

That's pretty nice. I can taste the lucerne. Yeah, I can taste the lucerne

So in that pellet, that's a five -star three -course dinner.

And we are going to add a couple more sides to it.

I'm pretty excited to get this out in the field and start trying it on our

animal because it doesn't matter how good it looks or how much I like the

of it. If they don't eat it, it's worthless.

It's taken Michelle five years of research and development to perfect this

pellet. What a beautiful day for testing new pellets. Perfect.

So there's a lot riding on this taste test.

So now this is the very first taste trial. It's just to see if the taste and

texture and size is good for the animal.

Hey. Hi, Michelle.

Come on in.

Thank you.

First stop is the pygmy hippo exhibit.

where supervisor Gabe gives breeding female Kambiri her first taste.

She seems to be liking it. Yeah, this is good, I reckon. She's got her nose down

and is licking them up, which is very, very normal behaviour for her. She likes

them. Good.

They're going down well.

I like them too. Have you tried them? I haven't. You have to.

You don't have to, just because I'm telling you to.

It reminds me of some of the biscuits we have at home. The savoury biscuit with

grains in it. With, like, grains in it. Yeah.

The aftertaste isn't as nice as the biscuit. I need a drink now. That's

Gabe might not be a big fan, but it looked like Kambiri gave the new pellet

mark. Look at you, sweetheart.

You like it.

I'm so relieved because...

I mean, I knew it was good, the numbers are good, and everything on the computer

looks good, and I mean, I like it, but she's the final judge, and we need to

make sure that she likes it, otherwise we could just throw this out.

So I think it's very promising.

Okay, on to elephants.

Michelle's next customer is the biggest herbivore in the zoo, and one that eats

around 150 kilos of food a day.

The trunk up.

Open. Good girl.

Nice, Mole.

Hey, Mole, are you going to try something new? Some herbivore pellet.

You can take that. Good girl.

See how you go with that.

Very first taste.

Australian marsupials are well represented at Taronga in all shapes and

But there's one that casts a shadow over all the others.

The mighty and muscular red kangaroo.

The red kangaroo is the largest macropod. Macropod meaning big foot. And

are the largest species of marsupial in the world.

When they stand on their hind legs, they stand over six feet tall, up to 90

kilos, a very large, very powerful animal. Here at Taronga Zoo, they're

classified as a hazardous animal, so we have to be very careful working with

them.

A mob of kangaroos like to have a leader, an alpha male, if you like.

Marley is the biggest and the oldest, and he's the boss.

This is close enough. I think...

Definitely close enough, and he's aware of me. He doesn't look like it, but he's

certainly aware of me, and if we get too close, you'll definitely hear a growl

out of him.

That's his little warning.

Having said that, they're pretty chill. They're great to work with.

They spend most of their day wandering through this exhibit trying to find the

sunny patches, and they'll sleep most of the day.

He's a bit suspicious of me, but he's now about to settle down and have a bit

a snooze. He's a good boy.

The red kangaroo may be an impressive species, but they have a surprising

weakness.

They are susceptible to teeth problems, and that's one of the things we really

keep a close eye on.

Hey, buddy.

Here you go, mate.

Marlou, in the last two weeks, developed a bit of a dribble, only when he was

eating. And then last week... He was spitting up food quite a bit and doing a

bit of tongue -slicking, so that was a real concern.

If Marlou isn't eating his food, he's not getting the nutrition he needs.

So senior vet Larry and his team are heading down to the kangaroo exhibit to

if they can find out what Marlou's underlying problem is.

So this is ketamine, big kangaroo, so the drugs that we need need to be very

concentrated.

And with an animal as powerful as Marlou, Nurse Liz needs to be ready for

anything.

So Marlou, he's a potentially hazardous animal, so we have to be very careful.

He's hopefully going to be nice and quiet and relaxed when we get round to

And we may be able to put a pulse syringe in with an extended syringe.

So when the animal is, say, over here, you can inject them at a distance. Then

they'll go to sleep quite quickly and they're not stressed.

And if that doesn't work, we'll have to attempt to use...

The dart would slide out of a pistol.

But I believe this one will work.

Treating a kangaroo out of the hospital requires a lot of kit, so packing the

van is a painstaking process.

Because he's such a big animal, it'll be quite a job bringing him down to the

hospital, and if we can deal with it in the enclosure where he is, that'd be

ideal.

But working with animals is often unpredictable, and this morning, it

Malu is going to make things difficult.

They're on, guys.

Oh, ready?

Kabali, the silverback gorilla, has been a bit backed up of late.

For a Kabali -sized poo, this is a very small sample.

So vets, in conjunction with zoo nutritionist Michelle, have recommended

course of action for keepers to see if they can't get things moving again for

the big guy.

Michelle spoke to us about Kabali. Obviously he's still having problems

pooping. Michelle wants us to give him some psyllium. We're going to give it to

him a couple of times a day, along with quite a large volume of fluid as well.

So it's a combination of the psyllium husk and the fluid. We're going to use

honey water because Kabali has got quite a sweet tooth, so that will help it go

down. A liter is going to be just pretty much up here.

And then we will measure out two tablespoons of psyllium husk.

So hopefully this psyllium husk will just make Kabali a little bit more

comfortable because we are really seeing him strain.

He's going from side to side, sometimes taking several minutes to be able to

defecate. So hopefully this bit of psyllium husk along with the fluids will

him to have regular bowel movement.

Michelle wants to start with once in the morning, once in the afternoon.

And then if we can get any extra fluids into him as well, then that will be a

bonus. So no pressure.

But if you can get that into him, that would be great. Great. Let's go.

Thankfully, a gorilla's daily routine provides plenty of opportunity for

to give Kabali his special drink.

We're going to be giving Kabali his psyllium in a training session.

The other gorillas will get fruit in their session. Kabali will get a little

of fruit for training, but he'll get a nice jug of honey water and psyllium

during that training session to make sure we get everything we need into him.

With Kabali happy to gulp down all the psyllium hearts, Keepers can settle back

and wait for it all to come out the other end.

This is an extra one which we can use in gorillas if you want. But nutritionist

Michelle has another idea that might help Kabali get the relief he needs.

So we've had really good success with the species we've tried so far.

And permanents in Dubbo too, so give them some things in Dubbo seem to like

Let's see how these guys go then.

We're always looking at new and improved ways of incorporating that nutritional

profile into their diet for those issues like Cavalli's constipation.

I had a couple of ideas about that. I can't wait to hear them.

We just got up.

This morning we're going to do an anaesthetic procedure on one of our red

kangaroos, Malu.

Just over the last few weeks, he's been dribbling a little bit of saliva and a

bit of food's falling out of his mouth.

We are a little bit concerned that he might have some dental disease.

Because Malu is so large, the team have opted to do the procedure in the

exhibit. We always need to keep in mind that they can be very dangerous, big,

big, powerful animals, and all it will take is one kick from their hind legs

they could rip your guts out.

They're on to us.

Because of that risk, Larry is using a pole injection to administer the drugs

Malu.

That's him on the right, Larry. This one?

Shorts him? Yep. It requires speed, precision, skill and a

bit of luck.

There you go. Done.

So that was lucky because he just came up to the door. Fantastic.

And had an opportunity to jab him.

Larry, are you happy now Sam walks past and hopefully they'll follow him with

the food? Obviously it doesn't disturb Marlou.

After ten minutes, the keepers are able to entice the other kangaroos away with

food. Oh, look at them go.

Yeah, follow the keeper.

While the rest of the team must be patient and wait for Marlou to nod off.

Oh, come on, mate.

Pop a little towel over his face.

We're just trying to keep him really calm, not disturb him until he's fully

asleep. Particularly with this combination of drugs, if you interfere

the animal too early, it reduces the effectiveness of the drug.

20 minutes later, Marlo is finally asleep.

Okay, Sam, so... And Larry can begin the procedure. Okay.

Any kangaroo that shows any signs that something might be going on in their

mouth, we take pretty seriously.

Kangaroos generally are quite prone to a disease that then can get much worse to

the point of actually infecting the bone in their mouth.

First thing I'm going to do is smell his breath.

Smells nice.

That's often a key indicator of dental disease in kangaroos, in macropods. If

they have any degree of dental disease, they usually get really bad breath.

So I'm just counting one, two, three.

So he's already lost a tooth on that side. But this is normal for kangaroos

because they have what's called molar progression, where the teeth, as they

move slowly forward.

Because kangaroos eat coarse grass throughout their lives, their teeth have

evolved so that new molars continually break through to replace old ones that

they fall out.

OK, so this side here.

The left lower jaw is where the problem is.

And you can see that tooth is loose.

There, very loose.

But probably not infected. I'd say it's probably part of normal molar

progression.

It's very likely that that loose tooth and a bit of food that's caught between

his teeth at that point are causing some irritation for him and also probably

also makes him dribble a bit. The good thing is there doesn't seem to be any

horrible dental disease in there.

But either way, the tooth needs to come out.

There you go.

Beautiful. Easy?

Nice. So you can see that's a pretty dodgy -looking tooth.

It does smell a bit, actually.

The extraction was relatively easy, but keepers have also asked Larry to examine

Marlou's shoulder, which they've noticed has been causing him problems.

I'll have to turn him over and just compare.

It does feel a bit odd in that shoulder, to be honest.

It's common for male red kangaroos to spar.

It's what earned them the nickname the boxing kangaroo.

But keepers haven't seen the usually chilled Malu suffer any significant

Arthritis is actually not that common in kangaroos, so I don't think it's just

arthritis. Can we just turn him back over? Sorry, go on.

Just hold him there for a sec.

Yeah, so you can see that this one doesn't extend as far.

You see that?

Yeah. OK, we need to take him down for an X -ray.

What began as a simple dental procedure in the exhibit suddenly turns into a

military operation.

There is clearly a problem in that shoulder. Bit of a change in plan,

OK, in you go.

All right, I'll stay in the back.

The team must now race against the clock to examine Marlu's shoulder before the

anaesthetic wears off.

Zoo nutritionist Michelle is trialing her new food pellet on all the

in the zoo.

And do we do a little taste test now? Let's go for it. Okay, let's go for it.

Oh, it's good. Oh, I like that. Yeah.

Next in line for the taste test are the elephants.

We'll see how our biggest herbivore in the zoo copes.

It should replace their current pellet and the vitamin mineral mix that we give

them as well, so you'd only have to give this.

Yep. So hopefully they like it. All right, perfect. I'll see how it goes.

You can take that. Good girl.

Yep. Straight in with the treat, and she's back again.

Very first teeth.

She seems okay.

She definitely likes the pellet. She's eating it nice and quickly.

To make sure that she gets all the pellets, she puts her foot behind it or

the tub, scoop as much as she can and put it back in her mouth. So, yeah,

definitely loves it.

And it's a nice gesture that we always do ask for the tub to be back. You got

it. Good girl. All right. Thank you. And we reward that behavior as well. Yes.

So it's just that nice gesture that she has.

Just cleaning up your plate when you're done. Exactly.

With the animals loving the taste of the pellet, the next phase of the trial can

begin. Tangmo is coming up right now, and she's just going to go on the scale.

Which will determine the volume of pellets they'll receive.

We're going to see what these girls score out of nine, and that just means

they holding a little extra weight, and do we need to reduce their diet a little

bit, or do we need to increase their diet, and we're just going to assess

So she's weighing in at 3 ,810 kilos.

So what would you call that?

I would probably give that a 6 out of 9.

I think that's about it. So here comes Pat Boone. She's just got up on the

there.

So she's a bit lighter than Tang Mo. 3 ,635.

That's pretty much a good weight for her. You might have seen Tang Mo a lot

taller than Pat Boon. So Pat Boon's a bit more wider, whereas Tang Mo's a bit

taller. It's kind of hard to keep them on the lean side often, so it'll be nice

to give them something a little more bulk, but still keep them lean.

With the elephants out of the way, Michelle doesn't have to travel far for

last client of the day.

So our two new camels that have arrived from Dubbo, we have Raz and Storm on the

other side, the darker of the two, and they're settling in quite nicely. We're

still getting to know them and they're still getting to know us. They're mainly

grazers, but they'll give any sort of plant material a go.

Which is exactly the sort of thing that Michelle wants to hear.

Storm, Raz, come on, ladies.

That's the way.

You can see Storm there. She's really getting stuck in. She hasn't put her

up for the last 30 seconds or so.

So it mustn't be too bad.

I don't think we could have hoped for more. No. This is exactly what we were

hoping to see. This is a good result.

And it looks like Storm's finished.

You done, Stormy? None left?

None left. This is a very good result. They ate everything.

They seem to enjoy it.

So as far as we're concerned, that's a winner.

While today's trial has been a huge success, there's still plenty of animals

Michelle's list yet to sample the pellet.

And there's one in particular who will get more benefit than just tasting new

food. This pellet's just going to allow him to digest all of those wonderful

nutrients much more efficiently.

There you go. Done.

It's been a busy morning in the red kangaroo exhibit.

What started as a tooth extraction for eight -year -old Malu... There you go.

Beautiful. This one doesn't extend as far?

Yeah. OK, we need to take him down for an X -ray.

..soon turned into a rushed trip to the wildlife hospital for something

completely different.

The scales.

He's quite blinky up here, though. Yeah, just get him on the mask there, Liz.

Yep. We just brought Marlou down to the hospital because we discovered he does

actually have a problem with his shoulder, so we'll need to take some x

At 82 kilos, Marlou is the alpha male of the group.

Certainly looks more impressive on the table than lying on the ground in the

enclosure, doesn't he?

His size and status may be a clue to the cause of his injury.

Marlou definitely spars with the other boys that he lives with here at Taronga

Zoo. He puts the other boys in his place when he needs to. He's the boss in

there.

In order to learn what's going on with Marlou's shoulder... Let's see if that's

any better.

..Larry and the team set up for some X -rays.

What we might try and do is get a ventrodorsal of both shoulders.

So this is going to be a nice challenge for everyone.

So I'm just going to put him on his back because I think getting that view from

his chest to his back is going to be much more rewarding in terms of getting

diagnostic image.

Kangaroos are, just because of their body shape, quite challenging. But this

one of the things about zoo animal medicine, you're just dealing with

species every day and you've just got to improvise and work out ways of doing

these things.

For keeper Tony, seeing Malu on the table like this is confronting.

I didn't expect this really to happen today. I was pretty confident about the

whole tooth issue, so this is something different that's come up.

But I know he's in very good hands, the best hand.

All right, let's see how we go with this.

So what we've got up here is the two images of the right and the left

The left one is the normal one.

The difference between the two is quite apparent.

This one here has got a nice sort of socket joint. The bone is nicely rounded

with this sort of protrusion up here, which...

The clavicle attaches to there.

And on this side here, we can see it's completely different. The bone is also

deformed. The socket joint is not a nice round fitting joint.

Fortunately, there's no arthritis.

The extensive damage to Marlu's shoulder has shocked the team.

We weren't expecting anything like what we found.

This was something that would have happened many years ago, I think. And it

might have just been exacerbated recently by...

Being, you know, sparring with one of the other males or something like that

it's created a bit of pain in that shoulder.

Old injuries are notoriously difficult to treat.

So with the x -rays ruling out disease and arthritis, Larry makes a call.

We'll leave that. We know now that there's that abnormality, really not

be able to do anything.

And we know, you know, he's otherwise a pretty healthy animal.

After two hours under anaesthetic.

It's time to get Marlou home.

Okay, get ready.

One, two, three.

I'll grab this.

To the man.

Marlou's the giant beast of an animal, muscular, but he's just got this

beautiful personality, very chilled.

It's a privilege in a way to be able to get so close to them. He'll be wowing

the visitors, I would say, for another few years yet, hopefully.

Turn him around so his head's that way.

We're just giving him the reversal drugs now to wake him up.

Giving him an injection that'll last a couple of days to just make him more

comfortable because obviously manipulating the shoulder today will

him quite sore for a couple of days. But beyond that, I think we'll just monitor

him and if at any time he shows signs of pain, we'll deal with it then.

Okay. Thanks, guys. Thanks very much, Larry. See you next time.

Taronga Zoo has been operating continuously for 104 years.

And a zoo can only stay successful for that long if it really invests in their

animals' care and well -being.

This is the delicious one. Ready?

Yummy. Out at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, not only do they delight in

caring for all the animals who call it home, they've been enormously successful

in creating new residents.

For many guests, a visit to the zoo is just the tip of the iceberg.

So many of the things that go on behind the scenes is actually what zoos are all

about, and that is the breeding programs.

Good boy.

And now the spring has sprung.

The team is overjoyed to welcome the next bunch of zoo babies.

So we've got some massive news out here. We have a new giraffe calf, Layla,

who's three weeks old now.

She's a high -energy animal, Layla is.

She's always running around and stuff like that and mucking around with some

the other younger giraffes out there as well.

She's doing really well out here. She's very independent.

Really excited to explore the exhibit with the other animals.

Over at the otter exhibit, the cuteness factor is tripled.

Three pups that have just recently been born here, they've just had their first

health checks. They've been given a clean bill of health from our vets and

now know that we've got one little boy and two little girls.

So keepers have named them a male tie and then the two little girls are Suki

Katara.

So that very first day when they start emerging from the den box, it's the best

day for the keepers, I think 100%. They're very, very family orientated.

very, very social.

They live in family groups. You'll have a dominant pair. They'll be mum and dad

and then they'll have their offspring. They really do everything together as a

family. These guys are classified as vulnerable out in the wild and breeding

programs and zoos are really important for that. So we can never be more

than to welcome more otters into our group.

And keepers over at Primate Island also shared in some baby joy.

We've got some very exciting news. We've got a brand new addition to our Spied

Monkey troop.

We've got a new baby to a very experienced mum, Jai.

She was born about a week ago and coming in to find her was an absolute joy.

We've worked very hard on our relationship with Jai. There's a lot of

between us as keepers and Jai. Within a few days of her actually giving birth to

the baby, she was comfortable to come right up to us and have a nap right here

next to us. And to have an animal that's comfortable to sleep with a newborn

baby right next to you is just so special. I think it's one of the most

rewarding things for a keeper to be able to witness and experience a lot of the

work in our relationship.

This is the time that it pays off. We know that they're comfortable, we know

that they're happy and they're able to breed without any of the stress and fear

that they might have under different circumstances.

Taronga's nutritionist Michelle is continuing to trial her new herbivore

around the zoo.

I'm very nervous when we do these types of trials because it's very likely that

there'll be animals that won't eat it. And we had that with pellet trial in the

past. Her next candidate for her new all Aussie pellet has an additional

problem. And Michelle is hopeful that this new feed has properties that can

contribute to his recovery.

We've had some digestive issues with Kabali, mainly constipation.

So we've been doing multiple things for that. We had him on psyllium husk.

I guess for us, we're always looking at new and improved ways of incorporating

that nutritional profile into their diet.

And so to be able to get more crude protein and more loosening to such a

food product is actually really fantastic for those issues like Kabali's

constipation.

Where would you normally be putting your pellets anyway?

We're going to do a scatter. Okay. But we're going to actually scatter in

sawdust today to encourage that foraging. Oh, good. Eating behaviour,

love.

But because those pellets are quite small, I'm really excited about what we

do with them in the short life.

Oh, good. Okay?

All right.

Here we go.

Oh, that's so nice.

What other kinds of things do you put in shavings for them to forage? So we'll

put pellets, shell peas, lawn pieces as well.

Anything small that encourages that natural dexterity and also allows them

forage. The older pellets that we had were probably about four or five times

this size.

So putting them in sawdust like this is fantastic for that natural foraging

behaviour. And hopefully they don't avoid this pile because... I don't think

there'll be any avoidance today. Excellent.

I think it's going to be all in.

With the pellets in place, all eyes are on silverback gorilla, Kabali.

But he's going to go with the cucumber first, of course.

After a brief distraction with some salad, it looks like he's actually...

gets right into the soda.

Oh, he's going to give it a sip? Yeah, okay.

What is he doing?

He's actually blowing the soda. Oh, he's blowing the soda? Yeah, he's blowing

the soda off his palm.

That's clever.

Yeah, that is very clever.

When it comes to being able to pick the tiniest of insects, like the tiniest of

pellets, that kind of stuff is so incredible.

For us, it's really important that we can incorporate different food items.

They're not getting the abundance of leaves that they'd be getting in the

So something like lucerne hay is really fantastic for roughage in their gut.

They're consuming a lot of fibre.

Lucerne's fantastic for that, and lucerne's actually in this pellet.

The greatest thing about incorporating a new food item is that it's novel.

And anything novel for these guys is really interesting and something that we

can use.

Keepers are amazed.

Kabali doesn't just like it.

He loves it.

You can see Kabali's very relaxed.

He's in his element.

So this is great.

I'm going to take that as a win. Yeah, that's definitely for sure. That is a

win. Oh, I'm so relieved.

The pellets for the gorillas were a very big success.

It was a huge yes, big thumbs up. I don't think we could have...

hoped for a better outcome with the gorillas. They did a really good job,

we're going to be able to transition them onto it really easily.

So while Michelle heads off to continue her trial, the gorilla keepers will

maintain their watch over Kabali in the hope that this new pellet will help

resolve his constipation.

It's been a couple of weeks since Marlou was treated for a sore tooth.

There you go. Yeah.

And then, unexpectedly, taken to the wildlife hospital for shoulder x -rays.

Hey, Marlou, how you going, buddy?

Can I have something to eat? Let's go. Come on.

Come on. Come on, Marlou.

Turned out that Marlou had a previous injury before he came here, and that

injury has caused some malformation in his right shoulder.

It's not affecting his life in any way, shape or form, as far as we can tell.

We're just going to observe Marley. He's still the alpha male here. He still

puts the other boys in their place when he needs to.

How's that mouth?

And as far as his teeth go, they seem to be doing the job.

This looks to me like perfectly normal feeding.

He's grinding that food up. He's swallowing it. I'm really happy with

here. It looks perfectly normal to me. I think he's a happy kangaroo.

And the boss is back and he's in his rifle position.

After years in the planning, zoo nutritionist Michelle is conducting a

trial, taste -testing her new food pellets designed right here at Taronga.

She got a big tick of approval from the gorillas.

Now she's hoping to repeat that with another much smaller and much pickier

primate, the lemurs.

Let's just lay it down.

Brazilians are not great with new things. And so I'm really, I don't know.

It's going to be a 50 -50 chance whether this works today or not. But let's see

how they go. So if they don't go after the pellet, what are we going to do?

Notoriously fussy eaters.

The lemurs will be getting some additional food to help entice them to

pellets. Just to help with the process, I've actually made up some sweet potato

and corn puree.

That's something that they love, and so combining it with the pellets could

actually encourage them to eat it. We're going to try pellets on their own and

also a little bit with the puree, and we'll see what the outcome is.

If we can start to add a little bit of pellets in.

Sniffing, sniffing, sniffing. Yeah, so we'll see a lot of smelling.

Sniffing, sniffing.

Lots of sniffing going on.

Haven't seen trying yet. No, I haven't. Yeah,

I know.

So you can see there's an interest, but I don't think they're too

sold.

While it looks like the first big snub for the trial, Michelle hasn't given up

yet, and it's time to bring out the big guns.

Sweet potato and corn. Let's see if this sweet potato and corn can convince them

a little bit.

So, Michelle, this is really promising.

This is Dia and Toki, the two boys that joined our group this year from Dubbo.

But they look like they're enjoying it too.

How's that?

I mean, I'm going to say.

That's a win. That is a win.

That's a big, big win.

Do you want to do a cake trial? I think we have to do a cake trial.

These toothy primates like to hold their food as they eat it. Here's the new

cake, and it's a little bit different.

So Michelle also prepped some special pellet cakes to try to win them over

way. So we've got bamboo up there now.

Again, I'm going to say that's a no from bamboo, but now we've got salapa.

Salazar. Salazar. No luck with Salazar.

Toki, our youngest.

He's the most inquisitive.

We're still not having a lot of success there.

A couple of the members of the group weren't that interested.

We saw Bamboo and Toki not really take to it.

With Andreeva.

Let's see what happens. Oh, that's the new cake. Okay. Cake went first.

I'm not even writing this down. I'm so excited.

The older members of the group taking the cake, Andreeva and McKillie, that's

really positive.

So I think with Andreeva having the, at least going for the new one first, that

was good.

The cake has those extra omegas in it, which is fantastic for their fur.

It's fantastic for their teeth. It's fantastic for their skin. And for our

animals, they just need that little bit of extra supplementation in the diet to

support them. So the fact that they are taking the new cake, for me, is the

best. And the younger ones, we can work on.

Oh. Oh.

Oh. Michelle, that's awesome.

That's really exciting.

We're going to have to gradually introduce these pellets into their diet

into the cake as well. But it's definitely something that they accepted

readily than we could have expected. So it won't be a difficult thing to add to

their diet.

I'm very happy about it.

So it's a mixed response from the lemurs.

But Michelle has one more bunch of animals to test today.

And her lovely brush turkeys. And what better group to try an all Aussie made

peloton than these true blue creatures.

We've got our three red roos here.

But as Michelle is well aware, these are some of the fussiest eaters at the zoo.

Taronga's nutritionist, Michelle, is charged with making sure every animal at

the zoo has a balanced diet.

Yeah, it's just going to replace all of our herbivore and omnivore pellets. All

on the one pellet. Awesome.

We've got our three red roos here, so should we give them a try? Yes. All

And her final testers today are the Aussie inhabitants of the Backyard to

Precinct.

The idea is to trial this pellet with as many species as we possibly can within

the zoo, because we'll be transitioning them all onto this pellet at some point.

And now we're trying with some of our Australian animals. We've got our female

red brews, and I'll cure the swamp all of these.

What?

What do you think, baby?

What's that?

What's that?

Oh, a cow?

So what do you think, Fanny?

Well, I think our Sierra really likes it so far. That looks really positive to

me. She's definitely tucking into those new pellets.

Unfortunately, it's not stopping the brush turkeys, though. No, I think we've

got the brush turkey seal of approval. Uh -oh.

Now it's Widge, the emu's turn.

Hey, buddy.

Hello. Hello.

Widge, do you want to try the new pellets? Widgey, Widgey, Widgey, Widgey,

Widgey, Widgey. It's breathing behaviour.

Oh.

Not a fan?

Widge?

It's okay.

We might have to work on Widgey. Yeah, I think so.

It looks like Widgey the emu is a no.

It was a firm no.

It was a no with a shake of a head and a kind of a eh.

No, I think that's okay. So I think that the emus are just going to take a

little more time.

And time is the one thing that Michelle does have on her side.

This was definitely not a quick endeavor.

It's been five years in the making. We've had a couple of different

that were not that successful, and so now we've finally got something that the

animals are actually eating, and that's a huge relief to me because I can design

something, but if they don't eat it, then it's completely useless.

While the full results of Michelle's trial won't be known for months,

one result is ready now.

Kabali has only been on his new diet for a few weeks, but keepers have noticed

that he seems to be looking better.

All right, so this morning we're looking for some nuggets from the gorillas, and

particularly we need to find kabali. These ones don't look like they're

They're a little bit too small, so we're going to have to keep on hunting this

morning and see if we can find some slightly larger ones from kabali.

Perhaps it's not something you'd bring up at a dinner party, but being able to

recognise a stool and the story it can tell is a very important part of a

keeper's job.

Yep, definitely not Kabali's this one. Too small for him.

Now this looks more like it.

So this is the kind of size that we've been looking for. This is a much bigger

and larger poo, which is what Kabali would be giving us.

Not surprising it's by our dipping pot because that's where he often enjoys a

little bit of a snack, but also where he likes to go to the bathroom as well.

It's a little bit more private, but yeah, this definitely looks like the

that we'd be expecting Kabali to be producing.

And it looks really good.

It's got a good structure. It's well formed.

It's not constipated like we have seen, and it's not really sloppy either.

So we've been really concerned about Kabali for the last few months,

particularly because his bowel movements have been really inconsistent.

Sometimes really constipated, other times really loose. And of course, we

that our own health is very important to have regular, sturdy bowel movements.

And this is what we're looking for today, to see multiple movements from

Kabali written all over this poo.

That is for sure. We grade our feces depending on its structure. So we have a

grade from 1 to 5. 3 is the perfect poo, so this is a perfect one.

1 being very small and nuggety and constipated, and 5 being loosey -goosey.

At last, a solid result.

So now keepers, and more importantly Kabali, have finally got some relief.

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0