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.

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... There they are. Hi.

The baby bringing a species back from the brink. This is the first time

been picked up. But for zookeepers, the devil's in the details. So this one here

is a little female.

She looks great. She looks amazing.

Do you want to pull it away from him? Yep. Moving target.

Because he's ripping through it. He's tearing it. The trick of feeding Naga.

This is what he's built for.

He's built to take down large mammals and tear them to pieces.

And for the first time ever at Taronga. So this is very, very new for us.

These guys are definitely the eel deal.

They're really, really slimy and it makes it impossible to get a good grip

them.

We know many of Taronga's animals by a reputation.

The giraffe is seen as gentle giant.

Lions are the kings of the jungle.

And the seals are the jesters of the sea.

But often, their public personas are far from reality.

And for one Aussie animal in particular, their global reputation couldn't be

further from the truth.

I love Tassie Devils because they have a lot of personality.

People think they're crazy, nasty things that spin around in circles and attack

on sight. In actual fact, they're very shy, nervous animals.

They're great mums. They're very protective mums. They look after their

Some of them are feistier than others. Others are very shy. They much prefer to

hide. You can go bushwalking and walk past a Tasmanian devil and you won't

it's there because it will hide from you. Just don't fall over and bang your

head.

Keeper Tony has been working with the Tasmanian devils for years and loves to

show people there's way more to these curious creatures than you might think.

They're the largest remaining carnivorous marsupial in the world.

in that regard.

They're the primary carnivore in Tasmania. They're incredibly efficient

scavengers. If you've got a dead kangaroo or sheep in the paddock, along

four, five, six Tasmanian devils and they will clean it up overnight. So by

doing that, they prevent diseases from spreading and they recycle too by pooing

everywhere.

Today, Tony is simulating a carcass feed for Taronga's two Tassie devils.

Gunner. and Rosalie.

So what I'm doing now, I'm preparing some kangaroo tail.

There's thick bone in there.

Gunna and Rosalie will eat all of that bone and all.

Incredibly powerful jaw pressure.

But I like to make it interesting for them. I like to spread it around, give

them a bit of a scatter feed. So I'm cutting some of the meat off, add my

fingers to the diet, and I'll scatter it around in the enclosure so they have to

spend a little bit of time looking for it.

Okay, Gunna, there you go, mate.

This is Gunna, our male.

So you're hearing the crunch of an incredibly powerful jaw pressure on the

Tasmanian devil. About four or five times more powerful than the strongest

you can think of. So any bone that you can think of in our body, Gunna can eat

it.

That's the kangaroo tail that he's got there. It's about that thick, the bone.

He can also eat up to 40 % of his own body weight in one meal.

It's easy to see devils love their food.

Unfortunately, the simple act of eating is also the biggest threat to their

survival. As adults in the wild, when they come together to fight over food,

that's when aggression happens, when they scream and shout at each other.

Inevitably, there are puncture wounds, and that's when they pass on the devil

facial tumour disease to each other. It's a very nasty, contagious cancer.

Unfortunately, it kills the devils within five or six months, maybe up to a

year. Devil populations have dropped to less than 20 % what they were only 20

years ago.

So Taronga have jumped in, joining the fight to save the devil.

Gunna is part of an Australia -wide and worldwide now insurance breeding program

to breed up a population of Tasmanian devils in captivity in case they go

extinct in the wild.

Taronga's vet team deal with all sorts of animals in the wildlife hospital.

But they also treat

animals in specially designed surgical dens.

Or even in their own exhibits.

Sometimes their animals just need a quick once -over.

or an initial check before deciding on their treatment.

His elbow is moving fine.

Hello, gorgeous.

So each day, one of Taronga's vets will hit the road and conduct some house

calls.

This morning, vet Frances is rostered on, and her first consultation is with

chimpanzee.

Hi, Largo. Good, so we're off to see Sasha.

Keeper Lauren is concerned that senior chimp Sasha isn't being her usual

energetic self.

It's really been the last few days she's just been really quiet.

It's not that she's unable to move, she's just moving at a slower pace than

she usually does.

Sasha is one of the older females in the group and recently we've just had her

showing a little bit more fatigue and a bit more slower movement.

She's still eating okay, but she is taking herself to bed a bit earlier and

taking a bit more time throughout the day resting, where the rest of the group

is still a bit more active.

And she certainly does look like she's trying to stay away from everyone else

the moment.

Yeah.

I'll just move up a little bit.

Close observation of Sasha over the next few days will be important.

How much does she eat? How keen is she to eat?

Is she coughing, sneezing? Is she doing anything else? And that's going to give

me a little bit more to go on. Obviously, I can't touch her or I can't

her chest or do any of those normal sort of diagnostic things. So it's really

important that, you know, we use the keepers' close interaction with the

to try and inform our assessment of her health.

At the moment, to do anything more, we have to anaesthetise Sasha. And that's a

really big thing to do for a chimp.

At this stage, I don't think we need to do that. We're going to monitor and

we're going to wait a little bit longer and try and get that extra information.

Francis' morning rounds are only just kicking off. Ruth, I'm just making my

up the hill to the reptile house to see that green python. I'll be there

shortly. She's on her way to visit a python that has tree frogs as roommates.

I'm about to duck in and grab the green python and bring him back out here for

Francis to have a good look at. It may be a bit tricky. We'll see what sort of

mood he's in.

But these frogs are more trouble than they look.

While Chris recovers from his brush with death, on the other side of the reptile

world, Keeper Stu is checking in on one of his favourite lizards.

Hey, buddy.

This is Naga. He's our nine -year -old Komodo dragon, and he's got a real

special place in my heart because when we got eight of these dragons in from

overseas... We were able to quarantine them here at the zoo, and I looked after

all eight of them. And I was fortunate enough to pick the one that we wanted to

keep here at Taronga, and I picked Naga.

Not because he was the prettiest, but he seemed to me to be the smartest.

When I would ask for training or conditioning, he seemed to be the one

picked it up the quickest.

Within the zoo, a lot of the reptiles don't get a good rap for having

personality. You know, people see the snakes and the crocodiles, and they're

seen as cold and emotionless.

And then you look at this bloke here and he's dripping with personality, really.

So Naga really is one of my favourite and I know he's a favourite of many of

keepers.

Reptiles are cold -blooded or ectothermic and humans are warm -blooded

endothermic. Really, all it means is we generate our body heat internally

through the metabolisation of our food. These guys will use an outside heat

source. They'll either have to use the sun or they'll have to use a rock that

has been heated by the sun.

He's just woken up. He's sitting here under his big heated cave.

He's in a state of sort of slowly warming his body up. He's not moving

quick as he could. If we came in in the afternoon, different animal. He's

lightning fast.

Also regulated by temperature is the Komodo's appetite.

What this means is, if he has a large meal, he has to make sure that he can

his body warm, or that food will actually rot in his stomach and could

And that is the same for all reptiles. So we've hit the warm months now, and

it's time to give Naga a nice big carcass feed.

And after he's eaten that, we won't offer him food for probably close to 30

days. With the upcoming carcass feed for Naga, there are a few risks involved,

and the main one is just getting the carcass in place before Naga switches

it.

has over 70 razor -sharp teeth in it, close to 10 millimetres long that are

serrated like a steak knife. As soon as that touches meat, it just slices it

open.

So we always have several keepers in place. One of them will keep Naga's

attention on the other side of the exhibit while I place the carcass in

There is a danger element, but it is controlled and everyone involved is very

well trained.

The biggest problem confronting the Tasmanian devil is the facial tumor that

decimated their wild population.

Taronga Zoo has joined a global effort to try and understand this tumor with

their project led by veterinary pathologist Hannah.

So Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease actually refers to a very unusual type

of transmissible cancer in that they are actually transmitted between animals

like a tissue graft when these animals bite one another.

In the early stages, devil facial tumour disease presents as these small nodules

within the oral cavity offer around the canine teeth and they rapidly progress

to become these very large ulcerating masses.

and in the later stages of disease may extend to implicate other parts of the

face, in this case the eye, and down here the entire lower jaw.

These devils really suffered.

Before it was observed in 1996, the devil was quite robust.

They were not considered endangered in any way, but since then numbers have

actually plummeted so precipitously that the devil is now an endangered species.

Like a lot of people that work with the devil, Hannah has developed a genuine

affection for them.

They're very charismatic. If you hear them at night, they sound to me like

a seal vomiting.

But they play such an incredible role within the Tasmanian landscape. They're

apex predator, they're a scavenger, and the loss of the devil from the Tasmanian

ecosystem would have a devastating impact.

But thankfully, there is hope.

So there are some great minds at work on Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease.

Some people are looking very closely at the genome of the cancer and that

information is very critical towards designing either a treatment or a

that can prevent this tumour. And then there's the more practical work of

actually breeding these Tasmanian devils up to preserve that genetic diversity.

So while Hannah and her team continue work to eradicate the tumour...

Down at the devil habitat, they've just taken delivery of the next best way to

preserve the species.

Grab this one first, Tony.

Yep. Yep. Got a couple of new Tasmanian devils, Regina and Krieger.

They've come all the way from Western New South Wales, from Dubbo, as part of

the insurance breeding program, and they're going to contribute, hopefully,

saving the Tasmanian devil from extinction, because there is still a

they could go extinct.

All right.

Okay, time to explore your new home.

There he goes.

Oh, there he goes.

He's going right down to the back by the looks.

I'm not sure where Regina is, but he'll find her pretty quick.

Yeah. He'll find somewhere to hide.

It's a new chapter for us here. We haven't bred for a couple of years, but

I'm quite excited because it's about five or six months before the next

season. So by this time next year, hopefully, we'll have some little joeys

at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. So let's watch this space.

While Sydney waits for their baby devils to arrive, out at Dubbo, they've

already made a grand entrance.

They're only little, so they're going to be a bit squirmy than an adult.

There they are. Hi.

Taronga Zoo is home to a long list of creatures.

But one species hasn't really taken centre stage before.

Until now.

We haven't done fish historically at Taronga Zoo, so this is very, very new

us. But it's been really exciting.

We have Saratoga. We've got two species of catfish, so Tandanus catfish as well

as Salmontail catfish. We've got five Archerfish.

as well as one glass fish.

So as soon as guests walk into the retreat, they're greeted by this

tank. It's really unique to have these fish right on display as people walk in

the door and be able to share how unique they are.

But adding fish to a collection means keepers have to learn how to manage and

care for them.

But for James, that's all part of the challenge.

So while we care for Australian mammals and we control the food they eat and we

look after the space they live in, for fish we're controlling the very oxygen

they breathe. So it's a constant battle of trying to look after fish and

understand exactly what they need.

Water is the lifeblood of nature and no more here than at the zoo where we

have... It's platypus and fish that inhabit water systems, so we really need

ensure that that water is healthy and clean to make sure that the fish are

looked after. So we do that through filtration systems, so making sure that

water is turned over. We remove the waste material from it and we make sure

it's returning healthy, clean water with plenty of oxygen in it for the fish to

thrive in.

And the way they do that is at the very heart of the retreat.

So here we have our fish filtration.

So this is where the water from the tanker behind reception, comes down

the pipes on the wall. So bag filters remove the larger particles.

It then gets pushed through a biological filter, which is full of these plastic

balls, where we grow all the bacteria, which helps process all that leftover

material. So whether it be fish waste or old food, that bacteria will eat that.

It then moves up into the heater slash chiller. So depending on what

you want the tank to be, we can adjust that and keep it at the perfect

for our fish to survive and thrive in.

It brings a lot of challenges for myself, but it's also exciting to share

unique fish are. Fish are often overlooked as just household pets, but

inhabit all the world's oceans and all the world's streams.

It's really important to show off the full ecosystem of Australia and give

people a proper understanding of how diverse Australia is.

Now James is about to add the newest species to the wildlife retreat.

So these are the amazing short -finned eels. So they're Australian native

freshwater eels. So right now the eels are in here just getting used to the new

water setting. So they're getting used to the temperature, they're getting used

to the water chemistry.

And this is where we're going to move them from into their brand new pool

outside.

Eels can survive in a temperature range from up to 30 degrees all the way down

to about 12 degrees, but they're most active in the warmer range. So we like

keep it between 27 and 28 degrees here so they have a very luxurious life. So

very comfortable eels.

And today we get to move them into their brand new home.

Taronga's vet team are always on the go.

And daily health calls are all part of their routine.

Every day we do rounds outside in the zoo and look at animals that aren't in

hospital that we need to check up on. It's critically important when we do

rounds that we get the most information we can so that we can make plans for how

we're going to manage each animal.

Hello, Chris.

Hi. How are you going? And waiting patiently for Frances.

is a green python with a mysterious abrasion on the tip of its tail.

Hopefully the snake will be in a good mood.

We work with snakes at the zoo all the time, venomous and non -venomous. We're

very reliant on the keepers knowing the mood and assessing the temperament of

the snake and holding them in a way that the snake is not distressed, but

that it's safe for me to look at it. What a magnificent creature. He looks in

really good condition, doesn't he?

When I'm handling this python, and being a python it's completely non -venomous,

I don't really need to do much to restrain or to hold the snake other than

giving it somewhere to climb.

So we're looking at the very end of the tail here.

I think he's had some trauma to the very end of his tail. In the wild, green

pythons sometimes lure prey by making their tail seem like worms.

And that may be a clue to this python's problem.

With him doing that luring with his tail, could the frogs in there latch

his tail at all? They could do. They could do. So this snake lives with five

white -lipped tree frogs, which occur in the same habitat in far north

Queensland. But these pythons here are very, very strictly...

mammal and bird feeders. So there's no risk to the frog, but sometimes a frog

may indeed be jumping and reacting to that movement.

So there's no evidence that the snake has got ascending necrosis, which means

dead tissue starting to creep up the tail. I'm pleased with that. I'm happy

we leave him alone and you guys just monitor.

Sure. And we'll touch base with you, say, in another 10 days or so and see

he's going then. Yeah, great.

Well, obviously we'd like to get to the bottom of any injury for any of our

animals, but with this snake here, he's got to be one of our favourites.

We just want to make sure that we're doing everything we can for him.

Last on this morning's house call list are the giraffes, where keepers have

noticed something suspicious on the ears of Ibo and his mum, Keto.

When we first noticed them, Frances, they were more on the outer of the ear

the top. Just around the edges.

These giraffes develop these little grey, round lesions on the insides and

outsides of their ears.

And we want to know what those are.

So I do think it looks like there might be a couple of new lesions sort of on

the top of the back of that ear. Yep. Right where the ear joint is head.

The sorts of things that could cause that are either bacterial or fungal

infections. To determine the cause of the skin irritation, Francis will need

get a sample.

But when you're dealing with the tallest animal at the zoo, it's an even taller

order.

Fortunately, Keeper Jimmy may have a solution.

Francis, what we've been doing at the moment, I don't know if this helps you,

but we've been feeding Ivo and putting our hands in here in the hope to

eventually touch his ears. Is that going to benefit you guys in any way? That

would be really useful. I want to be able to get some samples from his ears

we can look under the microscope and we can start looking, are there any

bacteria there that we know can cause this sort of issue or fungal infections?

So we'll just try and work out whether we need to treat it or not. He's not

bothered. Yep.

But we want to know what it is, so that would be great if you can do that.

Perfect. We're on to it. You just let me know as soon as you think that you're

at the stage where we can try and get some samples.

I'd say give it a couple of weeks and we're good to go.

Excellent. Well, we'll get that organised.

While the vet rounds are over for another day, Francis has left Jimmy with

important homework.

Good.

To get that sample, he's got a secret weapon he thinks will get the job done.

I'll have this sticky tape in my hand, ready to put on his ear, pull it off,

then it goes off to the vets. And it's not going to be easy.

Giraffe are prey animals, so it only takes the slightest thing for them to

what the heck is that?

I'm expecting them to be nervous of the slightest changes. And this, in my hand,

is a slight change.

Up at Reptile World, today is feed day for Naga, the Komodo dragon.

So Naga's got probably one of the widest varieties of food of any of the animals

here at the zoo. It's all meat. We feed him things like fish, mites, rabbits,

beef, pork, horse, deer, anything really.

To simulate how Naga would eat in the wild, keepers have an ingenious way of

presenting food to him.

I'll start stringing up this wire.

If you keep a good close eye on him.

Yep. Yep.

I've got a piece of wire that I can string across the enclosure and put a

of meat on it that will actually move when Naga grabs it. So it's not a

stationary food item. Every time he grabs it, it moves away from him and he

thinks an animal is trying to avoid him and he'll chase after it with great

vigour.

We've got Josh here just to help us out because Naga is very keen in the

afternoons.

We've already put a few smells around his enclosure, a few blood smells to get

him keen, to get him alert. In the wild, these animals would pick up on a smell

and they may walk 2, 4, 12, 24 hours to go and find where that smell is

originated from. So that's what we're trying to recreate here. We sprinkle the

smell around, we give him a bit of time to smell that, get alert, where's that

item of food, before we actually introduce the food item to him.

I don't really trust him there.

He definitely knows something's going on.

That's why we have to have two people in here.

There's a bit of a safety for me.

This is a big enriching feed for him. He hasn't had a feed like this for a

couple of months.

Yeah, a little bit more for me, mate. Yep.

Oh, if you can just release the tension a bit. This system is quite easy. It's

just two bolts that go in.

And we're going to hang the food off this wire.

It'll hang down here.

and me and Josh will be able to pull it from one side of the enclosure to the

other while Naga is chasing it.

I absolutely love feeding Naga these big carcass feeds because it gives him the

opportunity to display all of those natural behaviours.

Yep, that's great.

The table is set.

Do you want to pull on that?

Yep, yeah, that's pretty good.

Now it's time for Naga's main course.

Good to go. Let's do it.

On her recent vet rounds, Frances visited giraffe Keto and her calf Ebo to

examine some black marks that keepers noticed on their ears.

Especially the left, they seem to be getting a little bit more prominent.

There might be a couple of new lesions sort of on the top of the back of that

ear. Yep.

We know there is definitely a problem there.

Evo's is presenting slightly different to his mother's Keto's.

Keto's seems to be a little bit more raised and lumpy. His seems to come out

like little black dots. It's almost like he's got black chicken pox on his ears.

To make her diagnosis, Frances needs samples for the lab.

Jimmy's going to work out a conditioning, so the giraffe allowing

their ears voluntarily.

And then what we're going to do is rather than having to do anything that

We're going to try with a piece of sticky tape that Jimmy can just touch

the ear. That doesn't hurt at all, but when it comes off, it's going to take

superficial layers of the skin and hopefully give us a decent sample.

Training starts today, and Keeper Jimmy has fine -tuned his strategy.

At the moment, all I need these animals to do is to be comfortable with my hand

and the sticky tape.

And then my theory, I mean, it's all good in theory, will be just to hold

on their ear. They should just put their ear against.

I'll pull it off. I'll be able to put it on a dish, send it to the vets. They'll

be able to go and do their magic.

Because giraffes are instinctively flighty animals... I'll do keto, you can

keto. Sounds good.

So, guys, please don't make any sudden moves up there at the moment.

Jimmy and Renee know it's one...

Low step at a time.

Big heart.

Buddy. Hi. Good boy.

Good boy.

Hey. You all right, sweetie?

Hey.

Hey, buddy.

That's all right. You're all right, buddy.

Ebo was very, very nervous at first of the sticky tape. He's still building up

his confidence.

Ebo's still drinking milk from Mum.

So training him is a lot harder than it would be training another animal.

Is he feeding at all? No.

When an animal can still leave you and go and get food from somewhere else,

less likely to want to be involved in the training.

Ebo goes, the high -value stuff's coming from Mum's milk. I'm going to go and

have a drink when I need it.

You can lead a horse to water, Ren. Exactly.

With Ivo today, I wasn't as successful as I wanted. I didn't get a sample, but

that wasn't the goal of today.

Today's goal is a conditioning goal, so I just really wanted him to get used to

the sticky tape and my hand being in the bottle.

Ivo, darling, good boy.

Come, Mum.

We'll make over here.

But Keto that Renee was working with was coming leaps and bounds.

Hey, sweetheart.

Hi.

She's letting me touch her on her muzzle.

That's a girl. Good girl.

Keto, having hard veg, she's more likely to do what we ask her to do because all

the good reinforcement and all the high -value stuff is coming from us. But I'd

like to say today Renee had the easy giraffe and I had the hard giraffe.

But at the end of the day, we got where we wanted to and today's plan was just

to get them used to the tape.

Training animals takes time and patience.

So yeah, if we can get them to this stage, we'll be right.

And with Kido and Ibo's ears not getting any worse, the team is happy to wait

for the sample.

For us, the worst thing to do would be to rush the training. And the vets would

agree, the slower we take the process, the more rock solid the behaviour is

going to be. Whereas if I'm like, oh, I really need to get this done, and you

click, click, bang, bang, bang, I'm going to lose that animal, he's never

to want to come near me again.

So the slower we make the process, the better his future and the end result is

going to be.

Good boy. Here.

Slow and steady definitely wins the race. That's pretty. That's a girl.

It's the mantra that's embraced right across Taronga where animal welfare

comes first.

One of a zookeeper's most rewarding job is caring for new babies.

So Ash, we're just going to quickly go in and see if we can lure mum out with a

little bit of food and if the joeys are in a good spot, which I think they might

be.

We'll just have a real quick look, see what we've got. It's about time that we

need to find out if we've got boys or girls today.

Keeper Rachel and trainee Ash are checking up on the latest addition to

vital Tassie devil breeding program.

Our Tasmanian devil breeding facility was purpose -built for us about 10 years

ago. In that time, we've managed to produce almost close to 40 devil joeys,

which is pretty spectacular.

If you want to be on the slide, just pull it open. I'm going to lure it out,

as soon as Mum's out, if you wouldn't mind just dropping that slide back down

again, that'd be great.

Yep.

Good girl.

So while she's occupied, we're just going to quickly go in, have a check of

joeys.

Keepers need to know the sex of the devils at the zoo.

And today is the very first chance to see the makeup of the latest litter. So

this is the first time they've been picked up. Now, Ash, when you pick them

they're only little, so they're going to be a bit squirmy than an adult.

There they are. Hi.

So what we'll do is we'll just use the bag to cover their head, just like you

with an adult.

Oh, my gosh.

Come on.

Position. There we go. Here's one.

Come on, little one.

Oh, my gosh.

Even at this age, these Joey Devils could easily take a finger.

So keepers must have their hands as far away from those powerful jaws as they

can.

So we've got one little boy.

That's so cute.

Great. I'm going to pop this one back. Ash, do you want to do the next one?

Yep.

Sorry, you guys.

You might want to come in on my left. Yeah.

Come on.

Well done.

Excellent.

So, nice little male.

He looks good.

He's in great shape.

We try and keep them as wild as possible, which means that we're very

-off, so when we do have to go in and handle them for health checks or any

of medical procedures.

They're usually quite feisty with us, but I think that's a sign of a good and

healthy animal.

I'll get rid of the bag.

So this one here is a little female.

She looks great. She looks amazing.

She's got a lot of chew to be on her.

So she'd be about seven or eight months now, and she's an amazing nick. Great

body condition.

Nice and feisty.

I might pop a box.

There we go. So we might leave it at that.

Let mum come back and leave them go about their business.

While these joeys represent the future for a species under threat, for now,

they're just a bunch of kids all competing for mum.

time and attention.

These guys are getting a little big for it now, but when devils are babies, they

like to climb around a mum's back, so all three of them right now are trying

get on and hang on to her, and they're all fighting to be able to get that lift

and that ride around.

I personally, I feel very proud to be part of this program.

It's not often that people get to say they've contributed to something so

significant.

specifically for such an iconic animal like our Tassie Devil.

Keeper James has been given the job of caring for the newly introduced fish at

Taronga's wildlife retreat.

And that includes releasing four Australian eels into the outdoor ponds.

But that's easier said than done.

It just involves a bit of...

Catching and a bit of handling and we'll get them out to their brand new home

very, very soon.

The term slippery as an eel clearly exists for a reason.

They're really, really slimy. They're covered in that protective slime

It makes it impossible to get a good grip on them. You're trying to predict

movements they're going to do, and because they are so flexible, they can

on a dime, so it makes it really hard to predict where they're going to go next,

and that's really what I'm trying to do when I'm bringing the net in. It's not

trying to chase them, but almost trying to get them to go into the net

themselves.

After a fair bit of coaxing, finally some success.

So this is one of our freshwater eels.

And that slime coating, you can just feel it even through the net.

You can see that they've got their fins just left and right there and just

before that they've got a set of gills and then they do breathe oxygen through

their mouth as well when they are out on land.

And its brand new home is calling.

Doesn't want to go yet.

Off you go.

As you can see, it head off into the water. It's looking for a dark place to

hide, so immediately they want to find somewhere that they feel safe and secure

in the pool.

Once they do find a place to settle in, as the sun goes down tonight, that's

when they'll really start to explore and to find where their food can be found.

With the first eel comfortably cruising the retreat pond, all James has to do

now is repeat this frustrating process.

Three more times.

Today is Naga's feed day, and it's no ordinary snack.

Just watch your fingers, Matt.

We're about to do an enriching carcass feed for Naga, which is something we

don't do very often. It's been a couple of months since he's had his last

enriching carcass feed. And we're going to hang this meat carcass off this wire,

pull it from one side of the enclosure to the other to initiate a chasing

predatory response from Naga.

The entire weight of this piece of carcass would be around three and a half

kilos. So this is a decent meal for Naga, but he could definitely eat more.

this is a good enriching feed. He's going to have to really work hard to get

meat off this. And that's the entire point of it. Good to go. Let's do it.

Imitating nature helps to keep Naga's instinct sharp.

And Naga is ready.

He looks very alert this morning. We've already just checked him. And as soon as

I pop my head over the door, he's turned straight onto me. Eyes are focused on

me. Big pupil. He's hungry.

So what I'm hoping, mate, when he gets in there, I'm going to keep him on the

carcass.

Whilst you get in and get into position, then you can pull it over to your side

and then I can make my way in. Okay, cool. Cool, let's put it in.

Naga, he's a very powerful animal. He's a very, very big lizard and he can do a

lot of damage to us. So it's got to be in our mind at all times that he could

inflict harm upon us. I'm just going to keep him here for a sec.

Yep. So that's why me and Stu, we're going to communicate to each other as

we can.

So we're going to make sure that none of us are ever put in a situation where

we're in danger.

I'm there to protect Josh because I know his mum and she'd be very upset if

anything happened to him.

It's true.

Yep, so he's locked onto it now. You can see that he's grabbed onto it, and he's

going to start to use a sideways head movement to saw that meat off the bone.

I'm going to let him take it where he wants. Take it where he wants? Yep.

Do you want to pull it away from him? Yep. Yep.

Yes. Yes, excellent.

I'm going to come in, Josh. All right, mate, you're all good.

And then I might bring him back over. Yep, sounds good. Because he's ripping

through it. He's tearing it.

When he gets that bit off, I'll bring him back over.

There you go. You're good.

Let's make him run a bit more. All right. Do we want to scoot him over to

first and then scoot him back over? Okay. If I get a lengthy run.

All right, good.

Yeah.

That's great.

That's perfect.

He's 50 kilo lizard, so I'm fighting against him constantly to hold that in

place, and it's also to keep the carcass off the ground as well.

But this is what he's built for.

He's built to take down large mammals and to literally tear them to pieces.

So it might sound a bit morbid, but this is actually one of my favourite days

seeing these type of feeds.

We're going to have to watch that he doesn't start trying to swallow that

of spine, man.

Yep, yep.

So the feed we're giving Naga today, this carcass feed, we're not going to

him another item of food for at least two weeks.

And I'd probably say the next two feeds I give him are going to be a lot less

substantial to this.

Naga's really starting to slow down, which is an indication to me and Josh

he's really starting to fill up. And he's literally starting to get tired.

just exerted a lot of energy eating this food.

Look at his stomach there.

Starting to descend at the bottom, starting to hang a little bit low.

I don't think he's going to go on this for much longer. We'll take it out of

here pretty soon.

With the carcass picked clean, all that's left to do now is to break the

Naga that dinner is over.

That's that touching him on the head. We're indicated to him, no more food.

OK, we can leave.

I'll go first, you've got the board. Yep.

It was an absolutely fantastic watching Naga destroy that piece of meat. And I

was lucky enough to actually find a really decent -sized tooth from him.

often or not snap a couple of teeth off. It just goes to show that 60 of those

little teeth can make light work of a big chunk of meat.

It's been a few weeks since James released the eels into the wildlife

Outdoor Pond.

And they've settled in really, really well, and to have them conditioned to

into the shallows like this and be comfortable around people, this soon

being released back to the pool, is fabulous.

They're so relaxed that they're already responding to basic training.

I've just given the eels the cue by tapping this rock, and that's to tell

that food has just arrived in the pool, and they'll be on their way up very,

very shortly to dine down on their fresh tucker of mealworms and earthworms.

Here comes one.

There's another on the way too.

As you can see as they come up, they are a bit cautious, so what we're hoping to

see is them coming up into the shallows.

So I'm conditioning the eels so that guests in the future will be able to sit

the rocks just as I am, that people not only observe the eels but grow an

appreciation for them as I do.

Adding eels to Taronga's collection has taken a lot of time and planning.

The eel move has gone really well. I think they're really settled here at

wildlife retreat at Taronga, and they're going to be here for a long time to

come, educating people on how unique and special eels are.

But James is such a fan, he'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

I think they're beautiful. I think they're really special, these eels, and

really hope people see that as well.

Over at the Tassie Devil exhibit, Krieger and Regina are also settling in

nicely. There he is, the shy little boy, Krieger. That's Krieger over there. But

this is great to see. It's really important. Krieger and Regina, they're

around and it's a relief to see them out and being confident. They're not really

hiding completely.

And while the thought of new joeys is what's driving everyone,

Tony is just as happy to spend some time with the oldest devil in the group.

Gunner, whose feed time is actually pretty similar to Naga's. Hey Gunner,

you going buddy?

Going to have a feed?

Hey?

Up here.

It's a boy.

Do some work.

The Tassie Devil Tug of War, that's what I call it anyway, it's like a form of

enrichment. In the wild, devils are very solitary, but they do come together to

fight over food and they can be really rowdy, really aggressive.

But they're also a lot of cooperation. They help each other pull and tug and

food apart.

I'm mimicking that. I'm making him work for his food. He's having to use his

jaws. He's having to get aggressive with me and a bit annoyed at me, pull and

tug and rip at the food. Come on, Gunnar, you can do it.

Give us a tug.

So it's a way of getting him to use his brain.

getting to use his energy, use his jaws, and display those natural behaviors,

stopping from getting bored.

So we do it at different times as well. We don't do it every day.

Okay, go that way. Go on.

Give me a fight.

He has an incredible strength across his chest, in his jaw, very broad skull.

So they're very powerful. I'm told the strength of an average adult human when

they're fully grown and they're doing this tug of war. And today I think I'm

more tired than he is.

Good boy.

In addition to his breeding successes, over the years Gunner has given the

public real insight into the secret life of the Tasmanian devil.

And for Tony, Gunner has reinforced his love for this threatened yet magnificent

species. Have a look at that. He's doing what I call chipmunking, which is when

they clean themselves up, which I think is absolutely adorable.

This is why I can't see them as an ugly, horrible animal. I mean, look how

adorable that is. You could just go in there and give them a big cuddle,

couldn't you?