Original subtitles

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

Everyone stand as far apart as possible.

But never before... Make sure you've got your mask on.

...has it faced a year with its many monumental challenges.

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

Attaboy, Jim. Nearly home, mate.

The teams across both of Taronga's zoos... Open.

...meet every challenge head on.

And our cameras are there.

to bring you every magic moment.

On this episode... Oh, they're adorable. Look at those little faces.

Welcome to the Bug House. This one net will produce a week's worth of maggots.

It's not for everyone. They do have a bit of an unusual smell. But it's

Christine's happy place. I love them. They are my pride and joy.

I'm very proud of them.

Hey, boys.

Big brother is watching.

He's copped a few bites from his bigger brother. His name's Rodney, and he has

some real anger issues.

Little behaviours like chasing him into the pool and making sure he doesn't come

out. What do you think's in here?

And we discover a world record holder in the unlikeliest of places.

So this here is our gorgeous giant burrowing cockroach. They might be a

bit creepy, but I think they're pretty cute.

Feeding time at the zoo is like a military operation.

To keep all the residents fed, Taronga's kitchen never seems to shut.

And the live food unit known as the bug house is quite literally always buzzing.

It's full of little critters that are bred on site and others that are ordered

in. All the insects that we order in come in live.

The main reason these insectivorous animals don't see a dead bit of meat and

think food. They need that movement, that stimulation, to make them want to

after and chase and hunt the prey.

No, thank you. I'll wait for your call. Bye.

This morning, Christine is preparing weekly orders for the zoo's

or insect -eating animals.

The orders have to be very precise to make sure the correct amounts go out.

We spend a lot of time putting all of this together for it to happen all in

day. We're sending one to nocturnal, two to retreat.

These bags and boxes are packed full of insects in all shapes and sizes.

This trolley is full of beetle larvae, so most people are pretty familiar with

mealworms. The reason they're called mealworms is that they're actually kept

bran or like mealy sort of stuff, and that's what they eat.

Morning, Al. Is the order in?

Christine has worked here for four years and she loves her bugs. Oh, they're

adorable. Look at those little faces, those little mandibles.

Insects are the cutest.

This cute little just soft crawling around, it's a really comforting feeling

me.

One of the most important roles of the bug house is to breed insects, including

house flies.

This one net will produce a week's worth of maggots.

This net alone produces 20 kilos in a week.

Every day we put it in an egging tray, and when we get it out, they are chock

full of maggots. They are so thick in there, the containers actually feel

But maggots are just the first stage of housefly development that it's fed to

the hungry insectivores.

Fly Coupé is like the chrysalis. for a butterfly, but for flies.

The next stage is pupae, and they're just as much in demand.

They're little packets of protein wrapped in a little case.

There's this beautiful grainy sensation, like putting your hand into rice or

seed, and they're just, they're quite cool.

I will admit, they do have a bit of an unusual smell.

On an average week, we aim to produce about 20 kilos of pupae. This is

our week's haul.

collected from our fly room. To stop them all hatching into flies, we're

to freeze it. We want to have the bigger sizes for the majority of our animals.

Other than that, the really small stuff is actually great because we can use

some of the really small hatched flies to feed our really small fighters.

With each stage of the fly's life cycle passing in just a few days, timing is

everything, especially in the maggot room.

So these guys, believe it or not, the ones I'm harvesting today, they're five

days old. Tomorrow, when they're six days old, they'll start pupating, and

harvest on day seven.

If we leave it to day eight, they will be flying.

These guys live on bran, effectively cereal, and they get nice and big on it

too, which is very, very lovely.

We've got 16 trays to collect today, so there's a lot of hungry mouths to feed

out there, and they all quite love these little tiny, tiny maggots.

With her maggot orders nearly done, Christine completes the weekly

buffet with some crunchy crickets, which are also bred at Taronga. Okay.

We go through different sizes.

So the largest, we only go through about 5 ,000 a week, but we go through a hell

of a lot more smalls.

So every day when we set up our large crickets, we actually put in an egging

tray, something like this, and they'll just lay these beautifully.

almost translucent eggs that are very, very tiny and thin and in about 9 to 11,

sometimes 14 days, they'll hatch and they're incredibly tiny.

These hatched this morning and these are very essential for our corroboree

breeding program.

So the corroboree frogs are very, very tiny when they're young and they have to

eat really tiny food.

Like every animal in Taronga's care, even the insects are cherished.

Until they're eaten, of course.

So we're just pouring the crickets all into here.

Crickets, they like being sheltered. So when they get buried in the vermiculite,

they're actually not that upset. It's safe, it's dark, predators can't find

them.

We want to make sure that we're providing the best welfare for these

that in turn they can provide the best welfare to the animals they're fed to.

So when these guys are happy and healthy, the animals that eat them will

happy and healthy.

Half of this tub is going to Nocturnal House and half of it's going to our

carnivore team.

When it comes to counting how many crickets we're assigning to each

we have to eyeball it. It would take me quite a while to individually count 1

,500 crickets into the tubs.

And that's just a little bit silly for this morning.

And with thousands of hungry mouths waiting, there's no time for that.

Christine's only priority is to get the insects packed and out for delivery as

quickly as possible.

This is usually done within 90 minutes.

Because after a certain point, the zoo gets closed to all vehicles, so our

delivery truck can't get through.

If we're running late, it can stop functioning in the rest of the zoo,

if they don't have their food on time, certain feeds can't happen.

And that's the last thing anybody or any animal wants.

Taronga's Reptile House is home to a pair of elderly rhino iguanas who

are a bit of a favourite with keeper Emma.

We have Tabasco here who is 24 years old.

She's the boss of the exhibit and we also have Blue and he's our 28 year old

male rhino iguana.

They are currently in a relationship and they have produced many babies over the

years. They're a beautiful couple.

They are a terrestrial iguana, so in the wild these guys would be found in the

Dominican Republic and Haiti, and they're from quite a dry environment.

They really do well in our Australian heat.

And when we look at them, they truly do look like little dinosaurs.

So that little rhino horn on her nose there, that's where they get their name

from.

And those big chunky jaws are...

Mostly for display, but they also mean that she's got a very strong bite. She's

got a lot of jaw power, yes. She's telling me to go away at the moment.

I was just... Tabasco.

I know, you're the boss.

But sadly, age brings complications.

And keepers have noticed that Blue has been a bit off colour lately.

Hey, little excursion buddy.

We do like to keep a pretty close eye on our aging animals to make sure that

they're in the best condition that they can be. He's enjoying his little chariot

ride.

We have noticed that his left eye has been squinting a little bit lately. So

that could be a sign of a cataract or some sort of other underlying issue.

Let's pop him in here.

Lizards rely on their excellent vision.

So this is a red flag for vet Gabby.

So do you think he's been able to see out of his left eye? I think he's, yeah,

his vision.

Dropped quite significantly, and we've trialled it with food as well. Putting

on his left side, he just doesn't even see that it's there.

But he can see you with his right eye. Yeah, he's very responsive.

Good. So we'll approach him from the left.

Let's do that.

Safety first.

Blue must be sedated before the team can put him on anaesthetic gas.

But that's easier said than done.

He's a strong wizard. He's got a big neck and some big jowl.

Before

Gabby

can intubate Blue, she must ensure he's had enough gas.

And that's complicated by the fact that reptiles can hold their breath.

Our goal is to get an airway access to him, so I want to be able to put a tube

into his trachea for two reasons. Number one, it's safe if I have access to his

airway, and it means that we can breathe for him if he stops breathing, which

reptiles often do.

He may well jump.

Stand by.

Rhino iguanas are armed with powerful jaws and sharp teeth, so the team must

certain he's fully asleep.

He's really good at closing his jaw with a lot of power behind it, so I'd really

rather my fingers not be in his mouth at that time.

Yeah.

A little bit more. He wasn't pretending.

Located on Petra at Sydney Harbour, Taronga is one of the most spectacular

on the planet.

But some of Taronga's most important work takes place in a car park.

We've got hundreds of people here at Taronga Zoo that a lot of people get to

on a daily basis. There's a lot of things out the back that people don't

And here is one of our, I guess, conservation facilities that people

aware of.

Keeper Michael is doing crucial work with an iconic and endangered Australian

species, the tiny northern corroboree frog.

At the moment, because they're just warming up out of their winter slumber,

we're doing, I guess, small health checks on them, make sure they all look

make sure they all look healthy, they're all alert and active, and so far

everything we've seen is perfect.

So these little northern corroboree frogs are pretty special. They're

coloured, one of our most brightly coloured frogs.

They're unique.

region of Australia. They're only found up in the high country, up in the areas

like the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko and just the bordering areas of the ACP

as well.

They're a walking frog, so they're not a jumping frog. You won't see these guys

jumping along, so they're a little bit different to most frogs that people

about in their backyards where they lay their eggs in ponds or in rivers. These

guys lay their eggs in terrestrial moist moss nests.

These little guys are actually poisonous.

Not poison to me, and that's not why I'm wearing gloves. I'm wearing gloves more

for the quarantine aspect.

They sequester some toxins in their skin, some alkaloids from the ants and

and other invertebrates they eat, but they actually synthesise their own

as well, which makes them immune to most predation.

That means the corroboree frog's toxins would likely kill any predator unlucky

enough to eat one.

So clearly, predators aren't the reason these frogs are endangered.

In the wild, we don't know exactly how many are left, but there's probably

around a few thousand. And the primary factor driving these guys towards

extinction is an introduced disease.

It's caused by a fungus called chytrid fungus.

And this fungus arrived in Australia back in the late 70s, early 80s, and it

spread throughout the eastern part of Australia first. And unfortunately, we

lost, we think, six species to the fungus.

And many more, like the corby frogs, are right on the brink.

So this is really a safeguard for the species. What you can see in the

containers here, every container's got between four and six of these little

northern corroboree frogs in them, so that way if anything happens to these

species in the wild and they disappear totally, we've got a good insurance

population here, and hopefully once we work out better ways to abate titric

fungus in the wild, we'll be able to really boost population numbers back up

again with as broad a genetic range of the species as we can.

I personally really love working with these little guys for a couple of

One is my interest in conservation management, But secondly, the challenges

go along with working with small amphibians.

Amphibians are amazing in terms of how they breed, how they reproduce.

Every species is quite different.

The challenge of conserving threatened species is something that really drives

me. And one of the primary reasons I'm here at Taronga.

And even more exciting for Michael is around this time each year, he sees the

payoff for his labour of love.

Here are our northern crobby frog tadpoles.

And these tadpoles are pretty important. These little guys here are the start of

a new insurance population.

One of Taronga's most recent additions is a family of the world's biggest

rodents. Hey, boys.

Cappy, Cappy.

The capybara, native to South America.

Come on, guys.

These five brothers came to us from New Zealand 12 months ago and we purpose

-built this new habitat for them. And since arriving, they've been enjoying

their new environment.

Perhaps a little too much.

In the wild, capybara are semi -aquatic, so they eat both terrestrial and

aquatic plants.

But they are mainly grass -eating rodents. And a single capybara can eat

three kilos of grass in a single day. They've pretty much destroyed all the

grass in this exhibit.

They've absolutely smashed it, yeah.

But as the capybaras mature, keepers are noticing it's no longer happy families.

They are a funny bunch. They have the similar kind of traits that you find in

five brothers, no matter what species you are.

They're reaching an age of almost two years old now, and that's an age when

stone develops individually.

And because they're all slightly different individuals, they're

slightly different rate.

So we're seeing the dynamics of this group changing. They are interacting

each other slightly differently as they start to reach that mature age.

Keeper Johnny has identified the brother that's really asserting his dominance

over the rest.

So this is Rodney.

He is formerly the runt of the litter, now the heaviest, the biggest, the

boldest of the five brothers.

He's the one that's been causing all the trouble that we've had recently in this

group.

Him and one of his cohorts, Pedro, have decided to pick on one of their

brothers. And it's little behaviours like chasing him into the pool and

sure he doesn't come out or chasing him away from feeding spots.

And one sibling seems to be the regular target of Rodney's attack.

This is Carlos. He's the victim of the discord and aggression that we've seen

the group most recently.

And you can see a couple of open wounds on his body at the moment, which I'm

being very careful when touching.

He's copped a few bites from his bigger brother, Rodney.

And as you can see, he's a bit nervous at the moment around any of the other

four boys.

And he has very much been put down to the bottom of the pile in terms of

hierarchy in this group.

In the short term, we're monitoring the Capybara group more closely. And then

we're also going to bring the vets down here and see what the options are in

terms of quelling the aggression and trying to sort out some of the discord

that's happening with this group and try and bring harmony back into the

Capybara environment.

We really want to nip it in the bud before it escalates to something more

this.

Good.

Across Taronga, many animals rely on live food for nutrition and enrichment.

And the food production unit, affectionately known as the Bug House,

this vital service.

Food technician Christine is racing against the clock to get the weekly

packed and on the delivery truck before the zoo opens.

The deliveries go all across the zoo.

So many precincts that he goes to, I think the only one that isn't included

the run is the marine mammal team because they eat fish. They don't eat

First stop for driver Martin is the bird kitchen.

Morning. Morning.

Where an average of 10 kilos of bugs are delivered every single week.

Our bird section is the only department that gets all three stages of flights.

They love their maggots, they love their pupae, and they also love their live

flies.

But today, it's not just the clock that Martin is racing, it's also the sun.

Seasonally, with the deliveries, we want to be very aware of the temperature. If

it's going to be a really hot day, we want to have everything on the truck

really quick, very fast.

Cheers,

mate. Awesome. That stuff's broken.

Yeah, we'll put it in the freezer now. Thanks, mate. Winter,

we can be a little bit more relaxed in how long we leave stuff out. But in

summer, it's on, gone, and back in a freezer as quickly as we can make it.

Monty! Monty. Got our bug delivery.

Yeah, do you want an insight?

Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks so much.

Next customers are the meerkats.

Make a bit of a mess.

who have been impatiently waiting for Danielle to deliver their breakfast.

Okay, little Mary.

Mary!

Meerkats are omnivorous, though they like to eat fruit and vegetables and a

whole lot of insects.

In the wild, their favourites are scorpions.

If a scorpion was to bite a meerkat, nothing would happen. They're immune to

scorpion venom.

As part of their diet, we do feed them a lot of insects. And one of these things

is fly pupae. You can see they really like it. They like it so much that they

have these little scuffles and these little tips over it.

It's every individual for themselves when it comes to fly pupae. Because it

tasty little treat.

Meerkats have very high metabolisms because they're active all day, so they

their food quite quickly. So we do need to give them small feeds regularly. So

this is just part of one of those feeds that they get throughout the day.

Another mouth -watering morsel are the crickets, which are loaded into a man

-made termite mound to tantalise these little carnivores' taste buds.

The carnivore team air 1 ,500 large crickets in their order.

There's one.

That will last them for just a week.

While the crickets keep the meerkats busy, the next bug house delivery is

eagerly anticipated.

Blue, the 28 -year -old rhino iguana, has been having some trouble with his

eye. And this morning, vet Gabby is trying to solve the mystery.

I just love his little size.

He's in beautiful condition.

Sure an old boy, yeah.

Although he's an older lizard, he still has a good set of teeth and a powerful

jaw, which makes intubation a delicate and lengthy business.

It really stimulates them if you open their mouth once they're asleep.

And if you start putting a tube near his airway, he will react.

So he has to be nice and asleep.

Okay, let's give him another go.

A bit of anesthetic spray.

We want to ensure that we don't squash the tube.

Okay, so we'll leave that in gold.

It takes nearly an hour for blue to be fully intubated, which gives Gabby the

green light to start the procedure.

You can see the cataract here pretty easily.

A cataract is when the lens has changes in it to make it look white. The lens is

made up of fibres and the fact that they are aligned perfectly.

makes it actually see -through.

So when you get inflammation and changes in the lens, those fibres don't align

so perfectly so that you can see them.

While the cataract is restricting Blue's vision, it shouldn't be causing any

pain. How long has he been squinting for?

A few weeks that we've seen.

When you're trying to discern whether or not he is in pain, obviously he can't

tell us, but he'll squint.

So squinting is often a sign of pain.

One of the most painful things you can have in an eye is an ulcer on the

and so this dye just helps us pick one up if there's one there.

You've got a tiny little ulcer on the cornea.

Okay. It's only small.

Unrelated to the cataract? Yeah.

That's on the outside of the eye. Yeah, okay, yep.

Whether or not that's enough to cause the squinting is up for debate, but

going to treat him with pain relief and we're giving him some antibiotics.

Gabby flushes the eye clean with some saline and then begins a thorough

examination of this ageing iguana.

I'm also looking for any crepitus in the joints, which just means crunchiness,

which can indicate arthritis.

So far, so good. She's very good.

For a 28 -year -old. While everything feels okay, only x -rays will reveal any

serious deterioration.

He looks so cute in that position.

And there's just like, look at that muscle.

Just on first view, his hips look great, his ankles look great, his knees look

good.

The last thing on the list today is to get some blood and Gabby draws it from

intriguing part of Blue's anatomy.

Lizards and snakes have a vessel that runs underneath their vertebrae of their

tail. It's like a sinus rather than an actual vein.

And pinpoint accuracy is crucial as it's not the only precious piece of

equipment hiding in the tail end of this lizard.

Most of their reproductive organs in the tail itself as well.

That's where he's at.

Yep, and he's got a double banger too. He's got two of them. He's got one on

right, one on the left.

That's where I'll leave that.

Oh, there's the blood.

Gabby will send Blue's blood to pathology for analysis.

It's all part of the hospital's general health check for its geriatric animals.

He's up. He's up.

It's an absolute thrill to work with Blue. I think he's one of the more

animals we have here.

His exam's gone really well. Last year he had a bit of stiffness in his right

elbow and that's resolved.

All his joints move really well. He's got good range of motion in his joints,

indicating that there's no arthritis there and that's confirmed on the

radiograph. How's he going?

He's breathing nicely.

Okay. I'm happy for you to take him in.

He kicked up a stink before, but now he looks pretty happy. And just as well,

for while Blue may look pretty good on the outside, he's got an unseen problem

brewing on the inside.

Sadly, once it makes itself known, it may be too late.

Back at Taronga's mundane -looking cluster of shipping containers, Keeper

Michael's vital work with the endangered northern corroboree frog is paying off.

As the next generation finds their feet.

Literally.

Quite a few changes have happened here in the breeding facility.

The northern corroboree frog tadpoles have now mostly metamorphosed into

So the next container we're looking at at the moment, there's five, all five

little guys from this container are metamorphosed.

We have four that have fully resorbed their tail, and we have one who's still

got a little bit of tail resorption to go. He's got his beautiful crappie frog

patterning, beautiful crappie frog colours, but he's still got quite a bit

tail. So at the moment, he can't eat. All his energy at the moment is coming

from that tail resorbing into his body.

So in maybe another, I'd say, four to five days' time, he'll have resorbed

tail, and in about a week's time, he'll be able to start feeding as a frog.

He'll start eating little crickets and little invertebrates.

These little tadpoles have gone through significant changes in around a

fortnight.

So this little guy I've got on my hand now is a terrestrial northern corroboree

frog. He's fully metamorphosed from a tadpole into a frog, and being

means he's now on land.

He's only been an actual fully formed frog for maybe two or three days, but

very long at all. He's actually gone from a...

a little swimming tadpole which has gills for breathing. So he's lost his

and developed internal lungs to be able to breathe.

He's developed legs. He's popped his little front legs out through spiracle,

his legs are fully developed now.

He's gone from having a factorial disc -type mouth part to having an actual

carnivorous mouth part to be able to eat. And not only that, his internal

digestion, he's gone from having a long, spiralling vegetarian gut.

to a short carnivorous gut that a frog would have. So his whole body has

effectively changed over the last two weeks.

It's a massive change for this little guy.

And for a species that's teetering on extinction in the wild, this gives

great pride and hope for the future.

It's always great personally to see these little guys coming through at this

time of year when they're metamorphosing, because it means

done right, their tadpole husbandry, their frog husbandry up to now is great,

and they're getting through as little frogs.

For me, that brings a great sense of personal satisfaction that these little

ones here are the start of a new insurance colony.

And over the next few years now, we'll really build that up. And then I'll be

feeling a lot more secure that should anything happen in the wild, we've got a

backup. We've got an insurance population ready to go.

Very happy.

Taronga is home to a vast array of animals.

Some you'd love to cuddle.

Some you'd love to swim with.

Some you'd love to play with.

And then there's those that you'd probably prefer to step on. Yeah, what

think's in here?

We work with a whole range of species up here at the Institute.

And in here is definitely one of my favourites. But in order to get him out,

I've got to find him first.

So I just have to try and gently remove the soil a bit just so I can find out

where he is.

Aren't they gorgeous?

So this is a giant burrowing cockroach.

The giant burrowing cockroach, also known as the rhinoceros cockroach, is an

unlikely world record holder.

They are the heaviest cockroach in the world and they come from Australia.

There's about 4 ,600 species of cockroach and he's the heaviest. These

they can weigh up to 30 grams.

And when you think about the cockroach that you might have in your house,

American and German cockroaches, those guys weigh like 500 times less.

You know, they're 0 .06 of a gram. They're teeny tiny in terms of their

These guys are much, much heavier.

While Susie treasures her adult cockroach.

Keeper Paul is keen to show off some of its young.

There you are.

So this one, unlike the pest species you can actually find around your house

that can give birth to a couple of hundred young each year, these give

up to about 30.

We've got about 12 little youngsters here at the moment, and they're about a

year old.

This one's got a fair bit of growing left to do. It'll get probably about

the size, but it's definitely old enough now that Mum would have left it to be

on its own.

So this is just one of many that we've got here at the moment.

We do like to breed them ourselves, and they are relatively easy to breed.

And the good thing is that if we're able to be self -sufficient in that way, we

don't have to take them from the wild, and they make great ambassadors for the

species, and they're really cool for our lessons and encounters and things like

that.

And despite their species reputation,

these guys are not pests.

They really are completely opposite to what everybody thinks of when they think

of cockroaches. They don't carry diseases.

They're not dirty or anything like that. And they really do help the environment

out. A sentiment enthusiastically shared by Susie.

So this is definitely not your average cockroach. They aren't something to be

scared of. They're not gross or creepy.

who takes her fondness for this cockroach one step further.

I love working with our cockroaches. I think they're so unique. They're so

impressive.

Whereas,

yeah, cockroaches at home, I just don't like them.

There's been some concerning brotherly aggression down at the Capybara exhibit

lately.

Keepers are worried that as they get older, increased testosterone levels are

causing fights amongst this once tight -knit group.

The aggression has ramped up recently and the victim or the bottom of the

so to speak, Carlos, has been found with bite marks on him.

There's one main aggressor, Rodney.

So to try to temper his moods, vet Kimberly and her team plan to insert a

which will regulate his hormone levels.

Kimberly to capybara keeper.

Are you guys ready for us to head down?

Great, thanks. We're heading down.

Because the capybara are new to Taronga, this is new territory for Kimberly.

I haven't done a capybara before. This is the first.

Capybara anesthesia, I think, at Taronga Zoo. So we'll see how we go.

Did a quick research in capybara anesthetic and I found a paper. I mean,

think it was going to be a great paper, but it was all in, like, Italian or

Spanish or something.

Oh, yeah. I did find the temperature range, but it's not like it's fine.

Well, we'll treat it like a giant guinea pig. We'll see how we go.

As Rodney waits, the vets prep the needle.

But if Kimberly hopes this is going to be easy...

Rodney

quickly sets her straight.

It's bug house home delivery day.

So we're just pouring the crickets all into here.

Where a week's worth of live insects are delivered to almost every precinct in

the zoo.

We breed everything up. When we get it all to the right stage, then we can ship

it out.

It's been a busy morning of deliveries for driver Martin.

And the last stop is primate.

There you go. This is one box per day.

Thank you very much.

Today we've got our...

Protein order, a bug order from the bug house.

Looks like we've got some maggots and some mealworms. We've just got a little

bit today, so a bit of a lunchtime snack.

In the wild, squirrel monkeys feast on a balanced diet including fruits,

flowers, leaves and a range of insects.

Protein is really important for these guys, so that comes in the form of

insects, maybe eggs that they might find in the wild, things like that.

Our monkeys here love spending every afternoon in the afternoon sun catching

bugs. They love it. Hey, girls, what have I got?

What do you think, Pinky?

It's a maggot snack.

Oh, yum.

So they're grabbing their handfuls of maggots and running.

You can imagine, they're 12 monkeys, so they need a lot of bugs. So we

supplement them with extra protein every afternoon.

Add a few mealworms down there. The mealworms are their favourite, but it

like maggots are pretty popular today too.

They've picked out every little individual maggot, so you can see their

fingers. They're really small, very, very clever. They're great at using

hands. They're tiny little maggots, and they're excellent at picking up tiny

things like this. Maggots for these guys are like chocolate.

They love it. It's important for these guys that the food is live, though, and

the movement of those insects captures their interest, and that's what attracts

them to go and catch those insects. So thanks to the Bug House, these guys have

had a lovely little snack.

The Bug House is one of Taronga's behind -the -scenes powerhouses.

But Christine gives most of the credit to the unsung heroes of the food supply

chain.

It's really great. I love doing my job. I love doing the job well.

I'm always told that I'm a little bit too fussy with my bugs, but I love them.

spend way too much time fussing over my maggots, but they are my pride and joy.

I'm very proud of them.

Keepers have noticed that the five Capybara brothers are no longer getting

along.

The aggression has ramped up recently and the victim, so to speak, Carlos, has

been found with bite marks on him.

So vets are hoping a hormonal implant in the main aggressor, Rodney, will lower

his testosterone levels and help curb the fighting.

Kimberly is struggling to anaesthetise Rodney, so she hands the pulse syringe

Keeper Johnny to have her cracked.

And Johnny hits the target first go.

Just meaning that Rodney has received his dose.

As this is the first anaesthesia on a capybara at Taronga, no one really knows

how he will react.

So nurse Liz keeps a close eye on him.

He's breathing well.

The induction was very smooth and gentle.

So he's in a light plane of anaesthesia.

But so far, it's going well.

Once he's fully under, it's off to the wildlife hospital for this feisty little

rodent.

OK.

We'll just weigh all that.

Yep. And the door closed? Subtract it from that so we can get up.

This is the reproductive implant.

In males, we use it to help quell aggression because it'll decrease the

testosterone levels.

It's going fine.

No, just glue it.

You just need to pull it out slowly and as I'm pulling the plunger, leave it

there so it doesn't come out with it.

We only have one.

With the implant successfully inserted.

Fabulous.

I've just used tissue glue to close the little hole that I made, and you can't

even see that there's an incision there. So, very good.

Kimberly takes full advantage of this first -time procedure.

Look at that little stubby tongue. There's not much of a tongue there. To

close -up look at the teeth that Rodney's been sinking into his younger

Those incisors are very much why we want to stop the biting behavior.

It goes through flesh very, very easily.

So those are huge. They look really nice. They're worn well.

I get a good idea of how sharp they are, son. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Big teeth to be

biting the other guy with. Yeah, for sure.

All right, I'm happy to take him back.

With all signs positive, Rodney heads back to his four brothers.

I don't think it's going to take him long.

Give him a little bit of a pillow.

That's good. Yeah, that's great.

He's had the reversal drug, so it could take apparently anywhere up to 10

minutes for him to kind of get up and start moving around.

But I'm sure we'll start to see signs shortly of him getting better.

While today's procedure has been successful, Kipis must wait a couple of

to see whether the implant works and the group returns to the original five fun

-loving brothers.

It's hard to know if this will be successful. We don't always know if it's

to work in different species. So we're trying this, but we'll see.

We'll see.

Hello, chat.

How are we doing?

It's been a few weeks since Rodney the Capybara received his hormonal implant

control his aggression towards his brothers.

In the first few days after the procedure, keepers were concerned with

were seeing.

Initially, that implant actually caused them to spike as part of its regulation

process.

So we actually saw the aggression worsen slightly for the first week or so after

the implant was put in.

But then everything started to work and started to settle down and kick in and

work as it should do.

And we've seen a drop in the aggression since then.

It's not ideal to be a hormone implant in animals if you can avoid it. But in

this situation, this is the best way to have dealt with this issue.

In the wild, at this age, they will start to get on each other's nerves,

each other's boundaries and patience.

And that's how they would naturally split up from each other and spread that

brotherly genetics elsewhere.

But because we just have the five brothers here, we don't plan to breed

Taronga Zoo.

These implants are a great way to manage their testosterone levels, to manage

that behavior as well that comes with it, and to keep them living very

peacefully together for the future.

And thankfully, the target of Rodney's aggression is benefiting as well.

So just behind me on my right is Carlos.

And you can see on his left rump there, he copped a bit of a nip from one of his

brothers, which has thankfully since healed up.

But he's had a much, much better existence since those implants have

And we've seen in the last few weeks that his life and quality of life has

increased a lot.

That's a fantastic thing from our point of view as animal managers and animal

keepers. It's always good to see our animals in good condition and having a

nice, relaxed life.

The zoo's elderly residents hold a special place in everyone's heart.

Vets and keepers strive to give them the best quality of life with regular check

-up.

So far, so good. He's very good for a 28 -year -old.

It's been a year since Blue, the aging rhino iguana, was examined at the

hospital. And although he was in good health for an old lizard, time catches

with us all.

Move back. And now there's only one rhino iguana in the exhibit.

Hello, Basco. Come on. In we go.

In we go.

Lou, unfortunately, passed away from a stroke, and it was totally unexpected.

Come on.

I'm crying. Big day today. It was heartbreaking.

He's one of my favourite animals, and you feel it. You feel it every day.

Now that Blue's gone, it's definitely been a shift in Tabasco's behaviour.

She is the queen of this exhibit.

She's not afraid to tell anyone off for being in her space.

Don't you bite me.

And Tabasco is particularly territorial at mealtime.

This is what we call the lizard salad and it has endive, kale, sweet potato,

carrot. Squash, zucchini, tomato, egg, everything a lizard could ever dream of.

And she's also got a couple of little treats here this morning. So she's got

some mulberry leaves.

She's got some beautiful hibiscus flowers, which she absolutely loves.

Some pickles as well. She really loves those greens.

These guys are herbivorous, but they will also eat the occasional insect as

well. And even on a full stomach, Tabasco lives up to her spicy name.

Ah, ah, ah, no.

That's not nice. You've already had a treat, so you start biting people.

Oh, okay, you're going to do a storm off now.

You are a diva.

You've had enough of television. You're going to go sit yourself in the sun.

Okay.

While it's hard to know whether or not she misses Blue, Tabasco does seem to be

enjoying her own space and having everyone looking out for her.

She's the boss. She's the queen of this exhibit. I'm just her humble servant.