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.

Every step of the way.

On this episode... We're going to put our male and our female together today

hopefully have them mate.

From Huntsman Spiders... Here we go, little one.

Please be kind to him.

...to Parrot.

Hopefully they're giving each other a bit of a lesson in the birds and the

Tasmanian devil to zebras. Gee, it looks like Mum's attending him really well.

Yeah, he has his seventh foal, so pretty well -intruded as to what goes on. It's

an all -out love fest right across Taronga. All right, so two girls and one

And who let the alpacas out?

Whee! Good job. To these three boys, it's a walk in the park.

The best part of the day. Yeah.

One of the most dramatic differences between Taronga Zoo in Sydney and

Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo is space.

And keeping all those animals healthy when they're spread out over almost 400

hectares demands a different approach to veterinary care.

Domestic animal vets in the city tend to see small animals. A rural vet... A

large component of their practice is hoof stock.

Many of those patients are seen in situ, out on the property, looking at their

animals in the context of the groups in which they live. You know, they're

looking at herds of animals, thinking about herd health, which is a

part of what we do.

And today, that's exactly what Senior Vet Ben is doing.

I'm working as a vet in the context of an open plain zoo.

Some days, going on morning rounds is just like going on safari.

And keeping with the safari theme, this morning Ben is checking in on a recent

addition to the African Animals Precinct.

Brooke. Hi, Ben. How are you going?

Good, how are you?

What do you say? There he is.

He's pretty cute.

Well, he looks pretty nice on spec.

Yep, so he's four days old now. Yep, okay, no worries. And it looks like

attending him really well and he's sticking by her, isn't he?

Yeah, she's really confident.

He is her seventh foal, so she's pretty well in tune as to what goes on.

So we came in in the morning on a Sunday and she was really clean. We couldn't

find any placenta. Oh, okay, no worries. He was really clean and up and moving.

So we assume that she gave birth pretty early, in the early hours of the

morning. Yep. Being that experienced mum, she's cleaned everything up pretty

well.

I mean, they're all as relaxed as can be.

Just another day, just another foal for the rest of them.

Our zebra group is managed naturally. The stallion runs with the mares.

He serves the mares. They fall pregnant. They give birth, all within the context

of the herd. And that's just the way we want it. You know, we want these animals

to develop naturally and to acquire all of the life lessons that go towards

making them a behaviourally normal, content zebra.

From one herd animal to another. But there's a lot more riding on

breeding this lot than the zebra.

Scimitar horned oryx are a desert adapted antelope that are critically

endangered. In fact, have been extinct in the wild up until recently when some

small groups were reintroduced into their range state.

Ben's dropped by at Oryx Keeper Roger's request.

G'day, Rog. How's it going? Good, how are you? Yeah, very well, very well.

Roger has asked Ben to check on the body condition of the herd.

He's worried they may be enjoying the good times a little too much.

Gee, it's looking green up here.

It's easy at the moment.

This time last year, it was horrendous up here.

It was probably more desert -like where oryx would naturally occur, but this

year we've had to think about diet specifically.

Just due to weight gain, there's so much grass and natural forage up here for

them. We've cut back all supplement feeding, bass and pellets, which is

on their zinc.

But their body condition from here looks great.

It's almost too good, isn't it? Yeah, a little bit.

Well, they're certainly maintaining their individual distances today.

Vets always give every animal in the zoo a little bit of that.

Nervous edge.

Yeah, no, that's it.

We all know you guys love animals, but the animals don't necessarily all love

you.

With his morning paddock rounds complete, Ben heads back to the wildlife

hospital, where one of Taronga's most important patients is waiting.

We're extraing the little ones as well? Yeah.

Down at the backyard to Bush Precinct, a small herd of Taronga's more

domesticated animals are about to embark on a little adventure.

Got some nice treats for you.

So this is our beautiful alpaca herd. We've got three boys.

They are all five years old.

We have Cartouche, who's the white one here, and he's the biggest of them.

The little black one in the middle, that's Aragon.

And then the brown one there is Scaramouche.

There you go, Cartouche.

You are being so well behaved.

Alpacas come from South America originally.

They're actually a really unusual species. They're quite exotic.

But believe it or not, they're members of a family called the camelidae family,

which means that they're related to camels.

People are often really surprised to hear this, but when you have a look at

shape of their neck and their beautiful big eyes and their muzzle, you can

really actually see a resemblance between them and camels.

The other big thing they share with camels are their feet.

And today, they're putting them to good use.

I'm going to take the alpacas for a walk down the hill. I've got Kartush with a

halter and lead on.

The other two alpacas, Garamush and Aragon, are going to be following along.

just going to let them free range and we'll see what happens.

It's a really great enrichment for them. So this is just part of their routine,

part of what we do with them on a day -to -day basis, making sure they're

getting lots of really great opportunities to express their natural

Good boy. There we go. Good boy.

Here come your boys. That's it. Come on, we're going down the hill today.

This way.

Once Scaramouche and Aragon realise that we're coming down to the concert lawn,

they tend to take off ahead of us and race down to the grass so they can start

grazing. Okay, you ready to go for a run?

That's the way. Off you go.

Good boy.

Whee!

Good job.

Love it when they do that.

Bringing the alpacas down here is a real highlight for us. We love just getting

to observe them, watch their behaviours, see how they're interacting with each

other and just see them really enjoying themselves down here. It's really

relaxing for us too to just get to sit back and enjoy the alpacas.

It's the best part of the day. Yeah, definitely.

A lot of people with farms or small holdings often use alpacas just to keep

lookout for things like foxes and feral dogs as well. They're really alert, so

they really keep an eye out what's going on and they become really bonded with

the animals that they're with as well.

While the alpacas enjoy a final bite to eat before they call it a day, out at

Dubbo, two of their camel cousins are enjoying their final meal before they

start the long journey.

to join them in Sydney.

This is a pretty momentous occasion because there hasn't been camels at

for such a long time.

The animal kingdom in all its glory is well represented at Taronga.

But for color and diversity, you can't go past the world of birds.

Across both its two, Taronga exhibits 140 bird species.

Come on, buddy.

That's around 2 ,000 individual birds. Hello, buddy.

Hello.

And in one aviary, Nipa Leanne is hoping to add a few more.

So we're just in one of our breeding aviaries here that has our pair of swift

parrots.

Taronga is one of only a handful of zoos that breed the critically endangered

swift parrot.

The swift parrot is a native species of parrot in Australia. It's a small

species. They're a green parrot, but they have a beautiful red mask on their

face.

They're what we would say is a nomadic species.

So they breed in Tasmania, but they will come to the mainland to forage for food

in the off -season.

They rely upon the blossom of eucalypt trees, mainly the Tasmanian bluegum,

which is what they nest and eat upon during that breeding season.

The ongoing destruction of the swift parrot's natural habitat means there are

only about 2 ,000 birds left in the wild.

So breeding programs like Taronga's are critical for the survival of the

species. So at Taronga we have nine swift parrots here. We have three

pairs and three juveniles from one of our successful breedings last year.

Breeding birds in zoo care is notoriously challenging.

and it's complicated by the fact that their reproductive organs are internal.

It's important for us to be able to know the gender of our swift parrots so that

we can put future pairings together and make sure that we are doing it

correctly. We don't want to put two females together or two boys together

because we won't get the success that we've had so far.

And the way the vets work out the sex of the parrots is truly bizarre.

G'day, how are you? That's right.

All right.

Ready to go?

Taronga Zoo is a conservation society.

Watch out. And breeding programs are at the heart of almost everything they do.

But it's not limited to just the cute animal.

These are our banded huntsmen.

We've got one male and one female here.

This one here is our male.

And we're going to put our male and our female together today and hopefully have

them mate.

It's not without its risk, because if we don't do things just right, she may

just decide to eat him.

It might be that she's just hungry and he's small enough to be a food item. It

might be that he hasn't approached her in the right way.

If you don't say no please in the right way, that's all I've been done with.

Adding to this spider's anxiety is the fact it's all new to him as well.

This one hasn't bred before.

He's mature, he's ready for it.

But this will be his first time breeding.

And one of the problems he's got is it's a very steep learning curve. If he

doesn't get it right, that's it for him. He doesn't get a second chance.

This is just one of those things that he's going to have to learn about the

way.

There you go, little guy.

Good luck.

You're going to need it.

The daring deed is so hazardous to the male that Paul gives him every chance to

get out alive.

The black mesh I've got in there is just to give them a little bit more cover.

If he does get a little bit over the top and he needs to get away, it just gives

him somewhere to go.

It just gives them both a better sense of security, which also means they'll be

a little bit more relaxed.

and more willing to mate as well.

So now it's time for our female.

She's also mature, and this will also be her first time being with a male.

So hopefully she's going to be well behaved for him.

Fortunately enough, she's actually got a cricket in her mouth there, so she

won't be as hungry, therefore less likely to want to have lunch with him.

I'm actually feeling pretty confident with it today.

We've had a pretty good success rate with it, actually. We've only had a

of instances where our females have decided to get a little bit over

But because she has just had something to eat, it just makes our chances just a

little bit higher.

Okay, here we go, little one.

Please be kind to him.

So they're both in together now, nice and close, which means that the chance

something happening sooner rather than later is higher.

If you're looking at the spider now, you'll see the two what look like

legs at the front there. They're the pedipalps.

Now, for the female, they're more used for helping sort of guide food into the

mouth area, but for male, they'll actually use those to help pass the

him to the female.

But after an hour of not much happening...

Paul decides to give them some privacy.

But it really is now just the waiting game.

She'll sit back, wait, and keep her fingers crossed that he impressed her

right way and she's not going to eat him.

Good luck, you two.

Taronga Zoo in Sydney is about to welcome a species it hasn't housed in 10

years.

One mile to go.

And preparation for their new home is in full swing.

We're very excited. We haven't had camels for a while.

And this exhibit has suited us well. It was a bull elephant exhibit. Then it was

our temporary giraffe exhibit for two years. Now it's going to be our camel

exhibit.

They're coming from our sister zoo in Dubbo, so they've got a little bit of a

trip.

The camels are very stoic, docile animals, and I'm sure they'll take that

in their stride.

And out at Dubbo, Keeper Glenn is doing a last -minute check -in on this

intriguing animal before their big trip.

We have four camels here at the zoo. We have one male and three females, but

they're not a breeding group. They're just an exhibit group.

And the main reason for that is camels in Australia breed very, very well.

There's close to a million of them in the wild in the interior of Australia.

And it is even considered that we now have more wild camels in Australia than

any other part of the world.

Camels were introduced by early explorers in the 1840s as they were

adapted to withstand the searing temperatures of the outback.

Things that camels have that enable them to adapt in such a really hot climate,

number one is their hump. The hump is a storage reservoir, mostly of

carbohydrates, that they can use when there's no water or no food source.

They have a very soft pad on their toes, which enables them to walk across very

sandy area as well. But it's also tough enough that it can withstand walking

over very harsh, rocky area as well. And then also, too, they have beautiful

long eyelashes, which helps them in the dust storms.

Camels have also evolved to live in cooler climates as well, making them one

the hardiest animals at the zoo.

If you look closely at them right now, you will see that they're actually

molting. So they're going from their winter coat into their summer coat. And

they almost look like a bit of a bedraggled mess, but this is really

for them to come down to that really fine hair that they've got all over

body so that then they can cope with the very hot summer temperatures we have

here.

But it's not just the weather that camels have adjusted to.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo historically had African elephants. We ended up in a

situation where we just had one lone African elephant remaining.

Unfortunately, we couldn't introduce any of the other elephants to her and so

therefore keepers decided that these two individuals would possibly be the best

candidates to introduce her. It took approximately six months for us to

our goal and we got all three of them running together daily for about seven

years.

Now two of these camels, Raz and Storm, are about to run off in a different

direction.

They're about to head down to Taronga Zoo, Sydney.

And this is a pretty momentous occasion because there hasn't been camels at

Taronga for such a long time.

And by taking these animals down there, hopefully we're able to not only

showcase what camels are and what they look like, but also educate.

Taronga Zoo aims to increase the number of swift parrots in the wild through its

extensive breeding program.

But first, the team must solve a perplexing problem, working out whether

parrot is male or female.

We don't want to put two females together or two boys together because we

get the success that we've had so far.

And the only way to do this... is a rather invasive procedure.

G'day, how are you?

Alright, ready to go.

Today we're going to do some surgical sexing on some swift parrots and that

means we're going to put a little scope just inside them to see what sex they

are because obviously the gonad, the testicles and the ovary are internal in

birds. So the only way to tell is to look inside.

So we just give them a little bit of...

Gas anesthetic.

Larry uses a tiny laparoscope for the job.

It's got a light source and a camera so we can see the image on the screen there

quite nicely.

And basically I make just a little hole in the side of the bird and pop this

through and we actually always go in the left side.

And the reason for that is that most bird species, the females only have an

ovary on the left -hand side.

So it's a very simple, minimally invasive procedure.

So just a little nick in the side there.

And the bird's unique anatomy helps Larry see the organs clearly.

So the scope goes in.

So you can see I'm looking through this very fine membrane like cling wrap.

That's the air sac membrane.

Birds have several air sacs inside them.

And it's part of their amazing respiratory system and also keeps them

light. And because all the organs are separated by the air, we can just see

straight away what sex this bird is.

And I can see the testicle clearly there, so a male.

Beautiful little birds, these guys.

This little guy looks pretty healthy.

Banding will assist keepers with breeding.

Males get a band on the right leg and females on the left.

But with such little leg, it's fiddly work.

And you want to make sure you're not putting it on too tight or too loose

because both can cause problems.

And also in the process of putting it on, you also have to be careful that

you're not injuring the bird's leg.

So we just get a weight on it.

How much is that?

62 .8. 62 .8 grams.

All right, well, we'll just wake this little guy up and then we can have a

at the next one.

While every bird will help build numbers... I have one male swift parrot

He's just about awake.

You think? Yeah.

Studies have shown that there are fewer females in the wild. All right, Liz,

we've got the next one here lined up.

So the team are hoping this next one restores the balance.

There you go.

With an area of nearly 400 hectares, Taronga's Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo

requires a different approach to animal welfare than in Sydney.

Senior vet Ben has finished his morning rounds inspecting the herd animals in

Dubbo's vast paddock.

But back at the wildlife hospital...

There's a never -ending supply of animals needing Ben's attention.

So we're all good for the planeswanderers, Jane.

I touched base with Mark this morning. He's on track to deliver those birds to

us at 9 .30.

We'll get hospital rounds done before those planeswanderers get here.

We see over 500 individual native animals that are in trouble, sick or

that are presented to us by members of the public or by our registered wildlife

carer colleagues.

So underneath we've got the two turtles with the shell fractures. I might grab

one of those out.

Yep.

By virtue of our veterinary expertise, that really positions us to detect

emerging diseases, health problems, conservation threats and issues, and

play an important role in conservation of species and maintenance of

biodiversity in the Central West.

And nowhere is this premise more accurate.

than with one of Taronga Zoo's most important species, the plains wanderer.

Things are so dire that it was decided to remove some birds from the wild to

establish contingency populations in zoos. And today we're health -checking

chicks that have been hatched from a pairing of wild -caught birds and their

father. They represent a significant proportion of plains wanderer left on

planet. His body condition is ample. I would call him three to four out of

The plains wanderer has been decimated by foxes and cats and Taronga is now the

only lifeline between these tiny birds and extinction.

So the zoo -based breeding component of the recovery project has a really big

role to play in ensuring that given the ongoing current decline of the species

in the wild that there will be individual animals.

remaining available to be re -released into habitat that it has been secured

that Plains Wanderer will persist into the future.

This is the actual sire of the clutch of sub -adults that we'll be looking at in

a minute. So he's a wild -caught founder bird.

That is, he's responsible for establishing the foundation of the zoo

breeding program.

The hatchlings are only two months old and are a testament to the great work

that Taronga is doing to boost the numbers.

But the smaller the patient, the harder it is to work with them.

So Ben needs total focus.

They are challenging to manipulate, particularly where blood sampling and

sampling is required because their structures are all so small.

So tiny little bird, tiny little blood sample.

very conscious of that.

What feels like a tiny little volume of blood to you or I could be life

-threatening to a bird like this. These animals are small and they're shy and

they're quiet and they're unassuming, but really very, very precious. And it's

an enormous privilege to be working towards their conservation.

With this exam complete, Ben's final appointment today is another Aussie

facing huge problems in the wild.

But this one is nowhere near as delicate as the plains wanderer.

Back in Sydney, Paul has paired up a

couple of banded huntsman spiders in an effort to boost the numbers of these

creepy crawlies at the zoo.

But breeding spiders is not an exact science.

So he's keen to keep checking in on the female huntsman to see if there's any

development.

One of the problems we've got is even though the spiders get mated, there's no

real way to tell how long it's going to be until they actually lay their egg

sac. They can go months without laying.

And that's where things get a little bit tricky for us because we have to sort

of say to ourselves, do they mate? Do we have to put them back together again?

And of course, with that, you have the risk of the female eating the male.

But this one here is exactly what I've been looking for.

Just a couple of days ago, she's laid a lovely egg sack for us. I don't want to

disturb her too much.

There she is.

So this is the egg sack. It looks like a nice little white pillow.

And inside that sack, there's going to be a couple of hundred little eggs just

waiting to hatch out sometime in the next few weeks.

And that's where the real fun begins because once they hatch out, we then

to catch up all those little babies.

and put them into little individual containers to grow them up. It also

a lot easier for us to feed them.

But as you can imagine, when you've got a couple of hundred little babies in

there, all going in different directions, it can get really exciting.

The egg sac is just made out of web.

So spiders are able to make all sorts of different kinds of web depending upon

their purposes.

And they have a special kind of web they use to make the egg sac out of.

It's not particularly sticky at all.

It's actually surprisingly tough.

In fact, spider web in itself is an extremely strong material.

It's almost leathery.

to get into it.

Surprisingly, the huntsman spider is quite maternal when it comes to their

So she doesn't incubate eggs like a chicken would, as an example.

They don't sit on the eggs and keep them warm for the young to develop and

hatch. All she's doing is protecting the egg. She doesn't want anything to get

anywhere nearby because there's a lot of things out there that would love to eat

that. Inside this egg sac, there's going to be a couple of hundred little babies

just waiting to hatch out.

Most of those...

out in the wild are not going to survive.

Most of them become food for all sorts of other things, even each other.

So that's one of the reasons why a lot of our insects need to have so many

youngsters, because the vast majority will end up dying or becoming food

they become sexually mature.

It's a numbers game.

And to improve the odds, Taronga breeds multiple spiders simultaneously.

So we've had some great success with this one.

But also with these two here, potentially between the three of them

got here that have already got the egg sacs, we could have over 600 little

babies right around the place.

And that, for me at least, this is just as important as any other animal we've

got here in the zoo. We keep this room at a fairly constant temperature and a

fairly constant humidity, so we're pretty certain that we're going to get

success with this in a few weeks.

As Sydney wakes up...

Across the harbor at the soon -to -be camel exhibit, keepers Alan and Tracy

putting the final touches on Raz and Storm's new home.

Have you worked with camels before, Alan?

Yeah, many years ago.

We're making a lovely, comfortable bed for our two latest arrivals, which will

be coming in early this afternoon.

We're very excited. We haven't had camels in the zoo for a little while.

are very entertaining to work with. They're very intelligent.

So this is pine shavings.

It's what we popularly use for a bed because, unlike straw, the animals don't

eat this.

I think we've pretty well got the job done here. Nice, big, clean bed for our

two new girls. Some of my best work.

Camels have got such great personalities. I'm really looking

them and finding out what these girls are like.

With the stage now set, it's time to welcome the guests of honour.

And keepers are hoping to avoid a repeat of the last animals that were

transferred from Dubbo.

Hello, beautiful.

You heading out?

when a giraffe mum and calf took 36 hours to come out of their crate.

So we're just giving them a minute.

There's no need to rush.

We've been travelling for like five, nearly six hours now, so, yeah, we're

on the clock.

We just let them be calm. I'd much rather them be calm than upset and

And all the rest. So we'll just give them a minute. Yeah.

Slowly, girl.

Slowly.

Thankfully, this time it was only four minutes before the camels decided to

stretch their legs.

They seem to have very calm disposition, very calm demeanour. You wouldn't have

think they'd just come from a drive from the country into the big city. They

seem very laid back. They're eating already.

So I'm really thrilled that they're so calm and placid.

So Lockie, one of our wonderful Dubbo keepers, he's just walking them around

orientate them to their new exhibit.

It's just a good way for them to be able to see all the boundaries.

They're going to be introduced to where their water is.

They're going to be shown their other food sources, just so that we know that

when we leave them here, they are going to be very comfortable and feel a bit at

home.

But it's a bittersweet moment for Glenn, who now has to say goodbye.

I've brought brushes for you. Yep. There's lots of hair there to be brushed

I understand.

I completely understand.

All right. Yeah, okay, cool.

I will miss them because I like working close up with animals like this and now

that they're here I'll find that very difficult.

But I'll definitely come and make sure I take the time to come and visit them.

But happily, he's leaving Raz and Storm in good hands.

Because they're so calm, we are going to let them have the whole exhibit

tonight. We're not going to leave them locked in holding and over the next few

coming days we'll be getting used to them, they'll be getting used to us.

And so I can see this is going to be the beginning of a great friendship between

two camels and the keepers.

Back at the wildlife hospital, Larry is still going strong, trying to determine

the sex of these critically endangered swift parrots. These are three animals

that we've actually bred here at the zoo, which is a great result, but very

difficult to tell the difference between the males and females.

Obviously, if you're pairing birds for breeding, you need to know that they're

off sexes.

And in some cases, we might want to move birds out to other zoos for breeding

programs elsewhere.

And, of course, in that case, you want to know that you're sending the specific

sex to another institution.

I can see the testicle clearly there.

The first bird was a male.

All right, Liz, we've got the next one here lined up. Now the team have their

fingers crossed that this little one is a female.

Pop this little head in the mask.

I'm going to guess.

I reckon it's a female.

How do I?

I don't know why. I just feel it's a female. Yeah.

And as Larry knows, there's only one way to find out.

All right, so we're spot on. It is a female.

I can just see a little structure.

It looks like a bunch of grapes just sitting just underneath the kidney.

I can actually see what's called the oviduct and the ligament of the oviduct,

which is going over the kidney, which confirms without doubt that this is a

female.

Also an opportunity to quickly look around and see what else is going on in

there. And we can get a good look at the lungs and, in fact, moving a little bit

towards the head of the bird.

We can actually see the heart beating.

See that?

So it's a good opportunity to actually assess the health of the bird as well.

We don't stitch the wound either, actually. We just spray a little bit of

antiseptic on there and leave it open.

Okay, number three.

Our final swift parrot for today.

Sounds like a boy.

Let's have a look. Let's pop the scope inside.

Like that.

That's a girl.

So a nice little ovary there.

That's that. Done.

The vets have done their job. Two girls and one boy.

Now it's up to these three to do theirs.

After a long wait, Keeper Paul has finally had success breeding his beloved

banded huntsman spider.

After they've been mated, we don't know how long it's going to be until the egg

sac is laid, and even sometimes it's a bit sort of iffy as to how long it's

going to take for that egg sac to start hatching.

All up, it took around 14 weeks, from the introduction to the pitter -patter

thousands of little spider feet.

So here we have all our little baby banded huntsman spiders, which is what

been waiting for. But I've managed to get the vast majority of them here into

our jar, which is great news.

So mum's not in the jar here with all the youngsters. I've actually had to

remove her because she's very protective over these eggs and her babies.

So if I'm trying to do anything with them at all, she gets very fiery and

might get a bit of a bite.

Now, these spiders, they're not endangered, but by being able to breed

ourselves means we don't have to take them out from the wild, which is a

good thing. We can be self -sufficient here.

Unfortunately, not all of these will make it to adulthood, which is one of

reasons that spiders do have so many babies.

A lot of them will be eaten by each other and even just doing simple things

shedding their skin.

So being an invertebrate, they've got an exoskeleton.

As they grow, their skin doesn't grow with them.

And even sometimes they can have problems with that.

So a lot of these will probably just naturally die off. But what I'll need to

is I have to actually start separating them and put them into little individual

jars where I can look after them a little bit more intensively.

It's a triumph for Paul, and no amount of unease from arachnophobes is going to

take that away from him.

The whole process, going from the mating all the way through the hatching,

there's so many things that can potentially go wrong along the way. To

people, breeding our spiders here is not really such a big thing. It's not as

spectacular, shall we say, as a gorilla or an elephant.

But for me, this is just one of the best things that could have happened today.

Really great.

Taronga's Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo operates a state -of -the -art facility

for breeding the endangered Tasmanian devil.

And on Ben's last call today on his round, he will be doing a final health

on a couple of joeys soon to be transferred to another breeding

Hey, Ben, how are you? Very well. How about yourself? Very good, thank you.

You ready to go?

Yeah, absolutely. I've got them locked in their nest boxes.

Okay. Generally, I want to make sure that their body weight is stable, that

their body condition is good, that there are no obvious injuries. There's

nothing that might preclude their coping with a transfer to another zoo.

Shall we pick her up and have a good look? Yeah, please.

She's a little cranky.

I don't blame her. I've woken her up.

When handling a devil, keepers must be extremely careful, as this is one animal

whose bite is worse than their bark.

So just really examining her behaviour, this is really appropriate.

So she's spicy, her eyes look good, her body condition's great.

All right, mate, run her into a bag and we'll get a weight on her and make sure

that her body weight's been stable.

You know, we don't want to make friends with them. We want to do the best we can

to keep them as wild as they possibly can be. So we try and make the whole

process as quick and easy as possible.

We pick them up, have a good restraint on them, and then pop them in a bag, get

a quick weight, and let them go before it becomes too stressful.

6 .25 kilos, Rach.

Great.

I think she's good to go.

That's one down, one to go. All right.

All right, mate.

He's in good shape. He's heavy. He's a big boy. He's got a good layer of

subcutaneous fat, and that'll stand him in good stead for subduing a female.

Great. He's got a nice pair of...

Testy's hanging down. That's a very important part of his breeding future.

So today we can confirm that he's in good shape and ready to go.

It's really very exciting that today we're sending away these two animals

we got to know as joeys off to another institution where they will be paired up

with mates and produce their own joeys in turn to ensure that Tasmanian devils

persist into the future.

As Ben farewells these two little devils... Great.

Thanks, Rach. That was great. No worries. Thank you.

He'll be back tomorrow caring for another group of animals and continuing

job he loved.

I've been here for 18 years now.

As you can imagine, my job's divert and no two days are the same.

Springtime in Sydney, and in Taronga's swift parrot aviary, keeper Leanne is

watching over every breeding pair.

We're coming into the breeding season for the swift parrot. We have nest boxes

in the aviary, so we're just checking the nest box to make sure and see if

they've been using that box.

I've seen the male displaying to the female from the outside, and we can see

that they've made a nice little...

scratching in the middle of the box there. So hopefully that means they're

giving each other a bit of a lesson in the birds and the bees.

And hopefully babies with parrots very soon.

And before long, this nest box contains five eggs. It's very exciting and it's

really important that these chicks are born. But Leanne knows better than most,

you can't count your chicks before they hatch.

So mum sits on those eggs for roughly three weeks.

It's normal for not all of those eggs to be successful.

Leanne also knows all she can do now is to make sure she feeds and waters the

breeding pair and waits.

And finally, she has good news to share.

We've had three chicks hatch out of five eggs, which is an amazing number, and

they've recently emerged from their nest box.

So you can see mum here with some of her bub.

At first glance, you would think that they're all adults. They all look like

they're the same size, but those are actually youngsters, so they grow really

quick. Once they fledge from the nest and they have their first flight,

almost the same size as mum, so not much growing happens after that point.

We've got mum on the left, and that's one of the juveniles on the perch there

the right.

And you can tell by the colour of its eyes. So mum has that yellow -golden

coloured eye, whereas the juvenile has that black coloured eye.

Eventually, once they mature, they will go that same colour as mum, but at first

glance, that's the way we tell them apart.

At the moment, they're in what we call a weaning phase. So you'll see mum stick

very close.

She's feeding them at the moment, but weaning is when she starts to kind of

teach them how to eat solid foods on their own. So she's essentially teaching

them how to bird.

In probably another three weeks' time, they'll be fully independent.

Swift parrots now number 12 at Taronga, and with every successful clutch,

keepers learn more and more about the best way to breed them.

Swift parrots are very tricky to breed.

So the fact that we've cracked the code on that is amazing and not once now but

twice. So this is our second successful clutch.

So we had three last year and now we've got three again this year and that's an

amazing accomplishment for us.

And each fledgling's arrival heralds a brighter future for this critically

endangered species.

We can actually spread genetics around to other zoos.

and ensure that this population is healthy and it can grow and that we have

secure number of birds that can potentially be released back into the

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