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, Jen. Nearly home, mate.

The teams across both of Taronga's zoos... Open. ...meet every challenge

on.

And our cameras are there to bring you every magic moment.

On this episode, face -to -face with Franklin and Audrey.

Everything about them is slow.

An audience with Taurongus galapagos tortoises. So this is Turbo. And this is

his dad.

And their ever -growing family.

NJ here with the first Galapagos tortoise that we've ever had hatched

the Australasian region.

Ever wondered what it would look like crossing a kangaroo with a rat?

Good, yeah.

Well, meet Babs. So Clay is learning about Babs and she's learning about how

get her to do this routine.

They just look like a little scientist.

And a crazy -haired monkey.

Like they've sort of stuck their finger in a socket.

Called Perfect Petey. I call them little Albert Einsteins. You know, look at

that crazy hairdo.

It's no secret the Taronga Zoo is committed to conservation.

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

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

incredible.

And it's proud of its work with dedicated research and breeding programs

have already brought some species back from the brink.

But there are many more in jeopardy.

And one of these is a little -known bird native to southeastern Australia.

Regent honey eaters are absolutely one of the prettiest Australian birds.

They're a small passerine, which means they're a perching bird. They're

beautiful, gold and black.

And they've got a patch of skin just around their eye, which has little

on it, which is one of the reasons they used to be called the warty -faced

birds. Regent honey eaters love to eat the nectar out of eucalypt blossoms.

They've got a little hooked beak and they've got a fairly long tongue.

which they can stick into the eucalypt flowers so they can steal the nectar.

Regent honey eaters are really struggling in the wild. The numbers

low as 300.

One of their biggest threats is habitat loss.

It takes 20 or 30 years for a eucalypt tree to grow large enough to be able to

sustain the right kind of flowers for not only Regent honey eaters, but for

of the nectar species that we have.

Over the last 20 years, Taronga has been fighting on the front line to help save

this critically endangered bird.

They've already bred more than 280 birds for release back into the wild, and the

aviary in Sydney could not fit another feather.

Luckily, Taronga's sister zoo in Dubbo has plenty of room.

and it's ready to welcome a collection of breeding females from Sydney.

But before the birds take off, they've got an appointment at the wildlife

hospital.

What we're about to do today is do what we call pre -shipment examinations on 12

beautiful region honey eaters.

We'll do a physical examination on each bird while the keeper is just holding

the bird and make sure that it's nice and healthy.

So basically checking, you know, eyes, mouth, feathers, body condition, feet,

just a quick physical exam.

Three out of five, body condition.

We're sending females only to Taronga Western Plains Zoo and of course they

the capacity to lay three clutches of eggs a year, around two or three chicks

maybe per clutch.

So if they all breed well, there'll be quite a significant contribution to the

numbers in the breeding program and that will then allow us to have more that we

can release back to the wild.

This little bird looks excellent, great body condition, pristine in fact. We'll

just get a body weight on it and then it's good to go.

But before they head to Dubbo, there's just one more test they need to pass.

And for these female honey eaters, it's by far the most important.

So this will tell us possibly if there's any differences between captive and

wild birds. And we want to see what we're doing right.

Taronga's Institute of Science and Learning is an education hub with a

endangered animals.

And getting to know them all is the first hurdle for aspiring new keepers.

We have the biggest variety of animals that we work with. It's about 40

different species, ranging from a burrowing cockroach...

to our red roos and koala, to our pygmy momsets and our cotton -top tamarins.

It's just the biggest variety.

So with 200 animals calling the Institute home, giving them all the

care they need is a constant challenge for the Institute keepers.

So I'm just going to start some food prep.

Instead of being a specialist keeper, we're sort of a generalist across the

board of a many different taxa.

And this zoo within a zoo has a new recruit, Keeper Clay.

I started off as a student and then I became a volunteer and I loved it. And I

never did it thinking I must get a job here. I just loved being here. I loved

being around animals.

I loved the keepers. I loved everything about it, basically.

But working at the Institute is a whole new ballgame for Clay.

So before I came to the Institute, I pretty much worked exclusively with

And so coming here now means that I have to learn to work with a broad range of

animals. Go meet our monkey boys. Yeah, okay, cool.

And today, showing her the ropes is Susie, who's starting off orientation

with something exotic.

It's lush in here.

It's a bit of a jungle.

Our rainforest room is very unique.

It's very dense.

And the animals that we have in here aren't Australian.

Absolutely superstars of the room are our little monkeys. They're a cotton

tamarin. Ready to meet some monkeys? Yeah, absolutely.

Come on, boys.

So they're pretty cute little guys. They're very sort of unique looking with

those hairdos. I call them little Albert Einstein's. You know, look at that

crazy hairdo. They just look like a little scientist.

Like they've sort of stuck their finger in a socket.

Exactly, that's what I thought.

How many have left in the wild now?

There's only about 3 ,000 left in the wild because of habitat loss,

deforestation. The illegal pet trade definitely affects their numbers.

In the 70s, they actually took a lot of them from the wild for medical research

and the numbers just haven't been able to build back up.

As a keeper, it's really important to get as much knowledge about.

The animals, you know, the species as a whole, but the individual personalities.

And we need to know who's who, not just for when we're doing a health check, but

we weigh these guys all the time and you need to just know who's on the scale so

you can match the weight to the individual.

So it's a very important skill to have pretty much from the get -go.

They look so similar, though. So how do you tell the difference between them?

What are the characteristics you look for?

Yeah, so I guess we're looking at certain...

visual and physical characteristics and then behavioural as well.

So generally the first one that will come to you will be Tricky, the dominant

male. Now Tricky also has some really obvious white lines coming down his

forehead and he's got the shortest mane.

You tend to sort of look at individual features before you learn the whole

animal. They might just have a slightly different hairdo, a little funky kick to

the side or something.

See how these guys have about an inch of brown on their shoulders?

Yes. If you look at JD, he has white, so pretty much his mane goes all the way

around.

Now, Petey is this one here, and I call him Perfect Petey.

Okay. He's a very pretty tamarin, so I call him Perfect Petey. Perfect Petey.

There you go.

Juan, who you're feeding at the moment, we call him Worried Juan, and that's

because he's got the biggest brow line.

They look so similar but being able to ID them is going to be one of the things

that I really need to be able to do but also one of the most challenging things

here, working with them.

Once she knows who's who...

Clay will need to recognise the clues to keeping them healthy.

First thing you sort of look at is their eyes, making sure their eyes are clear,

not watery.

Ears are clear, there's no wounds or scratches on their face.

You can see his tongue there looks nice and healthy.

You can see his body. You can see, you know, he looks like he's in really good

condition. We do weigh them weekly, so we get a really nice, close look.

Can you hear that vocal? Oh, wow.

38 different vocalisations.

Is that them basically saying, hurry up and give me some more?

Pretty much, yeah.

It was awesome to meet them up close, learn about how to ID them. I'm hoping

that by the end of my rotation, I'll be able to identify all four. We'll see how

that goes.

But not all the animals Clay needs to learn to handle are this cute and

I feel excited and just a little bit nervous.

In 2015, a devastating virus swept through the Bellinger River on the New

Wales north coast, decimating the local turtle population.

Taronga stepped up, took in the last remaining Bellinger River turtles and

breeding tanks that have been instrumental in saving the species.

In the wild, there's no breeding, so we have the last 16 remaining breedable

adults in this facility.

This is it. This is the future of this species.

Look at him. He's so happy.

Over the last three years, Taronga has released 20 turtles back to the river

system. I see.

And this year, they're on track to break all records.

That's what I love to see.

It's the biggest pond you've ever been in, mate.

So first year, 10 turtles. Second year, 10 turtles. This year, we're getting to

release 32 turtles.

You know, that's pretty exciting to know that we are, you know, going to

release. three times more than we've released previously.

While releasing animals to the wild is the end game, the long

journey for these turtles starts here.

This is our Bellinger River hatchling quarantine area. So these little guys

pretty much from some eggs that we...

collected up in our adult facility in those big green tubs that we keep the

adults in. The girls lay in that nest box in the middle of the pond and we'll

take those eggs out, bring them back down here and we hatch them in our

incubator. And then once they've hatched, we bring them in here and set

and this is their future for the next year.

And while these guys look forward to a big future, they sure do start out

So in here we have one of the babies.

That's the reason why I wear the gloves is just so I don't introduce any little

bugs.

This little guy's around seven months old.

Being in captivity, they do grow a lot faster because we're able to give them a

high -quality food, so they will grow a lot faster. You know, an animal at this

age in the wild would be a lot smaller.

This one's doing really well. You can see, you know, his shell's nice and

and as they get older, it will oval out.

It's very common for them to be quite round when they're...

First come out.

Underneath, his belly is quite yellow, which is really nice. His legs are quite

formed. They're really little, tiny little spindly legs.

You can see his tail.

He looks well. He moves good in the water.

And, you know, I think he's doing really well.

There you go, buddy.

Once they mature a little more, they'll move to the next tank, which will

hopefully prepare them for their homecoming.

We've set this one up as a natural sort of river system, similar to where they

would be found in the wild, just to sort of see how they act and how they grow

and how they respond to it. Yeah, so we're using gravel, similar to what's

in the river, the plants which are found in the river, to replicate a small part

of the river where they would naturally occur.

And these six are doing extremely well. They're growing, eating, doing

everything we would hope for them to do, if not more.

I'm really proud of what we're achieving in here. You know, we're breeding the

future of this species, so it is something to be proud of.

We put in a lot of work and a lot of effort.

We all get the smile that we're doing things right.

While breeding turtles is a major challenge, here at Taronga's Western

Zoo, the team has managed to breed one of the trickiest species in the world.

Not just once, but three times.

So this is Turbo, and this is his dad.

Rookie Institute keeper Clay is learning all it takes to care for the 200

animals that call the Institute home.

So this one is JD.

Yep. Yesterday she started off with cute and cuddly. He looks feathery. Yeah.

But today, Keeper Gray is introducing her to some more challenging residents.

All right, so we're going to start working on some snake handling. How do

feel about that?

Excited? Yeah. Okay, so we've got quite a few different snakes up here, but I

think we'll start with the spotted python.

Snakes are going to be something a bit different for me. I do have to learn the

skill of handling them, making sure they're comfortable, and I need to get

comfortable too because it is different for me.

So every snake has its own bag.

For quarantine, each one has their own individual one. Now, we're not actually

going to bag the snake, which we would do if we were taking it somewhere.

But we still use it when we're getting the snake out. We use it to let them

that we're coming so that we don't startle them.

And there he is.

And I'll just give him a little touch with it.

Just very gently. Again, it just lets him know that I'm coming and that I'm

going to be picking him up.

And I want to make sure that I support as much of his body as possible.

Here we go.

So this is Spot? Yes, this is Spotnik, one of the spotted pythons. And Spot is

an adult?

Yes, this is full size. That's full size. Yeah.

I think a lot of people have a really healthy caution regarding snakes.

He's got beautiful coloring.

Yeah. And you can see, being a constrictor, he's quite strong, just

larger pythons or boa constrictors. Yeah. They wrap around their prey to

it. Yeah, yeah.

We're much too large for them to do that, too.

They're non -venomous, so they're completely safe, and they're a great

start with.

You'll be fine.

Okay.

One of the most important things for Clay to learn is actually just being

comfortable handling the snakes.

So many people are afraid of snakes, and it's up to the education team who work

up here at the Institute with us to be helping people get over those fears.

Nice thought.

It's like trying to handle a slinky that's being activated.

You're constantly having to move your hands in order to keep up with where

they're going. They can end up going up your sleeves or in the neck of your

shirt or your jumper. So those are all things that you want to be aware of.

Obviously, that's not going to be an issue for Spot right now. He's sitting

comfortably. But you just want to be aware of where they're at at all times.

So I'm going to put him back now, and then you're going to get one out.

Clay is going to have her first snake experience with Winningay, another

python.

How are you feeling about handling your first snake?

Pretty good.

I just want to make sure that I do right by her and happy to give it a go and

hopefully make friends.

This morning, 12 critically endangered region honey eaters are in the wildlife

hospital. These birds are destined for Taronga Western Plains Zoo. And prior to

them going, we like to give them a full check -up.

Looks great. All of them checked out perfectly.

Okay, good.

While they're here, it's an ideal opportunity for some research.

Two, three.

For example, zoo nutritionist Michelle and her team are collecting data on

feather coloration.

The reason that we do that is because we can change some birds' feathers with

diet.

And we feed them diets full of carotenoids, different pigments that

the colors of the birds' feathers.

And we play around with different carotenoids to see if it changes the

changes the yellows. But we're not good enough at distinguishing between color

with our own eyes. We need a machine to do that. And that's where the

spectrophotometer comes in.

So we're measuring the colors of the birds' feathers with a spectrometer.

Yellow primary one.

Two. Three.

So we're getting three readings per feather color. We're trying to look at

yellow and the black.

Black primary one.

Birds are tetrachroma, so they see four colors, and that includes blue, red, and

green, but also UV.

As humans, we don't see UV. So even though we see black on a region honey

chest, another region honey eater might see a psychedelic rainbow of colors.

that we can't see.

Tidal yellow one.

What we're looking to do is actually find out what those colors are in the

birds so that when we're adding pigments to diets, we are achieving the same

color for birds that we're trying to breed as well.

Do you have a number on that?

Saving a species takes a whole zoo.

While Michelle is responsible for setting the diet, bird unit supervisor

Michael is in charge of dishing it up.

So this nectar supplement is replacing all of the nutrients that you'd find in

wild flowers, the box flowers, iron box, yellow box, white box.

We would never be able to collect that many flowers every single day. So what

can do is we can provide them with this artificial supplement.

And Michelle's natural colour -changing ingredients are all in the mix.

In the wild, naturally, they would get those teratinoids from eating insects

and, you know, flies or crickets or bugs or moths.

And those cheritinoids is what enables us to be able to give the region honey

eaters such vibrant yellows and such vibrant blacks.

We can provide that inside this supplement and every single bird gets

dose for that day.

While the correct food is essential for the honey eaters to breed, the other

vital element is a nest.

This is a crucial part of building their nest.

And to help them feel at home, Keeper Harmony is staring down her fears.

That's definitely not my favourite job to do because I've had a fear of spiders

for quite a long time.

But it's for the region honey eaters, so I'll happily go out and collect spider

webs any time of the day.

A lot of people like the slower pace of country life.

And out at Taronga's Western Plain Zoo in Dubbo, the world's largest species of

tortoise, the Galapagos, takes the whole slower -paced thing down to the next

level. So these guys are from the Galapagos Islands, so they're an

of islands about... 500 kilometres off Ecuador, South America, and they are

so unique.

They are up to 300 kilos for the males.

Franklin here is about 260 kilos, so he's very, very big.

And here at Dubbo, at Taronga Western Plain Zoo, we have eight Galapagos

tortoises, so we actually have five adults, so three males, two females, and

then we have three little hatchlings.

So NJ here, he was the first Galapagos tortoise that we've ever had hatched

in the whole Australasian region. So we were the first zoo to breed them. And

since he was born, we've actually had two more hatchlings born six years ago.

Penna and Turbo, they weigh about a kilo each.

It's definitely been a team effort to breed such a challenging species.

And I feel very, very grateful to work with them every day.

But astonishingly, these youngest tortoises actually came from the zoo's

resident. So this is Audrey.

She is about 95 years old and she is the proud mum of our three little

hatchlings. So pretty amazing, 95 years old and a mum.

But everything about Galapagos tortoises is just incredibly slow. They move very

slowly. They move at a top speed of about 0 .3 kilometres an hour.

And here lies the main reason they are. so difficult to breed as they really,

really take their time doing anything.

It takes them about 30 years before they'll generally start breeding and

often be even longer than that before they're in the prime of their breeding

age, before they feel comfortable and before they actually lay that first

clutch.

The Galapagos tortoise is a perfect example of evolution, ideally

how they've evolved to be able to breed.

Basically, the tortoiseshell is made up of two parts, the carapace, which is the

top part, and then that connects all the way through to underneath the plastron,

which is just the bottom half of the shell.

The plastron, so the under part of the shell there, for males is quite concave,

and that's just for mounting the females.

So they fit together when they mate with the females, they fit together like two

spoons. So quite an amazing shell, I think.

Evolution has also given them another strange quirk.

But this one is more to do with cleanliness.

So, this very handsome fellow is actually our largest Galapagos tortoise

the zoo. This is Albert. He is 50 years old and I'm going to get him to do a

very impressive behaviour.

And he's already done it. He knows the drill.

So you can just see he was in a total sitting position there, just grazing on

this hay. And then as soon as I approached him and started to give him a

bit of a tickle, he's raised up into this really impressive finch pose, as we

like to call it. And you can see he's got his neck stretched as far as he can,

his legs stretched up as far as he can, and he's staying incredibly still.

So on the Galapagos Islands, they have this symbiotic relationship with finches

that live on the island.

And basically what they'll do, the finches will fly up to the tortoise.

elicit this behavior and they'll raise up like this. And the finch can then

off dead skin and bugs from the tortoise.

Here at the zoo, if there's anything we need the vets to come down and have a

look at, they can come down. We'll get the tortoises up like this in the exact

same pose. They're the best patients in the zoo.

The vets love them because of how willing they are to participate in all

health checks.

And they're even able to take blood from the tortoises in this position.

We'll just give the tortoises a really, really good scratch, which will distract

them, and they'll be able to take blood. So amazing patients and amazing to work

with.

And after spending time with these gentle giants... Here you go, Wilbur.

..how could their zen lifestyle not rub off on the keepers?

It is an awesome experience being a Galapagos tortoise keeper. You learn

patience very, very quickly.

Everything about them is slow, but you're just in awe the whole time you're

here. You can't believe that a tortoise can be this big, that they can have so

much personality.

It is such a nice way to spend some of your day.

You can just come down here and just chill out even. They're just calming to

around and they remind me to take things slow.

Keeper Grey has just shown trainee Clay the rope on how to handle the

Institute's creepier residents.

All right.

Now it's her turn. How are you feeling about handling your first snake?

Pretty good.

All right.

You'll be fine.

Okay.

So?

Are you going to touch with the bag?

Is it good?

How do you feel?

Yeah, I felt like that was okay. Did it look okay from your perspective?

All right.

So are we going to take her outside for a bit of funny?

Sure, yeah. Let's do it.

Gray, is this okay? She's kind of going down my shoulder there. Are you

comfortable with it? It's okay for her to be there.

As long as she looks comfortable.

Yeah. She's just exploring. She's okay?

Having a little explorer over my shoulder.

It can get awkward if too much of them disappears over your back. Yeah.

And so you might want to bring her back around to the front before that happens.

But she's just checking out everything right now, seeing what's happening in

world. Here we go.

So one of my favorite things about the spotted python is that when we're inside

in the artificial lighting, there are brown snake with spots.

But if we had better sunlight, you would see that they actually have a beautiful

rainbow sheen over their entire body.

And it reminds me of the aboriginal dreaming stories of the rainbow serpent.

Yeah, right.

Even the most experienced handler can be rattled by a snake.

But Clay seems to be taking it all in her stride.

She's looking pretty comfortable.

I just heard her hiss in my ear. That was so cute.

I don't like them in my face. It gives me the heebie -jeebies. That was the

cutest sound, though. I'm not squeamish about snakes. I don't like them when

they're in my face.

I just can't deal with it.

I love them.

Well, you're doing a great job.

Aw, thanks, Gray.

Today was really fun.

I'm stoked that I'm learning to handle some of the snakes that are up at the

Institute, like the spotted pythons. They are a smaller python, so even

feel relatively confident now with them, hopefully I'll be able to work up to

some of the larger snakes soon.

Well done, Clay.

You're a snake handler.

With the snake handling ticked off, Clay's next stop in her orientation week

to meet one of Australia's most mischievous macropods.

When it's breeding season for the critically endangered Regent honey

takes a zoo -wide effort to make sure they have everything they need.

Because the Regent honey eaters eat nectar in the wild, we're going to

that so that they get the absolute best nutrition that we can give them.

From food to accommodation, keepers go to great lengths to set the right mood.

This is a crucial part of building their nest.

In zoo aviaries, honey eaters don't have access to the full range of building

materials they would normally find in the wild.

So keepers like Harmony help out with some honey eater home decorating.

Looking good. And there's a real art to it.

So not every single spider produces the web that we can use. This one isn't a

spider that we would take web from because it's too strong. So the

web is not one that we...

would hunt for. We're looking for the white, fluffy, clean, sticky spider web

that mostly comes from the house spider.

I've got spider web in my eye.

Each day, Harmony hunts for web, and her search takes her to every corner of the

zoo. We can find our spider webs anywhere, from trees, near the bins, or

the dunny, which is where we're headed right now.

The toilet block is a treasure trove of spider webs.

So that actually looks like there's quite some good spider web out the front

here. It's really good stuff.

The regent honey eunuchs are going to love this stuff. It's super fresh, super

sticky. They're going to definitely want to put this into their nest. Oh,

there's a spider.

Not a fan of that. Let's leave that guy.

There is that Australian story of the red -backed spider that lives in the

dunnies. That is definitely true. I haven't seen any yet.

So hopefully we won't come across any.

Oh!

Sorry.

There's a spider.

Spiders, definitely not a fan of them, so I don't want to disturb them. So I

would rather not freak them out so I don't get freaked out.

But for Harmony and the honey eaters, The web expedition has been well worth

risk. We've done quite well today. This one's really good. Quite white, fluffy

and sticky, so they're going to use this to stick the rest of their nesting

material in. So they'll wind this in to stick the dry grass, emu feathers, small

twigs. Spiderweb kind of sticks that all together.

So this is definitely a perfect example. It's very sticky, so they're going to

love it.

It's a big effort for a little bird.

Hi, buddy.

But here in Dubbo's breeding aviaries, it's all about to pay off.

Hi, Miss Pink.

Where's your babies today?

Come on, boy.

Very cool hairdo. Keeper Clay's sharp learning curve continues during her

training week at Taronga's Institute of Science and Learning.

There are so many awesome and unique animals that I've never worked with

so many different requirements, and I'm learning new things every single day.

It's a massive challenge, but so rewarding, and I'm really loving

about it so far.

All right, so we're going to go see Babs. Yep.

Susie is making the latest introduction.

Babs is just another animal up here at the Institute that I'm getting to know

and another species I haven't worked with before, but I'm excited to learn

about.

Babs is a little -known Australian marsupial called a rufous bettong.

Hey, Babs.

You going to come out?

Think of sort of like a small kangaroo crossed with a rat, and actually their

name, their common name, other than the rufous bettong, is a kangaroo rat.

Good girl. After you come.

Good girl.

Hello. Good morning.

Once he's up, I'll usually give her a piece to say thank you for getting out

bed, and then we'll move over to her pet pack, tap on the back and say pet pack,

and hopefully she will load into the transport box and we'll take her into

classroom. Sounds good. All right.

Like all animals at the Institute, Babs is an ambassador for her species.

Thank you.

And it's the star of the interactive classroom, which of course she enters

the stage door.

And this is a very cleverly designed release hatch.

So you see that this whole line's up here. It's all magnetised, so I've got

button which will basically open that.

The Woodlands Room is a multi -species interactive educational space for school

children.

All right, so I just heard the door open. Can you see where she's coming

Yep, she's just coming out of the hollow now. I can see her head.

Babs has been trained to come out of a release hollow, out onto the rock right

in front of the kids.

It's very exciting for the kids, you know. They're sitting in here and then

of a sudden, like, whoa, what is that? Animal appears.

Yeah. So Clay is learning all about Rufus Betong. She's learning about Babs.

she's learning about how to get her to do this routine.

Babs knows it quite well.

Babs, come on.

Babs.

But Clay then has to learn, if Babs gets a little bit lost along the way, how to

guide her in the right direction.

Babs. But today, it seems Babs is a reluctant performer.

Today's session with Babs and Susie was a good one for me. It was valuable

because I got to see how I manage Babs when she doesn't do exactly what we're

expecting of her or what we'd like of her in an ideal situation.

Babs!

Luckily, food is always a great motivator.

Good girl.

Let her come all the way to the end of the rock.

Okay, come on. That's it. Bring her all the way out. Off we go. Up the top.

That's what she's meant to do.

All right. So, corn. Corn. That way the kids get to see how dexterous they are

with their little hands. So she'll pick up the corn, have a good munch on it.

Yeah.

Yeah, so it wasn't the greatest session, but that's okay. As a keeper and

working with animals, you know, it's about allowing them to show their

of choice.

Then that's fine. She wanted to go and have an explore of all the enriching

smells.

She's just not feeling it today. Yeah, she's a little bit out of sorts.

While Diva Bab calls it a day.

She done.

She done.

She's done. I think she's done, yeah.

Clay doesn't have that luxury.

Still waiting patiently to greet her is the Institute's largest python.

Saving a species takes dedication and hard work from many departments, working

in harmony across the zoo.

Yeah, babies are doing awesome. They sleep a lot and they suckle a lot.

And a great example of this teamwork is helping these 12 female regent honey

eaters.

The bird team are responsible for breeding these endangered animals.

Two, three.

The vet team combines to ensure they're in tip -top shape for breeding.

Great body condition, pristine in fact.

And countless people from other teams go to great length to make sure they are

well nourished. Every single bird gets the right dose for that day.

And comfortable.

This is very sticky, so they're going to love it.

But the culmination of all this work happens here at Dubbo.

You ready for some food?

The 12 females that arrived from Sydney three months ago have been welcomed with

open wings by the eager males.

And for this endangered species, the results have been quite extraordinary.

Hello, welcome to the world.

So we've got 10 chicks.

Very exciting. Hey, Miss Yellow's first baby.

Here at Taronga Western Plain Zoo, we're in the process of welcoming a new

clutch into that family and certainly look forward to releasing them back into

the wild in the not -too -distant future.

Hi, Miss Paige.

Where's your babies today?

Well, the birds that came from Sydney will stay here to breed.

Where's Dad?

Oh, there's Dad. You are so big.

It's these chicks that will go on to repopulate the wild.

He'll contribute to the larger part of this region honey recovery program, and

that's exactly why we're here.

And as you can see, he's rearing to go.

But before they can be released, they've got a lot to learn.

This little one is going to go into the flocking aviary with a lot of other

juveniles and learn how to be a fully -fledged adult region honey eater.

Get ready to join the flock.

Okay.

Well done.

So this is the future of the species.

We've seen this juvenile hatch out from an egg, grow up in the nest with its

parents, and now it's gone on that next stage of its journey into a big area

like this to learn how to be self -sufficient and join the flock.

You can see the colour difference with the chicks and the parents.

The juveniles are a bit more of a duller, washed -out grey and yellow, but

enough they will have those beautiful bright colours just like Dad.

We are really proud, proud as punch.

This is why we're here, to protect these birds, to conserve them and get them

back into the wild where they belong.

Taronga has helped release more than 300 Regent honey eaters back to the wild.

That's a lot of feathers in their cap and they're only just getting started.

So it is a long road to recovery for a species such as the Regent honey eater.

But for every egg that hatches, every hatchling that comes out and fledges,

is definitely a sign of hope that this species has got a chance. And we hope to

be there to help that chance turn into reality.

Learning all the moving parts of Taronga's Institute is a daunting

So do you know where cotton tops are found?

Columbia, small pocket in Columbia.

Oh, gosh, you've done your research.

And new keeper Clay has spent a huge week getting her head around it all.

Hey, winning gay?

Being an institute keeper, there really is a lot to learn because there's such a

wide variety of animals. My background is birds, and that's what Clay's is as

well. And we do have those up here, which is great. But there's

there's reptiles, there's amphibians, there's macropods. There are so many

different things.

Yeah, I have to say, like, the variety of animals and different species is just

amazing up here.

Having successfully handled a smaller spotted python... Are you ready to do

first big snake?

Yeah, I think so.

Clay is graduating to something a bit more intimidating.

Hey, buddies.

Meet Ink, the black -headed python.

Of course, small snakes are going to be different to large snakes. The way you

hold them, the way you manage them while they're slithering around on your

hands. All right.

Bye.

All right.

I guess he's going to be a bit heavier than the last few I've handled.

Yeah, just a little bit.

Pythons aren't venomous, but they have a razor -sharp bite. The clay must move

slowly to avoid irritating ink.

I was thinking if I just kind of open him up a little like that. Okay.

Hold him over.

Just relax your arm a little bit more. Bring it down.

He's still a bit sleepy.

Yeah. I think he was fast asleep.

Yeah. Sorry, buddy.

So we've got him around your neck just because he's a lot heavier. He's a lot

longer. We want to make sure more of his body is supported so we don't end up

inadvertently causing any injuries to his spine.

All right.

Sounds good. All right. Should we get some sun ink? Yeah, let's go take him

outside and get some sun.

Thank you much, Lee.

So how are you feeling?

Yeah, good. I mean, it feels different, obviously.

Yeah. Ink may have been sleepy earlier, but now he's wide awake and ready to

wriggle, making holding him a real challenge.

He is, like, very long. He's very long. It's hard.

Like, it feels... And they're not typically an arboreal snake, which he'll

little bit more comfortable on the ground.

It's like amazingly heavy, so the arms are starting to get fatigued.

I think he's ready to go down and get some sun.

Clay has clearly learned a lot in her orientation week.

Clay's done really well today, and we'll do this with her a few more times, and

then we'll sign her off so she can do it all on her own.

But there's still a long road ahead on her journey to joining the

elite team of Institute Kipu.

With such a diversity in species, there is still so much to learn about the

individuals themselves and about the species.

So I'm still asking a lot of questions and probably annoying the other keepers

by asking so many all of the time. But that's how you learn. And these guys

so much. So it's great to feed off them. And yeah, I'm really loving my time up

here.

Thank you.