Original subtitles

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

Stretching from the shores of Sydney's famous harbour... Hello, everybody!

..to the vast western plain zoo in Dubbo.

Come on, girls!

But in a world that's ever -changing... Every single birth we have is vitally

important. ..one thing always stays the same.

There comes a time when you just have to let go.

The love these teams have.

Two little lion cubs.

For the thousands of animals in their care.

Good boy.

On this episode, a family check -up. We'll actually be doing a general

anaesthetic procedure on two of our western lowland gorillas.

The hospital's entire staff are called in. We've got two teams. We'll be in

separate rooms. As vets separate a mum and her daughter for the very first

It's a very, very stressful day for us this morning.

The highs. Good boy.

And lows.

Rush.

Of caring for giraffe.

We have to be very mindful of our own safety.

Release.

And permission to land.

Nice. As Taronga's most exotic... It's really great to see them so close up.

...stretch their wings.

Easy.

Just like gorilla groups in the wild, Taronga Zoo's troop of western lowland

gorillas has a clear hierarchy, led by a male silverback.

These tight -knit family members are ambassadors for their critically

species.

All of our gorillas serve an amazing purpose here at the zoo.

Their numbers aren't particularly great out in the wild and we have an amazing

conservation program here to really look after them.

But caring for these dangerous animals is not for the faint -hearted.

Just to have a health check, they need to be put to sleep.

And believe it or not, that's done by hand.

So today's a huge day for us here at the zoo. We'll actually be doing a general

anaesthetic procedure on two of our western lowland gorillas.

We're going to be bringing our aging female gorilla, Frala, up to the

She's about 40 years old, which is very, very old for a gorilla.

Their life expectancy is only about 30 to 40 in the wild, so this is an

incredible age to get to.

Being an older animal, we know that things are starting to deteriorate a

bit, so we really want to be able to pick up on them as fast as we can.

We know that she's got a few bad teeth in her mouth.

She's trained to do a mouth open for us so that we can have a quick look in

there. And we obviously can't do any dental work without a procedure like

So at the same time, we're going to make the process a whole lot more difficult

for us. And we're going to bring her youngest child, Fikiri, up.

Fikiri's only two years old. So very, very young, still very dependent on mum.

So we don't want to leave her down with the rest of the group without her mum.

So they're going to come up together and Fikiri's going to have her first basic

health check.

The nerves are high, but we've got a really, really good team that's spent a

of time working on this.

In fact, this

procedure is so big, it will require almost all of the hospital staff.

That Frances will take care of mum, Frala.

We're getting everything ready for the procedure, making sure we've got all the

equipment that we need.

And vet Gabby will look after little Fikiri.

We're also going to be drawing up the drugs. And gorillas are very, very

sensitive. The keepers have worked for a long, long time to get Ferala

accustomed to a hand injection.

And so I'm going to be drawing up Ferala's drugs and handing the syringe

loaded to Tim to administer.

Is that how you want to do it?

Yeah, perfect. Thank you.

And Gabby's going to be drawing up in a pole syringe the medication for Fikiri.

It's quite a big doe with the one meg per mil, so I'm just trying to work out

how much ends up in the needle. Just go with that.

It's a very, very stressful day for us this morning. We have put months of

training into it, but you never know what the animals are going to do.

With Tim on his way with both anaesthetic injections, the vet team is

get down to the gorillas.

So we should go very soon, guys.

Yeah, we're just all getting into our vehicles and we're heading down now.

Okay, let's go guys.

High above Sydney Harbour, rehabilitated birds are given a new lease on life.

It has three metres worth of wings.

To showcase the beauty and behaviour of the birds, keepers need expert training.

Last one up it goes. Well done.

And today, Bridget from Taronga Sister Zoo in Dubbo is about to start learning

the ropes.

Give her a round of applause.

Brendan hosts to Matthew Kettle. We are

ready and waiting.

Senior keeper Brendan and supervisor Matt are kicking off her tuition with

help of a rescued owl.

All right.

So, Bridge, what we've got here is Francis.

Francis is roughly a two -year -old barking owl.

Coming here, it's completely different to anything I've done out in Dubbo.

We're going to have Francis fly over to you in a second, Bridge. So you're going

to go through and call the bird by raising your...

Left arm up with the glove and your right arm behind it. Cool.

I'm learning the handling of large birds such as parrots and owls.

You raising the glove is the cue. Right. Just waiting for the bird to look.

There you go.

Nice. There's so much to learn because I've actually never done any of the

training and conditioning.

I've never had a bird fly at me and land on my hand before.

It's really great to see them so close up and...

Yeah, learning how to catch them on your hand.

Feeling a bit of nerves as well?

Always a little bit of nerves, especially getting your hands close to

face, I suppose, feeding them. But, no, it's just, yeah, so incredible.

Just going to chill with you for a bit. We want him to be calm in the area.

Then when he's ready, Matt will call Francis back to him.

Whenever we're teaching someone how to handle birds initially, it's all about

how we're using our body.

We always use our left hand. It just keeps everything really consistent. We

a predictable environment because there are certain things that we do with our

body that communicates information to our animals.

So you can bring your arm out just slightly to your side just so it's going

give the bird a better flight path. Back to Matt. All right.

So Bridget needs to learn how she holds her body properly to give the bird a

smooth ride, but it also allows the animal to come in with force without

getting anything come towards her too quickly.

Whenever she's looking, she's yours.

All right.

There you go.

No.

You can see he's just checking out the world, so that's normal. We want them to

be able to check things out.

It's always about reading their behaviour, their energy level, how much

looking around, how they're holding their feathers.

You can hear that vocalisation.

That means she's a little bit excited.

Bridget's going to start to be able to bring all these things together and be

able to provide Francis a good experience in whatever it is that he's

What you're doing quite well at the moment is the bird's coming towards you.

You're moving your hand, so tracking it to make sure that's going to land on

your thumb. It just sets the bird up to be able to perch nicely on your glove.

There's that impressive wingspan there.

But it's not only the presentation of the birds that Bridget needs to master.

As we expand our towns and our cities, we are making changes to the landscape.

In just three weeks, her own performance skills will be put to the test in front

of a live audience.

Coming up, a difficult procedure... And just gently down. OK. ..will tag

Taronga's vet.

She's vomited.

Get Larry to come in and help.

And a giraffe pedicure gives keepers a real tick. That keeper who is working

around its feet is at serious risk.

Whoa.

Every animal at Taronga with a hoof, whether it's an African zebra, bongo

antelope, or wild Mongolian turkey, is given regular hoof care.

Go on, Jim Jim.

Good boy.

But there's one animal with hooves that needs so much care, they're checked

every week.

So Jimmy here, he's weighing about 1 ,200 kilograms, so he's just over a ton.

Their hooves are about the size of a dinner plate. So you think a dinner

holding up just over a ton of an animal has got to do a lot, a lot of work. So

that's why hoof care and hoof maintenance is so important with

Much like our toenail.

Hooves are made from keratin, so Jimmy Yu is carrying all that weight on what

are essentially giant toenails.

It's really, really important for us to make sure that the hooves aren't

overgrowing and that the shape is in configuration to their legs.

If the configuration of the hoof's not right, their legs tend to bow in and

going to cause a lot of stress on their joints. So you don't really think when

you see an animal's hooves how much their hooves can affect the rest of

body, but having bad hoof conformation can affect the whole conformation of the

animal.

In past times, we would actually look at the hoof from above.

Now we've realised having a look at the underneath of the hoof, we can find out

so much more about what's going on in the actual hoof.

But that's something easier said than done.

Getting a giraffe to show the underside of its hoof takes years of innovation

and training.

This hoof block is fairly new to our giraffe. What we want our male to do, we

want him to come in, present their hoof onto here, then they'll roll their ankle

onto here, allowing us to have a good look at the underside of the hoof.

Station.

That's the way. Good. Good boy.

Training a giraffe can be a very drawn -out process.

Foot. Good.

Touch. Roll.

No, you can't roll.

So keepers are prepared for the long haul.

Station. Do one more on this one. Good. Foot. Good.

It's all right. Good learning.

Taronga's bird precinct highlights the plight of vulnerable bird species.

Andy and condors are one of the largest flying birds in the world.

To get that message across, Bridget needs to engage the audience.

So Bridget, do you want to get in position?

Yep. And after one week of training, she's starting to get the hang of it.

Bridget's learning how to be a public speaker.

And not many birds can adapt to this impact.

She's going through at the moment and meeting birds for the first time and

establishing those relationships.

Nicely done.

The number one thing is Bridget's going to learn how to read bird behaviour,

which will then feed into everything else that we do with pre -flight birds.

Behind the scenes, there's an extremely important animal care component as well.

And I think you're familiar with Gary. Yeah, I've heard about Gary. He used to

live in Dubbo.

Yeah. Like me.

Good job, champ.

Bring him out.

He knows what he's doing.

We weigh the birds every day for a couple of reasons.

One, we're going to use this information to determine their diet. But we also

want to make sure that we've got a bird that's in good condition as well.

They're essentially athletes.

Yeah. When we've weighed a bird... We'll consult with our vets and

nutritionists. But it's quite a specialised way of ensuring that these

get their best welfare.

We're going to move on to Dixie, our whistling kite.

Hey, Dixie.

Can you see what weight, sir?

About 608?

Yeah. Next up, a quick check on a major Mitchell cockatoo. We can also have her

reach up a little bit so we can get a better look of any other parts of the

body, which may be harder to see.

It's a lot to take in and the learning curve is steep, but there's no slowing

down with only a week and a half until Bridget's first big test.

Training giraffe is not an easy feat.

Jimmy, you right?

Good. Good boy, good.

It's been 18 months since Jimmy Yu first tried some simple hoof care commands.

Jim Jim, station buddy.

And now Jimmy Yu knows exactly what to do when it's his turn at the hoof salon.

Good boy.

Keep coming, mate. It's just a matter of reaching for the stars.

And this red one is called station.

That's like gold for him. So when he sees that and he touches his nose on

he gets a big reward.

Nice work.

Good boy. Very good.

Just hang back there.

But when you're about to cut the nails of a 1 ,200 -kilogram wild animal, it's

not only the giraffe you need to keep focused.

Good boy.

Gabe and Emma, you may come into position.

Station. Good.

We have to be very mindful of our own safety.

It can only take one little mishap, and, I mean, a mishap would be looking the

wrong direction, and Jimmy, who goes to kick, the power behind that leg, that

keeper who is working around his feet is at serious risk.

We're going to go right.

Here, Jim, stay with me, bud.

He's moving his weight. Release.

Even though Taronga's family of western lowland

gorillas can be very caring toward each other, they are still extremely

dangerous animals.

So today, when Frala has a broken tooth looked at, it will be done under full

anesthesia.

And because that provides an opportunity to give her daughter Fakiri a health

check, she'll be put under as well.

Two gorillas is a lot to really look out for.

One gorilla is massive, two gorillas is just the stress levels are high.

Go ahead now, we're just about there.

OK, we're going to start.

OK.

As part of the safety protocol, vets Gabby and Francis must keep their

Gorillas sense the different people and Ferala may not present her arm for an

injection. So as vets we have to stay well away. That's making us feel a

bit anxious.

Ferala won't come out unless she's fully asleep and if needs be we bring the

machine in and mask her down.

Finally. The call the vet have been waiting on. Go ahead, Mel.

I think you better come in to check Frala's position.

Coming.

Mel to Liz. Go ahead.

The kiwi just got pole injected.

Excellent, that's great. Can I come in now?

Yep, no worries, I'm at the door.

He'll land on my gloved hand.

Then from there, I'll give him a reward.

I'm just going to ask him to come up here, Bridget, so he'll be on this

Senior keeper Brendan is helping Bridget find her mark during her final training

session. She's getting used to being able to read bird body language. That's

good. And she's also preparing herself to be able to do the shows.

As we expand our towns and our cities, we are making changes to the landscape,

and not all birds can adapt to this impact.

Easy. Bridget needs to understand the blocking, so where she needs to stand,

because the animal has already learnt, oh, I go here, and then I go over there.

So we've already talked through how to work. You know what you're doing, but in

case anything happens that we don't expect, which could always happen, we're

outside and we're working with birds, Erin's going to be there to provide you

the support.

Right. You're sweet. Cool.

Taronga free -flight birds can, at times, fly off course.

So to ensure they're returned home, Bridget needs to learn how to locate the

birds using GPS.

Okay, so Bridge, get your antenna all set.

We'll give you a moving target today rather than just me hiding this in a

So I'll turn this transmitter on, it's 405, and I'll try and avoid you and you

try and find me. Just give me a five -minute head start and then do your

Okay, cool.

You can go in, Gab.

Both gorillas have been put to sleep behind closed doors in the gorilla

Do you want me to reverse in a little bit? Yes, I will.

Now the pressure is on to get them to the hospital before they wake up.

Little Fikiri is transported first.

At just two years old, she's easy to move.

But it's a different story for her 90 -kilogram mum, Frala.

She's a dangerous animal. We want to make sure that she's stable and she's

putting anybody's life at risk.

She's going to have a big cargo net over the top of her.

She's going to have an intravenous line in so that we can make sure that...

She stays asleep.

Straight on the table.

Just gently down.

We've got two teams. We'll be in separate rooms.

Gabby and Liz and Deb, the nurses, are going to do security.

And I'm going to do Frala. I've also got Liz and Tammy, vet nurses, working with

me. All right, so fluids have started running, 100 mils an hour.

All right, well, let's just get her intubated.

She's gorgeous.

Just stabilising her by getting

her IV cannula in with fluids, getting her intubated, getting a blood pressure.

We're trying to warm her up.

Oh, my gosh, you're suffering from an overdose of cute?

She's too much.

Do you want me to turn her over?

Yes. In the theatre next door, Fikiri's mum needs to be intubated for dental

work. And we're going to slide her this way. Ready? One, two, three.

OK, stop there.

Watch her don't sit up. Can I have this light turned over?

Yes.

Yes? I don't know.

She's vomited.

If Frances can't clear the vomit quickly, it could damage Fraulein's

Can you ask Larry to come in and give us a hand?

Get Larry to come in and help.

Larry, can you come in?

Jim, Jim.

Station, buddy.

That's the boy.

1 ,200 -kilogram giraffe Jimmy Yu is about to get a pedicure. Good boy.

Gabe and Emma, you may come into position.

It's a routine procedure with an unusual degree of risk.

We have to be very mindful of our own safety.

It can only take one little mishap, and I mean a mishap would be looking the

wrong direction, and Jimmy who goes to kick, the power behind that leg, that

keeper who is working around his feet is at serious risk.

When I'm happy with the way his foot is in position, I'll start the actual

training. The gym.

Right?

Good boy.

Today's exercise will be a combination of training and treatment. Very nice.

Emma will do T and R.

Touch.

Roll.

Good boy.

Very good.

Is he relaxed into that M? Yeah, he's pretty good. No worries. So, Gabe, you

ready? Yep. Brush.

Good. It might look like Jimmy Yu has learnt one long and very complex

behaviour, but it's actually a list of single linked commands.

That's a boy.

One increment M. Touch.

Roll. Good boy.

Very good. The foot up is one behaviour. The roll is another behaviour.

The rasping is another behaviour.

We'll make these short increments, Gabe.

Ras.

And over time, we've been able to put all those behaviours together and get

smooth behaviour.

He can come in, present his hoof, roll his hoof and allow us to trim.

But that's taken many, many, many steps to be able to get to the actual point.

Release.

Knife.

There's a few little stones in here today.

No worries. It's not too bad.

It's looking good.

Good. All the work that we do with the trimming, with the moisturizing and

everything is preventative care.

Spray. Just to prevent any wrongdoings happening with their hooves. Good.

You can go one more if you want. No, that's good. Beautiful.

So we want to make sure they're nicely shaped. They're not over -crossing.

They're not overgrown.

Same as you would with your fingernails. We have to take that sort of care with

these guys' hooves. Nice work.

Release.

Good boy.

Perfect session.

How did it look? Good.

So with Jimmy, we took off at probably about half an inch. See, Jim?

But in a giraffe foot, that's a fair bit of hoop. So he's done really, really

well today. Back.

Good boy.

We couldn't be happier with the way he worked.

Keep going. Back.

One more. Back. Great outcome for giraffe in general and great outcome for

Jimmy. Good boy.

It's a tremendous result.

that will help make the next few hundred hoof treatments this year just that

little bit easier on both giraffe and keeper.

The oldest female of the

western lowland gorilla group, Frala, and her daughter, Fikiri, are about to

have important health checks.

Prahla has been given a general anaesthetic for a dental procedure.

But there's a problem.

She's come down here to the hospital and regurgitated as she was on the table.

So we don't want her vomiting. Get her head down.

Just don't let it fall off.

Can you ask Larry to come in?

Give us a hand. We need to manage that and manage it very quickly so she's not

at risk of any damage from that.

She's vomiting, Larry. Francis wants a bit of a hand. Okay.

Just when I was trying to intubate her.

Okay. I'm just really worried that some of it's gone down her trachea. Can we

have some suction?

A little suction?

It's not too bad.

Thanks to the vet team's swift intervention, Frawless Airways are

Is she breathing okay now? Yeah.

That's all right.

So Larry, if you can help me get her stuff done.

Absolutely. I've asked Larry to give me a hand purely because we want to make

sure we get through all the procedures that we have to do so that we can

the whole anaesthetic time for her.

She's a big animal and we want to make sure that we can get her woken up in a

timely fashion.

Do you want to give her a big breath first?

First on the agenda is a chest X -ray.

The X -ray is part of her clinical exam. We want to assess her heart shape and

what her lungs are doing from a health perspective.

So Frala's 42.

That's reasonably old for a gorilla.

She's had multiple babies during her life and we're also examining part of

reproductive tract. Can I get the warm blanket on her? Okay.

And then I'd really like to get this dental X -ray done.

With Frala, we can see from photos the keepers have taken that she has a broken

tooth.

She's got a little bit of pus here.

Can you see that? Yeah, it's fractured all the way.

Teeth problems can cause quite significant pain, and we don't want her

any pain. So we're going to assess the tooth that we can see is broken and make

a plan for that tooth.

Yeah. Definitely needs to come out.

It's hardly any root there.

Yeah.

That front bit.

Let's try and dig it out quickly.

Gorillas have really big heads and their mouths are huge and their teeth are way

bigger than ours.

But taking teeth out is not always an easy task.

Larry, if I do her dental, do you want to ultrasound her uterus? Sure.

Just so we get through things.

Next door, there's a very different list of procedures for young Fikiri.

Her depth, please.

So this is our chance to give her a good physical exam, put a microchip in her,

vaccinate her, get some blood and X -ray her.

Very cute.

She's adorable.

OK, we're going to get a blood pressure once everybody stops touching her. So

it's going to get a blood pressure on her.

But under an anaesthetic...

Ready? Yep.

Even the simplest of procedures have challenges.

I can tell we're pumping up now.

No, that's not good.

Let's put the other one on her and just see what we get because it's just not

reading. Okay.

Have we got any more of those sized cuffs? Blood pressure is one of the most

important things you can measure in an anaesthetic.

Because if her blood pressure is really low, then it runs the issue of

potentially damaging her kidneys or other things like that.

I'm just doing another blood pressure.

Ready? Yep.

See what happens.

Gab, the blood pressure's still reading low.

That's not right.

Let's get this blood pressure sorted.

Louder that way.

New free flight bird team member Bridget is honing her skills with a tracking

device.

This is one of the most important tools we have to make sure we get our birds

back safely because often when we're looking at these recoveries a quick

decision is better than a delayed one.

Bridget needs to show she can track a wayward bird or in this training drill a

moving keeper it's a very loud signal change to my medium setting

see if it's closer and it goes higher

so

i know that he might be maybe up that hill because i can hear a louder beep

And not much that way.

If she's doing the right thing, she should be on top of me soon,

for the amount of time I gave her. So if she keeps following the tracking gear

rather than what she knows, then she'll find me sure enough pretty soon, I'd

reckon.

And fortunately, Matt's right.

There you are.

Well done, Bridge.

How did it go?

Yeah, good. That was fun.

Yeah, good exercise.

Yeah. Obviously, I move more than the tree, but nowhere near as much as the

birds. But if it does happen, you'll be more equipped now.

Just a lot of fun moving around the zoo and trying to find where he was.

So with that... Bridget's training is now complete, but her next step will be

the hardest.

Hello, everybody.

Gab, the blood pressure's still reading low.

At the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, Fikiri's low blood pressure is causing

concern.

So we're giving her an extra lot of fluids.

And we're turning down her gas that we anaesthetise her with.

Because all those things, the gas can lower her blood pressure.

And then what we're going to do is we're going to turn her on her back and move

her around to get an X -ray.

But decreasing the anaesthetic gas hasn't helped.

So her jaw tone, very loose.

She's got no reflex.

She's too deep.

You don't want to do a partial reversal?

A bag of Panadol? Yeah, I might need two.

So I have to try to reverse some to see if it improves.

Okay, I'm giving her at IM.

Yep.

How much was that?

0 .2 of a mil.

Okay. Okay, and with her arm? Yep.

Extra. Inside.

Hey, puppy.

While Fakiri remains in a very deep sleep...

Pulling teeth is having the opposite effect on Frala. Her heart rate's really

climbing with me digging around.

Taking teeth out of gorillas is basically the same procedure that a

might use on a person, but a much bigger, firmly seated tooth.

So I've loosened this tooth and then wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

It takes a little bit of, you know, I guess, muscle work to get the tooth

enough to be able to take it out.

I think because part of the root had started to wear away, it came out quite

well. I'm very happy with it.

I think she'll be much more comfortable without that tooth.

With a quick test for joint mobility,

Frala is almost good to go.

I'm actually really pleased with her. I think she looks great.

Gabby? Yes. We would like to take her back first. Okay, sure.

We're done.

Okay. Oh, you got your tooth out?

Yeah.

Way you!

Woo!

Legend! Gabby and I have been planning this procedure, you know, for quite some

time, and it's a procedure that was certainly with a lot of inherent

and so we were both highly engaged in making sure it went well.

The physical exam on young Fakiri is also going well.

It's been great to actually be able to do a full health check on her. So, yeah,

it's wonderful and all the keepers are outside, of course, really liking our

position here of being able to hold her hand.

Clearly related to her.

Shakira is adorable.

I mean, everyone was desperate to get this procedure done just so we could get

up close and, you know, see how cute she is. We know that she's adorable and her

personality is everything.

Doing a blood pressure? Yep.

So we're just confirming her blood pressure because I don't want it to be

Ready? Yep.

Blood pressure? Yes, it's done.

It's done. Oh, that's improved?

Yes. Hey, who?

Hello, mate.

The best you've got.

I suggested the partial vessel.

Can't just say that.

I suggested that.

And the vet agrees.

Liz saved the day again.

Are we all ready to go?

With Mum Friar's medical finished, Frances wants to get both gorillas home

quickly as possible.

We don't want her to wake up at this moment.

Hobble? Yes, please.

We want to get them back up to the gorilla house and try and wake them up

similar times.

Swing around.

And that means there's now a real pressure to get Fakiri back before her

wakes up to find her missing.

Yeah.

As soon as I've got the blood, we'll vaccinate.

And then we're done.

OK, here's the blood.

Vaccine.

Oh, are you going to have a sore arm, my darling? No, you're too sore arm.

OK.

I'm going to carry her. She's going to sit on my lap.

This is the fastest way to transport for Curie while she's still under the

effects of the anaesthetic.

Finally.

After months of planning and three hours under anaesthesia, both gorillas are

home.

Next. I feel like I've blanked already. I've said my name. Will Bridget's career

change really take off?

I'm just worried about blanking on my lines.

Go for it, Bridget.

Good start.

Erin's here as... your moral support to figuratively hold your hand.

After just three weeks of training with the bird team... Whoops, got my finger

in that one.

Bridget is about to take centre stage.

A place to nest and thrive.

Hey, Bridget.

So what we're going to do is we're going to get our mics on. So if you want to

come around and grab mic two.

I'm not expected to know everything from the beginning. The team have been so

good at helping me.

have confidence in myself and feeling comfortable to be out there presenting

the public.

But even with that newfound confidence... And I'm Bridget.

..Bridget's nerves are starting to show.

I feel like I've blanked already. I've said my name.

It doesn't matter where you're from or where you live, every day there's an

opportunity to connect with and see remarkable birds, which are really all

around us.

I have done some Keeper Talks out in Dubbo, but never so much in a theatre

a lot of people surrounded looking directly at you.

But there's no time left for practice.

When you see me coming out, mic on, meet me in the middle. Yes. And we'll go

from there.

Yep, going to be good.

See you out there, Bridget. See you out there.

You'll do great.

Good luck, Bridget.

Thank you. Bye.

This is a big day for Bridget.

because we're a team and we rely on one another.

You nervous?

Very. No, well, a little bit. I'm just worried about blanking on my lines.

Just try to remember my lines and get them across confidently.

But, yeah, I'm mostly excited.

Everything that we do down at Free Flight Birds is hopefully sharing these

amazing birds with people and getting them to feel something.

And the best way that we can get someone to feel something is by sharing our

passion with them.

So a new presenter coming through and getting to experience that for the first

time, from my experience, best thing in the world.

This is where it all starts.

Georgia, I'm in position.

And that means it's time.

Hello, everybody.

And

with

the occasional minor stumble.

Go for it, Bridget.

All right. Good start.

And it doesn't matter where you're from or where you live. And surprise take

off. We are making changes. There we go, Gary, to our landscape.

Bridget's first attempt is a huge success.

And it really is with your support that we see a bright future where the skies

and your backyards are filled with birds. And it all starts by looking up.

I'm happy with how it all went and feel confident for my next one.

I hope to get better and better.

Two weeks after Frala and her daughter were reunited, primate keeper Tim is

checking on their progress.

Frala and Fikiri essentially were separated for the first time during this

procedure, ever, ever.

They actually really surprised us. They settled straight back in like nothing

had happened. It was actually the other gorillas that really surprised us quite

a lot.

The other gorillas were here, missing two members of their family for half the

day.

It was probably Kabali that was the most nervous while they were gone.

That's exactly what we would expect in this situation as a silverback. It's his

job to look after his family.

So when one of his wives and one of his daughters goes missing for a little

while, he's obviously a little bit on edge and wants to make sure that they're

okay.

When Father Fakiri actually returned from the hospital, it was probably

that was the most excited to see them back.

Definitely settled him down a lot.

The vets have been able to go through all of their results, and we know that

they're both in pretty tip -top shape right now, so we're very, very happy.

We were super thrilled to be able to find out that Fraulein is doing so well

going into her older age.

She's a really, really important member of this group as well. So knowing that

she is in that really good health means that we can continue planning for the

group forward into the future.

Little Fakiri, it was her first big procedure. You can see she's in tip -top

shape as well. She came back out. She was wrestling her big brother the same

that she woke back up. So it's really, really cool to see that nice big

shining through in her as well.

We are very happy to see the tail end of all of this.

Massive relief.

Yeah, it's awesome to kind of just see them back out here, being gorillas,

what they do best. And yeah, couldn't be happier with how it went.

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