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, the gloves are well and truly on.

It's a transrectal exam and basically that means my hand's in a bum and I'm

shoulder deep inside her.

Taronga's rhino breeding program really hits its stride.

She's moving around and...

There's a heartbeat.

This is really what zoos are all about.

You've got to laugh.

This is my peanut pocket.

As these potoroos make a meal of mealtime.

I'm going to have to remove a peanut.

And what's up, Doc?

We have noticed with Daphne's teeth, she's got one of them that's sort of

growing not quite right.

The race to put a smile back on Daphne's dial.

We could potentially have to take all six tees out, but I really want to make

sure that it's the right call.

It doesn't matter which direction you look at Taronga.

There's always a familiar face, yawning, winking, or just plain staring straight

back at you.

The zoo is a melting pot of diverse habitats from around the world.

But as you'd expect, one of the most popular areas is also the one closest to

home, the Aussie Backyard to Bush.

This here is the farm part of our Backyard to Bush division.

And as you can see, it's the typical farm. We've got a windmill.

We've got our alpacas there. We have chickens.

But it is part of a much bigger picture here on our backyard bush. I think we

have our house area and our bush area.

Here you can get up close and personal with a roll call of Aussie icons.

We have our red kangaroos. These are all our female red kangaroos. And they're

the largest of the kangaroo species we've got here in Australia.

We've got wombats, echidnas, widgie, our emu, who likes to get out amongst the

public. He's very inquisitive. He comes right up and gives people a really good

check -out.

The idea is that everything you see here you can find in any country town

throughout back Australia.

This is the house part of our backyard to bush area.

And the thing I find a little bit amusing here, as I've mentioned many

before to a lot of different people, is I work with some of the scariest animals

that we have here.

And one of the Aussie classics, of course, is the redback on the toilet

And here we have our outdoor dunny, which is an absolute classic

place to find...

the classic Australian red -backed spider.

But there's one animal in this specifically Aussie precinct which is

backyards all around the world.

This is the backyard part of Backyard of Bush, where we have a lot of different

animals, but of course we have our rabbits.

Now, rabbits were the first introduced to Australia here many, many years ago,

and out in the wild they've become quite a pest.

but they're also a very, very popular pet.

And that's the role they play here at the zoo.

One of the things we like to do is teach people about responsible pet ownership.

So the kids can come in and they can learn about how to care for their

what sort of food to give them, make sure they've got fresh water, a good

to live, how to look after their health, all that sort of stuff.

So it's really good. The kids can go in and get to meet them up close.

As you can imagine, it's definitely one of the more popular parts of the zoo.

Now, in here, we have a lot of different rabbits, but there is one particular

who's one of my favourites, Daphne.

And they do love their pellets, so we'll put these down.

Hopefully, they're going to come over.

There we go.

Hello, little girl.

Look at you.

Aren't you pretty?

Same as all the other rabbits here. She came from a rabbit rescue place.

She's about six years old.

I've worked with a lot of different animals.

But I do have a bit of a soft spot for rabbits.

One of the reasons for that is a rabbit was actually one of my first pets.

But knowing rabbits like he does, Paul has noticed Daphne has a bit of a

problem.

Looking after the health of our animals here is very important.

Not only do we have to pick up all their rubbish, but also too, you know, we

need to check them out almost on a daily basis.

And teeth are very, very important to rabbits.

And one thing that we have noticed with Daphne's teeth is she's got one of them

that's sort of growing not quite right, a little bit discoloured.

So I'm a little bit uncomfortable with that.

Some might expect that she might need a little bit of help from the vets. So

definitely a good idea to have the vets check them out.

Caring for wildlife and caring for the environment go hand in hand.

So for Taronga, being an eco -friendly zoo is a daily requirement.

Our mission is a shared future for wildlife and people.

So we want to do everything sustainably. We want to really reduce our

environmental impact, reduce the impact of our operations on the environment.

And that includes reducing our water use, making our energy more efficient,

also reducing our waste to landfill.

Water is a big concern for sustainability and for the zoo. Zoos use

amount of water and we're using it for filling animal moats, pools which

kind of play in for enrichment.

We're using it obviously for our guests and for our staff.

So what we're trying to do is we have a wastewater recycling plant at the bottom

of the zoo which captures stormwater.

and also moat drops and other water from around the zoo, and it recycles it so

we can reuse the water across the site for things like toilet flushing.

And then that allows us to have a closed -loop system.

But water is just one of the resources that Taronga is investing in. Energy use

is really important.

Zoos use a huge amount of energy. We're using it to power all of our buildings

and our animal exhibits, you know, like heat lamps to keep our animals warm.

But we also...

are committing to net zero by 2030, and that will include moving to renewable

electricity and moving to electric vehicles.

With over 5 ,000 residents at Taronga, there's also another messy by -product

they need to deal with.

So zoos generate a huge amount of animal waste, poo.

So that can be, you know, 25 to 35 tonnes a month that we generate just

this site in Sydney.

And so what we want to do to avoid all of that going to landfill and creating

greenhouse gas emissions, we actually take all of that animal waste, collect

and it gets sent to a special facility where it's composted.

So we really want to focus on circular economy where possible, and that's all

about preventing waste and thinking of creative ways to reuse things. And we're

quite good at that at the zoo. We all talk to each other across the zoo

the keepers and other staff to figure out where we can reuse things.

For example, we're using eucalyptus leaves for feed for koalas. When they're

done, we can actually take that and give it to another animal for a sensory

olfactory experience.

Hey, Freya. Hey, Parni. How are you going? Good. How are you?

Yeah, good. We've got some nice eucalyptus here, koalas to finish with.

hopefully your goats should love it. They will, yeah. Beautiful.

All right, should we take it in? Yeah, thank you.

You go first.

Even though the koalas have had a turn of this for a day, it's not going to go

to waste. It's still got another whole youth left in it before we don't need it

anymore. It's awesome. It just helps us with being sustainable.

This type of feed is known as browse, and the goats can't wait to get stuck

You're already getting into the browse pit, hey?

You can see there's not that many leaves left on there, but the goats will still

enjoy it. They'll eat those leaves and they'll have a good scratch on the

branch.

Put this one up here for you.

This is Lottie, and she loves climbing up here, so that's why I've put the

up high for her. She's going to climb all the way along here and have a good

nibble at that.

Goats have earned themselves the reputation of being some of the best

at Taronga, but the next animal is by far the biggest recycler.

Out at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Staff are very proud of their work when it

comes to breeding the endangered rhinoceros.

We are the only institution in Australia that's breeding black rhinos. We're

currently one of two institutions that have had the most success breeding this

species in the world.

And after the birth of two rhino calves last year, they're also very keen to

keep their successful breeding program going.

There are so few rhinoceros left on the planet that every single individual

counts and, you know, they're not that easy to manage for breeding.

Senior vet Ben is checking in on not one, but two pregnant rhinos. We are

to do a reproductive ultrasound exam on Mapani, one of our southern white

rhinos. And Mapani is one of our breeding females.

And, you know, she's been very successful over the years and had

calves. There are two things that are essential when checking if a rhino is

pregnant. The first one is teamwork.

The second, a pair of very long gloves.

You know, one of the big challenges with zoo veterinary medicine is the wild

nature of our patients.

Veterinarians in zoos really rely on the expertise of keepers to teach animals

and condition animals to behave in certain ways to present themselves and

themselves available to vets to examine.

Good girl, nice. Steady there.

Oh, beautiful.

Beautiful.

My job is to just keep my party.

in her place when she comes into the crutch. Make sure she's really steady

calm. Ben and Bobby Joe have their hands full, for lack of a better term.

Hey, Mo.

So a great conversation starter I have as a zookeeper is a lot of people think

I'm getting, you know, patting rhinos all day, which is a big part of it.

But actually the reality of being a zookeeper is I have my arm fair up a

bottom most mornings.

Good girl.

My job is to basically help our vet, Ben, prepare her for the rectal

So she has that initial, that trust and that relationship with me. I start the

procedure nice and slowly, and then once I'm in there, I just gently massage the

area, kind of mimic what Ben would do with the scanning machine.

OK. While Mapani appears calm and relaxed, she is still a two -tonne wild

animal, and any sudden movement could...

have serious consequences.

She can rush out forwards or rush backwards at any time, whenever she

And, you know, I'm in there with her and, you know, it's a transrectal exam

basically that means my hand's in a bum and I'm shoulder deep inside her, you

know, rummaging around in her tummy looking for the reproductive organs and

getting pictures of them with my ultrasound gear.

Teddy, back up my party.

Back up.

She back up a bit for you, Lee?

She's backing up.

Coming up, heaving problems for Daphne on her first ever trip to the dentist.

I'm not 100 % sure that that tooth can be saved.

And there's nothing rich... We don't waste anything.

..about Taronga's enrichment team.

It's actually cost Taronga Zoo around $14.

Keepers down at Backyard to Bush have concerns with one of their rabbits.

Teeth are very, very important. She's got one of them that's sort of growing

quite right.

So today, Vet Beck has hopped to it and organised a full check -up of this much

-loved animal.

Lisa, this is Backyard to Bushkeeper.

One of our patients, Daphne, is a four -year -old rabbit.

And they've actually noticed that one of her teeth, her upper incisors, is a

little bit stained, so they're a bit concerned about that.

Rabbits are prone to getting dental disease, so it's really important that

have a look at that tooth.

Hey, Paul.

Hello.

Maintaining good dental health in rabbits is imperative for their

Sorry,

darling. Nice and brave.

Well done.

Well done.

I've had pet rabbits since I was five years old. All rescues.

I love them.

Rabbits have actually got six incisors, so they've got two incisors down the

bottom, and this one in particular, you can see it's quite skinny up the top

there. It almost looks like a little bit of the tooth's been eroded.

See how it looks a little bit like sort of decayed and that?

And you can see the wear is a little bit uneven as well.

Yeah, so it's just sort of that.

What happens is that these incisors will continually grow and unless they're

chewing on wood or food material, the teeth don't butt up and grind against

other and wear each other down.

And if there's a bit of malocclusion, so if these are the teeth, if they're sort

of off to the side, that tooth can continue to grow and grow and grow into

cheek, into the gums, can cause a lot of pain, a lot of abscessation.

They start to stop eating and then they lose weight and it can actually kill

them. And sadly, a lot of people aren't aware of how devastating dental disease

in rabbits can be.

To avoid such a tragic outcome for Daphne, the first procedure for today is

take some dental x -rays.

X -ray.

I'll develop those. You can pop it back on oxygen.

Like it looks like, when you're looking at it there, it looks like it's

fractured.

It's not good for Daphne.

This is her jaw, and these black lines are indicating where the root of the

teeth go into her jaw, so really, really big, long roots.

And these are the two little what we call peg teeth.

They're little incisor teeth that just sit behind the big incisors.

But this one's sort of superimposed overlying that tooth and it's making it

like this tooth's fractured. So I'm just trying to get the right angle to rule

out that that tooth does have a fracture.

In rabbits, it's not as simple as taking out a rotten tooth or a bad tooth.

In dogs and cats and even people, if there's one tooth that's causing a

or it's diseased or it's not functioning right, we can take it out. But with

rabbits, they really rely on those occluding forces and the teeth grinding

butting up against each other to keep their teeth ground down.

So removing one tooth might mean that I have to take all those other healthy

ones out as well.

Okay, x -ray.

And I don't want to do that if I'm not 100 % sure that that tooth, can

potentially be saved.

Taronga is always thinking about new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.

With that in mind, today they've got a little surprise for the zoo's biggest

residents. These are pineapple tops that have come down from a farm in

Queensland.

You can see where the pineapple would grow on top here and they've come

and harvested it and the rest of this would normally just go to waste. This

stuff can't be used by people.

We may as well put it to use with the animals. It's all about enrichment. It's

all about encouraging them to do a whole variety of natural behaviours that they

would normally do.

But with these elephants, there's no encouragement needed.

They love it.

Yeah, they seem to be ripping the leaves off.

Enjoying it bit by bit. Yeah.

We really work closely with the keepers because when we're designing these

enrichments, we want to build them around the natural behaviours rather

just a bowl on the ground.

They're foraging in different places.

just as they would in the wild. So again, it's all about promoting those

behaviours. Is it mental stimulation as well? Absolutely, yeah.

And that's why they didn't just put them all in one spot in the middle of the

enclosure. They hide them around the place and they've got to search for

And the way they're manipulating it is quite important for their physical

as well. So we're seeing them use their trunk and manipulate it. And so it's

great to see those sorts of things because not only is that...

engaging the animals. It's also telling us that they're healthy. We're seeing

the way they're moving and it's a good indicator of the good welfare that we

have for our animals here as well.

But the elephants don't have a monopoly on these sweet leaves today.

So thinking outside the box is really important.

Pineapple tops are great for our elephants but they're also great for

animals like the capybaras. They love them nearly as much, probably as much as

the elephants do.

Hello!

Hi!

The pineapple hammer eyes.

Yeah,

the cabbages are absolutely going to love these.

Do you want to come in here and feed?

Oh, please.

Excellent. This is a really rewarding part of my day and a rare part of my day

here.

Unlike the keepers, I don't get to get up close and personal with the animals

this often.

It's really exciting for me because I get to see their adaptations and their

behaviours.

This tough vegetation is great for them wearing down their teeth, which is a

really important thing for rodents to be able to do. You can see Rodney's

already destroyed it. Carlos here is powering through his pineapple top as

It's not just plants that get a second chance.

Taronga has found a way to reuse almost everything.

One person's trash is another person's treasure, and our animals definitely

think so as well.

The wildlife retreat at Taronga is home to some very unique animals.

And looking after them is the highlight of Keeper Natalie's day.

I'm just getting ready to feed some of our Aussie natives.

These bowls here are for the potoroos. I've also got some peanut butter. And

some of this is for our paddy melons as well.

I'm going to head off there now.

So the good thing about the retreat is...

The guests get to see all these amazing native animals.

We've got platypus.

We've got echidnas.

We've got a lot of species of macropod as well.

And macropod means big foot, so they're all related to the kangaroo.

We try to make sure their life is pretty amazing while they're here.

And the guests get the best experience by coming through in the afternoon.

They can also walk through in the mornings as well.

Okay, so through here is the paddy melons and the potoroos.

Morning, guys.

I'm just going to put some food in for the paddy melons.

They love their mulberry.

Hi, everyone.

These are a gorgeous species.

So redneck paddy melons, they mostly eat leaves.

We have seven of them. They're a rainforest wallaby.

So they're found in Queensland and in the north of New South Wales as well.

We've got a bettong species as well. And after this, we're going to feed the

potoroos, which are kind of like a very small kangaroo.

Morning, boys.

Hello.

Got your breakfast?

There you go.

Boys, there you go.

Morning, Otto.

Hi, Nick.

Boy.

These are two male long -nosed potoroos.

We have four males at the wildlife retreat.

So on the left we have Otto.

He's only about two.

And on the right is Nick. He's four and a half years old.

They're both eating their carrot and sweet potato, which has been chopped up

nice and small.

When the early settlers came to Australia, they thought it was a rat.

So the whole family is still called rat kangaroo, but they are in no way related

to a rodent. They are a marsupial.

But they have a very different lifestyle to a kangaroo or wallaby, so that's why

they've got some different adaptations, like a very long nose and very long

claws on their front feet.

This is my peanut pocket.

So Cooper has found it.

He knows where it is.

Cooper's in the middle here. These are his two sons who he's teaching

to.

I'm going to have to remove a peanut.

So they know I always have peanuts in this pocket.

But it means that we've got that good relationship where they're not scared of

me at all.

I've got some peanut butter in here.

A little bit of enrichment.

Apparently their sense of smell is excellent. You can see with that long

what an advantage that would be.

in the wild so they can sniff out fungi and truffles in the soil.

I think they're incredibly smart.

Yes, as you can see there, Cooper has found my stash of peanut butter and he's

trying to help himself.

Potteroos and a lot of other little native marsupials like these guys are in

lot of trouble in Australia.

Unfortunately, they're extremely vulnerable to predators such as cats and

They actually compete with rabbits sometimes for the habitat.

And then, of course, they're very vulnerable to land clearing. So they

really dense vegetation to feel safe from predators.

And unfortunately, we've done a lot of land clearing in Australia.

But the best thing about the retreat is that we get to show off species people

haven't heard of that they're vital to the environment.

Out at Dubbo, senior vet Ben is conducting an ultrasound.

on a very skittish white rhino, Mopani.

She's shy, she's a little bit nervous. It's taken a lot of sensitive management

from the keepers who have a really strong relationship and deep level of

from Mopani to progress her to the point where she's happy to have this kind of

veterinary experience.

OK.

She's backing up.

She backs up quick.

Just give her some time to relax.

Hello. Good girl.

Here's my good girl.

It's okay, my party.

Good girl.

Here's my good girl.

Just back her up when you can, Lee.

Good girl.

What a good girl.

It's all right.

It's all right. With my party more settled...

Ben tries again.

See, I don't think he's using the tail as a rudder.

And back her up when you can.

Backing up, Ben.

OK, we're going to call it, I think, guys.

While tracking the pregnancy of Mapani is the only way staff can be alerted to

internal complications...

See what she wants to do here. If she doesn't come back, yeah, we're going to

call it. Sorry.

The need to monitor does not override rule number one, which is the animal's

welfare always comes first.

Rhinoceros are generally very claustrophobic, so one means by which we

help them to feel secure during these procedures is to give them the

to finish up and move away whenever they choose. So that's what happened today.

It was a little bit windy.

She decided everything wasn't quite right. That's great. She needed to do

and we set it up so she can.

While there's some unfinished business today with Mopani, Ben's hoping for a

different outcome tomorrow.

when he's due to perform an ultrasound on the rare black rhino, Cassara.

How are you going, Ben?

Good, mate.

Nearly there.

Still to come, another kick in some very big teeth for Daphne the rabbit.

It's not as easy as I thought it was going to be. The case is actually a

bit tricky.

And Dubbo's vet goes all in for a rhino ultrasound.

There is always a risk of miscarriage.

Waste is a fact of life for most of us. But at Taronga Zoo, every effort is made

to reduce it wherever possible.

We are actually targeting to reduce 90 % of our waste, at least 90 % of our

waste from landfill by 2025, and having creative ways to reuse things.

So luckily, sustainability and enrichment go hand in hand.

We're constantly looking at how we can promote natural behaviours and promote

diversity for the animals.

And one of the things we use is old fire hoses that come from fire brigade and

would otherwise go to waste when they've been used too many times to be good for

them anymore.

And they come to us and we've got a team of people that build them into things

like hammocks and climbing structures.

And that creates a complex 3D environment in their enclosure.

The Army of Taronga volunteers breathing new life into these old items.

include retired engineers and tradesmen like Roger, Colin and Fred.

Everything we make pretty much is all recycled materials.

So this is another enrichment device we made for the gorillas. It's all a big

ball of solid fire hose and the keepers they poke food down in these little

pockets here and this is chained up so they can't drag it away too far.

We don't waste anything.

So we source all sorts of stuff throughout the zoo, like this is all

piping from different projects that have been on around the zoo. So with these

in particular we make tucker tubes for the chimpanzees out of these. So we

off one end.

We have a removable end in the other and a series of about 20mm holes drilled

and they poke food in them and then they hang them up and the chimps have to

come along and get the food out.

The big challenge with enrichment is maintaining diversity because if we give

them the same thing every day then it's no longer enriching, it becomes routine

for them. So a challenge for us and for the keepers is to be able to maintain

and constantly think of new things to give to the animals to create that

variation. The very latest in design innovation from the team is a hammock

Mary, the sun bear.

The only thing that we have to buy are the rivets and so Mary ends up getting a

hammock that we've worked out that it's actually cost Taronga Zoo around $14 and

most of the other equipment that we've used for it.

we've resourced from what Taronga Zoo is about to throw out.

She already has a couple of hammocks in the back den, but this is to go out in

the public arena so everybody can see her hopefully using it.

So, now that Roger, Colin and Fred have made the hammock, the big question is,

will Mary lie in it?

At the wildlife hospital, Daphne is being examined for problems with her

teeth. And this one in particular, you can see it's quite skinny up the top

there. It almost looks like a little bit of the tooth's been eroded.

Okay, x -ray.

And what Bec has discovered could have big consequences for this little rabbit.

When you're looking at it there, it looks like it's fractured.

It's not a tooth that we want to remove if we don't have to. There's a lot

involved in removing that tooth. As I said, it's not just taking out one bad

tooth. We could potentially have to take all six teeth out.

Most of their eating is done on their back molar teeth, so they can survive

quite well without incisors, but I really want to make sure that it's the

call.

Additional x -rays aren't providing the good news Bec is looking for.

This that you can appreciate is a perfectly good root and like there's not

sort of lucency there but it's just, see how that's just like a little bit

blacker there and because it's lying over it, see how you get this line that

looks like it's cracked.

So it might be a crack or a fracture through it or it could just be the

little tooth but see this one's not really doing it which worries me a

bit.

I was looking forward to sort of being able to give Daphne a bill of good

today and check that tooth for her, but it's not as easy as I thought it was

going to be. The case is actually a little bit tricky. There are some areas

concern because to take that tooth out is going to be a big process for Daphne

and potentially we'll need to take out at least one, if not another, two or

three healthy teeth, but I don't want to take out unhealthy teeth unnecessarily.

So, as Daphne heads back home for the moment...

Beck calls in some reinforcements for a second opinion.

So what I'm actually going to do is get a rabbit specialist and a dental

specialist just to review the x -rays for me because I want to do the best

for Daphne with regards to the health of her teeth and I look forward to hearing

what the specialists have to say about the best thing we can do for her.

Senior vet Ben had a hard time yesterday conducting an ultrasound on white rhino

Mpani.

Back up.

Okay, we're going to call it, I think, guys.

Today, he's hoping for a better result as he attempts to ultrasound another

pregnant rhino, Kassara.

Applying ultrasound technology to rhinoceros is the final frontier, mostly

because they're very wild, very reactive and potentially quite nervous and

skittish. Kithara is one of the most important rhinos

at Western Plains Zoo and Taronga are doing absolutely everything they can to

ensure this pregnancy is a success.

After much, much work, we managed to achieve a pregnancy with Kithara.

She's the granddaughter of a wild black rhinoceros, and that makes her genes

very, very valuable.

They're a very precious species, and rhinoceros remain a threat everywhere

occur. There you are. Good girl.

Anything to report, team? She's been nice and quiet.

Yeah, no, she's been good. Yeah? No.

The job is to confirm that their pregnancy remains because, you know,

always a risk of miscarriage. And so I want to make sure that that fetus is

still there and is healthy and is continuing to develop and grow normally.

Here's my good girl. Hello.

Here's my good girl.

Here's my good girl.

I think she's a kind gentleman.

I'm just going to step back a bit. See if she'll step in towards you.

Lean in, Kathara. Lean in.

Good girl.

Kathara is on her best behaviour, allowing Ben and his team to all share

wonderful moment.

Little baby there to see.

He's oriented with his rump towards me and his head away from me, but I'll see

if I can't position him.

I can see little pearls of spinal column for the first time today as well.

I'll have to do some sums, but we must be 70 days or something like that.

That's two minutes.

I'll keep trying for the absolutely ultimate money shot, but look, there's a

lovely little fetus in there, and she's moving around, and

there's a little bladder back there.

She's moving around, and there's a heartbeat, and that's all we need.

That'll do, eh?

Yep. What a good girl.

She's a good girl.

All credit to the team. I mean, how beautifully behaved is she? I mean, it's

hard to... Sometimes I need to remind myself that she's a wild black rhino.

We did what we needed to do. Kafara was brilliant, and we demonstrated that the

little fetus is just thriving in there, and all those things suggest to me that

everything is normal, and that's what I want and what I need to see.

To think about the broader perspective, I mean, this is another individual black

rhino to add to the world's total population. You know, black rhinos are

critically endangered, and every single individual counts, so this is really

what zoos are all about.

Back at the wildlife hospital, Bec has finally got some feedback from the

specialist about Daphne's problem teeth.

When I consulted the rabbit specialist, they requested that I get a couple of

extra views of Daphne. The specialists were quite concerned about the

malocclusion in the front teeth and that could be contributing to that

discolouration and that irregular abnormal tooth.

The rabbit specialist, they advised me that at this stage we don't need to do

any tooth extractions, which is such a relief.

I was really worried about doing that because their teeth are so fragile and

particular the jaw is really fragile.

If you try and take out a very healthy tooth, there's a real high risk that you

might fracture the jaw. We will have to monitor Daphne's teeth overall, her

whole dentition, and that will be an ongoing lifelong thing to monitor.

Now all that's left is to update Paul.

And Daphne. Hey, Paul.

How are you going? Hey, Bec. Not too bad yourself?

Good, thank you. I'm just here to see our girl Daphne.

Daphne, yeah, she's over there. How's she doing?

Really well, actually.

Do you think we can catch her and have a little look at those teeth? I'm sure we

can. Thank you.

How is my girl?

How are you?

Yeah, so you can see that's the tooth that I was really worried about. We're

hoping that it's sort of going to grow out. That little deformed part is going

to grow out.

And that's what I'll probably just keep popping down every week or two just to

check on that.

All right, good girl. Good girl. Thank you. That was a good look.

But, yeah, I'm happy with how it's looking. I guess we're just going to

keep a really close eye on it. The specialists were most concerned about

her two incisors don't quite meet up naturally, and she might need to come up

the clinic and have regular teeth trimmed.

Thanks for all that, Bec.

Great news for her and for us because we love her. Yeah, she's a great rabbit.

So, yeah, thank you very much. No worries at all. We'll be in touch.

Thanks, Stephanie. We'll see you next time.

Being a zoo vet, we do work with all sorts of species.

People always think that it's the big iconic animals, the elephants, the

the lions, the seals that we deal with. But these guys are just as important.

You know, these little ones that are actually down at Backyard to Bush where

children can come and interact with them and learn responsible pet ownership

about having your pet de -sexed, about what to feed them and making sure

nice and healthy. So, yeah, even little Daphne.

is as important to me as all the other big, amazing animals out in the zoo. And

looking after her is definitely our priority here as well.

Next. Mary is a very heavy and very powerful animal.

The moment of truth.

But will Mary's new hammock be able to bear it? OK, first leg on.

For the animals at Taronga, enrichment is a vital component of their daily

routine. So the big challenge that we have is designing our enrichments to

the behaviours and a lot of our animals are really big and strong and they're

not gentle with things. They like to pull things apart because that's how

might, you know, tear apart a carcass of their prey in the wild.

Watch the poo. Watch the merry poo. I think you've got some on your shoe,

The volunteer team have been busy creating enrichment items out of

material.

Okay, in position.

We're about to put up the hammock in the exhibit. The hammock we've made is out

of fire hose and chain.

Reason, it's out of that kind of material.

is that Mary is a very heavy and very powerful animal.

She should be able to roll around on it and it will be perfectly safe for her.

If Mary enjoys the summit, then it's all worthwhile, you know.

It's the be -all and end -all.

Once we've secured this corner, this corner here will then go over to the

on the tree.

We've got about...

An hour and a half, because Mary has to be on exhibit half past nine when the

public come in.

So we should get it done today.

OK, rock and roll.

With just a few minor adjustments, it's ready for Mary to finally test it out.

Hanging nice and straight.

Looking good.

The only bit of the plan that we're still waiting for is Mary to come along

enjoy it herself.

So if Mary comes along and thinks, yeah, this is a lovely spot to rest, that's

the ultimate goal is achieved.

Over the last nine years, something like 50, 60 -odd

projects we've made for the zoo.

When we make something, we don't know if the animal's going to like it or not.

We hope the animal's going to like it.

Well, the hammock's all finished up. It looks awesome, perfect for Mare Bear. So

I'm going to put some enrichment out for her, and we'll see if she likes it.

Here she comes. She's out.

Cool.

Going sniffing some food first.

Yeah. Is she going to go straight to the hammock?

Okay, first leg on. Yeah, good. Yeah, come on. Get in there slowly.

Sun bears like Mary are excellent climbers and love nothing more than

and sunbaking in trees.

So this new addition is manna from heaven.

So far, so good. So good? Yeah, yeah, good. Nothing's moved?

Excellent.

Holds her weight.

That's all we need.

We do this job because we love doing it.

Nobody forces us to come in here. We come in here because we love coming to

Taronga Zoo. Best place in the world to work.

But to create something like Mary's hammock and see it up there, see

her use it, just doesn't get any better than that. That's really what we're here

for.

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