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, this may take a while.

In you come, Kaya.

A keeper's discover is not all black and white.

We'll just give it two minutes and reset completely.

When it comes to working with the most skittish animal at the zoo.

Patience is a virtue.

The real reason why this hungry hippo is putting on weight.

You have put on 21 kilos.

And, yeah, baby.

Well, actually, there's no baby.

Don't know why he picked that up.

Just a bird making a liar out of all of us.

A lot of people think they're called liar birds because they lie, because

mimic.

They may be hard to spot from this bird's -eye view, but nestled amongst

trees at Taronga are a huge number of African animals.

All the big names you'd expect are represented here, as are some of their

-known friends, like this little guy.

Hi, Fergus.

Okay, you ready to have your shower?

You'll have to move forward a little bit for me, hey?

Well, this is Fergus. He is a pygmy hippo.

Time for your favourite part of your day, getting your nice warm shower.

He is a very, very nice character. We have had him with us for quite a while

now. Pygmy hippos do differ from the river or common hippo.

They're only around a fifth of the size.

He weighs in at around 257 kilos.

They are my favourite species. I can't deny that.

And look at that face. How could you not? How could you not love a face like

that?

While Fergus loves the hot showers he gets here at Taronga, he's one of the

lucky ones.

Pygmy hippos are critically endangered in the wild and it's very hard to get an

estimated number of how many are left because you just can't get the

to the areas where they live. They live in countries that are very dangerous for

researchers to try to work in and they're also a very elusive species.

They are crepuscular, they're more active from dusk till dawn. They live in

rainforest and they are solitary.

You could just lie there all day and be hosed.

But Fergus isn't alone.

There are actually two pygmy hippos here in Sydney.

And it's not luck. It's all part of Taronga's plan to help stop their

dwindling numbers worldwide.

Camby, all right, it's your turn to have a hot shower.

Are you ready?

There we go.

Good for your skin, isn't it?

Good for the complexion.

So this is Kambiri. She is our female.

And you can see that she is really enjoying it. She's trying to splash me

Thank you.

She is the one who bred with Fergus and had a daughter in 2017.

And we're ready for the next chapter. We're ready to take it to the next level

and look at breeding our pair again.

Glad we have strong infrastructure here at the zoo. She obviously has an itch

she wants to scratch.

And what better way to do it than to rub your bottom against the nearest hard

thing you can find. Good job, sweetie.

That's it.

So what we're doing now with Fergus and Kambiri, we're giving them what we call

a fence session.

Now this shows us their behaviours to judge if Kambiri is an estrus or not.

Say hello to Fergus.

There's Fergus.

Say hello.

You've still got an itch.

You're more worried about your itch. Okay.

Kambiri was more interested in scratching her bottom than she was in

her bottom to Fergus. But that's all about to change as Kambiri is developing

different type of itch that only Fergus can scratch.

When people think of animal enrichment, it's the more obvious species that first

come to mind.

I hope the lions really enjoy this.

But the fact is that almost every animal at Taronga receives it in some form or

another.

It's about mental stimulation, getting these guys using their brain.

Including the reptiles.

And keeper Del just loves to give it to them. Not many people know that we do

some enrichment for some of the reptiles. Of course, we can't do it for

single reptile, but it's only for the ones that are quite curious creatures

also ones that are quite food -motivated as well. So today, being a feed day,

instead of giving the crickets that I'm going to feed out as a scatter feed or

just throwing them in, I'm actually going to make them work for their food.

The enrichment items that Del is using range from household products... to

feeders normally used by cats and dogs.

So this puzzle feeder is for our Cunningham skink. These open up like

We're going to be putting in crickets in a couple of these random ones. We're

going to close it up for them. They need to figure out how to open it up and

then all the crickets will come out. I won't lock it in place because it is

quite hard for them to get it open.

So I'm going to try and put some of these crickets into these puzzle

I'm going to have to go fast because these crickets are...

Very fast as well. So I'm going to choose a couple of these.

Put them in. This is going to be very embarrassing when they come out. Oh, no.

And no. That didn't work. There you go.

There's a few in there. And there's some running out as well. The perks of

trying to get live food into a food parcel for these animals.

Sometimes they'll just get out instead.

It's enrichment for me too.

Okay. So these four have crickets. This one doesn't.

And that's going to be good to go.

With all the feeders full, this pair of very curious Cunningham skinks are going

to get the first crack.

Oh, you're keen.

Back it up there, little dude.

Excuse me, I haven't finished yet. Let me unclick these a bit, just to make it

bit easier, just because these guys are a little bit smaller than a dog or a

cat, so they won't be able to open these as well.

So this enrichment benefits them because it's encouraging natural behaviours.

They would be foraging out in the wild. It's cute to watch and it's also cool to

be able to see them working things out. You can see their little minds ticking

away. After a slow start, the skink's interest seems to be growing.

That's very cool and that's very fast.

Crickets are fast, but Cunningham skinks are faster.

No more food for you. No more. No more.

Let me just take this away from you. Thank you. Bye -bye.

While enrichment is all about encouraging animals to exhibit their

behaviours, all around the zoo keepers spend their days teaching animals a

variety of learned behaviours.

These are essential as they enable staff to get up close and provide daily

maintenance and all important health care.

While most take to this training with ease, We need to just check them all

and make sure that they're healthy and in very good nick.

There are some animals that have other ideas.

Target. Hold.

Good job.

Zebras are very different to your stock standard horse.

They are a herd animal.

Their herd instincts are very, very strong. So trying to work them as an

individual can be difficult because they want to stay together.

But sometimes for a procedure, they can't be together. So it is important to

train those individual behaviours for those occasions.

Let's go back this way.

He's the standard slow self.

Zebra training is never the same every day.

They're very alert animals.

They're attuned to everything in their surroundings. So even like a visitor

wearing a funny hat might be something that puts them off.

So nothing's ever the same when you're working with animals, especially

ungulates.

So our two zebras, we've got our male is Buana and our female is Kaya. They came

to us from Taronga Western Plains Zoo out at Dubbo.

To train zebras correctly, the keepers will need all the patience they can

muster. So target stick, basically just a tennis ball on the end of a stick.

The idea is that we ask them to touch their nose to the end of the tennis

We'll then bridge and they'll get their reinforcement for touching the tennis

ball. And then we've got their station block as well. So it's very similar. The

idea is they, over time, will learn their station.

So we're able to hold this up.

and they'll know instantly that this is their station to be called over to. So,

for example, this is Bwana's station, our male zebra, so he should see over

we'll hold up this red station.

He'll see it's red, he'll be able to come over straight away and we'll be

to separate him off.

And then finally, the last piece of equipment we have is the clicker. This

what we use as our bridge. So in the training world, there's lots of

bridges that are out there, verbal clickers and whistles. So this one,

you click, and then you'll reinforce.

It's a slow and repetitive process, but it's the only way to work with such

timid animals.

Long -term aim for us is to be able to work on their feet and their hooves. So

we'd like to be able to do tactile all over their body, down to their hooves,

able to actually roll their hooves so we can do hoof work on them, get the

farrier in if we need to. That's one of our long -term goals.

Other training goals might pop up over time, depending on if we've got

procedures coming up that we're able to train for.

So we might work on a voluntary blood draw in the future as well, which helps

our vets get some really crucial information.

So who's the cross that when needed, the zebras will be ready?

Good girl.

Coming up, Fergus gets frisky. But is he making all the right moves?

I think Fergus is a little bit rusty.

And liar, liar, the cheeky bird keeping visitors on their toes. He likes to

rummage through pram. He's a big fan of sunglasses.

Over at the pygmy hippo exhibit, keeper Tracy is dealing with the aftermath of

Fergus's redecoration.

So this is our male hippo Fergus's side. And as you can see, they can really

spread their faeces a long way.

Now he started down here. He seems to love to poo in his bed area.

He started down here. It sprayed out like a fan, but it actually even

right up the wall.

But there is a reason why he's making this mess.

And it's a sign Tracy's been on the lookout for.

It's not just for fun, it's to send a message. So he's sending a message, this

is my bedroom, my place, male hippos stay out, but female hippos, hey, if

wandering by, why don't you pop in?

And that's exactly what female hippo Kambiri is hoping to do.

But before they can be put together, there's another messy job to take care

first.

We hope to breed our two hippos in the future. It's very important when you're

breeding animals to be able to observe their behaviour.

So we need to see what's going on when they're together. We need to see their

behaviour. So having crystal clear water and beautiful clean windows is going to

help with that.

So this is what we call our special mating ledge.

Pygmy hippos don't actually mate in the water or on land. They need something

that's a little bit in between.

And this ledge is the perfect width. It's the perfect depth. It's actually

water level, as you can see, goes up to that green line. So they're just in

nice, shallow water that covers their bodies.

And it's very handy for us because we have the big window right there so we

observe them perfectly, study their mating habits, learn more about the

positions that they prefer, and that way we can always improve our facilities

and give advice to other facilities as well.

So with preparations now complete and Fergus and Kambiri showing all the right

signs, it's time to bring these lovebirds together.

It's been 11 months since keepers began training these extremely flighty zebras.

There's no question it's been a monumental effort from the team and it

zebras are finally overcoming their shy prey mentality.

But now their training needs

to become much more specific and step up a few notches.

So our current training program with both of our zebra is to get them

vaccinated. They do succumb to illnesses that domesticated horses would succumb

to. So things like the Hendra virus and tetanus are things that we need to

protect our zebras against.

Our female zebra, Kaya, she also needs to have a contraception once a year as

well. So that is also administered via a needle. And so we need to prepare them

to accept all of those needles in the least stressful, least invasive way

possible. Before training like this became the norm, keepers used to

from a distance with dark guns.

But through consistent training, it's become a much more stress -free process

for both the animals and the keepers.

Our first step was just to desensitise Kaya to being touched in general.

She'd never been touched before, so just having a brush on her, any sort of

tactile or movement over her skin was very, very foreign. Once she was used to

being touched with a brush, we used other things as well. So we want to get

really used to getting a whole lot of different sensations touching her rump.

on the day when we actually do need to push a needle in and inject it, that

little bit of pain that's associated with it, hopefully she's able to combat

that better than she would. have been. This jacket's all secure, ready to go.

Today, Emma and Gabe are conducting a training run with a blunt vaccination

needle. Now let's do this. We're good.

And it's pretty clear, despite the many months of training, keepers and zebras

aren't always on the same page.

Kaya, not you, not your station.

They just need to be in the right order. It's so much easier when she comes out

first.

In you come, Kaya.

We'll just give her two minutes and reset completely.

Patience is a virtue.

She wants to work, but...

And

with a gently, gently approach to these skittish prey animals, keepers have

decided there's always tomorrow.

Down at the reptile house, Keeper Del is dishing out some enrichment for some

unlikely candidates.

All right, so now it's feeding time for our monocled cobra.

I'm going to be using this puzzle feeder. I'm going to be putting in some

pups into this, and we're going to make it a bit of a puzzle for her. So let me

just put this little rat pup in here.

I'm going to slide it close, so I might just even sense it a little bit with the

rat on top.

Put it in here.

Filling it is the easy part.

Positioning it correctly in front of this dangerous cobra is a little

So Keeper Dean's just put the enrichment board in and she's just cruising

around. She can smell him, she can smell food, she smells all these different

things.

And Dean's essentially enrichment as well because he's come in smelling a

bit nice and she's looking around going, where have you been?

Okay, see that tongue flicking? She is so, so close. She knows something's up.

She's tasting the air with her tongue.

This is essentially hunting for her. You can just imagine a small mammal, like a

rodent or something like that, out in the wild, buried around in a tunnel or

something like that. She needs to get that animal out. That animal's moving

around, so she's pretty much doing the same thing. She's digging around, trying

to figure out where this little, nice -smelling animal is.

Here we go.

Now, I've never seen this before.

She's never seen this before.

I've tried to make it a little bit easier for her as well, so hopefully it

and she gets her treat real soon.

This health award, being the first time she's ever used it, is a little bit

risky. She may not even like it.

That was my worry. She may not think it's interesting or it's too difficult

her as well.

There's no question she likes it.

Now she's just got to find it.

This is definitely what I wanted to see. I wanted to see these natural

behaviours. This is engaging everything.

It's engaging brain power. It's engaging her entire body as well.

Jackpot! Look at that.

She's found it.

Oh my gosh, that is so cool. Look at her, the way that she's actually trying

mouth that now. She's trying to swallow it. She's hoovering that down so quickly

because she knows that there's a couple more. She can smell it all and it's

just... So, so cool to be able to see this.

She's a very, very smart snake, so I imagine that this should be quite an

puzzle for her to crack.

It is important for us keepers to be able to provide enrichment for our

So I wouldn't be giving this to her every single day. I don't want her to be

able to figure it out all the time, you know. I want her to be thinking. So I

might put this back in with her maybe in a month's time, and it might make it a

little bit difficult for her as well. I might not scent it completely. I might

just hide maybe one in there.

Our cobra found every single rat pup and I think she's pretty happy with

herself. She's gone. She's happy. She's going to go for a sleep now.

Before this enrichment day is over, one more reptile needs Del's attention.

It's a brand new day and keepers are trying again to train the zebras to

their vaccination needles.

But this time they've decided to try a different approach.

Okay, we're going to do a training session with Kaya.

Al, if you can hold Buana up that end at his normal starting position, that'd be

awesome. And then I'll pull Kaya away with her station down into the raceway.

Yep, no problem.

Great. And then Gabe, I'll get her nice and calm in the raceway.

And then once she's in a nice position, I'll ask you to come up. And you've got

the brush, the ice block, and the needle with you? Yes. Awesome. Brush, ice

block. And syringe. We're going to cap on or cap off today? I think cap off.

Let's push it and see how she goes so she's really prepared for vaccination

Great. Cool.

That's it, Debbie.

So they're here now, which is fine.

They haven't tried to separate them before, but if it works today, this

the breakthrough they've been chasing.

That's a girl. Up you come.

Nice job.

Nice. So she's in the race. Nice and comfy, Gabe.

Coming in, darling.

There we go.

Just me coming up.

That's it.

That's a girl.

All right, Gabe, do you want to get out the brush first?

Yeah, sure. Get her used to the feeling of that.

Brush.

So far, so good.

A little bit nervous, but okay.

It's okay. We'll work through it.

Brush.

Nice. She seems to be relaxing into the session a bit.

That was really good. Good.

Shall we move on to ice block?

Yep, ice block.

That's a bit more of an unusual sensation, so we'll see how she goes.

Touch.

Nice. Okay.

Shall we move to a needle?

She's doing pretty well.

Okay, syringe cap off. Yep, let's do it.

Touch.

Lovely. That was awesome. Yep. I could have jabbed her then, I reckon. You

have jabbed her then. Awesome. Well, she's nice and prepared.

You happy to end the session there?

Yeah, that was perfect.

Finish.

Even though the training went as well as it could today, with the vaccinations

still a few months off, keepers know all too well that with an animal as

unpredictable as the zebra, on any given day, anything can happen.

It's been five years since pygmy hippo Kambiri was last pregnant.

But now she's at the peak of her fertility cycle.

Keeper Tracy is hoping that all changes today.

OK, so here comes Kambiri. She's going to come down into her exhibit, have a

look around.

Fergus is on his way out and he is looking very excited.

He hasn't been in with Kambiri for a few years now, so...

He knows what he's here for and he's very happy to be doing his part.

So Kambiri is excited to see Fergus. She's bobbing her head.

Fergus is bobbing his head as well and he's lowering himself into a crouch

position. Now that is a very important part of body language between pygmy

hippo. He has to ask to be invited into her territory and that is what he's

doing. And she is giving him the okay that, yes, I want you here.

As they get closer and closer to one another, things are starting to heat up.

So you can see that they're being very tactile. They're touching each other

their muzzles.

They're rubbing their bodies against each other.

They're really reaffirming that bond, that they know each other, they respect

each other, and that genetically they make acceptable mates to each other.

So these two, though, they've known each other for a long time. They've bred a

genetically valuable offspring, and they look pretty excited at the prospect of

repeating that event.

You always learn new things watching your animals interact like this.

Hippos don't usually mate on land, but Fergus is certainly giving it his best

shot.

I think Fergus is a little bit rusty. I think it's going to take him a few hours

to get his groove down.

But there's no rush on Fergus today, because very clearly, Kambiri isn't

anywhere.

From Tracy's perspective, everything is going according to plan.

Kambiri, as you can see, is lathering up. Now, that's natural. They do secrete

natural chemical that stops them from being sunburnt. And also, too, it has an

antibiotic in it that helps heal small wounds and scrapes.

So now we have them going into the water.

And just as predicted, they're straight on to the mating ledge.

So obviously they've decided that that would be a good place to try to mate.

It's a little hard to tell what's going on from this angle.

At least he's got his second wind before he was really panting.

While they'll spend the next week together, keepers will have to wait a

longer before they know for sure if a baby hippo is on the way.

It's hard to tell from watching them physically.

We have to wait for future actions, the way they behave between each other, to

know if she has fallen pregnant or not.

And you also look forward to the day that you are able to add a new pygmy

to a species that really is in decline in numbers, and I couldn't be more

excited.

The syringe bent.

The syringe bent, did it? And why the littlest animal has the biggest ego.

It's a bit embarrassing when your animals are more popular than you are,

just go cop that on the chin.

If you're in the Blue Mountains, Avery, you'll hear some amazing sounds.

But all is not as it seems.

If you ever hear... If you're in the Blue Mountains, Avery...

you'll hear some amazing sounds.

But all is not as it seems.

If you ever hear a baby crying, chances are what you're really listening to is

an Australian bird species that practices the art of mimicry.

So this is Echo, our male superb lyrebird. Echo is around...

Six years old?

Echo, come on, buddy.

You may have seen some footage of him online where he is crying like a baby.

Don't know why he picked that up. Makes me a bit sad to know that there are lots

of children crying at the zoo.

A lot of people think they're called liar birds because they lie, because

mimic. but it's actually because of the feathers on the outside of his tail. The

tail looks like a big musical instrument called a lyre, and that's actually how

they get that name, lyrebird.

Females have pretty boring, basic brown tails, and males have very detailed

tails, obviously for impressing those ladies.

Lyrebirds are winter breeders, so unlike other birds who prefer the spring, they

breed during winter.

Females will only lay one egg, so...

The male only has one opportunity to make sure that he gets offspring.

And so when he throws that tail over his head, he's pretty much going to shimmy

it in that lady's face.

So he does a little bit of a dance, and every lyrebird has their own individual

repertoire of calls that they will learn.

And if she likes his calls, then she will breed with him, and if not, she

on and will find someone else with a better call.

And it seems it's not just female lyrebirds that love Echo's screams.

Echo is a pretty popular bird. He actually has more Instagram followers

It's a bit embarrassing when your animals are more popular than you are,

just to cop that on the chin.

People really seem to love Echo, which is lucky, because some of his habits are

a little annoying, to say the least.

He likes to rummage through pram. He's a big fan of sunglasses, especially if

they're polarised, because he can see himself in them. And he just thinks he's

the most handsome creature on the planet.

So, yeah, he has been a bit of a problem child, but a problem I'm happy to have.

It's been a few months since Kambiri and Fergus spent time together in the pygmy

hippo habitat.

And Tracy, who is keeping a close eye on Kambiri, has noticed some exciting

changes. Just about to go and weigh Kambiri.

She's very easy to weigh. She knows how to do it. And I've got real deep

suspicions that she's pregnant, so I'd really like to get a new weight on her,

see how much she's put on.

OK, Kambiri, good morning.

How are you this morning?

You good girl? Are you going to come and get weighed for me?

Can you slide?

She's a very active animal. She doesn't really put on much winter weight.

So any extra weight, I'm going to hope, is baby weight.

Over you come, sweetie.

Pop up. You know what to do.

Come on, Kimmy. Good job. Good girl.

Good job.

Motherhood is such an enriching thing for the animal.

Kambiri loves being a mother. She's been a mother before.

So the best thing in the world for her would be to have another calf.

And let's have a look.

278 kilos.

Goodness me, you've put on some weight, haven't you? You have put on 21 kilos.

Look at that stomach.

Good girl. Good job. Touch.

Oh, getting quite round there, aren't you?

Touch. Good girl.

We'll have to get the vets down and do an ultrasound and just confirm that. But

looking at this tummy of yours, I am pretty convinced already that it's

baby weight.

It's fantastic news. So Tracy waits no time calling down the vet team for

confirmation. Hi, Tracy.

Hi, Frances. Come on in.

Very exciting.

Favourite part of my day.

Deb,

how are you?

Well, thanks. Okay, if you want to make your way along, she's all ready and

waiting for us.

It's really exciting to be able to work with animals where the keepers have

spent so much time getting her comfortable with us, being able to do

ultrasound. Makes my job really easy. Let's go.

Kimmy, let's go.

If she comes in here and she's closer to the mesh, I'm happy to try again from

this side like I could see quite well.

Head up there. If she's in tight like this, it makes it so much easier.

Pygmy hippo, sometimes really, really early on, it's hard to see the baby

because she's very round and the baby's kind of hidden right in the middle.

On this case, more or less as soon as I put the probe on her, I could tell.

So what we're seeing here is a spine and little rib cage.

While she can see the baby...

Frances wants to get a better angle just to be sure everything is perfect.

So we're going to turn her around and try from the other side.

Yep, we're right.

Cut. That's it, darling.

That's it.

Good job.

So what I'm trying to do is get a good view of the baby's heart.

So far it's got its head tucked away from me.

So I can't actually, I can see the beginning of his neck, but I can't

see his head.

I can see his heart beating nicely and regularly.

And because the baby was moving around, I haven't been able to get a really good

video image of the heart beating, but the heart is sitting up in here.

Tracy, for this session, I think we've achieved what we set out to, which is to

confirm that she does indeed have a baby.

It's a great outcome from today.

It's just so great because you know what's at the end of it and it's the

adorable little calf.

And just looking forward to now watching a new calf growing up and learning to

swim and learning to run around and interacting with us. It's so much fun.

that's something I'm really looking forward to now already.

Vaccination day has arrived for Taronga's female zebra, Kaya.

And keeper Emma is hoping everything will go smoothly after an intensive 13

months of daily training.

We've never pierced her skin with a sharp needle before. We've practised

blunt ones, but we've never actually gone through the hide.

So that's going to be the final hurdle that we haven't yet tested, is to see

she reacts to proper pain as a little needle top goes through that skin.

Leading into the vaccination, there is a few concerns that I have Firstly, I

want her to react well. I don't want her to go running off and hurt herself.

I don't want her to kick out in stress or get agitated with that injection as

goes in. I also don't want to break down the relationship that I've spent many,

many months building with her because that rapport is really valuable to me

that's what keeps her coming back time after time for different training

sessions. And this isn't a one -off vaccine either. She needs three vaccines

every year. So I need this to be a behaviour that she's willing to come in,

she's willing to accept needles and she's willing to come back to me the

day because our relationship is so strong.

It's now just a matter of trust.

So Emma and Gabe take their positions, ready to administer Kaya's first ever

hand injection.

That's the way. Come on out.

Good job.

Good gal.

Gabe, do you want to come on up?

There we go.

That's it.

Just me coming up.

There we go. She seems pretty calm. She's food motivated.

Pretty happy that she's comfortable.

Brush.

There we go.

That's it.

Beautiful.

Are you happy to go ahead with the injection, Nick?

Yeah. I reckon we'll go with syringe.

There we go.

Okay. Got your syringe ready.

Yeah. Touch.

So she's left the ray.

Hello, gorgeous.

The syringe bent. The syringe bent, did it?

Her hide is pretty thick.

I'll have to abort.

Take one.

Didn't go completely according to plan. The needle went through the hide, but

Gabe wasn't able to push the end of the syringe in because the needle actually

bent. So it was a bit of an unfortunate, frustrating moment.

Not to be deterred, and with a new needle in hand... Got the needle with

Yes, I just went and picked up the vaccine from the vet.

Awesome. Emma and Gabe reload and try again.

Another one.

Brush.

There we go.

Does she feel calm to you? Did she flinch at all with that? No, she's

calm. She's really good? OK, good.

Touch.

Finish. Good girl.

So Kaya did an amazing job. She's finally vaccinated. All those training

sessions added up to a really successful outcome.

She was really calm and really solid the whole time. I'm hoping that it hasn't

eroded our relationship at all and that sets her up for success into the future

for other vaccinations as well.

Keep Adele has spent the morning providing enrichment opportunities for

Taronga's reptiles, and her last stop for the day is with the Centralian

a native Australian snake.

Enrichment comes in many different forms. It's not just about food

lot of people think it's just food, but this one's actually enrichment for

exercise. This is for our snakes. I created this and designed this with our

carpenters. so then we can get our snakes to get on it, move around.

Because I do sit around all day long, I did steal quite a few rake handles and

broom handles around the zoo to be able to make this. Just don't tell anyone.

So here we have a Centralian carpet python. She's an absolute beauty.

These guys get to around two metres in length, so this board's going to be

pretty good for her because that means that she'll be able to stretch out as

well.

She's actually sleeping, so I feel bad, but...

Let's wake her up and get a little bit of exercise.

This snake's been an arboreal species, meaning that they like to climb around

well. You're often going to find them climbing up rock walls.

even in trees as well. So this is simulating a bit of a tree, if you will.

you're going up really high, like you're up in a tree. But you can see the way

that she's moving. She's going around as well. Fortunately, I can still grab her

from there.

She's moving around. She's lifting herself up. She's got really good core

muscles, better than me, and she can pull herself up completely.

Once she stops, she might be able to curl her tail a little bit, just to

on. Every time you put a snake on, it's different. It's a different adventure.

You don't know what they're going to do.

Don't know how their minds work. They're not very predictable.

Now, when it comes to snakes in human care, sometimes they do have a tendency

being a little bit overweight. Just because they're eating and then

eating, sleeping, and repeat, it's really cool to be able to see them, I

this word, undulating all around the board. So you see the way that she's

weaving in and out? A little bit like snakes and ladders, isn't it?

So she's using it to drape, she's using it to rest, she's using it to climb and

to grasp, and sometimes to fall.

Get back in there.

Our snake really, really enjoy it. He's now resting. He's done a lot of exercise

today. You've done enough, haven't you? You're ready to go back inside.

He's done a lot, so I would say this is a bit of a success.

As the snake makes her way back home, it's clear these enrichment activities

Taronga conduct provide as much joy for the staff as they do the animals in

their care.

It's great to see them using the board. The first time I ever tried it on these

snakes, they were a little bit apprehensive. What is this? I don't like

then they realised they could hold on to it, they could rest on it, and they

could actually get up quite high on it as well.

I want this to be a positive experience for them. I feel like it is, and it also

is for me as well. To be able to see this, just so awesome.

Next, Kambiri's big day has finally arrived.

But it comes with a shocking twist.

I'd like to say that the hardest bit's over.

It's been four months since Taronga staff were elated to discover that pygmy

hippo Kambiri was pregnant.

Due to give birth any day now, preparations for the new arrival are

underway. We've had to baby -proof.

The den, because an infant pygmy hippo is very, very small, and we don't want

tumbling into the pond and not being able to get back out.

There are less than 3 ,000 pygmy hippos left in the wild, so there's a lot of

anticipation for this new calf.

And four days later, all Tracy's dreams come true.

We are thrilled to announce that our pygmy hippo, Kambiri, has given birth to

beautiful, bouncing little 5 -kilo baby calf.

The new calf is Kambiri's second daughter and she couldn't be cuter.

She's absolutely thriving at the moment.

Another critically endangered baby pygmy hippo in the region is just a real step

in the right direction.

Now the baby's nuzzling mum has decided it's a little bit hungry and would enjoy

a drink of milk and it's just a wonderful mother -baby bonding moment.

As the calf grows, Mum can't wait to show her around.

Christened Amara, as she takes to the water for her first swim, Mum Kambiri is

remarkably relaxed.

However, the same can't be said for Tracy.

I'd like to say that the hardest bit's over, but of course now I find other

things to worry about. I worry that she's suckling well enough, I worry that

she's healthy, I worry that she's not going to...

Please do anything and get lost. I'm going to keep worrying until she's about

two years old.

But just four weeks later, the unthinkable happened.

Late one afternoon, we got a call from one of the keepers. A little pygmy hippo

was lying, not moving, in the enclosure, and I rushed down with one of our

nurses.

We did attempt to resuscitate her, but sadly it was too late.

So we brought her body to the hospital and we performed a post -mortem

examination. It was apparent that it was likely something that affected her

heart.

So we sent samples away to various laboratories for testing.

And about a week later, we got a result that confirmed that she did have a heart

problem that had been caused by an unusual infection that damaged the heart

muscle. And it was very sudden, very acute, the damage, so she would have

very quickly.

Losing Amara was an absolute tragedy. A beautiful young animal, just over a

month old.

And it was a tragedy for a multitude of reasons.

Pygmy hippos are an endangered species, critically endangered species, and we

don't breed them that often in zoos, and there was a lot of excitement about the

birth of little Amara, and she was thriving, completely unexpected, a

healthy little pygmy hippo calf, then suddenly dead.

This tragic outcome has only hardened the resolve of the Taronga team.

to keep working at increasing the numbers of this struggling species.

And for next time around, they've got a little help.

Fortunately, there is a vaccine actually that we can use to give Canberra and

Fergus.

Then they will develop antibodies to that infection and then next time

gives birth, the calf will be protected because she'll have antibodies from her

mum. So when the time is right, Fergus and Kambiri will be put together again

and hopefully Taronga gets the healthy baby pygmy hippo they've been waiting

almost six years for.

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