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 delicate job of X -raying Tang Mo.

We are dealing with a large animal that's in a potentially dangerous

Where one wrong step... You know, she's the size of a truck.

..could be very costly.

That's worth about $50 ,000.

Splashdown. It's a bit rough.

Keepers set sail on their biggest turtle release ever.

This is what it's all about, being able to release animals back into the wild.

And... Today we have carved out some really incredible jack -o' -lanterns.

or treat for these much -loved animals.

As you can see, Jimmy, you and Zarafa have absolutely loved it. As Halloween

comes to Taronga.

So I think Halloween might be catching on a little bit around here.

Across Taronga's two zoos, there are over 350 species of animals.

But no matter what their size, each requires constant care.

Good girl.

From the tiniest of endangered lizards to one of the largest animals on the

planet.

Good girl, Tangmaw.

Like all adult Asian elephants, Tang Mo weighs as much as a small truck.

So she's weighing in at 3 ,810 kilos.

That phenomenal tonnage puts so much pressure on the elephant's feet and

joints, regular foot care is crucial.

So today, keepers Johnny and Ian are continuing to train Tang Mo for feet X

-rays. Let's go.

And that is easier said than done.

Good girl.

To look after elephants, they're such a huge animal, we need them to help us to

look after them. So training is very important.

This is Tang Mo, our 22 -year -old female Asian elephant.

When we do our sessions with her, we always start off by giving them a drink,

something positive to make sure they enjoy it. We also want to make it as

as possible for her.

We do x -rays on our elephants periodically just to make sure there's

wrong with their feet, any abnormalities with their bones and with their joints.

So we're just setting up for routine training.

So when we do the x -ray, everything will hopefully run smoothly.

Chunk down. Chunk down, Manners.

Good girl.

Good girl.

On the actual day, Tang Mo will need to place her foot on an expensive x -ray

plate.

Good girl.

Steady there.

Very good.

The way this training works is I'll be working with Tang Mo, giving her

direction of where I need her to be.

Tang Mo foot.

Johnny will be placing the wooden block, which represents the x -ray plate.

Good girl.

Tang Mo weighs around 3 ,800 kilos.

so she can very well put a lot of pressure down on that foot.

So this looks like quite a simple procedure but there is a lot of pressure

happening there and a lot of weight being put on that block.

So we have to make sure it's done right so when the real x -ray equipment is in

place and in position she doesn't put too much pressure or too much weight on

and might damage some of that really valuable equipment.

But an X -ray plate worth tens of thousands of dollars isn't the only

Good girl. Steady. Three of us need to work as a team to make sure we know

what's going to happen on the day.

Good.

Steady then. We always have to stay aware that we are dealing with large

and potentially dangerous situations, especially when we're manoeuvring

ourselves and an elephant around their feet and they're not quite seeing or

to see where we are all the time. Back.

While Tang Mo has done well with the front feet, it's her back feet that

pose the greatest risk to both the keepers and that pricey x -ray plate.

I mean, working with Tang Mo, you know, we have a pretty strong relationship.

We've worked with each other for about 13 years now.

Tang Mo, get over.

No, no.

Good, that's it.

She and I have to be on sync on the day.

It would be very easy for her to crack that plate.

If we're not getting on, that could be the kind of thing she does.

And I don't want to be the one that's responsible for the breaking of the

equipment.

Pack up, get over.

One of the best times to visit the zoo is spring.

This is a very juicy pumpkin.

As Taronga prepares for the spooky season.

Our teeth are really good.

They do enrichment every single day of the year for all of our animals. But

there are a couple of times every year when the media team, we kind of get

involved and we help out a little bit. So we normally do something for

Christmas, for Easter and then also Halloween.

You know, in amongst the emails and the meetings and the Zooms, it's probably

just as good for us as it is for the animals.

Maybe it's media team enrichment.

Not something that we would do every single day of the year, but I suppose

also a way for us to raise a bit of awareness about some of the threats that

animals face in the wild.

You know, at the end of the day here at the zoo, our mission is to kind of

engage the community and get them to know about some of the issues facing our

animals in the wild.

So while it'll be, you know, cute to have a little snake slither through this

jack -o' -lantern over here, we can also talk about some of the scarier things

for wildlife.

All right, first job. Ta -ra.

Hi, Holly. Hi.

We have a delivery for you. This is fantastic.

How do you reckon they'll respond?

I think they will absolutely love it. Can't wait to hang it.

While Pumpkin isn't going to set a giraffe's world on fire, keepers know

the trick to get their tongues wagging.

So we've put some carrots and some spinach in for the giraffe. And what it

is just gives them an opportunity to use their amazing long tongues.

Their tongues can grow up to 45 centimetres long. So they should be able

around those carrots and the spinach nice and healthy.

Oh, it looks so good.

I'm really stoked with that. All that hard carving paid off.

In Africa, the giraffe would eat a thorn acacia, and it's a beautiful big tree,

but it's got very big, sharp thorns on it. So they would use those tongues to

get in and around those thorn acacias to pull off those small leaves to eat. So

what we've done by our enrichment is just create that same natural behaviour

that they would do.

So the giraffe has come over to check out the pumpkin.

She's a little bit unsure about what's going on. It is something unusual that

would put up.

I think today was an absolute success. Thank you so much to the media team for

making these pumpkins.

As you can see, Jimmy Yu and Zarafa have absolutely loved it. Ebo and Keto both

can't reach.

And Zarafa is even getting in there as well. So they're sticking their long

tongues in and around our fence line to be able to pick up those extra carrots

and a little bit of lettuce that have dropped.

But I think it's been an absolute hit.

But this was just the first stop for the day. So it's goodbye to one of the

largest animals at the zoo.

And hello to one of the smallest primates as the Halloween pumpkin parade

on.

Coming up, four green sea turtles. We're all ready to go. Begin a year -long

journey home. She's now 1 ,200 kilometres north of where we released

And will Tang Moe step up to the plate? Good girl. It's actually not perfect,

guys. She needs to be sort of straighter.

Down at the elephant precinct, the much -loved elephant Tang Moe is training for

a tricky X -ray procedure.

We're doing this X -ray just as a preventative measure for the future.

If she does appear lame and have an issue with her foot, we can go back and

at the x -rays we've taken over the years and see something that might be a

little bit different than it was last time we did the x -ray.

Ten more foot.

It's also a chance to check the soles of Tang Mo's feet.

It's going to be the stand back.

Good girl.

That's it. Perfect.

So it's incredible to see the underside of their feet considering...

Normally what goes under their feet is pretty quickly squashed into a pancake,

which is just a very, very thick skin.

Other back foot.

Say more get over.

No, no.

Move around. We'll go this one first.

30 more.

Back up. Get over.

All right, more.

Say more back foot.

Back foot. There you go.

I think that's a telling up.

We might have hit the limit of her concentration.

I've got a good idea of when Tang Mo's had enough of the training. You can't

push her.

Good girl, Mo. You're very patient. All these sessions are really just meant to

be positive interaction between her and the keepers, so we know when it's time

to quit.

Ready on seven.

Even if the practice doesn't make perfect, Ian has no choice but to call

day.

With a harbour -side position close to the Pacific Ocean, Taronga Zoo is

perfectly placed to treat all sorts of injured marine animals.

Sea lions, seals and penguins that don't recover well enough to return to the

wild are given a permanent home at Taronga.

OK, go slow.

But for marine turtles, it's a different story.

We don't house them here permanently at our zoo. So aquariums do house them, and

occasionally there's room for another turtle in the collection.

But if we can't find a place for him, then we'd probably have to euthanize

You ready? There you go.

Each year, about 40 injured sea turtles are brought to Taronga Wildlife

Hospital. The ideal outcome is rehab and release.

Well, it's not very elegant.

And today, the vet team are preparing for their biggest turtle release ever.

So we're taking this one now. It's a big guy. It gets a big tag.

We have four green turtles that have been in our care.

These animals all came in very sickly.

They've all rehabilitated. They're all looking really good.

So this morning, we're going to put satellite trackers on them.

And tomorrow, they're going to get released back to the wild.

This is a satellite tag especially designed for marine turtles and we'll

the tag onto the top shell of the marine turtle.

So when the satellite passes over the earth, if the turtle surfaces at the

time out of the water, then it will activate to that satellite and it will

down on my computer saying, this turtle is here. And then I know exactly where

the turtle is.

Isn't that great?

And tracking is an important part of identifying critical turtle habitat.

I'm just getting one of the turtles out from the rehab pool, ready to put the

satellite tag on him. The Taronga Satellite Tracking Program has been

since 2014 and we've released 25 turtles with tags on. So all different species,

mainly greens.

And so these four will make 29.

That's great.

As soon as the satellite tags are attached, these four turtles will be

go.

It's been several weeks of intensive training and elephant keepers have their

fingers crossed Tang Mo's concentration will stay the course.

Good girl, Mosey. Let's go.

We're just about to do a routine X -ray on Tang Mo's feet.

Hey, sweetie.

Hey, big girl.

Senior vet Larry will be conducting the X -ray on an elephant that holds a

special place in his heart. Oh, yes.

Hey, beautiful.

I was actually involved in bringing these elephants over from Thailand in

mid -2000s, and very quickly we could see that she had this fantastic

temperament.

It was great to see how she's turned out into this beautiful, massive, big, tall

elephant.

You're so beautiful.

To still be connected with her is very significant for me.

I suppose the one sad thing is that she's the only elephant that has not had

calf, which is a real shame.

Yeah, which is really sad for her.

I think she'll be a great mum.

She's been a great aunt to all the calves that we've had born here at

But we've tried many, many times to get her pregnant, both naturally and with

artificial insemination, and she's just never fallen pregnant. So very sad in

that respect for her, but thankfully she's still going to have a great life

at Taronga.

OK, so we'll get all the gear set up.

The challenge of this X -ray is mainly just because Tang Mo is such an enormous

animal. You know, she's the size of a truck. So the real challenge is getting

Tang Mo to move where we need her to and to stand still, really.

You remember all this, don't you? You know exactly what you've got to do.

They never forget.

This is the digital sensor plate, and this is the most expensive part of this

whole system.

That's worth about $50 ,000, so we definitely don't want this damaged.

You got the best one.

Thank you.

You wouldn't want to be anywhere near an elephant X -ray without a gown like

this.

As you can imagine, getting through that really big, thick bit of tissue, we

have to really crank up the energy, so this will be emitting quite a lot of

heavy dose of X -rays.

So we have to wear these lead -lined gowns.

Protect our thyroids and the keepers, when they have to hold that plate, will

wearing lead -lined gloves and things like that.

Tang Mo foot.

Which one are we doing first?

Whichever one you want. I'm just going to get some of this off.

All right, Mosey.

Left foot first.

Hold on. Back up, Mosey. With Tang Mo ready to step up to the $50 ,000 plate.

Back up a little.

Ian's about to find out if he's training.

has been enough.

It's actually not perfect, guys. She needs to be sort of greater.

Greater?

It's Halloween, and Taronga is the perfect place for it.

It's full of the creepy and the crawly.

There's a few different days of the year where the media team, including myself,

get involved in creating different enrichment items for the animals in

care. Those days include Christmas, Easter and Halloween.

Today we have carved out some really incredible jack -o' -lanterns, some

ones, some not -so -spooky ones, and we're going to give them to a range of

animals here at Taronga.

And next in line are the Bolivian squirrel monkeys.

Grow monkeys are found in South America, so they don't have pumpkins growing in

the rainforest.

They're really intelligent, curious animals.

So this is an extra special treat for our monkeys today.

Days like this are a bit of fun.

Their very favourite food is insects.

So in those jack -o' -lanterns, I gave them some crickets and mealworms. They

were straight onto it, looking for them, foraging around.

They're loving the pumpkin. They're all over it. It's amazing to see them enjoy

it. I don't think they've ever seen a jack -o' -lantern before.

So it's pretty incredible.

Hours of carving, not wasted.

We've got 19 monkeys here in our group, so it can get quite chaotic.

The bugs were all in amongst the pumpkin seeds and they really had to look and

work for their food.

So the squirrel monkeys loved it so much.

One of the best enrichments we've done for them for a while.

That was really exciting for them today.

But there's still a more serious side to the day as well.

The most important part of today is the messages on the pumpkin.

Our job here at the zoo is to educate people about the plight of these animals

out in the wild.

So we've carved the word pet trade onto the Bolivian squirrel monkey pumpkin,

because that's one of the threats facing this species.

They do make for cute pets, so we're hoping to raise awareness for them via

enrichment.

But for the next animal, unfortunately, the awareness for their troubles in the

wild came too late.

I'm just getting one of the turtles out from the rehab pool, ready to put the

satellite tag on him.

Taronga staff are having a busy day, getting four green sea turtles ready for

release back to the wild.

Well, let's get started with sanding.

The shell is made of keratin on the top.

This is like our fingernails.

So we make that nice and smooth, so when we glue it on, it stays on.

This is like the day spa.

And it's well deserved, as these four have been through quite a lot.

This beautiful turtle is still a juvenile, about 15 years old, and he's

kilos. He came from Ulladulla down in the south coast, so that's his name.

He had a lot of shell defects.

These were quite severe when he arrived.

See this big dent on the old shark bite?

He's had a bit of a tough time, but very happy with his progress.

So we're calling this one Foster, named after where he was found, which is a

town a bit north of Sydney.

It was stuck in oyster beds, and when it came in, it had a fracture of humerus

on the left side. It's healed really nicely, so he's good to go back out to

wild.

While all these turtles have recovered well, there's still plenty of challenges

ahead. In 200 years, we've managed to pollute the oceans to such an extent

All of the seven species of marine turtle are now endangered.

Some of them are critically endangered.

And one of the reasons is because of marine debris in the ocean.

And this particular turtle was pooing plastic when it came into the hospital.

This comes from a turtle about this size, and this is plastic that was found

its gut after it died.

This is the epoxy that we're going to use to glue on the fiberglass.

It's like arts and crafts, isn't it, really?

By securing the tags with fibreglass, the team hope they'll be able to track

turtles for about six months.

The epoxy will go off quickly, so we'll just have to work fast.

It's a bit of a process.

Fun, though.

Got my hands on a turtle, so that's always a good thing.

Yeah, that's always good.

This age class of turtle, it's called the lost years. We don't really know

they go. We know a lot about adult turtles that come on to nesting beaches.

But we don't know about this age class and that's why we're putting these tags

on these turtles.

What we have been seeing with some of our tracking is that they go up and they

like these inland waterways, this sort of kind of estuarine areas.

There's a lot of rubbish, washes into the rivers.

We need to protect their habitat.

They're not just out there swimming around in that clear blue ocean.

Are you happy with this position?

That's good.

While this small tag will track location, the big one on Ulladulla will

habitat data too.

This tracker will tell us not only the location of the turtle, but it'll tell

the depth that it dives and the water temperature when it's diving.

So they're good indicators of environmental change as well.

A little more fiberglass and they're nearly done.

Once this layer of epoxy dries, we're going to put some anti -fouling on there

so algae and debris and things don't grow on the tags and further slow them

down.

These turtles have been here for a long time and the tagging is just the end.

The really great part is I'm going home, back to the wild.

I won't get much sleep tonight because I'll be so excited about... These

going tomorrow.

Still to come, after all the hard work, it's time. They're on their way, going

to live a fantastic life.

And Taronga's biggest Halloween fan.

Where I grew up, Halloween is obviously a really big holiday.

Hands out treats to some Aussie icons.

Being able to share that is incredibly rewarding for me.

Celebrating Halloween is growing in popularity in Australia.

But for the next keeper, it's been a part of his life for as long as he can

remember.

Happy Halloween.

Ah, nice.

Looks good, eh?

It looks great.

Here we go, all yours.

I love that it's a feral pet. It's perfect.

Where I grew up, Halloween is obviously a really big holiday.

You get to dress up and get free lollies. Who wouldn't like that?

And that's what we're doing for Billy as well.

He's getting a bit of jam. It's an extra special treat. It's his version of a

lolly. So I think Halloween might be catching on a little bit around here.

He's like, I don't know what's going on out there, but it seems very scary.

Billy's going to be chubby after this.

In the wild, bilbies are omnivorous, so they eat pretty much anything they can

find, whether that be lizards, birds, eggs. They've got the food in there that

they already know, but the jam is definitely taking center stage, and you

really see that tongue working as they're lapping it up off of the

The bilby is critically endangered. It's extinct here in New South Wales.

Things like feral pests, which are a big problem for a lot of species in the

wild, not just the bilbies.

Even though Billy doesn't know it's Halloween, it's still an important time

us to be able to get our conservation messages across.

But it's not just the bilbies that Gray is introducing to Halloween.

Another iconic Aussie animal is about to get their first taste.

Good boy.

Now we're feeding our redneck padamelons, Ollie and Melvin. We're

them a jack -o' -lantern, along with some of their favorite treats in there,

even a little bit of extra jam smeared on top for a bonus treat.

Padamelons are a macropod. That means they're related to other animals, like

kangaroos and wallabies, and even the quokka that a lot of people know of,

because they're the happiest animals on Earth, after all.

This is definitely a treat for the patamella. This isn't something they

normally get. In the wild, they'll eat a lot of vegetation, a lot of branches,

leaves, grasses, all of that sort of thing. So getting something like a jack

-lantern is a very, very special treat that they're quite enjoying.

I'm having so much fun with Halloween in Richmond today. It is my favorite

holiday, so being able to share that with all of the animals here at the zoo

incredibly rewarding for me. They definitely interacted with the pumpkin.

able to get our message across.

So it's a perfect way to say, happy Halloween.

But it's not over yet, as they've saved the best for last.

Here she comes. I cannot wait to see her rip into them.

After months of rehab, today these four green turtles are about to be returned

to the wild.

Sounds big.

So we're all ready to go.

All right.

Luckily, it's only a short drive to the Taronga Zoo wharf.

They've been very active in the car.

Where these four turtles will be taken on board by the water police.

What a day.

Kimberly and Libby have invited another team member to join them.

Oh, Damo. Yay.

Taronga Zoo plumber Damien has come to help with the relief.

Marine turtles need to be in salt water.

And the water has to be fresh and clean. And that's what Damien does for us. He

trucks the water up every day for these turtles.

We couldn't survive without him. The turtles would not survive without Damien

bringing the water up every single day.

When they first arrive, they're just sitting in the pond, you know, and then

vets look after them and the nurses all look after them and you see them get

better.

Then you get the opportunity to put them in the water.

So it's really good.

Really good for me.

He couldn't do it without you. No.

No, he's like... Well,

you can, but I'm just the lucky one that gets to do it. I love you.

Finally, it's all hands on deck.

So we'll take the turtles off Sydney Head, just around the corner.

I hear there's a bit of swell, so we've taken our seasickness tablets.

We'll see how it goes.

This is what it's all about, being able to release animals back into the wild,

and animals that are so critically endangered.

And we can do really good conservation work as well. With these trackers on, we

can tell where they're going.

These are young turtles, only 10 to 15 years old.

So they'll have their whole lives ahead of them, hopefully.

We've just come out of the Sydney Harbour, past the head.

We're going to go a little bit north up the coast.

There's a lot of boats that come in and out of Sydney Harbor, so if we can let

them out a little further away from that, they'll have a better chance of

where they need to go.

You go down on the platform.

Yep. Have Damien hand the turtle to you, and you release them.

Okay. And I'll make sure they come down there.

Are we ready?

You're going to get down there, Liv?

Alex can be your belt holder today.

Because I can't hang on.

Yeah.

Oh, boy.

Okay. I'll grab you. You got it? Have you got me? Yeah. Are you ready?

It's a bit rough.

This is the one with three flippers here.

It may be rough, but it's worth it.

One after the other. As quickly as possible. Yep.

This is Foster. He's beautiful.

You can see him swimming.

Woo!

Okay, there's the third one.

You good?

Okay, hang on to me.

I've got you.

I've got you.

I've got you.

Good job.

The release was so exciting.

I'm lucky that I'm actually involved with it, with the turtles, and it makes

really worthwhile.

They're on their way.

Going to live a fantastic life.

Although the turtles are now back in the ocean, Taronga's involvement in their

lives still has a long way to go.

The really good part is when we see that they've tracked and that they've

survived for a month or so after we've released them. For me, that's probably

the ultimate part.

Coming up, something Libby and the team didn't see coming. It's no wonder they

pick up marine debris and plastic bags.

And will Tang Mo prove an elephant never forget?

Oh, Tang Mo was beautiful before.

Good girl. Steady there.

Back up a little.

Back. 3 .8 ton elephant Tang Mo is stepping onto a $50 ,000

x -ray plate.

Good. Back up a little. That's good. Yeah, no, it's perfect.

Steady more.

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

We work through each of the limbs, so we X -ray the foot, make sure we get a

good image of all the digits, the fingers which are inside there.

Okay, that's beautiful X -ray.

See, you know, all those digits really nice and clearly.

Good girl.

Good girl.

The anatomy here is quite interesting.

Essentially, it's the same as even, you know, the anatomy of a human forearm.

We've got the wrist joint here.

So the carpal joint.

And the anatomy is pretty much like my hand. You've got the digits going down

each nail.

It has three bones in each.

The bottom one down here is a tiny, funny little bone.

There's a big fibrous pad in this whole area here that absorbs that enormous

amount of pressure, as you can imagine.

So we'll just get a couple more of that foot.

Steady. Back up a little.

It was beautiful before.

Okay, that's good. That's good. That's good.

Good girl. Steady.

Oh, she's a legend.

All right, back up.

Very good.

Move to the next foot.

Come in line more.

Ten more. Come in line.

Come in line. One foot down, another three to go.

Steady there.

Steady. So another one straight on would be perfect, Donny. Steady.

And that means Tang Mo's going to have to stay focused for at least another

hour. OK, I'll just sneak in here.

It's been almost 12 months since Libby and Kimberley rehabilitated and tagged

four green turtles.

With these trackers on, we can tell where they're going.

These are young turtles, only 10 to 15 years old.

So they'll have their whole lives ahead of them, hopefully.

They were released back to the wild. You can see him swimming.

With high hopes they would live a long life and send back habitat data via

satellite.

As part of the Taronga satellite tagging program, Libby has been tracking the

turtles' movements.

This is the tracking map for one of those turtles and see her journey up the

coast. of New South Wales all the way up to north of Brisbane. She's now off

Stradbroke Island, 1 ,200 kilometres north of where we released her.

While the distance the turtles travelled wasn't a surprise, their route was.

We knew that they nested up north and we know that there's lots of turtles in

Queensland, but we didn't know anything about the habitat use.

This particular map is quite typical of what we see the green turtles doing.

We've tracked 32 of them now and she's moving into the waterway. She's been up

the Hawkesbury River where she spent almost two weeks.

She's going into another bay area. Then she went to Port Macquarie and stayed in

the lake there for quite some time, probably feeding on jellyfish at that

of year.

may be crucial to their survival.

It's no wonder they pick up marine debris in plastic bags because they're

hugging the coastline where all the humans are.

Marine turtles are critically endangered worldwide.

They're in serious trouble from habitat loss and marine debris and hopefully

this data will help us protect those areas.

so they can stay alive and continue to breed and live on this earth.

30.

All right, big girl. Back up a step.

Good girl, sweetie.

Gosh, she's patient, isn't she?

She's having a great time.

She likes the attention.

You can hear while I'm talking to her and asking her to do things, she

and you can hear her making like a chirping, like a sort of a tweeting

She's cooperating and she's not really, not putting too much pressure on the

plate. I think everyone's just been winding me up a little bit about being

careful.

So we'll go now to carpal joint. Carpal joint left would be good.

Good. All right. More right there. Perfect.

And what we're doing now is her carpal joint or her wrist joint, so to speak.

slightly different technique because we're shooting horizontally.

So the plate has to be vertical like that.

This joint is one that's prone to developing arthritis in elephants,

particularly older elephants.

She's not an old elephant yet, so it's good to be monitoring it this early in

her life.

to detect any potential changes going down into the future. Perfect.

Okay,

now we're up to just the back foot.

Turn, bin, bin, bin. Good girl. Turn, Mosey.

And now for that tricky hind leg lift where Tang Mo lost patience during

training. Back foot.

Good girl. Look at her. Back up a little. She's just ready. She's ready

Just as Larry expected, Tang Mo remembers everything she's been taught.

Good girl.

Steady there. Good girl.

That's the last one. Great.

Well done.

I'm happy with that. We got the main digits in the foot.

They look really good. Certainly no evidence of arthritis.

We wouldn't be able to do any of this, obviously, if she wasn't trained to do

it. These guys just do an incredible job. She just does whatever they ask of

her. And just a beautiful, compliant, lovely elephant.

Good girl.

Very good.

Well done.

Say goodbye to her.

Eh? Oh, Tang Mo, beautiful girl. Oh, you want that straight in your mouth?

Oh,

you're gorgeous.

She's amazing.

Halloween at Taronga wraps up in spectacular style.

I thought it'd be great having the cockroaches crawling out through the

the mouth.

That's why we left her to last, because we knew she was going to put on a show

like this.

It's been a busy Halloween for media team member Jen.

Our lucky last resident who will be getting some jack -o' -lanterns is Mary,

sun bear.

And fingers crossed she tears them apart. I think she will.

Special delivery.

And being the final stop, Mary getting all four remaining jack -o' -lanterns

her destructive pleasure.

So we've got this one that's got chains on it already, so we can hang this one.

And then we've got...

Here, one that's carved that says habitat lost. So that's one of the main

threats facing sun bears in the wild. So really important that we try and get

that message across.

And then we've just got some other funky jack -o' -lanterns too.

These look good. Awesome.

Great.

Being the strongest animal to get a pumpkin, the team are making sure Mary's

isn't over too quickly.

So this one's a hanging one, which is great because it adds that other element

for Mary, our sun bear.

She not only has to manipulate it, but she also has to stand and do that as

well. So it's chained up so she can't cart it away or she can't drag it down.

We've got the lovely lid on it here. If we look down, we can see the yummy

goodies in there. So it's some cooked pumpkin and some mealworms and really

delicious stuff in there.

Being Halloween, with all that icky stuff and brains and everything, I

it would be great having the mealworms and the pumpkin in some of them and then

the cockroaches hopefully crawling out through the face and the mouth and all

the different pieces on the other pumpkins here.

They're quite lively.

Popping the cockroaches in, which is a challenge in itself. It's a very warm

day.

We're hoping that, you know, it adds a bit of interest for her and she gets

obviously the enrichment out of it.

And then we've obviously got our awareness to our guests today and hope

they'll sort of see that and hopefully it will make them realise what

our animals are going through in the wild.

Some bears are native to Sumatra.

They're not doing very well in the wild due to a range of factors, but one of

those factors is habitat loss. We're wanting to raise awareness for the

facing her wild cousins.

Here she comes.

I cannot wait to see her rip into them.

Happy Halloween.

The carnival team have pinned one of the pumpkins on a chain, and I honestly

think she's just going to tear that straight off. I think she'll go for that

straight away.

I can see that the mealworms and the woodroaches are trying to scatter for

shelter.

The carnival keepers added a few extra spooky elements because it is Halloween

and I don't think they're any match for Mary the sun bear.

That's why we left her to last because we knew she was going to put on a show

like this.

She's actually eating the pumpkin, so I didn't think she would actually eat the

pumpkin, but it looks like she is and she's enjoying it.

And it seems like Mary's not the only one who had a good time today.

It's been a long day and there was a lot of carving involved. There was a few

tears, not any blood, but...

Today's been sensational.

It couldn't have gone better.

To get the reactions out of Jimmy Yu and Zarafa and Mary the sun bear that we

did, I am so stoked.

And to visit some of our native animals as well, like the greater bilbies and

the paddy melons, and they got to enjoy some Halloween enrichment.

It was a job well done, and I'm really, really happy with the results. And their

reactions, it was so nice to see.