All language subtitles for Taronga s04e04 Monkey Business.eng

Taronga, the zoo with the head -turning
view.

But dig a little deeper.

I just planted that. And you'll discover
there's a lot more to Taronga's two

zoos than meets the eye.

Hello. What's it doing?

From their devoted keeper.

Open up.

I watched him being born, so him and I
have an amazing relationship.

To their first class vet team.

So just here, that's the lump.

Taronga's passionate staff.

To be laying on that dirty floor was so
worth it. Are themselves a special

breed. A lot of slobber there, bud.

Ensuring nothing but the best for the
animals in their care.

So impatient.

Good girl. Hang on.

On this episode... We've got quite a
deep crack here.

Yeah, there's a crack here too.

..a routine medical check on a wild
horse... We just don't want that split

continue up to the coronary band.

..takes a dramatic turn... She's just
breath -holding a bit now. She's breath

-holding. ..with some dramatic results.

We need to get out. Everybody, pack up
your stuff and get out now, please.

I'm going to wake her up.

Just monkey business?

Or female fight club.

We've had some serious injuries caused
by females to our adult males.

Vampyr's new bachelor pad has sure put
some noses out of joint.

Well, the girls aren't the biggest fan
about the fact that they don't have

access to it. And often when he has food
in here, that he'll have about 20

little faces staring at him.

And incoming.

So exciting.

Six of the best. And they've finally
arrived.

Land at Taronga.

The saying goes, do a job you love and
you'll never work a day in your life.

And I get paid.

For the team at Taronga, not only is
every day at work different... Can I

that for me? Good girl.

But they're also making a real
difference to the welfare of their

Good girl, mummy.

Out at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in
Dubbo...

One species would no longer exist if it
wasn't for the work done to save it.

Come on, girls!

Taki, meaning spirit, are a wild horse
native to Mongolia and were almost

to extinction just a few short decades
ago.

From there, our breeding programs here
at Taronga Western Plain Zoo, we were

able to breed these horses back up to
sustainable numbers and reintroduce them

back into the wilds of Mongolia.

There are now over 2 ,000 running free.

It's an astonishing comeback for the
world's last truly wild horses that have

never been domesticated.

Naturally, in Mongolia, the Tarki would
wear down their hooves on rocky outcrops

and on hard snow. All of that compact
ground would really wear away their

quite nicely.

But managing their hooves here, in a
different climate to where they've come

from... presents a challenge.

Here in Dubbo recently we've had so much
rain that our pastures are quite wet

and so what that means is it allows the
hooves to grow out quite a lot and quite

significantly faster than what we would
be used to.

One horse in particular, 10 -year -old
Altani, has hooves that appear to be

growing even faster than the others.

She only had a general anaesthetic to
get them trimmed six months ago.

And now the vet team are back to inspect
them again today.

I've worked with Altani for nearly two
years now and she's one of the horses

that I find really special. They're all
special to me. They've all got different

quirks. But Altani has definitely
creeped her way into my heart. She's

cheeky.

It takes a team to safely perform this
procedure.

Vet Elisa will be leading.

The anaesthetic being used is
potentially risky for both horse and

preparation needs to be meticulous.

Our procedure this morning is going to
be involving a potent opioid as part of

our anaesthetic. So what I'm drawing up
at the moment is the naltrexone, which

is the reversing agent for the
anaesthetic drug.

And this is for the horse.

So at the end of our procedure, we'll be
able to give her this intravenously and

that will reverse the anaesthetic quite
quickly. We always have that prepared in

advance so that if there was an
emergency and we had to wake her up

unexpectedly, we've got that ready to
go.

So that's my first drug I draw up, and
now I'm going to prepare the dart for

her.

So I'll have everything ready, and then
because we're using a potent opioid, we

have to take some precautions with how
we handle it.

It can be quite dangerous to people, so
we have to make sure that it can't

either get into our system either
through a needle stick or a splash onto

mucous membrane, so eyes, nose, mouth,
those sorts of things.

So I'm just going to prepare everything
for my dart before we draw up the drug

that's dangerous to us.

The drug is called etorphine. It's in
the same family as morphine but is 10

times stronger.

It's safe in horses, anything but in
humans.

I'm wearing gloves and I'm also going to
put on a face shield just in case there

was a splash because I don't want to get
this drug anywhere on my face.

The gun is now safely loaded. Time for
Elisa to head down to the turkey yard to

sedate her patient and get a closer look
at those fast -growing hooves.

Back in Sydney, Keeper Scott is faced
with a perilous problem of a different

kind.

Vampyr, the lone male squirrel monkey,
may have no breeding rivals, but that

doesn't mean he's got an easy life.

with the eight females in his troop.

So Bolivian squirrel monkeys are a
female -run society, and essentially

means that all the social politics in
that are around the female social

dynamics. Now, this means for a male,
because they're so much larger, but they

also can potentially be more aggressive,
they're a threat to not only the social

standings of those females, but also all
of the infants or young ones in that

community as well.

These groups in the wild, they're 300
individuals strong. So there's a lot of

males to feed. So the more males they
have around their group, the more they

have to compete for that sort of food
source.

So the females very much make sure that
unless the male is absolutely needed for

breeding, that he stays to his own sort
of areas and keeps away from them so

that their resources can only be for the
female group and the males can go and

fend for themselves.

Now, this means that when you have an
adult male that's trying to live in a

group, especially a large group like
this, it can mean there's a lot of

aggression that comes towards them as
individuals.

And here at Taronga, we've had some
serious injuries caused by females to

adult males.

This is Vampyr.

So as you can see, by no means is he
worried or...

under threat immediate danger but he
does need a place to escape for when

situations occur so at the moment he's
quite happy interacting with the female

group and with all of his sons and
daughters but if we had a situation with

vampir where he was facing aggression or
facing a potential risk of severe

injuries like we've had in the past we
would have to take him out of that group

completely

Because these guys are so socially
complex, it means that to try and

Vampyr every time we have to separate
him out is a big, big deal for him. And

actually leads to more aggression and
more potential wounding towards him.

So the Keepers needed a place for Vampyr
to escape these attacks.

So naturally in the wild, the males live
on the periphery of the group, which

essentially means they live on the
outside. So they have their own choice

whether they interact with the female
group or they don't interact with the

female group.

So that's what we wanted to try and
replicate here for Vampyr.

Give himself a safe place that he can
take himself away to, which is where we

came up with the idea of the bachelor
bird.

We are this morning going to be trimming
Altani.

Taki's feet.

She's got some quite overgrown front
hooves particularly and some cracks and

things that we need to look at.

At Taronga Western Plain Zoo, it's
suspected the wet weather and soft

led to Altani's hooves growing quicker
than usual.

Because Taki are completely wild, they
won't stand still for a farrier.

So Altani will need to be anaesthetised
with a dart, the contents of which are

deadly to humans.

Once she's down, we will wash the dart
site and we'll spray it with a blue

spray.

Keeper Ruby will identify Altani for
Alisa.

It's calmer for the horses if they're
kept as a group until she's

So she's at the front? Yep.

Beautiful. It's a perfect shot.

That went really well. They were nice
and calm.

It's always a bit tricky when there's a
group just making sure that we don't

have any other animals in the way.

But she was just perfect. She walked
into just the right spot just when we

needed her. She did.

After 15 minutes, the team move in.

Come on.

Let's go.

The other Taki are moved out of the
yard, now that Altani's sedative has

effect.

OK, that's in.

The darts.

We're just about to put a drip in her
front leg, so Bec's going to do that

We're going to give her an infusion of a
muscle relaxant.

So just to help with these little
jitters, it's something that we see as

effect of the drug that we're using.

It's not harmful to her, but we just
want her to be nice and relaxed and then

we'll be able to get going on the hoof
care.

Just going to start and have a look at
the hooves while we're getting her drip

going. You can see that this one here
has got quite a large crack and that

toe is very long.

It is quite a split, yeah.

We just don't want that slit to continue
up to the coronary band, so the hoof

goes from the top down, and we don't
want that to go any further, so we're

to tidy up all of this and see how much
damage there is in there.

They had hoped to keep Altani sedated
for only an hour, but it's now clear

won't be enough time to get the job
done.

Next.

This seal sustained quite a significant
wound to his back.

An emergency call -out to an injured fur
seal.

It's a really tough one.

Capturing the animal, bringing it into
our hospital, they're all very difficult

considerations.

And some teething problems in Vampyr's
new bachelor pad.

It was a bit scary at first because when
it does swing back down, it does have a

bit of a whack.

A lot has gone bright since male
squirrel monkey Vampyr arrived at

few years ago.

In 2020, Vampyr was introduced to our
group as our breeding male and it's been

very successful breeding program.

So we've had 21 individuals born across
the three years. So it's ranging from

these tiny little infants down here that
are just a month old to this individual

here who's one of our two -year -olds
from last year.

But when Vampyr's monkey business is not
required, he's being attacked by the

females. So the keeper team has devised
a cunning escape plan.

All right, so this in here, this is
Vampyr's bachelor pad.

We've got lots of ropes around the place
for him to be able to perch on because

he will be in here by himself. He's got
his little heat lance and this bench

here is actually heated as well.

So for Vampyr, this area is his little
home now. So he can have a whole area to

himself that allows him to manage
himself in and out the group as he

In the wild, these guys would separate
themselves outside of breeding season

because the girls can be very, very
intense.

So this is his portal for freedom away
from the girls. So it gives him that

little bit of an escape hatch when he
needs it.

So it took Vampyr about sort of two
hours to learn the actual pushing

the mechanism to get in and out of the
space.

It was a bit scary at first because when
it does swing back down, it does have a

bit of a whack.

I'd say it probably took him about two
days to recognize that this was his own

space. And it took his female companions
roughly the same amount of time to

realise they weren't invited.

Well, the girls aren't the biggest fan
about the fact that they don't have

access to it, and they do constantly try
to get in. Often when he has food in

here, he'll have about 20 little faces
pressed up against this glass window

staring at him. So he knows very well,
he's a little superstar coming in now.

But he knows very well when they're
pressed up like that, if he's on this

make sure you don't go too close to it.
Otherwise, they can get in to get to

you.

Which poses the million -dollar
question, just what is stopping the

getting in?

Nearly every day, injured animals are
dropped at the door of Taronga's

Hospital for treatment.

But today, Larry and Jeff are doing a
site visit of a patient a bit too large

and dangerous to bring in.

This seal, it looks like a large male
long -nosed fur seal, and it's got a

wound. What we'll go and do is just have
a look at it, because if it's a large

seal, like an adult male long -nosed fur
seal, it's going to be a lot of work to

do anything to try and capture it or
anything, maybe impossible.

So let's just go and see what's
happening with it.

And to make their visit even harder, the
injured seal is in a rather

inconvenient spot.

That's a big boat, isn't it?

Jolly big boat.

Which requires a special clearance to
get anywhere near it.

This is a surprise. I actually wasn't
expecting that there was going to be a

ship down here.

Essentially what we're waiting for is
just to get permission from the Navy to

actually go down there and have a look
at the seal.

From what Larry can see from a distance,
this seal has had a nasty run -in with

a boat. The seal's sustained quite a
significant wound to his back, which in

itself, I've seen photos of it, and I
can just see it through these binoculars

as well.

What do we do?

It's a really tough one.

Capturing the animal, bringing it into
our hospital, they're all very difficult

considerations. They will be very hard
to maintain in our hospital and treat

We'd have to anaesthetise him, but of
course...

There's risk that he would just jump off
there into the water and if he's got

the drugs on board he might just drown.

Obviously if it's very thick and the
injury is more extensive than we can

from here then it may need to be
euthanised but we don't know at this

time. We just need to get more
information.

With permission now granted.

Larry and a small team can finally start
inching towards their patient.

So maybe just myself and someone from
National Parks go to the inn to have a

close look.

Because if all of us traipse down there,
it might just bugger off.

So, you know what I mean? And that's why
we don't want that to happen.

This lush island habitat has been
specially created for Taronga's 26

squirrel monkeys.

But for the lone adult male, Vampyr,
sharing it with eight sometimes

breeding females is far from ideal.

We needed a solution to manage Vampyr in
the group long term without him getting

too much aggression and being targeted
and getting significantly wounded.

So we talked to a lot of different
institutions around Australia but also

internationally and what we came back
with was microchip cat flaps.

It's the perfect security system for
Vampyr's newly built bachelor pad.

All of our animals here at Taronga have
microchips as identification numbers,

and they get that when they're quite
young.

So the actual cat flap mechanism here,
it only activates the head microchip,

which is just between his two shoulder
blades there. So when he gets about this

close to the cat flap, these little
mechanisms here...

They open, and then he can pull that
flap open himself, come in, and then it

shuts behind him so that no one else can
follow him in.

And it didn't take Vampyr very long to
get the hang of it.

What he'll do is when his sons are in
trouble or even if they're just hanging

out outside, he'll actually open it
manually himself to let his sons in and

he'll shut it back quickly again to make
sure none of the girls can get inside.

So he's actually using this space to
form his own little natural bachelor

So the ball is now well and truly in
Vampyr's court as to how much time he

spends with the females.

So 24 -7 he has access to as much social
drama as he wants.

So if it's too much drama, he can take
himself away from that.

But if he wants a little bit more, he
wants a little bit more of that drama or

wants to cause some drama, he has a
choice that he can go out and do that.

for him, his welfare is so much better
off because of how he's being managed.

And it's simulating exactly how these
animals have managed themselves in the

wild, which is exactly what we want to
do for them here in this environment.

Coming up... She's just breath -holding
a bit now. She's breath -holding. A

medical emergency in Dubbo... If she's
breath -holding, we need to get out.

..brings this procedure to an abrupt
end.

Everybody, pack up your stuff and get
out now, please.

Just over a kilometre from Taronga Zoo,
a large fur seal has sought refuge on a

wharf with a wound on its back, possibly
from a boat strike.

Senior vet Larry and a small team...

have just been granted permission by the
Navy to walk out for a closer look.

We've had a lot of reports from members
of the public, also wildlife care groups

like WIRES have been calling, and then
ORCA, which is a great organisation that

assists with monitoring seals and whales
and dolphins, and they've given us a

call as well.

But today National Parks gave us a call,
and National Parks have jurisdiction

over all these animals, and so people
are concerned.

Weighing up to 100 kilos, This wild
creature is best observed from a

So Larry uses binoculars to get a close
-up look.

But even that doesn't go down too well
with the patient.

That last one was a bit of a...

Back off moment?

Bit feisty.

Yeah, he didn't like that last bit.

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting.

He's not in terrible condition.

He's moving around.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I, like, wouldn't intervene now
at this point in time. I mean, you know,

to be honest, like, there's not much we
could do anyway.

I mean, if we're going to intervene,
then it would have to be to euthanise

because...

to try and treat him. Can you imagine
that seal, like, in a hospital

It'd be so dangerous.

But generally, like, a deep skin wound,
massive skin wounds like that, heal

really well in seals.

It's a challenging situation, but I
don't think the wound's a major issue

him. And certainly with his attitude, I
think that's good to see.

You know, usually, if they're thick,
really thick, they wouldn't do that.

I think he's just resting, you know.

recovering from whatever injury or
however he sustained the injury and with

hopefully he'll just recover.

For the next few weeks National Parks
will keep a close eye out for him

throughout the harbour.

If he hauls up in any other locations
around the area we'll do another what we

call a sit rep, another check on the
animal and we'll do a well -being check

just to make sure that the condition
hasn't deteriorated any further.

Per Taronga's advice, we're pretty happy
with the condition that he's in at the

moment and hopefully just a couple more
days rest and he'll be on his way.

Out at Taronga Western Plains Zoo,
Autani, the Taki horse, is under what's

called a GA, or general anaesthetic, to
investigate her fast hoof growth.

It is always nerve -wracking to watch
some of the animals go through their

procedures, especially when you know
that this might not be the only one that

they'll have.

After looking at her hooves, she'll
probably need multiple GAs. So for us,

always concerned that they'll make a 100
% recovery.

Everybody safe?

Yep. Stand behind me.

As well as what Elisa can see...

The X -rays will assist diagnosing the
cause of the hoof overgrowth.

There's quite a deep crack here.

There's a crack here too.

It's absolutely crucial these deep
cracks don't spread further up the hoof.

So this is a little bit like trimming
your fingernails, where this is your

fingernail here.

The hooves go down from the top.

This is a hard keratin material.

The first part of the job needs to be
done by hand.

We need to get in there and trim all of
that out and get back to healthy tissue.

So I'm going to use a little rotary tool
that's just going to very carefully go

a bit deeper in there.

While all this is going on, Nurse
Katrina is constantly monitoring

vital signs.

And worryingly...

Her temperature is now higher than it
should be.

She's just getting a little bit warm.
One of the effects of this drug is that

they actually lose their ability to
regulate their temperature.

We use the water just to cool her down.

Once she's awake, then she gets back her
ability to regulate her temperature,

then she'll be fine.

That's good. Well done. Yep, 38 .7
temperature.

Is it 38 .7?

Yeah, it's coming down quite a lot.

Well done.

Altani's temperature has dropped and is
back in the safe range.

But she's now been under for more than
an hour and the work on her hooves is

nowhere near finished.

How long have we been since her dart?

It's been about an hour and 20 minutes
since darting.

We don't want to, yeah, don't want her
down for too long. Also, just prolonged

anaesthesia, you just increase your risk
of complications and so the shortest

amount of time they can be down, the
better, basically. Once we can get the

done, wake them up.

That's the best thing for the animal.

You can see there I've had to take away
a fair bit of hoof wall just to get to

the bottom of some of this diseased
tissue.

Alisa, she's just breath -holding a bit
now. She's breath -holding? Yeah.

Breath -holding is another worrying
development.

Now Alisa may have no choice but to stop
the procedure immediately.

Go on, darling.

The opening of Muridea, Australia is a
few short weeks away and will feature 14

native animal species.

Dingoes Kep Kep and Waradah are already
here, as are the 20 koalas that will be

eye -level on the canopy walk.

Hey, how are you going? Good.

And this morning, fauna supervisor Mel
is here to oversee the arrival of six...

Weary kangaroo island female roos.

If you can reverse in, we're going to go
into those gates there.

Who've just done the long haul from
South Australia.

So exciting.

We've been working towards this for a
month and they've finally arrived.

These crates are specially designed for
macropods like them.

They're quite juvenile, so it's a good
start. It means they're a bit more

adaptable to change at a young age.

And they're smaller, so they're lighter,
which is great for us.

At the moment, we're just putting them
in what we call the sticks yard.

It's a good yard that's away from a lot
of the other exhibits and appropriate

for quarantine.

They've got grass, open air.

And, yeah, isolation, which is what you
need.

They'll be in here for approximately
three weeks until they're cleared of any

nasties that might come into the rest of
the zoo.

Just sit around and put in front of this
one here.

Diseases can take a while to incubate,
especially during stressful times, so

we'll monitor them during this time for
a lot of, you know, the big parasite

life cycle that we want to look out for.

The next step after quarantine is moving
into the enclosure.

What's your plan? So I'll release these
first three, one at a time, and then

bring the box, we'll put it to the side,
and then we'll release the following

three. Just the longest stretch of open
air is there.

And is everyone going to be...
Everyone's going to be out of there,

from probably a couple of us.

We've called Frances, our vet on site
today, who's been across a lot of the

work. She's been in contact with the
vets from the facility previous to here,

and that way she can monitor them for
anything that she's ever seen in

macropods as well.

make a nice visual assessment before we
start collecting um fecal samples and

making sure that we can rule out any
diseases that we could be worried about

thanks all right you ready one two three

the

large injured fur seal thought to have
been struck by a boat propeller, has now

disappeared back into Sydney Harbour.

There's no way of knowing where he's
gone.

But that won't be the case when they
release this smaller rescued seal called

Skip.

He was found up in Skip Point on the
southern end of Fraser Island, Lugari,

Queensland. And he was in really poor
condition when he was found.

And so he was taken into care at
SeaWorld and they looked after him for a

months. And then we decided to release
him down around Sydney.

So Skip was flown down here to Taronga
and we fitted a satellite tracker to

which is a small unit designed
specifically for putting on sims. And we

by using a glue to attach the tracker to
the fur and that tracker will fall off

when he molts.

Until then, Ben and fellow researchers
will be able to follow Skip's every

It's part of a major research effort
called Seabirds to Seascapes.

Our Seabirds to Seascapes project is
looking at the biodiversity of marine

along the New South Wales coast and
we're particularly interested in the

penguins and the seals.

And what we're really interested in is
how are they interacting with the human

landscape that we have now.

Skip doesn't know it, but he is about to
play a big part in that research.

We're lucky enough to borrow a New South
Wales police boat that we put him onto

and we took him a couple of kilometres
out off Sydney Head. It was a fairly

bumpy day when we took him out there,
but he took it in his stride. He stood

the transom of the boat and sort of
looked at the ocean for a second. I

you can imagine, he sort of faced with
the ocean. He sort of hesitated for a

second and then...

After a few seconds, he dived in and he
swam away from the boat. He popped up,

he looked back at us, and then he turned
around and he swam off.

He's a little seal in a big, wide ocean.

But where did Skip go?

The answer is incredible.

Six female kangaroo island roos have
arrived after a 14 -hour drive from

Australia. So exciting!

This one here.

Time to let three of them out of their
travel crates.

One, two, three.

There's a good girl. There's a good
girl.

Hi. Who's that?

All right, sweetheart.

There we go.

You are a little he.

You're very cute.

Hi, little one. Hey. No.

Oh, God, they're tiny. Oh, they're so
small.

They're very small.

They're so pretty. They're so pretty.

We've got so far three nice -looking,
quite small, young female K .I.

come out of their boxes.

They've come out nice and quietly, which
is fantastic.

We want them to stay nice and quiet and
calm like that, and hopefully they'll

have enjoyed their trip, and welcome to
the rain in Sydney.

They're looking good.

Nice and small and compact.

So far...

So good.

Hopefully releasing the second lot is
just as smooth.

Calm, slowly.

We've got a big, we've got a adult one
in this box. There we go.

Hi there.

Hi, big girl.

One more to come out.

Hey, shy one.

Are you OK? Hey, girl.

Just let her come out when she wants to.
Make sure she's all right.

Yeah, she's thinking about it.

Is she facing the wrong way? Yeah.

Can you open the other end of the pot?
No, there's no end.

There's only one end.

She's got her back curved in this
corner.

Pretty hot.

Basically, her tail's over here.

Is she lying down? Yeah, she's lying on
her front.

She's got pretty wet hind legs.

Got more to be stressed about being an
adult.

Do you want me to go in there and help
stand her up?

Everyone's hoping the roo will come out
on her own.

But she's definitely not keen.

You're pretty.

Out at Taronga Western Plain Zoo, the
team have been working for over an hour

trim the hooves of Taki horse, Altani,
who's been sedated the entire time.

You can see there I've had to take away
a fair bit of hoof wall just to get to

the bottom of some of this diseased
tissue.

Her hooves are worse than expected, so
it's taking much longer than anyone

anticipated. She's just breath -holding
a bit now. She's breath -holding? Yeah.

That's still good.

Go on, darling.

Breath -holding.

indicates Altani might be too deeply
anaesthetised.

Come on.

And, just like a human, a horse's brain
starved of oxygen for more than a few

minutes could result in brain damage.

How are you going with yours?

I'm not done with that, but if she's
breath -holding, we need to get out.

Everybody, pack up your stuff and get
out now, please.

There's a breath. Still a hoof. She's
taking a breath.

Do it.

No, I'm going to wake her up.

It's not worth the risk.

It's not worth the risk giving her more
ketamine or anything.

So we're going to wake her up.

Before the procedure began, vet Elisa
prepared a drug that will quickly

the powerful anaesthetic. Yeah, the
front I'm not finished with, but it's

risky. She needs to administer it now
and rouse Altani to get her breathing

normally again.

The reason that we use these drugs is
that they are very effective.

at anaesthetising our hoofed animals and
they have the advantage of being

completely reversible.

So one of the important aspects of a
procedure like this, we want to have her

up, fully recovered and reintegrated
back with her herd as soon as possible.

So being an opioid, it has got an
antagonist drug that we can give

at the end of the procedure that's going
to have her standing on her feet and

back with her herd really quickly.

Are you happy?

Yeah, she's lightening up. As the herd
watches on...

Altani slowly comes to.

Coming up, honey. Good girl.

Up you get. Good girl.

So she's calling to her... You can hear
her. She's calling to her herd mates,

and they're calling back to her.

But we just need to make sure that she's
completely steady on her feet before we

reintroduce her.

It's a huge relief she's recovered so
quickly.

But more investigation... And work on
those hooves will need to be done soon.

She has got what's called white line
disease, which is a separation between

hoof wall and the sole, and that's
something that we're going to need to

top of. So it's basically infection,
bacteria and fungi that can get up in

between the two parts of the hoof and
actually cause some disease in there. So

it's something we need to keep on top
of, trimming out and get that back to

healthy hoof wall growth.

By mid -afternoon, Altani is back with
the herd.

Fully recovered from this morning's
adventures.

Altani's looking really well. She's
walking and running around with the rest

the herd, which is exactly what we would
like.

I just was out there before giving her a
feed as well, and she's happily eating

away, so that's exactly what we want
from her today.

Back in Sydney, there's some equally
important conservation work being done

save an endangered species.

Only it's all happening behind the
scenes.

And it's not causing the Taronga team
any heart palpitations.

So this species in here is the northern
krabby frog.

And it's really one of the most iconic
frogs in Australia.

Yet they're one of our most endangered
as well.

Unfortunately for this species, they're
heavily impacted by a disease that

arrived in Australia back in the 70s
called chytrid fungus.

Fungus that infects the skin of the
frog, effectively what it does is throws

the electrolyte balance of the frog and
causes them to have a cardiac arrest.

They are critically endangered.

Their numbers are right on the brink of
extinction.

They could be gone as little as five to
ten years from the wild.

So the goal of this program here is to
be able to breed the species to produce

offspring for release.

And down in Brindabella National Park,
where these ones are from, we released a

combination of both eggs and of frogs to
help sustain the populations there and

keep them picking over.

So far, things have been going pretty
well.

But Michael is only just getting
started.

As we're hitting that summer period,
it's actually the breeding period for

these. So we're actually going to start
introducing males to the breeding tank.

We have 400 northern crawly frogs.
There's quite a few individuals.

And the way we tell them all apart is by
the unique pattern.

So their belly pattern is a series of
dots, which we'll see in a moment, and

their back pattern is stripes, but
they've all got slight differences, kind

like a fingerprint.

So for every one of the animals in our
collection, we've got images of their

back, images of their belly, and we can
work out exactly which frog's which just

by looking at their unique patterning.

And it's quite distinctive, no two are
alike.

So this boy's pattern matches this one
on the table, and I can flip him over

too, just to have a little look at his
belly.

just to ensure it matches the belly
pattern as well.

I struggle to tell giraffes apart, but
one out of 400 frogs I can fish.

Look at their little back legs.

They're only tiny. They're not big and
muscular, not made for jumping large

distances. These little guys, they just
walk.

And soon, around 400 of them will be
testing out those little legs when

released back to the Brindabella
mountain range on the edge of the Snowy

Mountains in New South Wales.

to help repopulate the region.

Fortunately for us, these frogs live for
a long time. We've got some just over

to the right here, which are 18 years of
age. So they can live certainly up to

20 years, and who knows, they're still
breeding as of last year, so who knows

how long they'll live for.

Back prior to chytrid fungus, this
species would have been up in the

in northern Kosciuszko, essentially in
the millions.

And today we're left with as few as a
few thousand left in the wild, so their

numbers are really critical.

Next. If we just slide her to where she
goes, that leaves out.

The waiting game continues.

Nobody's sort of in her face.

And mystery solved.

More than 60 days now since we released
him.

Skip's secret travels are a secret no
more.

He's done over 4 ,000 kilometres.

The Taronga team are thrilled at the
arrival this morning of six young female

kangaroos that will be part of the Nura
Deer Australia experience.

Hi, big girl.

Five have come straight out of their
travel boxes, but the last one won't

out. One more to come out.

Hey, shy one.

And vet Francis is a little worried.

Okay, maybe.

I hear something.

She's trying to get up.

Yeah, you need to help her up, Francis.

Yeah, I think so. Make it and then pull
her out a little bit. Just be careful

she doesn't kick you. The other option
is... She's turning around.

She's getting there.

That just worries me. Yeah, it does.
It's goodness.

All right, sleepy.

If we attend this and just... Slide her
to where she can get her back legs out.

She might be able to get her forelimbs.

Ready? Two, three.

But nobody's sort of in her face.

No.

We should start gliding through.

She might be scared when she starts.

Moving forward.

That's okay. Moving forward.

Forelimbs are down below.

There we go.

Just wait with this up like this. There
you go.

It's okay.

And everybody just really quiet and
stay.

She's a bit wobbly, she might be a bit
sore.

I was a little bit worried about the
slightly bigger females. Obviously

a big change for these animals coming
here, but I'm quite happy actually with

the way that she's come out. She's
steady on her feet and she's alert and

looking around, but there's no obvious
signs of grass or anything like that. I

think they've been pretty quiet on the
trip over here.

and it looks like they've actually
travelled really well, so it's great

So special.

Got a little crew together.

Travelling in a mob is always really
important for kangaroos when they're in

danger. They help to confuse predators
and things, so being together again is

probably really important as part of
this process.

They'll be here for the next three
weeks.

We'll monitor them and make sure that
they're as healthy as possible,

them, hopefully.

And the next stop is near Edea. Very
exciting.

It's been a few months since Skip the
Seal was released off Sydney Heads with

satellite tracker attached.

Today, Ben is sharing with Marine
Supervisor Brad... Just where Skip's

adventures have taken him. We released
him out off Sydney Head and straight

he jumped into the Australian current.
He powered down south.

That current pushes south at about seven
kilometres an hour.

A dead straight path down to Victoria.

Right down out off the eastern end of
Bass Strait. And then he headed in

His first stop off on land was this
little tiny place called Craggy Island

the north of Flinders Island.

And he's had a few days rest there and
checked out the north coast of Tasmania.

And then he's gone back around the top
of Flinders Island and headed south

again. And this is really cool. He's
found this...

The sea mountain at the East Tasman
Plateau, and he spent a few days fishing

there. That's amazing. And do you know
what the length of time is that he's

in between periods of rest on land? More
than 60 days now since we released him,

and he's only had about four or five
days on land.

Impressive. Yeah, for a little...
Incredible.

He's got 19 kilos, or he was 19 kilos
when we released him. He's probably a

heavier now that he's out there feeding
up, and he's done...

over 4 ,000 kilometres and gone right
down south, about 700 kilometres south

Tasmania. It's incredible.

You know, so much effort goes into the
rehab of these animals, and when you

release them, you're just sort of hoping
they do well off the boat, but by

putting the satellite tracker on them,
we can actually see what they do and

where they go, and the fact that he's
done this 4 ,000 -kilometre trip so far

and he's still going is incredible.

The tracker is likely to fall off soon
when Skip moults. But the insights his

travels have provided already are
priceless.

It's really hard to protect something
that we don't know about.

So we have to understand these animals
in order to understand the threat

to them and protect them and ensure a
shared future.

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