Original subtitles

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

Hello. What's he doing?

From their devoted keepers. 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

...are themselves a special breed.

Not a slobber there, bud.

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

So impatient.

Good girl. Hang on.

On this episode... To make it a little bit interesting, we've put peanuts and

we've frozen it. A big...

Big effort.

So we try and be creative with the way that we present things.

For some big, big residents.

Always changing it up, mixing it up, give them something new.

Taronga's elephants just love getting down and dirty.

As long as they're happy, I'm happy.

The race to help this iconic Aussie face.

We're going to intubate him.

And as Moby hits the open road.

I feel like I can shed my tears.

Bye, Miss Soft.

Mwah, mwah.

Taronga prepares for the perfect storm.

So, this is Tom.

This is Larry.

Yeah.

Happy to have him here. Yeah. You guys are lucky.

Is that a wound here?

Taronga Zoo in Sydney is an ark of sorts.

For many species in trouble.

He's got suspected injury to his right leg. He's not using it normally.

None more in need than our universally loved but endangered national symbol,

koala.

19 live here.

But out in the bush, their numbers are crashing.

Due in part to natural disasters and habitat loss.

So on the weekend, we had a male koala come into care from Warnor Dam region.

Firemen found it on a fire trail out in the wild, and they thought it had a bit

of lameness in its right hind leg and a bit of a wobbly gait.

And it's a male?

We didn't put that on there, but I'm pretty sure.

It was supposedly hind limb lameness? Is that right?

It's quite wobbly in its hips. I saw it walking yesterday.

Okay.

The fact he was on the ground and could be collected is a worrying start.

That's not likely to happen with a healthy koala.

Yes.

Okay, so how many milligrams?

I'm going to give 30 milligrams.

So three mgs per kick?

So we're going to look and see if there's anything fractured in his pelvis

his hind legs, or maybe he's got some arthritis.

So it's just a bit of a screening to see why he might be a little bit lame, why

he might be a little bit wobbly with his walk.

He's a wild koala, so I need to inject him with an anesthetic to make him go to

sleep. I just want to have a glove on in case he decides he's not happy with me.

All righty.

Hey, buddy.

Wait, I'll look at your face.

The fact there's no reaction at all to Kimberly's needle is not a good sign.

He's very calm for a wild koala just sitting there, right? So maybe there is

something else underlying.

Yeah. Can you just check his hydration? Is skin tenting there?

I know, buddy.

Yeah. He's tensing up. That's a bit hard to tell.

But he looks quite sort of sunken in the forehead and, like, face looks a bit

sort of muscle wastage.

So it's going to take now about maybe...

Five to ten minutes for him to go to sleep.

And Liz will just be there to catch him if he starts to wobble.

Kimberly and Liz have no idea what the problem is yet, but they know he needs

urgent help.

Fur seals and sea lions are often

confused as the same marine mammal, but they're not.

The differences are easy to spot if you know what to look for.

So this is Bondi.

He's known in Australia as a New Zealand or long -nosed fur seal. These guys

have two layers of fur, which makes them look quite a bit shaggier. Now, if you

have a closer look... You can see he's got the brown hair on the outside, which

is called the guard hair. And then on the inside, he's got an orange layer,

which is basically pretty much dry all the time. The other thing about the fur

seals is the shape of their head, which is quite specific.

They've got a long snout.

Thank you, Bondi.

Now, when you compare that to the other seal species that we have here in

Australia, this is Nala, our endangered Australian sea lion. They have one layer

of fur.

compared to the fur seals that have two layers of fur and if you have a close

look you can see that the fur is still very much there but at the same time it

actually lays very very flat their color is also quite specific as well for

females and young males they have that two -tone silver color on the top

got that gray area and on the underside they've got that silvery layer females

stay this color their entire life and young males stay this colour for around

about five years. After about the five year mark they start to get brown all

over and at about the eight to ten year mark they develop a blonde cap which is

what signifies maturity for these guys.

And true to his age, this young male called Moby already has a lovely brown

coat.

I've been working with Moby since he was a pup. He was born here at Taronga five

years ago.

Let's go.

Moby is one of our most adventurous seals. He's not very shy. He's not very

nervous. He's actually interested in going out and exploring. All right.

Moby's easily excitable.

He loves his strolls around the zoo.

Hi, buddy.

And checking in on his neighbours.

Good boy.

Is that a big seal?

A big seal with a long nose.

The visitors love him too.

Everyone, here is Moby.

Let's see how he goes.

He's pretty much a crowd favourite, but he's also my favourite as well.

Every day I see you, you're getting a little bit darker.

Come on, up on the box.

Good boy.

Excellent work.

Let's have a look at how your teeth are going.

So just having an overall check of maybe make sure everything's pretty normal

and okay. These guys are naturally found on the coastline of South Australia and

along the southern end of Western Australia. The Australian sea lion,

unfortunately, is also endangered.

Their numbers are actually only at about 10 ,000.

Especially compared to the fur seals, which are well and over a few hundred

thousand. Their major threat was obviously humans, not to mention

stuff like that. So we're talking orca and white sharks.

Do you have a special new role in mind for Moby?

Moby's part of our breeding program here at Taronga. At the moment, there's only

five institutions in Australasia that actually have the Australian sea lions.

So Moby himself is actually part of that breeding program and he's going to be

heading to another institution at Coffs Harbour to be part of that breeding

program.

As hard as it will be for everyone, Moby will soon be leaving Taronga and a male

from Coffs Harbour called Storm will be coming down to Taronga's breeding

program.

But that all depends on persuading a 130 kilo sea lion to cooperate with the

move. Here you go.

At Taronga's Wildlife Hospital... He's pretty sleepy now.

...the rescued koala has been sedated.

We're coming through, Tam.

The mission is to find out why he's lame and looking unwell.

The first question is whether he's underweight.

So 9 .7.

That's a pretty good weight for a wild male.

Before they go any further, they need to ensure he's safely asleep.

So we've got him anesthetized now.

He's just done an injectable, alfaxolone, which they go under

quickly, but it's not going to stay under anesthesia very long on that drug.

we're going to give him an endotracheal tube.

We're going to intubate him and then use some gas anesthesia to keep him

sedated.

There's a lot of tissue in the back of the mouth, so I'm trying to see where

glottis is and get over the epiglottis into his airway.

I'm just right down, incubated with a size 6 cuff tube, and he's on 2 %

iso, 2 liters oxygen.

The injured koala can now be safely examined.

It's got really good gut feel, so there's a lot of stuff going on in his

intestines. Hoping that's all just food.

It's definitely a boy.

So first thing, Liz, I think let's go ahead and take the radiographs.

Let's start with the hips and pelvis and limbs.

Very straight. We'll need this one.

Given the koala's limp, a broken bone is a possibility.

All right, everyone out.

So x -rays are a logical place to start.

So I'm looking for obvious signs of arthritis.

I don't see anything jumping out.

His hip joints look nice and smooth because sometimes these guys do get hip

dysplasia and arthritis in their hips. That all looks good, and that's the part

we were mostly worried about.

With no answers yet, Kimberly plans her next step to uncover what's really wrong

with this koala.

Still to come, school's in for Moby.

Might love you quite more than you love anything else.

Kimberley's quest continues.

It's definitely not a new fracture.

And no wonder these elephants love their food.

And why not? It's like a little bit of a lolly to them.

Caring for animals at Taronga Zoo isn't always about their physical health.

Come here, have a little dish. There we go.

And when you're dealing with highly intelligent creatures like elephants,

keeping them engaged and content is super important.

The elephants that we have at Taronga Zoo are Asian elephants, both here as

as Dubbo.

In the front, we have Pak Boon. She's 30 years of age. She came from Thailand in

2006. And just behind her, you can see her lovely bottom there. Her name is

Mo. She's 23 years of age, and she also came from Thailand.

She was a street entertainer on the streets of Bangkok, so she's used to

interacting with people and getting rewarded for it.

They've created such a unique bond together, so it's been fantastic.

Each of these elephants weighs over 3 .5 tonnes.

eating 150 kilos of plant material a day.

It's hard enough supplying that much food, but the bigger challenge for

Lex is making the meals interesting.

Now, being an Asian elephant, you're going to be dwelling in foresty areas

allow them to have access to food quite readily, such as browsing, which is

basically leaves and branches that they love to eat.

So today we've got some seltzer sticks or a mixture of browse and what they'll

do, they'll strip the bark off this, they'll eat the leaves and it's so good

their teeth as well as digestive system.

So we try and be creative with the way that we present things, make it a bit

more fun and exciting for the elephants, always changing it up, mixing it up,

give them something new as part of their enrichment.

This right here, It's what we call wheat germ, which is like a type of bran.

But to make it a little bit interesting, we put peanuts and we've frozen it.

So it's just a long -lasting enrichment, which is great for them.

And why not? It's like a little bit of a lolly to them, so it's nice to see.

Come summer, there's another cool way to change up mealtimes.

At Taronga Zoo Sydney and at Dubbo as well, we freeze a lot of their items.

So instead of just eating it really quick, what they'll do, they'll either

an ice block with them and they'll use their trunk and they'll throw it on the

ground or even step on it to crush it and break it.

It all comes down to the idea a happy elephant is usually a healthy elephant.

With that in mind, Lex has big plans.

And she's about to deliver these two a whole lot of happiness.

Moby, the Australian sea lion, has always been an enthusiastic learner,

navigating the underwater pools between the holding pens with ease.

Good boy.

All right.

But since the decision was made to send him to Coffs Harbour to help with the

breeding program...

School has been well and truly in.

So we've got a nice cold bucket of water to make sure the aluminium crate is

nice and cool for him.

We don't want him to feel uncomfortable when he's in here.

Seeing as today is quite a hot day, hopefully he's excited.

The biggest issue in moving any animal is getting them there safely.

So Jose is bringing Moby up to speed with the transport arrangements.

Getting his favourites out.

Alright Moby, you ready?

So we're getting Moby used to a transport crate where we're actually

transporting him over to Coffs Harbour. It's a six hour journey. So we want him

to obviously be extremely comfortable.

Going into the transport crate. As you can see, he's very well versed in

in. He knows exactly what he needs to do.

And as far as Moby's concerned, this is probably one of his favourite parts of

the day because it means he gets a very big reward.

Around about four months worth of training to get him extremely

being in that crate.

Good boy, Moby.

You love that crate, don't you?

He might love you quite more than you love anything else.

To add to the excitement of the move, Moby is also transitioning into

Good boy.

So, young males start to turn brown at the age of about five or six years of

age. Good boy.

They'll be brown for a couple of years.

And once they start getting into adulthood, which is around about the age

eight or nine, they actually start to develop a blonde cap on the top of their

head. And that's obviously a very clear signal to the other males that I'm

actually coming into maturity now and I'm someone that needs to be concerned

with. Over that time, Moby will more than double in size from his current 130

kilos. You loving it, Craig?

So he'll be pretty hard to recognise when he eventually returns to Tooronga.

Yeah.

His big move is scheduled for tomorrow morning, and Jose is already starting to

miss him.

They have a lot of personality, every single one of them, so I think whenever

lose one of these guys, it is quite a sad moment, especially you, buddy.

Yeah.

The job of a vet can sometimes be about detective work.

So I'm looking for obvious signs of arthritis. I don't see anything jumping

And that's certainly the case today for Kimberly.

All right, next section.

This wild koala was brought in limping and sick, but x -rays show his back legs

are fine.

Out again.

The search now moves to his front legs. Okay, we can put him on his back.

Give him some breaths in that position as well. Okay.

He's got an old injury to his shoulder, his left shoulder.

It's very arthritic and an old fracture.

So that is something, but that doesn't explain his hip stuff.

This is his left shoulder on this side.

If you can see the little arrow, there's a big fracture here off his scapula or

shoulder blade. The joint surface itself is still fairly smooth, so I think he's

been coping with this for quite some time. That's definitely not a new

Great, that's good.

Clearly, life in the wild has been tough.

Let me shoot that.

But it doesn't appear his broken shoulder is the cause of the problem

Everybody out.

So there's still the question, what's slowing him down now?

Looking at his abdomen, he's got a lot of food in there, so this is a sign that

he's been eating really well. We'd like to see that in a healthy wild koala, so

I'm happy with that. He's got some stuff going on with his teeth that might be a

problem.

He might have some dental concerns, this guy.

I can see a lot of calculus built up around this tooth.

But around this tooth, there's a big pocket of what looks like air.

So that's lysis of the bone. So that tooth's probably going to need to come

Like humans, dental issues in animals can lead to serious infections.

So it definitely needs a closer look. This is the tooth that I thought had a

of bone lysis around it.

Teeth are very worn.

So it's an old man, about eight or nine. It could be even older.

Got quite a bit of calculus buildup, and he's got a couple teeth that aren't

that solid. So I just want to review the radiograph because he's going to need

some extractions probably.

But that can wait until another day.

For today, we're just going to do general health assessment and try to

if there's anything else going on.

Next, the Elephant Day Spa is open for business.

Sounds all fancy, but in reality, it's just dirt.

And an emotional departure for Moby. You're going to change a lot in the time

that he's going to be gone.

Providing the right food is one way of keeping Taronga's elephants content.

But Keeper Lex has another truckload of joy.

that she knows will be a hit.

If you don't mind just dumping it with the other pile so we can see how much we

have and then Joe will actually dump it in. Perfect.

That'll be great for us, thank you. Can do.

Bailey's just going to dump some menangle. Sounds all fancy, but in

just dirt.

And it just means there's no rocks or anything. It's been really sifted

to give that nice soft texture on their body.

What they're making here is called a wallow.

It's easy.

Take one big pile of dirt and just add water.

Tim is just hosing the menangle, and what the water does, it kind of gets

entrapped, making this, like, muddy little nice mess about it. And so having

that extra moisture, the elephants are just going to bathe themselves in it,

it's really good for their skin and really good for their bodies as well.

It's kind of an elephant day spa.

They do it in the wild.

The mud protects them from the sun and insects.

Yep, go for it.

Tango!

Often when we put something new in, she'll see that we're trying to interact

with her and she's like, ooh, this must be fun.

Howdy girl, Mosey.

So when it comes to water, even mud, they're very playful animals.

So this is a great example of their natural behaviours.

either caking themselves with their trunks or utilising the dexterity of

trunks, or might as well just go in like they're doing now and just roll in it.

Because not only is it great for skin, but it's so much fun for these

And as you can see, they're thoroughly enjoying it.

And that's a wallow, and I can see that I've got one too, so it'll definitely

help my skin.

So with the wallow, they enjoy it in the day, but they also enjoy it at

nighttime when they get a bit cheeky or later in the day when we're not there.

We actually found this amazing footage overnight where they spent a lot of time

in their wallow helping cool down.

So it was a very hot night.

Any chance of fun, they'll definitely take.

Yep.

I love it as well. Even though we get a little bit dirty, as long as they're

happy, I'm happy. And that's what I feel my role is to do, is to make sure that

they're living a happy existence here.

It's funny, like the thing he came in for, I don't see any real reason for it.

At Taronga's Wildlife Hospital, the rescued koala is proving a difficult

to diagnose.

I'm going to move him down so I get actually the head on this one. Yeah.

this part's fine. So we'll just get lungs and head.

He's been x -rayed from head to toe.

And so far, there's no clue about what's causing him to limp. The hips and the

legs look really good.

On the rest of the radiograph, he's got one tooth where it looks like he's got

lysis or deterioration of the bone around it. And he's got a lot of tartar

buildup. So I don't think he's been brushing his teeth very well.

But if they can't find any obvious physical damage, their next step is to

investigate possible illness.

Just taking a swab of inside his penis, because we're just testing for

chlamydia. And the other place we test, because they also get respiratory

changes from the chlamydia, we also test for it in swabbing the eyes.

Chlamydia interferes with reproduction in koalas, so we just do a test on the

koalas when they come in or if we're going to move them to other zoos just to

make sure they don't have that.

We take some blood on him today. We're going to do general hematology, so what

you might call a CBC, complete blood count. We're going to look for anemia,

for any signs of infection.

And we're going to do a biochemistry, so looking for organ function, how is the

liver working, how are the kidneys working, are his electrolytes balanced.

And then I took a couple extra samples because we might want to look for

cryptococcus and also koala retrovirus, which cause them to have different types

of cancers.

The koala's too busy snoring to know it.

But no effort is being spared to help him recover, if recovery is even

But for now, it's time to wake him up.

For over 100 years, the Taronga team have been fine -tuning how best to care

their animals.

Good morning, everyone.

And today, that involves Georgia teaching trainee keeper Molly how to

what's called conditioning training on the zoo's four red pandas.

Red pandas come from the Himalayan and Chinese regions.

And they are unfortunately going through a bit of habitat loss.

There's between 2 ,000 to 10 ,000 red pandas left.

So the numbers aren't doing too great.

That's why zoos are so important. So we make sure that we have our insurance

population. We absolutely adore red pandas. I'm sure everyone does.

So we want to keep them around as long as we can.

So Molly, what we're going to be doing is a bit of a tactile session today. So

we're actually going to be touching our pandas.

It's important we do that for our health assessment, and we want them to be

comfortable with that. So we practise this behaviour now when there's nothing

wrong, and then this behaviour can also be used for ultrasounds in the future.

We do have two young females, so potentially if they are going to be

females, then we will need to be doing that for them as they do get older.

Apart from checking for future pregnancies, the ultrasounds are vital

identifying any stomach problems early.

Breeding female Amala has been hospitalised previously with serious gut

What we're seeing in a lot of red pandas in Australia but also overseas is sort

of an irritable bowel syndrome and it's still a bit of a mystery as to actually

what is causing this problem. The feeling now is that it might be a

problem. Whatever it is, it requires regular checking, preferably with the

ultrasounds being done while the red pandas are awake.

and in the comfort of their own habitat.

Amala, Zaya, Dayu.

Good morning, buddy.

How are you?

You going to station?

Come here, darling.

Station.

So these girls have learnt over the years to come to the certain spot.

Good girl.

So I use a tap three times where I want them to stand.

And they know that that means where they have to come to.

Good girl, darling.

So we're basically going to be making contact with their body. So we say a

certain word. The word is touch.

And then I will touch Zaya's body here.

So we're feeling here to see if I can feel her ribs to make sure there's no

or anything or there's no unusual scratches or anything like that.

And if I move positions, I'll say touch.

And I'll touch a different part of her body.

We have to make sure that we're looking out for a few behaviours. So one of them

is flinching. That word touch is like a word of consent, basically. So we're

sort of asking them, are you comfortable with me touching you? If, however, she

flinches before I go to actually touch her, that's something that you might

to make note of.

Amala is already familiar with touch training and knows she can always break

the contact.

If she wants to move away, she does have the opportunity to as well.

Good girl, Mummy.

I'm going to have a look at her toes as well.

Mollie, touch.

Good girl.

Want to take that one up with you?

Good girl, Mummy.

If they've had enough, they've had enough. And that's totally up to them.

keep it to their choice.

So they've headed off up the tree and they're like, OK, Jojo, we've finished

session. We're full now. We'll go and eat a little bit later. Awesome. It's

pretty cool.

So, yeah.

While trainee Mollie moves on to learn animal care of other species...

Georgia is about to begin the next important stage of conditioning red

have an ultrasound without sedation.

Over at the wildlife hospital, the rescued koala's examination has taken

over an hour.

He's been given a reversal drug and is slowly starting to wake up.

Where's your little tree branch gone? There it is.

We give them these towels when they're waking up from anaesthetic. As you can

see, one of the first things the koala did was grab onto the towel like he's

grabbing onto a tree. So we just routinely will give them a little towel

cling onto to give them a bit of security when they're waking up from

procedure.

Liz lightly taps near the koala's eye to see the blink reflex that will indicate

he's coming around.

He's still quite groggy.

But what I'm going to do is put him into a pet pack to recover. But he's

breathing well now. His heart sounds good.

Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you.

Go, buddy.

All right.

Back in the recovery room.

It's not long before the koala is moving around looking for food.

He's eating already, so that's good.

He's using his left shoulder quite well to climb.

He had a little assistance there because he's still a bit groggy from his

anesthesia. Blood test results should be back in a few days.

Kimberly hopes they'll solve this mystery once and for all.

He's been doing okay, or seemingly okay in the wild.

He's only picked up because the fireman thought he had a funny gait.

So hopefully he'll go back out.

So we're going to go set up for our red panda ultrasound session. So what we'll

do, just going into that bit here.

Keeper Georgia is working on a technique so all the pandas can get ultrasounds

without an anaesthetic or even leaving their enclosure.

Hi, Zaya.

Hi, Marla. Hi, Mummy. Just setting up our little ultrasound stand for Marla

because we're going to do an ultrasound training session.

It's a nice blanket that's nice and soft for her to climb on.

Then we've got these two spots here for her daughters because they like to get

involved too, but sometimes we can't always have that. This is little Zaya.

Zaya is very interested in all sorts of new things.

She also does enjoy doing a little session too, but we're not doing one for

now. We're doing it for Mummy.

It's going to be Mummy's session.

Come, Mummy.

Mummy, come.

So ask them all to stand.

Good girl, Mummy.

Good girl, Miss.

And touch.

We've had Amala for quite a few years now. She's come to us from an overseas

where she was actually worked protective contact, meaning that the keepers never

actually used to work in with her. So she's come a really, really long way,

allowing us to be able to even just work in the same space as her, but also

being able to touch her, which is incredible.

Amala, touch.

Start with just a nice slight touch and then eventually it changes to us moving

our hands around and we're even touching with different sorts of objects. So one

of the things that we were doing is actually bringing in random things. So

whether it was a piece of rope, whether it was a hammer, all sorts of weird

objects just to put them next to Amala during the session.

Might even try with the clippers today.

Amala, touch.

Turning clippers on near where Amala will need to be shaved for the

is the final part of training.

Good job, Amala.

Amala didn't even react to this. She's so used to hearing that noise. She's so

used to having us touching around here. She was just like, I'm just going to

stand here and eat my panda bars, which is exactly what we hoped for.

Now it's time to call the vets in to attempt the real thing.

It's six o 'clock in the morning.

Moving day for Moby, the Australian sea lion.

This time of the morning is unusual for Moby, so we want to make sure he's

comfortable and it's just going to be like another training session for him

because obviously if he's slow to go in there, then it's going to delay the

whole operation.

And at the other end, we want to make sure that we're there with enough time.

Moby is being swapped for another sea lion from a Coffs Harbour marine park.

He'll be away for around two years.

Basically, he has to be comfortable with what we're about to do because I feel

that's 130 kilos.

You know, if he doesn't want to do something, then there's no real forcing

As far as Moby's concerned, he loves the crate. So the crate itself is one of

his favourite places, which is exactly what we want Moby to think.

Mum, are you excited?

What? Are you excited?

Yay!

All right.

Are we ready? Over here.

You'll do the doors as always, Hope?

Yeah. Ready?

Just another day, Moby.

Right up. Good boy.

Just like training, he's straight in, calm and relaxed.

And that is why his keepers love him.

I've been here since Moby was born and I was one of his trainers when he moved

up here.

He is a very special animal and we'll definitely miss him. But he is moving on

to bigger and better things and he's got lots of girlfriends where he's going.

Both Moby and his counterpart will be bred to expand the gene pool of both

Hey, buddy, we're going to miss you.

You're going to come back so big. Yeah, he's going to be a monster. You're going

to be so big when you come home.

Cool. So we'll line it up, ready to go. Do you want to bring it over here?

Bring it back a bit for him to get in there.

Yep, but if we get Joe here.

Lower slowly.

Just hold the weight low. There you go.

All right.

All right, now he's coming across.

Do you like to see out the front?

Moby! So that's all. All right, Paul's leaving.

Well done, Joe.

Smashed it.

So the animals are always picking up on our emotions, and if we're nervous, then

they're going to be nervous.

Now that he's in and he's looking pretty comfortable, I feel like I can shed my

tears.

But he's done so good. He's coming back. Yeah. He's coming back.

Up north, it's a fair bet the Coffs Harbour Keepers are suffering the same

emotions as they say goodbye to their male sea lion.

But it won't be forever.

He's going to change a lot in the time that he's going to be gone. So when he

comes back, he'll be looking like a completely different animal.

We just miss that maturity stage of his life.

Yeah. Like I said, it's bittersweet, but... It's exciting.

Just sad for us.

Everyone wants to say goodbye. How's it going?

Oh, he's in. He's in?

Yeah.

Thank you, fella.

Jose, just make sure you message us over the day. Absolutely.

Seal theater slash loyalty update, please. I'll have ongoing updates.

Are you good? Ready.

Jose will be driving Moby North and spending a few days with his new keepers

ensure he settles in.

Bye, mister.

Mwah, mwah.

Have a good drive.

Next, Amala's big moment.

And a perfect storm hits Taronga. You're a pretty cool man.

Amala needs an ultrasound to make sure her potentially serious gut issues

haven't returned.

Good girl, Mummy. That's it.

Good job.

Only this time, vet Frances hopes to do the investigation without anaesthetic in

the comfort of the red panda's habitat.

Being able to condition Amala to place her paws up on that top bar and allow us

to touch and even the vets to touch her is much better than doing an anaesthetic

because it helps reduce the amount of stress for the pandas, the vets and even

us as staff members.

Now, the moment of truth.

Shaving her belly for real.

Clippers make a bit of a noise when you turn them on.

Okay, that's a normal noise. That's totally fine. And then the clippers move

them closer and eventually put them near her belly and then we actually shave

her belly.

So far, so good.

Now Frances uses the ultrasound probe and quickly confirms Amala is in great

shape with no obvious gut issues detectable.

Amala has been quite a shy individual throughout her lifetime, so having

person that she's not too familiar with, like Frances, our vet, touch her belly

is a really amazing achievement for Amala.

It's been a great success.

Amala's daughters are next in line for this crucial conditioning.

Back at the wildlife hospital, the news is not so upbeat.

The injured koala took a turn for the worse.

He did lose quite a bit of weight towards the end of the week, and he

become quite weak.

Unfortunately, he was declining in quite a steady fashion that we did have to

end up euthanizing him.

That left shoulder actually had a chronic inflammation,

an infection going on.

We did blood work on him. That all looked normal.

So we didn't show the signs of infection.

But with his decline, we knew something was wrong, and he was not going to

probably make it back out.

I'm really grateful that we have the opportunity for euthanasia when we know

animal is suffering, and we cannot let that continue. So that's a real benefit

to be a veterinarian.

And we also have to be a bit joyful that this koala.

was able to get to an old age and survive in the wild to that stage

having died at a younger, younger age.

So he's in a better place.

He's not suffering anymore.

And unfortunately for him, that was the end of his road.

There's a Moby -sized hole for the sea lion keepers, but there's excitement too

with the arrival of the new boy, Storm.

I'll get out of the way.

What we've done here is implemented some basic quarantine slash biosecurity

measures and one of the most sort of basic ones we can do is foot bath so

we're not any organisms, any pathogens that Storm may have.

We're not spreading elsewhere, particularly to the other seals.

Okay, let's have a look at him.

So how long have you worked with Storm for?

He's a life.

His whole life? Yeah.

Wow. Oh, that's nice.

Meg has come from the Marine Conservation Park at Coffs Harbour to

settle in.

It's quite dark, isn't it? It's a dark colour. Very dark.

A lot darker than Moby is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And everything else, like, hey, has he eaten anything?

Yeah, he ate well. So well. He slept the majority of the way. I was very proud.

And ate right away, hey? And ate right away when we put him in. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. That's great.

John.

Hey, buddy. Good job.

So, this is John.

This is Larry.

Good.

Good. That's good, yeah.

You don't want a squid?

It's his least favourite species, a squid. Yeah, yeah.

Roll him over?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Storm is a beautiful looking animal.

Perfect health, great body condition, amazing behaviour. I mean, you could see

could have a really good close look at him and he wasn't concerned one bit.

You know, it's amazing. Like, he's never seen me before, and yet it made no

difference whatsoever to his behaviour.

You're a pretty cool man.

You're a good boy.

Yeah. Yeah. No, very good.

Happy to have him here. Yeah. You guys are lucky.

Both boys did so well. Yeah, they both did really well.

Are you going to be looking after Moby? I'll be one of the team members.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

How is Storm? Beautiful boy. No worries.

Very good.

So all going well.

Storm will be out of here in a couple of weeks and certainly looking at his

physical health here now, I can't see that any issues will develop. So, yeah,

couple of weeks here and then join the rest of the crowd.

There's good news from Moby too.

How's Moby going?

I miss him. He's doing really well. He's settled in really well. We popped him

in the water and he went for a bit of a swim and investigated all the different

areas in the exhibit and was eating pretty quickly as well. And we've

started to train him to station up on our mock rock and he's doing really well

with that training. So that's really exciting.

Oh, that makes me happy. I miss him so much, but I'm sure Moby's going to love

having a girlfriend too. Yes, ready to meet Athena.

All right, so I'm sure we leave you to it. Have you had a big breakfast, buddy?

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