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 eye.

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.

Sorry, just here.

That's the lump. Taronga's passionate staff... She's lying on that dirty

It 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... There's a heartbeat.

And that's all we need.

An incredibly rare moment caught on camera.

We thought she's probably in labour right now.

But an early scare.

She was quite uncomfortable and restless.

Risks Kefara losing her car.

Oh, my God, this is the moment.

The ultimate tree change.

Oh, my goodness, lady.

For these four little bears.

This is going to be big.

And from head vet to head teacher.

I was very intimidated.

Class is in for Jessica.

Do you think that's bad or not? How many joeys can a macropod have at one time?

Why do they have four teats?

At Taronga Western Plain Zoo in Dubbo, the old adage, it takes a village to

raise a child, is on full display.

And various family groups rally protectively around their new arrivals.

Meerkat mobs always have a dominant male and a dominant female.

Those two are the only ones that do the breeding.

But when it comes to having pups, it's a whole family affair. So the whole

family will get involved and help bring up the pup.

The meerkat mob are taking turns on sentry duty to four pups born just three

weeks ago.

We were just trying to call the meerkat family inside, trying to get the adults.

out from the nest box into the night house, give them some yummy treats, so

we could get some access to the pups to weigh them.

However, because our family do such a great job at their job looking after the

pups, not all of them wanted to come in. So one of the big sisters, Alani, she

takes her job very seriously as being big sister, and she stayed with the

which is what we want to see, them being nice and protective.

But it just means that, unfortunately, we can't do their weighing right now.

Nearby. Keeper Sasha is finding it easier to do a visual check on how the

new spider monkey mums are doing with their offspring.

This is our three -month -old baby. It's our second oldest baby that we have at

the moment with her mum, Hiccup.

One of the babies is just one day old.

For the first three months, roughly, they spend most of their time clinging

mum's belly. And when they're a little bit older, they'll...

start to climb onto her back and do what we call dorsal riding.

The workload to care for the five -month and three -month -old is already being

shared by the troop. The troop will look after them as a group. So even though

they definitely have very strong ties to their own mum and mum certainly takes

care of them the most, when the group is resting or just foraging, the babies,

once they're old enough, you know, three, four months old, will definitely

climbing onto the backs of other troop members and everyone's always looking

for their safety and wellbeing.

This nurturing, safe environment also plays a big part in Taronga's incredible

success with their black rhino breeding program.

Now welcoming the third generation of this critically endangered species.

Hey, Kefara.

13 -year -old Kefara is pregnant with her second baby. But conception this

around has not been so easy.

The reproduction of rhinos can be a tricky business.

With Kefara, she...

was ovulating at irregular time frames. And from our understanding of what her

natural, normal cycle should look like, we were able to develop a technique that

corrected that cycle so it was more like a natural cycle.

Even though the Taronga team were hopeful, nothing beats seeing a

ultrasound. Little baby there to see. I can see little pearls of spinal column

for the first time today as well.

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

There's a heartbeat, and that's all we need.

That was over 16 months ago, and Keeper Jake is anxiously waiting on what is now

an overdue arrival.

Black rhinos as a species are generally pregnant from anywhere from 14 months to

16 months, but you'll generally see them give birth around the 15 -month mark.

So once Kefar reaches the 16 -month mark, we'll be like, well, is this calf

coming or not?

While they wait, all Jake can do is keep the routine as normal as possible.

Chuck in, give her a quick tidy up and a feed.

We also have our cameras in various spots around the yard. That's so that

can be secure and the calf can't wander off and get lost out in the yard when

mum's having a sleep or anything like that.

We've got her bed over here as well.

We've got a bit of weather on the way so we'll make sure she's got a nice warm

area to be in.

She's got a heater too.

These guys I've found have had their calves when it's been a bit of a windier

a wetter night so they feel a storm. It's a natural way for them to have

Predators may not sense that there's a calf just born because there's storms

all the smells kind of disappear.

The black rhino being a critically endangered species, any calf we can get

the ground is a great achievement.

So Kefara here is one of our easier black rhinos to work with. She's come a

way since she was younger with her confidence around all of us.

She is always up for a bit of a scratch.

Ready to have a little baby.

So hopefully when she has this little calf, that calf picks up those traits.

After being in a state of readiness for a month, Jake is hoping the overdue calf

arrives soon.

I'm going to put a bet down that she's probably going to have birth overnight

the night after.

After 10 years of planning and hard work, Taronga's new native animal

experience, Neurodea Australia, is about to open.

As the finishing touches are put in place, Supervisor Mel is breathing a

sigh of relief.

Just so excited and proud of the whole team, every team and every person that

supported us.

It is a huge job and they've all been a part of this creation, so I'm so excited

to show the community.

The precinct will feature a kangaroo and wallaby habitat visitors can walk

through, a koala treetop encounter,

a dingo yard, and a night walk featuring nocturnal animals.

And today, the job of moving the animals into their new homes begins.

Okay. Oh, my God, this is the moment.

First to make the move are four of the koalas. You guys are in?

I haven't got my gloves on. I'm trying to get my gloves on.

So today we're going to do a little bit of a shuffle around all of these

exhibits to ensure that we have animals on display for our grand opening

tomorrow for New Rodea.

They don't want to make it easy for us.

She couldn't have got any higher.

We've waited until pretty much the end of the day to start moving our koalas.

This is when they become active.

And then from here they move into some natural ironbark trees.

Koala country.

As part of their new exhibit, we're going to watch them for a couple of

see how they settle in.

I think I might need to come back this way a little bit, actually.

That there's pretty good.

I'm hoping I'll see the tree, I'll sit in it, and I'll fall asleep.

That would be best -case scenario, but we'll see.

One.

Two. Actually, I'm going to go over the tree.

Koalas need to be lifted carefully from behind because of their sharp claws.

Yeah.

One somewhat surprised koala safely down.

Thanks, Nat.

Good girl, Stormy. Well done.

Okay. One.

Okay. Yep. How's her butt look from that side?

Yep. Good. Is that better?

Mm -hmm. Yep.

This one. Yep. One and two.

Beautiful. Well done.

Let it go, Luna.

Good girl.

In you pop.

One to go for in here.

Okay. Let's open.

The last koala presents something of a challenge. Probably the latter.

Come on, Ella Bella.

You all right there, Aileen?

I'm kind of stuck with her.

Yep, that's okay.

Perfect. All right, you ready?

Not quite. I'm just going to go one more step.

You got it?

Not really, but you guys stay there. I'm going to see if I can get her butt.

You're all right there. One, two.

Okay.

Yay. Oh my goodness, lady. My goodness.

That was hard work.

Yeah, so the big ones first.

These four koalas will be settled into their new home today.

So we're going to put another one here and then we're going to take one on the

back seat.

With another 16 to follow in a few days' time.

Okay.

You ready, sweetie? Here we go.

Milawa is first out of the crate.

Straight for the food tree.

Oh, well done.

Next comes Stormy.

Oh, there we go.

Oh, it's a big tree.

It's huge, Stormy. You're going to have to work hard for this one.

up release some koalas there we go one two ella and luna bring up the rear

go hi ella's like straight out and up luna

oh wow look at her go

this is more exciting ella

go right to the top yeah now you're allowed right at the top oh

We have koalas in Nerudia, in koala country.

Huge, really big milestone.

I think everyone can agree the koala is going to be the centrepiece of Nerudia.

With everything that's happened, bushfires, COVID, you know,

these animals have become endangered in the last 12 months. This is going to be

big. They're going to be an awesome ambassador for their wild counterparts.

So, it's so exciting.

Coming up.

Kefara finally goes into labour.

That's not right.

But the birth is anything but straightforward.

The calf did actually come out backwards, which was a bit different.

And concern for Rosie the red roo. She's a bit separated off from the rest of

the group.

As a lump on her pouch gets bigger.

Her pouch is now hanging open and twitching every now and again.

which suggests to us that she is in a bit of pain.

Rachel is one of Taronga's 21 conservationists with two areas of

The first is koalas. Good, I'm really loving wandering through and seeing

guys in their new habitat. It looks fantastic. They look so good in here.

They're displaying really well and they're doing what koalas do best,

But the project taking up most of Rachel's time involves a nocturnal

called chudich.

Chudich is the Noongar name for this species, so that's local language in

southwest Western Australia.

It used to be found across 70 % of mainland Australia.

They have now reduced just 5 % of their former occupancy, which is quite

significant.

The biggest threat to chudich is land clearing, as well as introduced

like foxes and cats that are out competing and also predating upon the

One of the aims of the chudich rewilding project is to reintroduce them to parts

of Australia where they used to exist.

I quite like the chudich because I think they're quite a cryptic little animal.

They're very intriguing.

And I think just that opportunity to learn a little bit more about a species

that not many people have even ever heard of and then also to be able to do

good for them as well kind of aligns really nicely with all the things that

interested in.

Working with state partners in Western and South Australia, Rachel spends a

number of weeks on the road collecting wild chudich from areas where the

population numbers are still strong.

These chudich will undergo an initial assessment in hand to identify whether

not they're suitable animals for the program.

If they are, they get on a plane, they come all the way over to Dubbo, our

Taronga Western Plains Zoo Sanctuary. This is a pretty special place. It's 110

hectares. We've done full feral predator eradication. All the rabbits have been

removed from the site as well.

So within the sanctuary, we have a dedicated habitat, purpose -built for

chudich to breed within.

Turditch Joey's bred within the program will be released into wild sites around

Australia, where conservationists are hoping to reintroduce this species.

It's not that Turditch can't breed in the wild, it's just that survivorship of

the offspring can be quite low.

Whereas here at the zoo, we're able to remove all of the threats, ensure really

high survivorship of all the animals that are bred, and then we can

nice, strong, healthy animals into the wild, into those release sites that have

maximum chance of survival.

Incoming to Taronga Western Plain Zoo today are four wild chedditch picked up

few days ago from Western Australia.

It's really exciting.

Long time coming getting these guys here.

These guys have a big role to play for our breeding program, so they'll add

fresh genetics.

In here, we've got one male and three females.

So we're matching these guys up with some of the current footage that we have

here at the population in Dubbo.

We're going to give them an hour just to rest and relax in a nice, quiet, dark

space. And because it has been such a large journey, we will do a quick health

check with the vet prior to letting them out tonight to their new homes.

Even though the Taronga team have a lot of animals to move in, they can't rush

the process.

Marina, where are you?

Do you want to do the slide?

We have our kangaroo island kangaroos moving from the sticks yard into

country.

They've passed their quarantine, which is really positive, and now they get to

see their new environment.

This female roo has been shy since she arrived at Taronga three weeks ago, and

it seems nothing's changed.

It is one of the more nervous ones out of the group, so she probably just wants

a bit more time to get used to her environment.

Perhaps being joined by one of her mob will give her courage.

It might help her a bit. It might see the others.

The younger ones have been a bit more versatile, as we suspected.

Very sweet.

But the older ones are quite protective of them.

This is what mobs do. They protect each other. So the bigger ones are the ones

that kind of watch out for everybody else.

This one's turned away.

There you go. We're all done.

There you go. Go see your friends. Your friends are here.

She doesn't look stressed at all, just looking around.

I wonder if we should just, like... Well, we can very carefully do.

Let's take your pot.

We'll try and just lick a little bit of the box at the back and just see if

she'll come out.

Yeah.

Just looking around.

Do some head first.

No, no, no, she's turned around.

No, we'll put her back down.

You want to try a bit of food?

I think this is the one that took her time last time. Yeah. Yeah.

A few minutes is all she needed.

Back at Dubbo, it looks like there might be some action with 13 -year -old black

rhino Kefara.

After a record -breaking 16 months and four days... Keeper Jake has arrived to

discover the expecting mum may finally be in labour with calf number two.

We noticed that she was quite uncomfortable and restless and she

very wet back end.

We thought to ourselves she's probably in labour right now so we monitored her

for the rest of that morning and later in the morning is when the birth started

and we were there first hand to watch it happen which was extremely exciting.

Kefara's labour, I guess you could say, was a normal labour, quite

uncomfortable, a lot of restlessness up and down, all those things you'd expect

when you're trying to give birth. She did all the right things.

She just paced around, took her time.

Four hours in and Kefara moves into the second stage of delivery.

But Jake can see the head is not coming out first.

That's not right.

Breach deliveries can be dangerous as the umbilical cord can become twisted,

which may result in the death of the calf due to lack of oxygen.

Hopefully that won't happen and Kufara can deliver her calf soon.

Out at Davao, four wild Chudich are about to get a vet check.

It's part of the Breathe and Release program, aiming to repopulate Australia

with this unique native animal.

Any loud noises are quite spooky for them, so we just keep it really quiet so

that they're settled and therefore easier to handle and not go and injure

themselves.

The keepers need to be really careful.

The Chudich have razor -sharp teeth.

And someone else, come and take the towel out, please.

You really want to get a good restraint on the body end, first and foremost. So

usually you're sort of trying to feel where the head is.

She keeps twisting.

So sort of get her head.

Hold on.

It's all right, sweetheart.

Just chill.

Chill, chill, chill.

And trying to get a nice grip just behind the ears, just around, I guess,

top of the shoulders.

Sorry, mate.

That way you've got good control over...

sort of the front part of their body.

Definitely eaten recently.

Yep.

Give me your first quarantine sample.

Part of their quarantine process is also checking not just outside but also

internal health, so faecal samples.

are really important to check for parasites, but we were also able to

one here on the table as well today.

So that'll be one of three. So they get three while they're in quarantine.

All right.

Very feisty.

Obviously, they are a little bit stressed after the travel today with

feisty behaviour.

1 .32.

The lone male chedditch in the group is next.

All right.

We'll start with our bottom end and then we'll do the top end last.

Yep. You've got head still. Yep. Got a piece of tail.

Two even testes.

If I can have a look at the front feet, we'll do a quick assessment of the head

and then that's enough.

He's missing the nail off the left fore second digit.

And then if we can have a quick look at his face, please.

You all right? Yep, I got him.

All right, let's cover him back up.

Those teeth, we'll have a look under his anaesthetic in a few weeks' time a bit

closer because we'll be able to probe and see if there's any pulp cavity, so

root of the tooth exposed.

His overall size, his testes size, they're mature, they're nice and even.

hopefully it means that he's done the deed before and will be able to be

successful again.

There are two more to inspect before they will be released at sunset in the

Taronga Sanctuary.

But just a few paddocks away here in Dubbo, all eyes are on 13 -year -old

rhino Kefara as she tries to deliver her baby.

The calf did actually come out backwards, which was a bit different.

A breech delivery could cause injury to the calf or even death, but experienced

mum Kafara is staying calm.

She gently wiggles her rear end until the little one finally slides

out. Thankfully, calf came out without any issue whatsoever.

She ended up giving birth in a...

straw bedding which was good because it's soft landing for the little one

long way to fall it was all pretty smooth sailing so she just did all the

things pushed the little one out took her time and did what she needed to do

from our point of view kafara did a really good job this is a second calf

her reaction to that little calf was i know what's going on now so she straight

away turned around and started to do all the right mothering

motion, so nudging it, licking it, showing it attention.

Kefara's calf is a little boy, so it's always exciting, male or female, it's

just good to get one on the ground.

And he came out a bit smaller than usual, so he was a bit of a scrawnier

He was probably around that 30 kilo mark.

Watching the little guy take his first steps, getting up, learning how to walk,

is a bit entertaining because they've got these big clumpy feet and they're

not sure what's going on, so

He had the instinct to get to his feet and start learning how to motorise all

those legs in sync to walk around.

A couple of trips and falls and little stumbles here and there and then they

start doing the wide stance and like, oh, I've got this. And then eventually,

yeah, he starts to coordinate his legs all together and he started walking

around very well.

With the birth going so well...

There's no reason for Jake or the vets to enter the yard for a while yet.

They stay in their yard for a couple of weeks and they'll spend their time in

that yard. They'll get all their goodies, all their treats left to be on

own so that they can build that rapport and relationship without other outside

influences causing stresses and everything like that.

Next. Could Kep Kep and Waradah be any more enthusiastic about their

new home?

At Taronga Western Plains Zoo, three female and one male wild chittich have

selected for a rewilding project to repopulate parts of Australia where the

mammal no longer exists.

So far, the results of the quick vet checks are good.

They're coming to us for a breed, for a release program, for a recovery program,

selecting those who, for the females, haven't bred before, so therefore

that they're younger.

That's what we're looking for in the pouch. So it means that the teats

been used yet. There's no pouch folds to indicate that they've already had some

offspring. So getting them in younger is really important for their health

moving forward.

Both male and female chudich can amazingly breed from one year of age and

mums can have a litter of up to six young.

You probably noticed the huge amounts of shredded paper coming

out of that box. So that was all there just to give as much padding as

you know, substrate for the animals to hide. And that just helps them feel

secure when they're out on the transport, which is really important to

stress during these, you know, really, really big transfers from all the way

from the other side of Australia over here to Dubbo.

Watch your fingers, please.

They've all maintained body condition since coming in from the wild.

The three girls have also gained weight, which means that they've been eating a

captive diet quite well.

There's no injuries that we needed to respond to immediately on the table

which means that they've transported well.

I'm not even 100 % sure that's the table.

Thank you.

Much better.

Much better behaved.

My little one, too.

Next stop is the 110 -hectare sanctuary, where these four will be released at

sunset.

Back in Sydney, while all the attention is on the opening of the new precinct,

Muridea, Australia, next door, in the backyard to bush area, an

old family favourite is not feeling her best.

And has Keeper Georgia worried?

So this is our mob of kangaroos. We have five adult females in here and two

joeys who are just over a year old.

One of our roos, Rosie, has been having some troubles lately. She's a bit

separated off from the rest of the group, whereas normally as a mob they

pretty close together during the day.

She's eight years old, so she's still a pretty young animal. And a few weeks ago

we noticed that she had a small lump on the outside of her pouch.

That pouch is essential to having a healthy joey.

The vets have been keeping an eye on it.

They weren't too worried about it, but recently it scabbed up and fell off. And

when it did, she became really lethargic.

In the last day or so, we've noticed that her pouch muscles have actually

loosened quite a lot. And so her pouch is now hanging open and twitching every

now and again, which suggests to us that she is in a bit of pain. So we're going

to get the vets to have a look at her.

The case has become urgent, so Rosie has been given a general anaesthetic to

investigate the painful lump on her pouch.

It's been a very long road from the bush in Western Australia to Taronga's

Western Plain Zoo for four wild chittich. Long time coming getting these

here. They've passed their health checks.

And now a tired but elated Rachel is taking them to their final destination.

They're going to a really special place here. It's a 110 hectare, essentially,

exclosure. So it's fully feral predator -proof. There are no rabbits, there are

no cats, there are no foxes. And my hope is that they'll find their new

territory, they'll establish themselves nicely, and that'll set them up for a

good breeding season.

And there's a very specific reason Rachel and keeper Brianna are releasing

at night time.

Being nocturnal animals, it's quite stressful for them to be out and exposed

the middle of the day when the sun's still out. So by waiting until

we've set them up for as much advantage as possible to be able to explore their

new area without panicking, without being too worried about what's going on

outside.

I hope they like it.

It is really sad that we do need to put so much effort in. They're only down to

5 % of their former occupancy across the whole country.

And it is, you know, it's quite a dire state for the trilogy out there in the

wild. But I do hold some hope that, you know, with all the best people working

on it, us included, of course, that we might make a bit of a difference and

reverse that trend.

How are you feeling? I'm feeling good.

Good. Tired.

but excited and stoked to be here. How about you?

Yeah, it's been a massive day but it's coming to the end and I'm super excited

to be letting them out.

It's been a long time in the works.

We work really closely with a number of partner organisations to get to this day

where we are bringing these new animals into the program to be able to... expand

our breeding capacity.

So it's really special to have achieved that and to be at the point now where

we've got all the animals that we need.

And honestly, I'm just really excited to see what the next few months is going

to hold because now that we've got all the animals that we need, it's time to

breed them.

What do you reckon about this spot?

I reckon he's got a good line to that nice hollow there.

Okay, excellent.

They are one of the top 20 priority mammals for conservation across

it's special to feel like you're having a really tangible conservation impact on

what is really a very endangered species.

At Taronga's Wildlife Hospital, it's a big day for Rosie.

The last few days, she's just been off her food, not quite right.

She's had this strange lesion on her pouch, which we'll be investigating.

But it's also a big day for student vet Jessica, taking part in her very first

general anaesthetic procedure.

That went rather successfully for my first time.

Was that your first time? That was amazing. You look like a pro.

I applied to come down here for the internship.

When I was halfway through my vet degree, so two and a half years ago now.

Even if we don't suspect dental disease, always important to look in the mouth

because they're very prone to what?

Lumpy jaw.

That's what I know it as. We used to call it lumpy jaw. Back in the day. Back

the day. We used to call it lumpy jaw.

But now we call it macropod progressive periodontal disease.

I was very intimidated.

These guys have world -class knowledge and I really appreciate the fact that

they push me to...

test my knowledge and see if I can figure things out for myself.

With an eager student, it doesn't take long for Larry to transform from head

to head teacher.

It's always good to smell their breath first.

Do you think that's bad or not?

Should it be relatively sweet like you would expect a ruminant's breath to be?

Yeah, like this.

That's not too bad. Yeah. If...

If they have dental disease, then it usually smells bad.

Yep.

Is the discolouration of the sclera normal? That's normal, yeah, that

pigmentation. So we can put some lube in her eyes. Yep, I've got it here. You've

got that.

I'll just have a look in her ears.

Yeah, they don't close their eyes, so we make sure we lubricate them so they

don't wake up with dry eye.

So, yes, nothing but the best for our kids.

Okay, so let's look in this pouch.

You can see in her pouch there, and there are teats there. There are four

How many joeys can a macropod have at one time?

They can have one in the pouch and one at the foot.

Correct. And why do they have four teats?

I don't remember that, but I remember the coolest fact about kangaroos is that

they can adjust the composition of their milk.

For each teat dependent on the young.

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, exactly right. So they can have a young at foot suckling

and then they'll have a joey, a really small joey and another teat. Yeah.

Quite amazing, actually. But why they have four teats is a mystery.

I always thought that this is what I wanted to do, but if anything, this has

just made that passion stronger.

And the knowledge.

They know things that you just can't read in a textbook. You can't learn from

classroom.

hands -on experience that they've got from years of working in the industry

that, you know, I'll be a much better vet for it going forward.

So you can see this strange lesion that she's got here, which is very unusual.

I have not seen something like this. So it actually grows like a little horn. So

what we'll do is we'll submit the tissue.

for examination by a pathologist, and we'll be able to learn more about

what it is.

Outside, the big day has arrived.

And there's a flurry of last -minute planting and cleaning before the grand

opening of the new jewel in the Taronga crown,

Muridea, Australia.

a ceremonial welcome, before

an

appropriate bark ribbon cutting.

And it's done.

And no one is more excited than Waradah and Kepke, eager to check out their new

home.

Here we go.

Thank you.

Are you ready,

Tony? I am ready.

That's a very good sign.

It's really because, yeah, we know they love sand, they love digging.

And they love playing with each other. Playing with each other, yep. And that's

going to definitely stimulate a bit of play.

Okay, big moment, guys.

Come here, Kep.

Kep.

Come on, come on.

This is your big day.

Ready? Yay.

Is this your new home?

Very rewarding after a long time and a lot of hard work.

Huge team of people that helped us.

Oh, look at that. In they go.

This is such a, I guess, obvious sign that they're going to use every part of

this exhibit because we knew just how stimulated they need to be and how much

energy they have.

And I think the team's done a really great job. Like, they've gone straight

the pond.

They're using the sandpit, like, straight away. So I'm really happy that

been able to use every single inch of this exhibit for them.

Look at that. It's amazing. Oh, my God, they're beautiful.

So at this point, kangaroos and wallabies are in kangaroo country where

belong.

Koalas introduced.

They're sleeping away in the treetops.

And we have dingo pups playing in their wonderful habitat as well. The whole

community needs to enjoy Australian animals. This is why we're here.

So I'm really excited to see how the general public takes this. It's been a

time coming.

Next is a ball of energy.

It may have been a shaky start.

Very much in tune with his legs now.

But the new calf is proving he's not backwards about coming forward.

This calf's a very curious little guy, very confident, has no issue whatsoever

coming up to the fence to see what everything's about.

Rosie the Red Roo has not been herself lately and Taronga's senior vet Larry is

worried the lump on her pouch might be the cause.

This is very unusual.

I have not seen something like this. So today it's being removed.

Maybe just trim these hairs as well.

Enthusiastic vet student Jessica is assisting.

This surgical procedure with Rosie is the first one that I've really been a

of and been right there in the thick of it and been able to assist with

everything, so that's really amazing.

Vet nurse Annie is happy to share her knowledge with Jessica too.

Every anaesthetic is tricky because every animal will react differently. I

the eye for blink, but I also like to check the colour.

of her mouth that gives me a really good indication on how well she's

oxygenating we'd like to see them nice and pink removing the lesion should be

straightforward but the concern is it may be cancer what a vascular area this

on the pouch

there's

a little bit of lump came out really easily We'll pop her in some formant. So

this will now go to our pathologist and she'll do what's called histopathology.

We're about to leave the hospital with the precious cargo, so we'll see you

shortly. It's refreshing being around people who are just as passionate for

wildlife as I am. You know, every single one of them just wants to do the best

that they can.

We'll stay with her until she's up on her feet and 100 % recovered and back to

normal.

but generally the process can be a little bit wobbly, and for kangaroos in

particular, they can't step backwards, so it can be a bit of a graceless

recovery.

The vets will check back in to make sure that she's doing well, and we'll give

them regular updates on how she's going.

The pathology results will be back in a few days, so Larry can settle on a

future plan for Rosie's treatment.

Overnight at Taronga Western Plain Zoo...

New mum Kafara had a quiet night with her new calf snuggling in for regular

feeds. Kafara is a great mum. She's doing very well. She's doing all the

things, very attentive. The first probably four to five days, very minimal

interaction from us to her. So literally we walk up, put some food in her yard

to get her through that she needs and we just leave her be.

Pretty soon mum and calf are up and about enjoying the sunshine.

He's a ball of energy and very much in tune with his legs now.

This calf's a very curious little guy, very confident, has no issue whatsoever

coming up to the fence to see what everything's about.

We've got a very strong relationship with Kefara, which in turn, her comfort

being relaxed around the keepers, that actually reflects back onto that calf.

And that calf's like, well, mum's not stressed about you guys.

I have no need to worry. The bond of mother and calf is the most important

thing. And then once we can see that's established, we start doing different

activities and laying them out in big yards and everything like that.

It's now been a week since Red Roo Rosie had a nasty lesion removed.

Larry and the team feared it would be cancer.

This is very unusual.

I have not seen something like this, so we'll submit the tissue for examination

by a pathologist and we'll be able to learn more about exactly what it is. The

results are now in, and thankfully for Rosie, their worst fears have not been

realised. It's actually what we call a papilloma, like a wart essentially, so

it's a benign tumour, and similar to what we see in people, papillomas,

In kangaroos, it's actually caused by a virus, a pox virus, in fact. And her

presentation was quite unusual in that it's not the normal location we see it.

Usually it's on the face or on the tail. And having removed it, I think there's

no risk really of it recurring.

And staff are already starting to notice a familiar hop back in Rosie's step.

Rosie's back from her GA and she's recovered really well. In the last few

we've noticed a huge change in her behaviour. So she's got her energy

back. Her appetite is fantastic. She's been eating all of her veggies, lots of

hay. As you can see, she's having some food now.

She's spending a lot of time with the mob again. So she's back resting with

them, interacting with the joeys and really fulfilling her normal role.

Her pouch has also tightened up in the last day or so, so we've noticed those

muscles have really contracted back in. She's not twitching anymore, and so

there's no indicators for us that she's still in pain. She's back to her normal

self.

There shouldn't be any ongoing impact in terms of if we want to breed with her

in the future.

There should be no reason why there should be a problem with that.

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