Original subtitles

VIRGINIA GAY (NARRATES): You don't get named

one of the best zoos in the world by accident.

And a view as magical as this one is,

only gets you so far.

Good boy. No.

This last year, Team Taronga have been busier than ever.

Boom. Whoo!

With their two zoos now, bigger than ever.

Come on, handsome man. Let's go.

So, this season, we're taking you closer than ever.

(ELEPHANTS TRUMPET)

And as their colourful residents get ready to make some noise...

(TIGER ROARS) Oh, my goodness.

..let us show you exactly who's who in this zoo.

Just always be watching who's who, who's where.

(OTTER SOUNDS)

On this episode.

18 down... Time to get serious.

..three to go. Is everyone ready?

Operation Chimp check...

There we go, buddy.

..steps up a gear.

We've got one chance to get it right.

60 million years in the making.

So, we lose the plains-wanderer.

The fight to save an ancient treasure.

That's one family gone off the face of the planet.

And beware.

Chook, chook, chookies.

Face to face with a carnivore called...

Daisy.

(THEME MUSIC)

Over the last three weeks,

keepers and vets at Taronga...

So, she has got nuclear sclerosis.

..have been conducting examinations

on their entire chimpanzee community.

It's a first and it's a massive task.

Here at Taronga, we've got the largest group of chimpanzees

in the Australasian region.

Liz? Yeah.

Can you mark that on this ear there's an abrasion?

We have 21 chimps within that community.

There are seven

different family groups.

So far, 18 female and juvenile males

have been examined.

So, when preparing for these general anaesthetics,

we try and figure out what's the-the best thing

for their welfare.

And now, it's the adult male's turn.

So, we separated the group into two weeks

for the first lot of animals to get their general anaesthetics.

The girls are all done.

They're all happy and relaxed now.

The adult males, they're in there waiting to have a go as well.

Chimpanzees can be aggressive naturally.

They can fight naturally.

And so, we wanna reduce that as much as we can.

And so, part of that plan is doing the adult males last.

And that way, when we do reintroductions,

we actually filter those adult males back in one by one.

Sully's our alpha male,

even though he is the youngest

and he's not necessarily the biggest either

but he is the smartest.

And so, he leads through a culture of respect,

not through a culture of fear.

Shabani is our oldest male. He has certainly lived a life.

He's seen a lot.

He's got a lot of battle scars on him because he really wanted

that alpha male position but he never quite got there.

Samaki, on the other hand, is twice the size of Shabani.

He's got biceps that would make Dwayne

'The Rock' Johnson jealous.

Even though they're not the same sort of size

or ranking in the group,

we still do their general anaesthetics together

because they are still an element of support for one another

and it's really important to try

and ensure those bonds stay really strong.

Are you medium, large, what? Phil?

Uh, probably large would be safe.

Thank you. (INDISTINCT)

Oh, it doesn't really matter.

To assist with health checking the male chimpanzees,

Taronga has called in a veterinary heart specialist.

I hope we get good image. It's always the way, isn't it?

So, the leading cause of death in chimps is cardiomyopathy.

So, essentially, the heart muscle being replaced by scar tissue.

What we'll be doing is using the ultrasound

to do an examination...

that will allow us to look at the heart

structurally and see whether

there's any leaky valve,

see whether there's any dilated heart chambers.

Today, we'll be paying particular attention to Samaki

because his father died in his early adult life

and we wanna do everything we can to screen him

in case he's showing early signs of heart disease.

(CHIMPS SHRIEK)

So, you can hear the boys? Yeah.

Something going... Uh-huh.

They're particularly sensitive to the noise

around them this morning.

Holly's doing Samaki and Nat's doing Shabani.

Our job as the keepers is to get the animals into a safe,

comfortable position to be able to then do the hand injection.

And from that point on, we then pass the animals over to the,

uh, the hospital team.

Can you guys wait down here?

And then we'll let you know when they're done.

We're gonna have to probably take our time this morning

with these boys.

Happy? OK.

We wanna take full advantage of the fact

that we're giving an anaesthetic.

Good luck.

We wanna get as much information as possible.

Unlike small animals, if you leave something out, we can do it again.

With the chimps, we've got one-one chance to get it right.

(PEACEFUL MUSIC)

It's early morning in a very special corner

of Taronga Western Plains Zoo and keeper Leonie

is just kicking off her daily rounds of this vitally important facility.

This is our sanctuary,

home to our conservation breeding programs

with our free ranging bilbies, plains-wanderer and chuditch.

The sanctuary is beaut-beautiful habitat for our bilbies.

It is at the back of our zoo.

So, it is away from all of the people

and that's purely to give them a space and environment

that is nice and quiet

to allow them to breed successfully.

And to protect that peace and quiet, the sanctuary is surrounded

by a predator proof perimeter fence.

It's really tall.

It also has a overhang over the top,

so, no cats can pretty much walk up that fence

and also comes down into the ground about a foot

with a skirting over the top so nothing can dig underneath.

Up until a few years ago when Taronga and its partners

started releasing bilbies into the New South Wales Outback.

OK. You can go now.

These fascinating marsupials hadn't been seen in these parts

for over a century.

So, protecting these little Aussie icons

is one of Taronga's most important jobs.

Nothing's ever breached the fence,

um, and I think that comes down to us checking it daily.

The intruders most feared in these parts

are feral cats and foxes.

2.6 billion native animals are killed by foxes and feral cats

each year in Australia.

With no natural defences,

bilbies are highly vulnerable to these hungry predators.

So, on the other side of our sanctuary fence,

we do get cats and foxes, um, roaming the area

but our fence is so great

that it's able to keep those predators on the other side.

Inside the sanctuary,

keeper Leonie is bringing high-tech gadgetry

to the task of bilby conservation.

I'm just swapping over camera 7, um, SD card,

so, I can see what's on there.

Free ranging bilbies, um, are here throughout the sanctuary.

We're completely hands off.

We allow them to do their own breeding and foraging.

We're just gonna check the footage on this one

and see what was picked up in this area.

We checked that night-time specifically,

because cats and foxes will come out at that door under.

Oh, there's a bilby.

He's running through.

The camera picks up still shots of animals.

So, it takes pictures every few seconds

and that's purely if something's running past the camera.

Um, we could pick up at least one shot,

um, within that second that it's running past,

so, we know what's going on within the sanctuary.

Thankfully, apart from some inquisitive wildlife,

the trail cameras are clear,

which is lucky because the bilby population here is thriving.

So, here within the sanctuary, we started with 18 bilbies

and it's estimated that we're actually up to 138 bilbies

and that's incredible.

To see exactly how incredible,

Leonie and the rest of the conservation team

need to conduct a full population survey.

And to do that, Leonie has a secret weapon.

This is one of our bilby traps.

But this one's not so high-tech.

So, we're just gonna give them their favourite treat,

some peanut butter.

So, we just pop it on the back of the trap.

In my day to day as a keeper, I don't actually see the bilbies.

They're nocturnal animals.

So, the only time we actually see those bilbies would be tonight,

when we actually come in and check the population out.

At the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, the team are preparing

for one of their biggest days yet.

It's time to get serious.

I'm putting my nurse's pouch on.

The largest male chimps are due for their health checks,

which includes specialist heart assessments of two brothers

Samaki and alpha male Sully,

who both have a family history of heart disease.

So, the cardiac assessments are really important to us

particularly because their father, Lobutu,

died at a relatively early age,

who was not quite 30,

of a sudden heart attack.

So, we really want to be proactive to have full warning

if there's anything happening so, that we can pre-empt

any untoward effects.

The nurses are ready.

The vets are ready.

All they need now are the chimps.

Receiving.

(ON RADIO) Nat got full dose and Shabani.

Nat got the full dose?

Shabani got full dose? Yep.

Is everyone ready?

It's action stations.

Shabani has arrived at the hospital.

Let me get the scales.

Can you minus 15.2? Yep.

Right now, he's only lightly sedated,

so, the team need to move quick.

Because that's the weight of. .. Yep.

..everything.

Anaesthetising chimps is a challenge.

Chimpanzees are very, very strong.

They're much stronger than humans

and they're quite heavy to carry around.

65.7.

And so, obviously, we need to be very careful

when we're taking them out of the chimp house

that everybody knows their roles,

everybody knows what the emergency procedures are.

We have every possible untoward event covered,

so, we know what we're gonna do.

So, yes, they're dangerous animals

but we manage them in a very safe way.

One, two, three.

There we go, buddy.

Alright.

Oxygen on.

There's a bit of a blink.

So, just what's he on? (INDISTINCT)

Despite the anaesthetic gas he's receiving,

Shabani is more awake than he should be.

We don't want the chimp sitting up.

Oh, good god. (CHUCKLES)

Put him up to 3.5, Tammy. Yep.

Coming up.

I've never seen them do something like that.

Trivia time. It's been amazing.

What do a jungle fowl, an otter and a meerkat have in common?

Target. Good.

You're about to find out.

And stock taking...

This is a list. It's a little female.

..Taronga style.

So, we know that she's at least two years old.

Working with the meat eaters, the carnivores,

is one of the most exhilarating parts of being a keeper at Taronga.

I've never seen them do something like that.

It's been amazing.

The power of these majestic animals is a constant reminder

of how dangerous they can be.

Pound for pound, I have heard that the devil have the most

powerful jaw pressure of any mammal for their size.

It takes years of training,

dedication and passion to work alongside them.

So, we've dropped off a couple days' worth of meat

to these guys up here.

Today, junior keeper Molly is heading down to Tiger Trek

to feed one of the zoo's most voracious carnivores.

Daisy.

But it's not who you think.

Chook, chook, chookies.

Hello.

Hey, Chook.

How are you?

I love birds.

(ROOSTER CROWS)

I came into the zoo thinking tigers and only tigers

but very quickly fell in love with these guys.

They have just as big A personality as our cats and as our bears

and otters and all of those animals.

So, you can feel some pretty cool. .. (ROOSTER CROWS)

..some pretty cool relationships with them.

Hey, Walter.

These are red junglefowl.

These guys come from Southeast Asia and also areas of South Asia.

If you look at this handsome boy down here, this is Walter,

one of our roosters.

He's got that... (ROOSTER CROWS)

..beautiful big comb and, of course,

that amazing cock a doodle doo he does.

So, that's the easiest way to define the girls from the boys.

We've got nine junglefowl in total.

So, we've got five boys and four girls.

They're basically part of the family on the carnivore team.

They definitely get to free roam but, yeah, not with our tigers.

We gotta keep them safe.

As part of the carnivore family,

they're given the same amount of training and enrichment

as all the other carnivores.

Target.

Good girl.

Target.

Good girl.

So, what we're doing is some target training with Daisy.

So, this whole training started by teaching her that...

Target.

When she pecked that target, she got a nice treat.

That's why I have a clicky here and that basically tells her,

'Yep, that's what we want you to do.'

So, now, that she knows that this magical star involves food,

um, just like that, every time she pecks that star,

she gets a reward.

So, we can use that to ask her onto different heights

and different objects just like this perch.

So, target.

And we can apply it to a whole bunch of other behaviours as well.

(ROOSTER CROWS) We're done.

Come on, sweetie.

With the junglefowl's training coming to an end,

Molly is stepping things up a notch

and heading over to the African savannah

for a meeting with her next carnivore conditioning candidate.

One, two, three.

There we go, buddy.

29-year-old chimp Shabani... Oxygen on.

..is the first of the adult males

to be brought into the Wildlife Hospital

as part of a massive program to health check

all 21 of Taronga's chimpanzees.

There is a bit of a blink.

But hospital staff have just become aware this battle scarred primate,

sedated before he arrived at the hospital,

is clearly not sleeping deeply enough.

We don't want the chimp sitting up.

Oh, good god.

I put him up to 3.5, Tammy. Yep.

0.26 mils of diazepam.

I've just given him some more diazepam because I think,

yes, more and more ketamine just doesn't help.

His eyes look much more relaxed. Yeah.

Once they're done, I'm happy to spray his larynx.

I'm just not intubating him until I'm very, very happy.

Yeah. That's, yeah.

Vet Gabby is reluctant to slide a breathing tube

down this dangerous animal's throat and risk waking him up

until he is more heavily sedated.

What was the rate for it?

For the safety of the staff and the chimp,

supervisor Richard double checks Shabani's restraints

while they wait for the anaesthetic to take effect.

So, anaesthetising chimps is a challenge.

They're big dangerous animals and they can be very challenging,

uh, to manage.

4%, 2L.

But it's a really satisfying thing to be involved in

because we know we're doing this for the good of the animal.

And finally, this impressive chimpanzee

is ready for his health check.

Well, we're gonna go get some ice.

Yep. Thank you. Yeah.

Shabani, Shabani, Shabani.

Yeah.

Do florists get stressed? (CHUCKLES)

Veterinary heart specialist Phil and his sonographer Ryan

have been keeping their distance.

And then over we go.

Have I got that on? Yep.

Phil, I'm just gonna get the bloods and then we're good to go.

OK.

But with 29-year-old Chimp Shabani now safely asleep,

it's time to get to work.

The main problem that chimpanzees

have is a form of heart muscle disease called cardiomyopathy.

I'm just taking a little bit out of here

and then we're gonna take it out and put pressure on it, please.

And it's a hard disease to pick up,

so, we look as hard as we possibly can

with the echo exam or heart ultrasound.

Let me just get aortic plug.

Echocardiography can be very challenging with the-the great apes.

Is it possible to have the lights down just a tiny bit?

They're big animals.

We wanna get as much information as possible.

Just gonna try from this view.

I just don't know that I'm gonna get it from here.

Yeah. You keep working.

He's not giving me anything for free.

Doctor Phil spots a problem right away.

It's not looking great, is it?

Out the back of Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo

lies one of Australia's native animal conservation's

best kept secrets.

Alright.

The sanctuary.

And tonight, one specific nocturnal population is being countered

by conservation keeper Leonie and conservation officer Rachel.

This one is trap B4. B4. Yep.

They're hopeful that the bilby traps they set earlier in the day,

laced with peanut butter, are full of precious marsupials.

And I can see some eye shine.

Oh, yes. It looks like a bilby to me.

Because we're hands off and we treat our bilbies

essentially like wild animals, it means that we do need to be

a bit creative in our monitoring.

We basically just monitor the population

through these regular catch-up events.

It allows us to identify if we've got any new animals

in the population but also get a little bit of a feel

for the health of some of the older animals as well.

How exciting. How exciting.

This one doesn't look that big. Nice little one.

Maybe a little female.

First step for this little girl is a chip check.

Her microchip ends in FB91.

So, this is a list of all the bilbies

that we've previously identified in the sanctuary.

It's a little female.

We first identified her in May 2022,

so, we know that she's at least two years old.

So, really good to see her show up again today.

She doesn't have a joey in the pouch at the moment,

but she does have an elongated teat,

which is really good evidence that she has bred

probably relatively recently, which is fantastic to see.

At the end of the day, this bilby population that we have here

is used as a source population.

So, we wanna be able to send animals out

to other conservation sites.

Breeding females is one great sign

but tonight it seems the lure of the peanut butter

is irresistible.

Possum or bilby. Ooh.

This individual's quite flighty.

And something very special is waiting for Leonie and Rachel

in the next trap.

So, we're just wanting to be able to get her,

or him out of the trap.

The chip, which is a pretty good indicator

that he's never been caught before.

And in other terms, it means that this might be the very first time

that he's actually seen humans, which is a pretty cool thing

for a zoo-based breeding program.

We'll just grab a weight on him

while we've already got him in the bag.

If he's good. .. We'll try anyway.

This form of management, this hands-off approach

is really important in making sure

they retain those wild type behaviours

and that means once they get into the wild,

they already know exactly what they need to do to survive.

For now, this feisty fella will get a microchip,

so, he can be counted in the sanctuary's

ever growing population.

Is there anything else that we need to do or are you happy?

I'm happy.

Really happy to see

the bilby population continuing to do

so, well up here in the sanctuary, so really fantastic night.

Great to see some new animals and great to see lots of bilbies.

Sweet.

I just don't know that I'm gonna get it.

Veterinary heart specialist Phil

is performing an ultrasound examination

on 29-year-old chimp, Shabani.

Not looking great, is he?

He's looking for any signs of heart disease,

a common cause of sudden death in elderly male chimps

and he's encountered an immediate problem.

Oh, you're gonna keep pushing, eh?

Yeah. You keep working.

He's not giving you anything for free.

He's making you work for it. Yeah.

You get a sweat up.

Oh, yeah.

It's always a little bit of an adventure

when we do a-a-a great ape

because the views are quite challenging to get.

Normally, you can get a good image with very sort of minimal contact

of the probe on the chest wall.

There's this concaveness that we...

Yeah. You can see it there.

We just can't get in between those ribs.

What we rely on is that the heart lands on the chest wall

and then the ultrasound can pick up the images very easily.

Male chimps are challenging because of their size

and their conformation.

They tend to have very barrel-chested, um, confirmations

so, that it's hard to physically get the probe

to have contact with the heart.

So, you have to push the probe with that much pressure

to get good images.

If you wanna turn him, we can.

It's crucial to determine the heart health of this great ape.

One, two, three.

So, Doctor Phil needs a better angle.

That's better. Hopefully.

Pulling.

Oh, that's made a huge difference, guys.

Thank you. OK.

Now, that we've tilted, we're getting much better images.

Turning Shabani on his side

brings his heart closer to his chest wall

and provides Doctor Phil with the view he needs.

We're very conscious today that we make sure

that the heart's structurally normal.

This is what we call a four-chamber view.

The left side pumps blood out to the body

and the right-side pumps blood out to the lungs.

Everything looks pretty good.

Obviously, we will now need to-to examine the valves,

see whether there's any leaks but I'll do measurements as well

to make sure that we haven't got any enlargement of these chambers.

So far, so good.

Meanwhile, the second male chimp, 22-year-old Samaki,

is arriving next door.

Alright, guys. We're gonna put him on the table.

OK.

He's not the alpha male

but he is the largest chimp in the community,

weighing just over 90kg.

That's more than any of the staff handling him.

Can I just get hands on him in case he does half of it?

He's an imposing animal.

But for Vet Kreason,

this chimp's sedation and intubation go off without a hitch.

Let's get bloods in him.

No problem with veins there.

Eish!

In the adjoining theatre,

Vet Gabby continues her physical examination of Shabani.

Yeah. So, it just...it just doesn't extend.

While Doctor Phil and Sonographer Ryan are taking a closer look

at the 29-year-old chimp's heart.

It's a bit better. Can you drop that tail a little?

So, trying to get the pulmonary valve

and the main pulmonary artery in line so we can line it up

with the cursor to estimate the velocities through the valve.

They're looking at the speed and direction of blood flow

through the heart chambers.

And there's outflow.

So, this image here shows the right side of the heart

and we can see a little bit of a flash of blue.

That blue is a leak.

Taronga Zoo has a long history of conservation.

Out here at Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo,

one of the beneficiaries of this commitment

to protecting endangered species is the elusive plains wanderer.

Plains- wanderer are unique.

For example, there's 400 species apart in that family group.

The plains-wanderer stand alone in their family group.

So, if we lose the plains-wanderer, that's one family gone

off the face of the planet.

It traces back 60 million years,

so, an ancient avifauna in Australia and a true survivor.

And unfortunately, um, they have been surviving wonderfully

until the European settlement.

1,000 left, so, this is why we're here. Yeah.

We're here to try and protect them

and to knock off the critically endangered,

uh, tag that's looming over their heads.

The plains-wanderer is a ground dwelling bird,

quail like, so, 12 to 15cm tall.

The female is a lot prettier than the male.

Um, she's got a lovely red gorget or breast

and she's got a-a white spotted black collar.

To keep the precious plains-wanderer population

in tip top shape,

Mark and his fellow keepers put their chefs'

hats on every morning.

Fine shopping of the greens is Michelin star rated.

(CHUCKLES)

They are known as a Goldilocks bird,

so, they need everything perfect.

They are omnivorous and they eat about 60% vegetation

to 40% invertebrates.

After all this prep work in the kitchen,

you'd think these tiny VIPs

or should I say 'VIBs' would come out to say thank you.

These guys, their main form of defence is camouflage.

Don't hold your breath.

When, if we see them, then, you know,

they get a little bit upset.

So, we try and keep our visuals to the food tray.

So, basically, we take the food out, have a quick look at

what they're eating...

a quick clean of the tray.

But they're not only fussy eaters,

they're also fussy about their environment.

The plains-wanderer live in a-a unique habitat,

arid grasslands of Australia.

They like grasses that are above 5cm but below 30cm.

They like a reddish-brown soil and they like 50%,

uh, ground cover and 50% bare ground.

So, we replicate this in the zoo as well.

They feed naturally off the...off the seed

as well as the flowers attract insects as well,

so, they can have a semi wild lifestyle in there

by hunting and foraging.

Let's be honest.

They're a little needy.

But all this effort is for one simple reason,

to provide the perfect conditions to breed.

And that's exactly what they're doing.

We've got 17 chicks on the ground.

They hatched around November, December.

So, you know, it wasn't boiling hot this-this summer

and we had good rainfall, so perfect, um,

environment for plains-wanderers.

So much so Taronga now has too many in their care.

So, today, is a conservationist's favourite day.

The team are releasing those chicks into the wild.

So, we were lucky enough to have four releases done so far.

Around 40 birds have been released and hopefully, in this release,

we're gonna release probably 15 birds,

which is, uh, which is exciting.

Back at the Wildlife Hospital in Sydney,

two of Taronga's oldest male chimps

are lying heavily sedated in adjoining operating theatres.

OK. Left eye is good.

In one theatre, 22-year-old Samaki

is being examined by Vet Kreason.

Right eye is fine.

OK, what else do we need to do?

All looks normal.

He's just hanging to the right.

Next door, the specialist cardiology team

are investigating 29-year-old Shabani's aged heart.

So, this image here shows the right side of the heart,

and we can see a little bit of a flash of blue backwards.

That blue is just a little bit of a leak.

It's-it's minor. It's not significant.

And it's almost certainly, you know, normal, uh, for a-a chimp this age.

Pretty good, isn't it? Yeah. That's nice.

Beauty. OK.

I'm happy.

So, the findings of the ultrasound were pretty encouraging.

So, echoes showed that not really any major structural heart damage

beyond that that we would expect

as a normal for-for these great apes.

OK.

Shabani, the oldest of the male chimps, is in the clear.

So, the cardiology team moved next door

to examine 22-year-old Samaki.

We'll be paying particular attention to Samaki

because his father died

in his early adult life of heart disease.

Tail down.

Now, tail back up and a little bit more clockwise.

Still struggling with his shoulder.

So, let's see here.

With the chimps,

they have to lay on their back for safety reasons.

It's a safer anaesthetic, more stable anaesthetic

but it does make imaging more challenging.

Get some hands.

So-so, you wanna...

Like, just 45 degrees is fine.

45 all...

Or is that harder?

He's quite heavy and he might just roll.

Yeah. OK.

Ready? One, two, three.

The last thing we wanna see is any hint on the ultrasound

that there could be any muscle disease.

Turning Samaki on his side does make Doctor Phil's job easier.

Just in behind you. Oh, it's nice.

But it can also make the anaesthetic less effective.

Seen a few ectopics. See?

And no-one wants this whopping 91-kilo ape

waking up just yet.

Over in the African savannah, trainee keeper Molly

is continuing her target work with Taronga's Carnivores.

Mkhulu.

But this time, she's not taming chickens.

Mkhulu.

She'll be up close and personal

with a genuine four-legged meat eater.

Mkhulu. But it's not who you think.

Target.

Good girl.

So, this here is Mkhulu.

She's one of our female meerkats here at the zoo.

She's got really beautiful eyes.

It's almost like she's got eyeliner. So, she's one of our pretty girls.

So, all of our meerkats here at the zoo are target-trained.

So, it looks like a fun game for these girls

but it's actually a really great way that they can assist

in their everyday health checks.

So, we can ask them to stand up nice and tall.

Target. Good.

And we can see their whole body condition,

so, it's great for assessing their weights

but also great to look at any injuries.

Target.

Good girl.

And also, their general movement as well.

It can be quite stressful for meerkats

and any zoo animal to be handled in animal care.

Um, so, if they can assist us with that every single day, why not?

This type of training is employed across the zoo

for a whole range of animals.

And whether it's carnivores...

Go on, Jim Jim. ..or herbivores...

Good boy.

The way to making it work... Target.

..is all in the wining and dining.

Basically, the way I trained Daisy, the little chicken,

is the exact same way

I was able to train this little girl.

Even down to the same food rewards, some nice fresh mealworms,

really high value for chickens.

They're also our meerkats' favourite food too.

So, just by associating a really high value food

and letting them know that this target stick

means positive reinforcement,

they were able to learn it really quickly.

Target.

So, with today's training out of the way,

Molly has her sights set on an even larger carnivore.

But it's not who you think.

So, my next project is gonna be moving on to Ang,

a new otter of ours who's just arrived from Dubbo.

At Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, it's easy to spot the mega-fauna

that call these wide-open spaces home.

But it would be a stretch to classify the plains-wanderer

as mega-fauna, more like mini fauna.

In fact, they're so small and elusive,

the keepers have built a special outpost just to see them.

So, yeah, in-in here,

this is where we spend a-a good portion of the day.

We monitor these guys through CCTV.

Um, it's a completely different way of zoo-keeping, really.

Make sure they're OK, make sure they're fit

and robust to be able to release them out into the wild.

This year's chicks have grown up strong.

So, Mark and the rest of the plains-wanderer team

have stepped up their monitoring of the chicks

to assess just which birds are the best candidates

for life in the wild.

So, we're looking for good signs of foraging

and giving them extra insect scatters

to make sure they can hunt naturally before they get released.

And for some of these critically endangered critters,

today will be their final meal.

What no, not their 'final meal'.

Their final meal in the sanctuary.

So, we were lucky enough to have four releases done so far.

Around 40 birds have been released and hopefully, in this release,

we're gonna release probably 15 birds,

which is. ..which is exciting.

With the strongest birds now selected from the sanctuary flock,

all Taronga's hard work is coming to a head.

12 of Taronga's finest are making their way to the Hay Plains

and Mark couldn't be prouder.

We had a fantastic season this year.

Boosted numbers in the wild

but also boosted them genetically as well.

I've worked around, you know, a few countries,

and I worked with multiple different species.

But for me to work on a breed to release program with a species

that is, you know, one of the most important species in the world

and to be able to see these birds go out and live

a wild lifestyle after being, you know,

bred in Taronga Western Plains Zoo is definitely one of my...

the highlights of my career.

And, you know and hopefully, you know, in the coming years,

we're gonna be releasing a lot more to-to protect these

very important birds.

(CALM MUSIC)

Coming up, one final chimp...

I might intubate him that side.

..delivers one final surprise.

The blood's going back the wrong way.

Visiting heart specialist, Doctor Phil,

is examining 22-year-old male chimp, Samaki,

a chimp with a family history of sudden death

due to heart disease.

He's got trivial TR as well.

That's an ectopic.

He's detected an irregular heartbeat called an ectopic.

It's quite normal to have occasional premature beats.

So, it's not so much having them.

Having a lot of them can sometimes reflect heart muscle disease.

OK. Yeah.

Did you record that?

What I wanna do is I wanna do a longer capture.

We'll go freeze.

Normal. Normal. Normal.

OK. I think let's save that and we're pretty right, I think.

Are we good?

You don't need anything else from there?

No. No. Everything else looks good.

Yeah. They-they-they...

That's all good.

Thankfully, Samaki is in the clear.

While there are some irregular beats,

they're in the normal range for a chimp his age.

OK.

Let's keep him on gas for a bit

but we can start getting stretcher in.

With no heart problems,

Samaki can head back to the chimp house to recover.

One, three. One, two, three.

And the veterinary team can start preparing for one last male,

and he's an important one.

We have Sully.

So, Sully is the alpha male of the group.

Yep.

And so, we really want to make sure

that we're looking after Sully and assess how his heart is going.

After 31 days,

20 hand injections and a lot of planning...

Sully. Perfect.

..the very last chimp, number 21, is heading to the hospital

for a health check.

(CHIMP SCREAMS)

16-year-old Sully is the alpha male of the entire chimp community.

He was a bit worked up at first

and so he didn't really wanna participate

in the hand injection training

and then he settled down a bit and then, um,

Scott was able to hand inject him comfortably.

Going straight to the scales and then into the surgery.

OK. You got the head?

You would think that the chimpanzees

that are the biggest and the strongest would be the ones

that are the alpha male because they're the boss of the group.

Their job is to protect the group.

However, Sully's actually our smallest adult male.

He sits at around 56kg.

He's quite short and stocky.

Ready?

I might intubate him that side.

Can I have the light on, Tim?

Like that.

That should be in far enough.

Gabby, if I start at the head end, do you wanna start at the bum end

and do his...

Thank you. ..physical exam?

Yep. Look at his thighs.

Look at his calves.

He's.. . Oh, my god. He's so strong.

He has probably the best teeth of all of them.

Yep. One, two, three.

(INDISTINCT) OK.

That's 100.

I was just gonna check that you were right for us to come in.

Frances, the cardiologist are ready.

Five minutes? 3.2 milliseconds.

Oh. We'll take a quick X-ray.

Sully's father died suddenly of a heart attack at a young age.

Look at the size of his heart.

The final ultrasound will reveal if this alpha male

is prone to the same heart condition as his late father.

So, those flashes of colour, is that blood?

Yes. So, it's direction of blood flow.

What that means as far as Sully's concerned

is the blood's going back the wrong way.

For keeper Scott, the news is unexpected.

So, it's like humans get that too, right?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

One of the things that people just live with unless it gets

more serious sort of thing.

Yeah.

So, like the-the heart's meant to-to compensate for it.

But it's not a sign of more serious heart disease.

Sully and all the male chimps are officially in the clear.

Yeah. Are you good with everything? Yeah.

I think that's-that's all we need. Awesome.

So, last of the male chimp's done.

No major problems.

Chimp health assessments are over. Thank goodness.

Put him on his back and then we'll turn him over.

One, two, three.

The next day, Shabani, Samaki and alpha male, Sully,

are fully recovered

and it's time for them to return to their community.

So, even though the introductions is the last phase,

it's still a very important phase of our planning

because the chimps have been apart for the last month.

We want them to go back together all very happily

without any-any fighting, which chimps naturally do.

And so, we actually filter those adult males back in one by one

and there's a reason for that.

We wanna put the alpha male back in first

and we wanna re-establish his position in the hierarchy.

They're very intelligent animals, so, they've got an understanding

of what's going on.

Sully's coming back in.

(CHIMPS SCREAM)

The first thing we saw was lots of greeting.

Um, everybody else was going up and welcoming him back

and their body language is perfect.

(JOYOUS MUSIC)

Then Shabani, he was standoffish.

He sort of went, oh, you know, what's going on here?

So, it sort of, neutralised his ability to go

and attack everybody else.

So, Samaki, who we knew could play up, initially came out.

Sully and Shikimu were right there.

They stood their ground with him to say, 'We're here.'

You know, 'We're-we're looking after the community.'

He climbed the mesh.

He was fear grinning, baring his teeth,

um, and there was an element of fear for him.

Not too much but the right amount that we sort of need him to have.

By the end of the day, what we saw was that Samaki, Sully, Shikimu

were all grooming together.

So, overall, the chimps have come back together really well

and they are all in great health.

We had a chat with the cardiologist, and he said no issues there.

Now, that we've finished everything

and we've been able to take a breath, we really do go,

"That was an amazing achievement and we've accomplished."

You know, whilst you're doing it, you don't recognise it as much

but when at the end, you look back on it and go,

this was really something.

It really does make me proud to-to be with those guys.

(TENSE MUSIC)

Captioned by AI-Media ai-media.tv

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0