Original subtitles

They say don't ever work with babies or animals.

But what if they're baby animals?

It was only born this morning on this all -new season.

Welcome back to the ever -changing world of Taronga, where

you'll witness things...

You never thought possible.

You can actually hear her breathe.

And meet new faces.

Oh, hi, buddy.

You'll never forget.

So good.

It's time to discover.

Oh, my God.

Exactly.

Who's who in this zoo?

On this episode.

It'll actually send a signal back to the antenna.

Come out, come out, wherever you are. And we get a ping. Oh, there we go.

very subtle.

Team Taronga goes bush.

There we go. It's up here. To protect an icon.

It is one of the biggest threats to koala populations in Australia.

Steady, Tangmo, steady.

Teaching an elephant.

We'll ask Tangmo to hold her trunk up.

How? All right, blow. To blow its nose.

All right, blow.

And just why Charlie the sea lion.

Throughout the day, we try to get in at least two and a half litres.

Isn't fazed by his drinking problem.

And I think that's actually saving his life.

What temperature?

Apparently 10.

10 degrees.

I'm sure it feels a little colder than that out there.

It gets pretty chilly in the Kanangra Boyd National Park in the Blue

two hours west of Sydney.

It is beautiful, though. What a spot.

But not chilly enough to deter Team Taronga. Look at that sunrise. Oh, my

that sunrise.

That is beautiful.

A year has passed since they kicked off this vital project,

statewide rescue mission.

Now they're returning to this site for stage two. But for Clay, this is her

first Taronga field trip.

I have been at Taronga now for around about seven years and I work as a

So I look after all sorts of animals from little insects to small primates

macropods. But today is something altogether different.

finding and studying the elusive koala. So what we're doing now is we're just

driving out to a location that was identified previously as a good spot.

Taking part in field work that is directly contributing to their

important work when you're talking about the plight of a species like the koala.

I'll sit one of you guys down underneath one of those koalas and then we'll keep

moving to the next and keep repeating that.

Koala populations have declined so much in New South Wales and Queensland, they

are now endangered.

Depending on location, we'll prioritise which koalas then get caught first.

Incredibly, this little Aussie animal, known all around the world, is at risk

becoming locally extinct.

And I guess it's why I do what I do. It's why we work at Taronga. While Clay

the rookie, a veteran of these field studies...

Is this Larry?

Table setting up.

He's come back to the Blue Mountains to recheck the health of these koalas. This

program is looking at koala populations across the state. The goal is to try and

identify what are the factors that contribute to koala survival in these

populations.

A few months earlier, in a different site near Canberra, the team uncovered

disturbing findings with another colony of koalas. So she's got cysts associated

most likely with her ovaries, large cysts.

Yeah, so she's got...

Quite a few, and that's very typically seen with chlamydia. We've seen a few

koalas in this population that seem to be potentially sterile.

Chlamydia is a significant threat to koala populations in Australia and

seem to be very susceptible to it and it causes horrible disease in koalas. It

affects their eyes, but most importantly it also affects their reproductive

tract and it causes infertility.

The koala population the team are studying now has... always been

-free, so no one wants to see any evidence of the disease during this

Larry to Nick.

Nick,

we'll probably be good to go in about 10 minutes. How are you guys going?

At Taronga's Great Southern Oceans habitat in Sydney, Keeper Joe is looking

one of their largest residents.

Charles, where are you?

Charlie!

Alright, so we're going to discuss business.

Yep. And unsurprisingly, sea lion business is always fishy business.

Charlie is a male Australian sea lion. We call them a bull male.

He's 17 years of age.

Good boy.

He's... Considered in sea lion years quite old. Good boy.

They don't last that long in the wild.

For Charlie, old age is nothing to laugh at.

Are you all right, buddy?

You a bit tired?

With old age comes old age issues.

Okay, over.

That's a good boy.

He has kidney stones.

And he's been very, very sick.

We've been giving him ultrasounds now for several months.

Gabby is one of the vets who has been treating Charlie.

What we're looking at on the screen is Charlie's kidney.

This is Charlie's left kidney. And just here you can sort of see these circles

where it's a bit whiter.

They are little stones.

throughout his kidney.

Charlie was diagnosed around 10, 11 months ago and Charlie was rechecked

months ago and the stones were bigger.

Kidney stones can be very painful and if one passes out of the kidney it can

lead to some very serious complications.

We can't get rid of them so all we can do is prevent them getting worse.

The main treatment is...

Basically bathing those kidneys in fluid.

The more the fluid goes through the kidneys, the less likely those crystals

going to keep forming.

So Charlie needs to drink fresh water.

Lots and lots of it. Good boy.

Come on.

Which sounds pretty straightforward.

Only thing is, sea lions don't actually drink water.

With our seals, they live in a saltwater environment, so they don't really have

access to fresh water.

There, good boy.

We needed to train him to get fresh water into his system on a daily basis.

that was my job as a keeper, to help him continue in his good health.

He needs to have this water.

Charlie. Yep.

Good. As far as training it goes, initially,

It was just presenting him with a syringe without any water in it. We

present him. He would have a look at it. Yep. And we would say, yep, good boy.

That's excellent.

Then we would put some water in. We would ask him to check it.

Good boy. And it was good.

From there, we moved on to him actually coming to the syringe.

He's very, very good at actually ingesting the water.

Throughout the day, we try to get in at least two and a half litres, which is

around 65 syringes worth.

This is time consuming.

So three months into this freshwater treatment, it's time for another scan to

see if Charlie's kidney stones are still growing.

You know, if you've got one little crystal there, more crystals will just

and add and add and add and they'll get bigger.

If one of those stones gets large and blocks his urethra, so the tube from the

kidney to the bladder, then we're in trouble.

At Taronga, caring for the animal is a labour of love.

What are you doing?

You come to say hello.

And in the elephant barn, the labour and the love.

doesn't come much larger. Pak Boon! Tang Mo!

That's it, ladies!

We have two female Asian elephants here at Taronga Zoo.

How do you go, Pak Boon, all the way? We have Pak Boon, who's 31 years old.

That's it, Boonie.

Go, Pak Boon.

There you go.

And Tang Mo is 25 years old. Yeah, she's sweet. PewDiePie.

All right, shall we? Yes.

Today's the day for these big ladies' annual health check.

She must go first.

First up, Tifa's Johnny and Lex are prepping for a rather sticky situation.

And they're not at all worried about blowing it.

You'll see what I mean.

So this morning we're going to be screening the girls for TB.

We're going to screen them by taking samples of their nasal mucus and then

sending that off for testing to see if there's any trace of the TB bacterium in

there. Yep, it's as gross as it sounds.

This is called a trunk wash.

TB, or tuberculosis, is a contagious lung infection, not entirely uncommon

in elephants or humans.

We have in the past had a history of active TB with our elephant herd.

Pak Boon in particular did show signs quite a few years ago of active TB, and

had to treat that with a course of drugs.

But since then, she hasn't had an episode of active TB, but we still

screen them to make sure there's no flare -up that we're not aware of and to

ensure their safety and also our safety as staff as well.

For the trunk wash process, we start off by just rinsing the tip of her trunk

with some warm water, just to ensure there's no contamination.

And then Lex is going to pour 50 mils of saline down into her trunk.

Okay. Suck it up.

Good. Steady, Tammo.

Steady. Good.

We'll ask Tammo to hold her trunk up and hold the saline in her trunk for 30

seconds, and then we'll get her trunk down and blow that saline, along with

whatever comes out of her nose, into this bag, which will then... uh decant

a container later to be tested hmm if you're eating dinner right now might be

good time to look away all right good

all right oh no no need to look back just yet and

there is the sample we get that's what we call a nice sample oh yeah that's

lovely let's Decant that. There's saline mixed with some dirt and material

floating at the top there, which is normally nasal mucus.

And that's the stuff that we look for to be able to get a good sample of the TB

in her system. So that's one nose down.

Yep, ready.

And one to blow.

All right, blow.

Swoosh.

Very good, Bonnie.

So our second sample's a bit less dirty.

See that kind of foamy matter at the top there?

Yeah, can't miss it. Thanks, Johnny. But there's still enough mucosal material

to get a sample from it. Nice.

Someone in the lab's going to figure out what's in there and let us know if

there's any sign of the bacterium.

Still to come.

If there's anything I shouldn't do, I shouldn't do. Health checks don't get

bigger. We do only what the keepers say we can do. Or riskier. We go only where

they tell us.

Than this.

And don't be fooled.

This is Australia's largest bird.

Emus are really unique in the way that the dad does all the work.

Well... That does sound unique.

The dad looks after them for up to two years.

Only joking, fellas.

At Taronga's Wildlife Hospital in Dubbo, a few little newcomers have just

arrived unannounced.

These are the common emus that we've got here.

We have three little chicks at the moment.

We estimate them to be five to six days of age.

Unfortunately, they were orphaned when their dad got a fright by a bulldozer on

a property and made a run for it.

The chicks were too little to be able to follow him and he never came back.

Luckily the property owner realised that these chicks weren't going to survive

without his intervention and he called for some help and here we are with three

little chicks.

Vet nurse Jodie is one of the foster carers responsible for keeping these

extraordinary native birds.

Emus are really unique in the way that the dad does all the work. The mum lays

anywhere between five and 15 eggs and then the dad takes over. He does all the

incubation, which can be up to eight weeks of just sitting on the nest.

Sometimes at his own disadvantage because he might not eat or drink.

And then the chicks are hatching and then the dad looks after them for up to

two years.

It's their dad that would have taught these chicks how and what to eat and how

to survive the leaner months when food is scarce.

And we'll be putting lots of things in place to make sure that they know how to

identify their natural food source.

And these chicks need lots of food, which is not surprising considering the

adults. are Australia's largest bird.

They're pretty hefty as full -grown adults and they can get up to two metres

height.

Emus have incredibly long legs and very, very powerful toes.

They can range up to 50 kilos in body weight. But at the moment, each chick is

less than half a kilo and they'll need to get to their adult weight before they

can be released when they're about six months old. The plan for the emu chicks

is that they will be released onto a large property where emus naturally

We will assess them.

pretty carefully to make sure they are suitable for release before they go.

So if they can survive these first days, they'll have a good chance of being

returned to the bush.

But there's a problem.

They went a bit of a bad way.

In Conangra Boyd National Park, west of Sydney, Taronga Zoo and its partner

agencies have returned to study the health of the endangered koala

Alright, so you've got everything?

Yeah, I'm going that way, I've got everything.

They're using thermal imaging drones.

That's a koala thermal on top of the tree there. It's really blowing around

the top of that tree there. It really is.

and also tracking radio collars that were fitted to some koalas during last

year's field trip. They are out this way.

I'm the field logistics coordinator for the program.

I'm responsible for getting the ground crew out safely and then locating them,

identifying the koalas and bringing them safely back to the vet station.

Lost it? Yeah.

The koala that has a collar has a VHF signal on it and it'll actually send a

signal back to the antenna and we get a ping.

Oh, there we go. Very, very subtle.

There, it's very faint.

The louder the noise is indicates to us that that's the direction that the

koala's in.

It's a little bit like playing a game of hot or cold, but with sound.

We've gotten to a point now where I'm pointing to the direction that we're

headed and it's dropped down to 42.

And then when I move around now, you know, we're getting back up to 50 and so

on. But it's not very strong, but it certainly has dropped as we move forward

and it increases through this area. So what we'll do is we'll just spend a

little bit of time using our eyes now, actually just scale the area and see if

we can find the koala or potentially a koala. Okay. Well, I won't go too far,

but I'll start walking a perimeter.

10, 20 metres kind of ish.

It doesn't take too long to find the day's first and Clay's very first

koala. There we go. It's up here.

You got it?

Yep. Come stand where I am.

Just looking at this eucalypt in front of us. Yep. Straight up and then out to

the right.

Oh, yeah.

That is hard to spot.

I mean, like, you know, just using your naked eye.

That's good. Very well camouflaged.

Nick to Kat's team.

Just letting you guys know that we've actually located koala 013.

I'll send through coordinates shortly.

What Clay will do now is she'll actually just put some flagging tape on that

tree. It's nice and bright. It means that if she sits away 20 -odd metres

she can at a quick glance know which tree the koala's in and not panic.

It also helps me relocate her when I come back. And so the plan now will be

Clay will just sit and watch this koala.

Really for, we don't really know how long.

I'll head back now, talk to the catch team about what koala we've found, what

tree it's in, what the capture is like, and then we'll prioritise which koalas

get caught in an order of degree of difficulty, basically.

So Clay could be here for 40 minutes or five hours, so who knows?

At Taronga's Great Southern Oceans habitat, a 17 -year -old sea lion named

Charlie Good boy.

is being treated for multiple kidney stones, a condition that can be managed

can't be cured. Oh, Charles.

Do you want it on the abdomen? Yeah, that's fine. Yeah.

Today we have a wonderful veterinary specialist radiologist, Sarah, here to

ultrasound Charlie's kidneys, but she's done them a few times.

If it's just lying on his tummy, that would be perfect.

We're ultrasounding Charlie's kidneys about every three to four months and

monitoring the size of those stones.

Yeah, I know, you've got an audience.

On the first ultrasound, we saw the kidney stones. On the second ultrasound,

kidney stones had gotten larger.

Yep.

I mean, the big risk with him is the stone will get stuck in his ureter. And

we're just seeing how big the stones are today.

The difference with this ultrasound is that Charlie's been on a treatment plan

for a few months now.

His prescription?

Water. Good boy.

So amazingly, one of the best things you can do is flush the kidneys to stop the

stones from getting bigger. Come on, mine. The whole point of that is just to

keep those kidneys nice and hydrated so no more stones form.

Good boy.

So it's time to find out, is the fresh water treatment working?

Back up.

Good. Down.

Good boy.

scan or are they still growing touching and just watch that cord on him okay yes

yeah so we're doing his left one first so unfortunately nothing will get rid of

the stones that he has okay let's do the other side sometimes if you have one

big stone you can get rid of it but when they've got multiple stones it's very

hard to do that touching

We're hoping just to keep things stable for him, just to help him stay

comfortable and increase his longevity.

Well, boy, very good.

All done. All done. That's fine.

You came the wrong way, Buffa. That's okay. We're done.

Did you get it? Yeah. All great.

Gabby and Sarah review the results.

And what did you find? That's what I want to know.

Just look similar.

Yeah. Oh, they look similar. They just look similar. Well, similar is better

than bigger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie's treatment plan is working.

Good boy. You did well.

The daily doses of fresh water have prevented new kidney stones from

Good boy. And the old ones from growing.

I mean, I think that's actually saving his life.

The drinking, yeah. I think so too. Exactly.

His water is his saving grace.

Yes, good boy.

Oh, hello to me.

In the elephant barn, the world's biggest nose has been performing the

biggest blow.

And that's not the end of Taronga's annual elephant health check. Aren't you

cute? While Tang Mo and Pack Boon's goodie bag... are being tested at the

That's the way.

Keeper Johnny is preparing the girls for stage two of their health check. Very

good, Mum. A visit from the vet. I've been lucky enough to work with the

elephants here at Taronga Zoo for over eight years.

They are magnificent animals. Right down to seven.

They're like part of our family.

Want a drink?

This type of care and attention wasn't something these elephants were used to

before arriving at Taronga.

Pak Boon, her name means

morning glory flower in Thai.

She has a background in Thailand coming from over there.

She's a very strong -minded, very dominant individual.

All right, head down, head down. Good, steady.

Despite all the love and attention she receives at Taronga, Pak Boon has always

been wary of change.

Thank you very much.

So it's a big deal when someone new comes along.

Sometimes Pak Boon doesn't like...

People do things to her. She can be a bit funny.

And today, that someone new is Vet Creason. So today we've got Vet Creason

coming down to meet the elephants. We've got our annual health checks. Okay.

So they're expecting us. With the elephants, it's very true. If they don't

the way you act around them, your energy, then they don't trust you.

Hi, bunny.

Back foot.

With packed boons, you'll often approach things with a very heavy -handed

tactic.

She knows how to use her weight to her effect.

This is going to be my first time visiting the elephants at Taronga Zoo.

joining Frances today, and she's going to show me how they do their regular

preventive health care check.

Frances to elephant keepers.

Go ahead.

You happy if we come into the barn?

Elephants need to feel comfortable in our presence.

But Pakpun, she's got a good stranger danger mentality.

Pakpun, steady.

Good girl.

And she's not the most patient individual.

Steady. Trunk down.

Trunk down. Back born.

Whenever we're in the barn, because the elephants can reach out quite a long way

with their trunks, we do only what the keepers say we can do.

Just let me know if there's anything I shouldn't do or shouldn't do. No, she'll

want to say hi and make sure she does it in a polite manner. But yeah, she'll

just want to check you out a little bit and see who's... Elephants are amazing

in terms of their mental capacity.

You know, they've got such good cognitive ability.

They are smart.

And those are things you need to keep in mind when you're treating them, when

you're working with them.

This is Pac Boone. Hey, Pac Boone.

Those eyes look to your soul.

In the Canangra Boys National Park, there live a koala.

Well, a few, actually. But underneath this particular koala is Keeper Clay,

and she's on a mission.

It's actually really hard to find the koala. They're so well camouflaged.

Koalas can move from tree to tree quite often, so Clay's not letting it out of

her sight until the catch team arrives.

There is a wait time because we've got at least four koalas that we're going to

assess today. So if I'm the last koala they come and catch today, that's when

I'll be waiting quite a while.

anywhere from well i reckon it'll be at least an hour could be up to five i have

been told that's probably saying bugger off bugger off you guys just want to try

and not fall asleep that's the key because it'll be very relaxing so must

awake i might have to sit upright a little bit more

Meanwhile, at Larry's mobile vet station, the koala conga line has

begun. Good morning. Good morning. Danielle, how are you? Very good, how

you? Good.

Every koala brought in is weighed.

6 .2 kilos.

And thoroughly examined for signs of fertility, injury and illness.

Kind of feel good. Hydration's good. Hydration's excellent.

Even fur samples are collected for DNA analysis.

Okay, so we're finished with this little guy.

Back at Clay's tree, she's now finished her nap. Just kidding. And the koala

catchers have arrived.

Hi, Clay.

Hey. Hi, Clay. Hey.

How's it going?

Good, good. How are you?

Good. Thanks for finding me.

No worries. We don't want to leave you out here forever. It wasn't very long.

No, I was anticipating longer.

But here's our friend.

Oh, there he is.

Fantastic. I imagine maybe a little too high for your pole.

Yeah, we might have to climb a tree for this one. What's the plan of attack?

Depending on how the quail is behaving, I'll either catch it in the tree or I'll

send it down to you guys. So I haven't done this before, so you guys might need

to just direct me on.

what you want me to do with the flag and wherever else I can assist you.

Okay, should we get started?

Yeah, let's get started.

We've been working with Taronga Zoo on this project for a year now.

We travel all over the state looking at the various populations.

The koala seems pretty relaxed, which is always nice.

This one seems to know that I manage no harm, which is good.

Ben is using a catching pole to gently coax the koala down.

Well done, Ben.

And when the koala is close enough, out comes the bag.

Okay.

All right, in the bag, so that's done. Koala's in the bag. Two minutes.

Beautiful, Ben. Well done.

We find that when they go into the sack.

Hi, guys. I'll just keep this one in my harness and come down with it.

Yep, sounds good. Sounds good.

But they kind of just calm down. We believe that that's because they're a

marsupial, and they might have an affinity for the pouch.

So you'll notice that they might be a bit reactive when we're conducting a

catch, and as soon as they're in the bag, they'll just kind of calm down.

And Koala.

On me?

Appreciate it. Good job.

Cool. Thank you.

So my job now is to make sure I carry it nice and safe

back to the vet station so it can be assessed.

And the vet station?

Well, it's just a short but strenuous stroll through the bush.

The most important thing is that we get it back as quickly as possible. So

I'm not going to stop.

Over in Dubbo, three hours west of the Blue Mountains.

Careful, careful.

He's being a bit calmer than I expected, actually.

It's been a few weeks since Team Taronga began hand -raising three orphaned emu

chicks that came to the wildlife hospital just days after they were born.

And I haven't got pooped on yet, so that's even better.

When they arrived, the chicks were so dehydrated and weak they had to be tube

-fed by the vet team.

But now these little native bundles of feathers are looking so much better.

They're doing really well, starting to gain weight and eating on their own

quite a bit of encouragement from us to get them to eat.

So let's see how much better.

That was 995.

Yeah, so that's really good.

Nearly a kilo.

They have more than doubled their body weight since they've arrived.

Their weight gain is rapid, and they have to get to about adult weight by

six months of age.

They'll be putting on hundreds and hundreds of grams each week, so they're

tracking really well.

They'll need to put on at least 30 kilograms in the next six months, which

a lot of food prep.

In the wild, they'd be eating greens. They follow Dad a lot and he shows them

what to pick.

That's not an option, unfortunately.

So Jen is doing Dad's job.

albeit with a little more flair.

It's basically a greens mix, lettuce and endive, with carrot and apple, and

obviously has to be finely chopped because these babies aren't very old.

Basically anything green they're kind of drawn to.

Once I've chopped the greens, I mix it with a chick starter, which is a crumble

similar to what you give baby chickens.

Hi, baby.

Let's go. But like every parent knows, the food prep is only half the job. We

tapping in the bowl because it emulates the behaviour of a parent, if you like.

When they're pecking at something, it encourages the juveniles to come over to

investigate.

So obviously we'd like them to eat this rather than, you know, pick away at

sticks and unnecessary things.

If the chicks continue to follow their foster parent's lead, all three will be

on track to be released back into the wild.

This will happen around five to six months of age when they're nearly full

grown, so they'll be pretty big birds.

We are hopeful that they'll do well. They're a lot stronger, a lot more

They're eating on their own now and they are doing very, very well. We're very

pleased with their progress.

Coming up... An animal that could look completely normal from the outside.

Have Larry's worst fears been realised?

We know last time she had a jubby on her back. She doesn't have one this year.

And Creason's about to discover the importance of first impressions.

Steady. Good girl.

In the picturesque Blue Mountains, two hours west of Sydney, keeper Clay is

transporting some very precious cargo.

It's been a year since this female koala was last examined. As part of a

statewide study researching the health and well -being of this now endangered

species. Having this individual in the bag, it definitely makes it real. It's a

bit different to looking up at it high up in the tree. I've now got it down

and it's my responsibility to keep it safe.

Hey, Clay.

Hey. How are you going?

Hey, good. How are you going, Larry? Larry is the vet in charge of examining

the koalas for this research project.

So what have we got, number 13 here? Number 13 here, females. No back young?

back young. Back young is the technical term for an 8 to 12 -month -old baby

koala. 8 .5.

So Clay's just delivered a koala that's got a tracker on it. Okay, she's

injected. Okay.

And I've just injected it with the anaesthetic drug. It's sitting there in

bag, going to sleep right now.

Hopefully she'll be nice and sleepy for us. It looks like she is.

So we've probably got about 45 minutes of procedure to do.

So hopefully she'll be nice and kind to us and stay asleep for that long.

There you go. Because she's one of our animals that we collared last year.

She has a collar on which we're going to remove.

Yep.

We have a bit of background on her already, which is nice to have that, and

it'll be really interesting to see how she is this year.

Chlamydia, of course, is one of the most serious diseases of koalas, and so

these swabs are to look for chlamydia.

This population at Kanangra Boyd is known to be chlamydia -free, but one of

biggest threats to koala populations in Australia is chlamydia disease, and we

know last time she had a joey on her back.

She doesn't have one this year. It's breeding season.

Larry will need to investigate why this koala doesn't appear to have a baby.

The last thing he'll want to find are signs of chlamydia.

One of the things that we're really interested in seeing is if there's any

on the ultrasound. So in females, we look at their reproductive tract because

obviously that's really important, particularly with chlamydia.

And an animal could look completely normal from the outside.

But on the ultrasound, there can be a lot of pathology there.

And you wouldn't know that without the ultrasound.

In Sydney, a team of keepers and vets are gathered inside the elephant barn.

Let's go, Kristen.

This is Pak Boon. Pak Boon, Taronga's headstrong, nearly 4 ,000 -kilo Asian

elephant, is due for her annual health check.

Steady. Good girl. She's a little wary of strangers, and for the first time,

she's just laid eyes on vet Creason. The other animals that we work with, it's a

different whole ballgame that we're working with today.

Christian, do you want to come up and say hi?

She's not nearly as patient as Tang Mo, so we might have to be a little bit

quicker, and she's not so keen on the touching.

She's more just food motivated and likes to get things done quickly.

Pak Boon has been known to use her trunk and her weight to make it clear when

she's not in the mood to be handled. Any concerns with her?

Ah, no concerns.

We do... I mean, she gets, as you can see, she gets a little more discharge

the eyes.

That's mainly due to weather and the dirt. You think she'd tolerate a

torch close to the eye? Ah, yeah, definitely. Give it a go.

Good girl.

Good girl. Good girl.

That is excellent.

Good girl.

I can't really see too much. Very good.

It's good because she usually squints her eyes shut. Yeah, she does.

Part of being a vet in a zoo, you're often there when animals are sick.

Good girl, Boonie. Oh, yes, this is for you too, darling.

So they can associate you with always that negative thing of, I'm sick, this

person's back here today. They're here to jab me, they're here to do this,

giving medication.

Boonie, foot.

Foot.

Yes, I know.

40 foot. A bit more.

Good girl.

She's very clunky.

Yeah, she has a heavy foot too.

Yeah, good girl.

It's amazing how they're designed to take all this good weight. And they can

as quiet as a mouse.

It's important for us to be here when they're healthy and happy as well.

It gives us a good opportunity to bond with the animals. It'll help them be

comfortable around us. She looks like a happy, healthy elephant.

The team's doing a good job on keeping it that way.

And I'm lucky to have met her today, which is great.

And hopefully the next time I meet her, it's all good as well.

Good girl, Pack Boone.

Creason's physical exam of Pack Boone is a success.

And the much smaller and friendlier Tang Mo doesn't disappoint either.

We had a look at both elephant skulls today. They cooperated really well,

allowing us to have a good look at everything.

which is great, makes these preventative health care procedures so much easier

to do and gives us a good amount of baseline data for us to know if they do

sick. We know how they look when they're healthy.

So we had a good look at them from head to toe today, and everything looked

really good.

Oh, and what do we know about those gross tuberculosis tests?

Apparently, it's not a problem.

Next, a triumphant return for this koala. I'm a very small cog in a

very big wheel. After the team get the answers they're searching for. Oh, she's

so pretty.

She is.

OK, I'm going to tip on her back to have a look at her reproductive tract.

In the Kanangra Boyd National Park, a small colony of endangered koalas have

remained chlamydia -free.

So you can see her bladder there very clearly.

Chlamydia is a reproductive disease that can make koalas infertile. So she

could, well there's a bit of fluid, okay.

It's breeding season and vet Larry is examining this female koala to try and

determine why she isn't carrying a baby.

This would be her uterus and a little bit of fluid in the middle.

It could possibly be pregnant if you can see the little embryo. So definitely no

evidence of disease.

It's not only great news for this koala, but for this entire koala population.

So we are done with her.

It may be that this population here at Kanangra has just been quite isolated

chlamydia has never got in here.

We let them recover for a whole full hour before taking them back for

There you go.

Or maybe there's other factors which have prevented chlamydia establishing in

this population. It might be genetics, for example. And studying the genetics

these koalas might help safeguard other koala populations in the future.

Number 52.

Compact little fella.

Over five days, more than 20 koalas are brought in.

and examined.

They've all had great teeth so far. I just remember last time we had a few

quite dodgy teeth.

He's already got an ear tag, so one of the ones we captured last year, so it's

good to see him back.

It's interesting coming back and seeing the koalas that we worked on 12 months

ago.

To look at changes in the health of the animal, probably more like a three.

It's a big project.

Taronga, of course, is a key player. He's a bit bigger than the other one.

there are many other people involved as well. It's a massive project.

G'day, Larry. How are you going?

G'day, Tim.

How are you going, mate?

What can you tell me about this young fellow? Well, first of all, everyone,

is Tim.

G'day, guys. Tim is the head of the koala science team. So is it still

to last year when we thought the population was pretty healthy?

Ah, yeah, yeah.

Nice, healthy animals.

That's great. Lots of babies. Females have got joeys and a couple of

pregnancies, actually, which is really exciting to see. That is great. Some

populations are really good, and this is one of these populations.

Yeah, this one's definitely a good, robust population. And, you know, we

already that they chlamydia -free, so that's a big, big plus.

Yeah.

There you go.

When you work in a conservation project like such as this is, it makes you feel

really good about...

The work that you're doing. And he's woken up.

Okay. And I think everyone, when they come out into the field and see wild

animals and work with wild animals and make tangible contributions to the

conservation of Australian wildlife, is so excited about it.

And what about Clay's koala?

Well, after an hour or so in recovery, she's safely returned to her tree.

All right, little one.

Fieldwork like this and conservation projects, this is a huge part of what

Taronga does now and a really important part.

A splash of blue dye, which does wash off in the rain, ensures that this koala

can stay in the treetops for now and won't be caught again.

Oh, she's so pretty. She is. As far as my contribution goes, I do feel I'm a

very small cog in a very big wheel.

She's passed that first fork now, so we can move back pretty comfortably.

While my part is small, I think every bit helps and every bit is necessary

you're talking about the plight of a species like the koala. So just happy to

have been able to help.

She seems completely fine.

It's good to see her back where she belongs.

Yeah.