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.

Come on. Good boy. It's hard to ignore the elephant in the room.

Come on, Goongie.

When the elephant is goong. Good boy.

Team Taronga attempt to solve a big problem. It's really imperative that now

18 years old, Angelie does get to breed.

With a small solution.

The outcome will be we have a new calf.

An unfair match -up. He was actually found in a cat's mouth.

And the race to get this kookaburra laughing again.

Oh, wow.

Significant.

And bingo.

Hello, ekundu.

Bango. Hello.

Bongo. Ah, morning. An important health check for a rare and exotic resident.

There's less than 100 in the wild.

Five hours from Sydney, on the western plains of New South Wales, there's a big

herd at Taronga. Maybe you've heard of them?

Here at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, we have seven elephants.

We have four females and three young bulls. They're part of a breeding

conservation program for the Asian elephant in our region.

The Asian elephant is endangered in the wild, with only 35 ,000 to 40 ,000 left.

So that makes programs like ours really important for the conservation of this

species.

But it's a breeding program that's been on pause for a few years.

It's been six years now since the last arrival of a young elephant calf, which

was Canlea.

This little cow, Canlea, is still just a baby. And today, her playtime

involves bobbing for apples.

Canlea, good girl.

And by the looks of it, you don't have to be a baby to get in on the fun.

Anjali is our 18 -year -old female and she's really attached particularly to

young female, Kamalaya.

They'll often be seen together swimming in the pool.

Anjali will stand over her, being protective of her.

That's all the really important maternal behaviours that we want to see from

Anjali because that bodes very well for the day that she gets to be a mother

herself. Keeper Joel and the whole team at Taronga want nothing more than for

that to happen for 18 -year -old Anjali.

Hey, Anjali.

Good girl.

Very good. But so far, for this big animal, getting pregnant has been a big

issue. What a good girl.

So Anjali was originally born in Sri Lanka, but she spent quite a few years

in Auckland Zoo to be part of a breeding program over there.

for a series of artificial insemination attempts.

Which are also known as AIs.

How many AIs? Five.

Unfortunately, they weren't successful.

That was a big reason why the decision was made to come to Taronga Western

Zoo. Anjali arrived two years ago at the ripe old age of 16.

We had an established breeding program here with a couple of bulls that we were

pretty sure would be successful in a natural mating.

But despite several attempts, there are still no signs of pregnancy.

If an elephant gets into their 20s and they haven't had the opportunity to

breed, they can develop a lot of pathologies.

that can make getting pregnant very difficult, like in uterine cysts and

like that.

In simple terms, that means if Anjali doesn't get pregnant soon, she's at

serious risk of becoming infertile, which could spell disaster for Taronga's

breeding program.

So it's really imperative that now at 18 years old, that Anjali does

get to breed.

Considering her history,

Anjali's chances are not looking good.

It could be that she's not reproductively viable and that's been a

for us.

What a good girl. Given her history, the odds could be stacked up against us.

You've just got to turn your head anywhere at Taronga and you'll spot an

intriguing face that draws you in.

Let's go!

But there is one particular creature who isn't quite so easy to find.

Hello, Ikundu.

Hey, buddy.

Unless, of course, you know exactly where to look. Hello.

Hey, bud.

How's it going?

Ah, morning.

See if he wants to come out.

Okay, okay.

So Ikundu's not that hard to find. But you'd be struggling if you went looking

for the rest of his kind.

It's an 18 -year -old eastern bongo.

There's less than 100 in the wild.

You heard that right.

Less than 100 left in the wild.

So it's just as well Taronga has a breeding pair in Dubbo...

And Ikundu in Sydney.

Do you want some spinach?

Ikundu's been part of a breeding program throughout his whole life and he's been

able to sire four calves, which is really, really good for the conservation

this species.

But Ikundu isn't getting any younger.

So Taronga is taking great care to make sure he continues to live a happy,

healthy life.

Ikundu is an older animal and we do routine checks with him. We're actually

going to do some blood tests on him. Now, this is really important because

give us a lot of valuable information about his health and his wellbeing.

And if we find anything, it'll give us some really good information on how we

can adjust and manage his welfare better.

Easier said than done, though, because Ikundu is... painfully shy.

These are an antelope species and antelopes are notably quite flighty,

and cautious animals.

Which means keeper Jacob needs a kundu to feel calm and relaxed. Hungry as

always. Before attempting to do a blood draw.

So I'll just close the door and he can just chill out in there. And what better

way to do that?

So we're going to make some dirt piles for him here. Now, dirt piles are

really important for a lot of animals. For a kundu, though, what he'll do is

actually rub his face, his neck, all along this pile. I can actually see a

really big depression in it here, so I know he's sort of smushed his face right

into it. It helps them communicate with other animals. It's him leaving his

mark, saying, I'm a big bongo, this is my spot, I'm here.

With the soil spa now sorted, it's time for Ikundu's other favourite

pastime, eating.

Hello, Ikundu.

Door.

There we go.

Good work, bud.

In his own time, of course.

That's it, buddy.

Generally, what we'll want to do when we let Akundu out is we'll have lots of

food out for him so he can spend a lot of his time foraging and browsing and

then ruminating from all the food that they've been eating throughout the day.

Hey, Akundu.

And then when it comes down to the sort of midday part of our shift, generally,

I like to do a bit of a training session with him.

That's right. After all that smoothing, it's business time.

Well, training time, really.

And today's training session is to gently prepare a kundu for that blood

just a couple of days.

Hi, bud. Sure.

But how does one train a skittish antelope with metre -long, sharp, spiral

horns? He's like, what's all that?

Very, very carefully, I imagine.

The Great Southern Ocean's habitat.

is home to some of Taronga's slickest creatures.

Good, buddy. But there are only a couple of species that are sporting Mother

Nature's tuxedos. Come on, all the way. The little penguin.

Good job, buddy. A local resident to Sydney's waters and a slightly more

flamboyant -looking critter. Here at Taronga Zoo, we've got five fjordland

crested penguins. We have Munro, Mareike.

Gary, Dusky and Egg.

We're very lucky to have them. They're the only Fiordland penguins in a zoo in

the whole world.

Oh no, where are you going buddy?

They're found naturally in New Zealand and these guys all rescued.

Washed up on Australian shores, different sort of injuries, very skinny

young so they couldn't be released back to the wild.

And now that these penguins are fit and healthy and called to Ronga home.

Hey buddy.

Is that something to eat?

They can get on with doing what almost all creatures do when they settle down.

Parenthood. Good boy.

I'm just looking over at their breeding burrow and I can hear them vocalising.

We have been trying to breed these guys for years.

There's not a lot known about fieldland penguin breeding.

Where they actually breed is really hard to access.

In the wild.

These penguins would breed in remote rocky burrows along the New Zealand

coastline. It's really hard to actually see what happens in a burrow and a nest.

We are the only ones in the world to hold them and be able to study them so

closely.

Taronga runs the world's only fjordland crested penguin breeding program.

So this is Mareike.

Is that for them to eat?

Munro and Mareike have been a pair ever since she arrived. He was here first.

They were immediately drawn to each other.

She was quite young, but Munro built a nest for her and really courted her.

Fjordland crested penguins, they will pair usually for life.

While this penguin pair have laid eggs in the past, Taronga is yet to see them

successfully raise a chick to adulthood.

So there she goes.

She's going to go straight back to her burrow.

Last year, Munro and Mareike had a chick, but unfortunately it died at

five weeks of age.

By five weeks, we were pretty confident that it was going to make it all the way

through, so it was a really big shock.

Why the chick didn't survive is a mystery.

But this year, there's fresh hope.

Munro and Mareike's burrow for two.

is now just a little more crowded.

You know, I can barely believe it, actually, that we've got this chick.

like, it's a dream come true, really.

It's so wonderful seeing them be parents together.

They're doing an amazing job. They're very, very protective.

They say seeing is believing, but how do you see a new chick when its penguin

parents are so protective?

The solution?

I'm spying, of course.

This is currently live footage of Munro and Maraki's burrow. This is how we

monitor them without disturbing them at all. See right in the middle there, a

very big, plump chick.

So that chick hatched two and a half weeks ago.

We're coming up to the three -week mark.

But we don't like to get too excited because they don't always make it. And

the past, they haven't always made it.

You don't want to, you know, count our penguins before they're fully out of

their burrows.

The next few weeks are critical.

If this chick survives, it'll be a world first.

Still to come.

What's three metres tall?

Good boy.

Weighs 5 ,000 kilos.

Good boy. And has four cold feet.

Come on.

An elephant named Goong.

For a five -ton elephant, he can be a little bit of a scaredy -cat sometimes.

And after a vicious attack... He's got a big cat bite wound on his shoulder.

There's a lot of muscle damage. ...a surprisingly sweet remedy.

Manuka honey has a lot of natural anti -derm properties.

Out at Taronga Western Plain Zoo... Angelie, come on.

Elephant keeper Joel is preparing 18 -year -old Anjali for a hot date.

Good girl.

What a good girl.

The team are hoping that Anjali will fall pregnant soon, and they're doing

everything they can to help it happen.

So we manage our elephants' weight very closely, and particularly Anjali.

Good. In the lead up to a pregnancy, it's really important to make sure she's

maintaining the perfect weight for an elephant.

Anjali's weight is 2864.

Which is in the optimal range to fall pregnant.

Good girl.

So Anjali's ready.

Now she just needs that perfect partner.

Introducing Goong.

Goong's our adult male.

He's 24 years old. He weighs around five tonnes.

Good boy, Goong.

That's over 2 ,000 kilos more than Anjali.

So far in the regional program, he's fathered four calves.

And one of his sons has also fathered three calves down in Melbourne Zoo,

makes him our first elephant grandfather in Australia.

So we're very proud of all the work that he's done for our breeding conservation

program in the region.

Well, I guess work is one way to put it.

And he is a very extremely good -natured bull with good social skills.

Good boy, Gull. He never gets too rough with anybody, which some bulls

potentially can.

So with such a stellar reputation, the pressure is really on for this gentle

giant to seal the deal.

Come on, Gull. Good boy.

Good boy.

Goong, Goong, come on.

Though I'm not sure Goong got the memo.

Over in the wildlife hospital, the clock is ticking for a much smaller and

flightier guest.

I think we need to get hands -on today and have a look in Kookaburra 413.

That guy was the one with the cat bite wound.

The cat's grabbed it on the shoulder. It doesn't have any brakes, but it's got a

big, nasty wound.

An injured kookaburra was brought in and treated a week ago after it was

attacked by a domestic cat.

It's a fairly extensive wound.

He's got a bandage on, and we'll just want to make sure that's all healing.

does he need to be released?

So he really needs to get out back in the wild in six weeks.

At the moment, with how territorial they're all being, maybe probably

less. With kookaburras, particularly at this time of the year, we've got a bit

of time pressure as we're evaluating prognosis.

Our first thoughts are, you know, do we think this case will get there in six

weeks? You know, the territory gets taken over again by another kookaburra.

get hounded when they go back and they don't survive.

So we're kind of racing against the clock to get him out back in the wild.

obviously he needs to be fit and well to do that.

Kookaburras are territorial birds, so the longer this guy is away from his

territory, the more likely another Kookaburra will claim it.

So that's a bit of a tough one when you invest and get a bit attached to these

guys. They've got a lot of personality, but we do have to just keep in mind that

the end goal is to get him out there and completely fit and healthy and

reintegrated back into the wild and make sure that we're able to do that.

But vet Alisa can't do that until the wound has healed. Thank you very much.

So today the team are sedating the kookaburra so they can get another look

that injured wing.

He was actually found in a cat's mouth.

He's got a big cat bite wound on his shoulder, which when he first came in

didn't look too extreme, but there's obviously been a lot of muscle damage

underneath those skin punctures. And really we want to make sure that...

his muscle damage isn't so severe that he won't be able to fly.

All right, I'm pretty comfortable.

You're happy to give it a go? Yep. Turn the oxygen off.

So you can see the glottis there.

I'm just putting in an endotracheal tube just so that he's breathing the gas and

we're not breathing the gas.

But also so if he does hold his breath, we can give him breath.

And we just want that nice and secure so it's not moving around and causing any

trauma.

In his throat.

Over the last few days, he's had an infection, which is potentially a major

problem. So it can be a pretty tough decision if down the track we find that

this infection has set in and that the road to recovery is, you know, three

months or longer, or maybe never.

Oh, wow.

Significant. It is, yeah. It's a big, big hole. There's a lot of dead space

under that skin.

Then that's the point where we would need to make that decision.

for his welfare to euthanise him, and that can be a tough call to make.

At Taronga's Great Southern Oceans habitat... Oh, you're not eating that

..keeper Lindsay is keeping a close eye on penguin parents Munro and Mareiki...

Nice mackerel.

..who are keeping an even closer eye and guard on their very young, very special

penguin chick.

hidden away in their penguin burrow.

Last year, Munra and Mareike had a chick, but unfortunately it died at

five weeks of age.

We've been trying to breed them for many, many years.

We only have a chance once a year with these guys, so then every year we try

again. These penguin pairs bond and breed for life, so it's important to

them the opportunity to raise their own chicks.

Do you want some food?

But none of Taronga's five fjordlands have raised a chick to adulthood yet.

Manus! Come on, Manus!

Mano! Good boy!

That's the way.

Though they're certainly trying.

Mano's chick is eating a lot. In the wild, once those chicks hatch, the males

will actually stay and guard those chicks for three weeks, and it's the

who goes out to sea and comes back and...

regurgitates fish back to her chick. Good boy.

But what we've seen here is they're really sharing that role.

Yesterday, both parents came out to eat at the same time.

Then you could hear the chick vocalising and both parents suddenly realised no

one was with it and they ran back and bowled over the chick in a hurry to get

back to it. So they're very, very protective.

While Munro and Mareike are keeping their new chick well and truly hidden,

keeper Lindsay has spied some movement in another burrow.

We are so excited because for the first time we have two Fjordland Crested

Penguin chicks in their burrows, which is amazing.

So if you look really closely, you can see the little chick there, a little

black shape.

From a bit of a surprise.

We're just so excited that they've actually got a chick of their own.

Ducky and Ed are a newer relationship. We weren't even really expecting them to

be successful this year.

As the saying goes, two chicks in the burrow are better than none.

Or something like that.

These guys, they still are only one week and four weeks. Fingers crossed that

they grow up and, you know.

become part of our population.

But they're not out of the woods or the burrow just yet.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Taronga... Hey, kundu.

..a kundu, an elusive and aged bongo antelope, is about to have a training

session. Hi, bud.

Sure.

Because in a couple of days...

A vet will need to take a blood sample so they can monitor his health.

But bongos are notoriously nervous.

If he's a bit like, I don't know.

And nobody knows that more than keepers Jacob and Sarah.

Not a lot of people know a lot about antelope species. They're pretty

skittish and cautious animals. So the rapport we're able to have with those

animals is really, really important.

It helps build that trust between us.

He's flicking his tail. He's walked away.

He might come back over. Hello, buddy.

Hi, buddy.

If he does get close and he starts to tilt his head down, he can flick his

in here like this. So just be mindful of that.

Yep. Ikundu's twisted horns don't just look cool. They are capable of

a serious injury.

So the keepers have to be seriously careful around this easily spooked

We're asking a kundu to present his chin on this shelf here, which we've been

working on with him for quite a while now.

And today we're going to do some blood draw practice with him as well.

Everything we do with Ikundu is all about trying to give him opportunities

make choices and building relationships with him. So anything that we can train

him to do whilst he's anticipating and alert and awake, we're always going to

for that option.

Anesthetic drugs are a risk for aged animals like 18 -year -old Ikundu.

But that doesn't mean drawing blood from his neck is the easy option.

What are you doing on the next one you find?

You can do with the... You want the cap off?

We'll do one with cap on.

We'll see how it is.

Sarah's going to stroke along his cheek and down to his neck and actually try to

isolate and find where his jugular vein is because that's where the needle's

going to be going in. Chin.

Touch. Hi, buddy.

Yep, along that roof pretty much. And then apply a bit of pressure and hold

Yep.

And then she's also got a prop needle here, which is blunted down.

And that way we're actually able to apply quite a bit of pressure to a

neck without the needle actually going in.

You can kind of back, you can kind of bring the needle in and gently press it

against him.

We can increase how much pressure we're pushing into a kundu's neck.

Good. We'll do another one and I'll also scratch his head.

That way it's going to be a lot less uncomfortable for him on the day,

hopefully. Good work. Touch.

Oh, yeah, that's it, bud. Good boy.

But we'll see how we go for the real thing when we're ready.

Ikundu has passed fifth training session.

You're awesome, dude.

But in two days' time, vet Creason is going to use a much sharper needle

the real thing.

He's going to be performing quite an invasive procedure. You know, he's going

be sticking a needle into his jug killer.

At Taronga Wildlife Hospital in Dubbo... Significant.

It is, yep, a big, big hole. I think that cat had a pretty good grip on him.

Thanks to a domestic cat, this wild kookaburra is badly injured and unable

fly. So he had four punctures, so basically the canines, the four canines

cat, like this.

And over the last few days he's had an infection, which is potentially a major

problem. The bird has been receiving treatment at the hospital for a week

but his infected wound hasn't been healing.

With kookaburras, we've got a bit of time pressure.

Last week when we checked, there was a lot of muscle necrosis. I actually had

debride out a lot of dead muscle out of that space.

Part of the decision -making process is can they go back to their territory? If

they're going to be in care for three months, then there's actually no point

it because they won't survive when they go back.

If the bird can't be returned to its territory in less than six weeks,

kookaburra will lay claim to it.

And a kookaburra without a territory is likely to die.

You know, we can't speed up this healing process. He's got to do that. But we

want to set it up for success as much as we can and keep re -evaluating as we

go. Yeah, I'm just trying to actually see if there's any dead tissue in there.

It's looking like there's not much more that's necrotic.

It's good news.

The wound appears to be healing.

Hang on. No, hold off.

He's just moved.

He's moved?

Yeah, he just opened his beak.

Alright, I'll just give him a second.

The sedated kookaburra has started to wake up.

We're just giving him a bit of gas for a minute because he's a bit light.

If he wakes up in fright, it could aggravate his injury.

Alright, I'm happy with that.

With the bird now back in a deeper sleep, vet Elisa can continue treating

wound. This is a Manuka wound gel.

Manuka honey has antibacterial properties.

It's a very, very good non -antibiotic wound product.

A lot of natural anti -derm properties.

This is a really common sort of scenario we see with birds particularly, but a

lot of other native animals as well, is that they've been injured by a cat.

I'm the first person to say I'm a cat person. I love cats, but I don't love

they do to wildlife.

I'm really happy with how that looks compared to a week ago.

That's a dramatic improvement.

Can he wake up?

He can, yep.

When he's a little bit more alert, we'll take this tube out.

He'll start and move his head a little bit, and that'll be our cue to take that

out. We're pretty happy with how the wound's going at the moment.

There it is. There we go. And we're out.

I knew we were going to do that.

What we've got to find out now is whether he can fly well, so we've got to

a couple of weeks for that wound to heal a bit more before we can test that.

Yep, eyes are open.

He's awake.

Thanks, Jan.

That's our next milestone. If we see that the flight ability is good, then

there'll be a bit of time getting fit and then hopefully back out to the wild

within that six -week window that we've got to work within.

We're still holding hope that he'll be able to go back to the wild, but we are

working under a pretty tight timeline.

A few weeks later, and what a turnaround.

There you go.

He's actually done extremely well. We're very pleased with how it's all gone. We

were a little bit worried that we might take too long to heal and he might be at

risk of losing his territory.

And he's actually been returned to the place where he was found and flown away

beautifully into a nearby tree.

As dawn breaks over a new day in Dubbo, plans for a very special date are

underway.

Anjali, the female Asian elephant, will be spending the day with Goong.

And if all goes well, there's a chance she could finally fall pregnant.

It's really important for her mentally as well as physically to have that

opportunity. And while the keepers take care of the cuisine... Yep, we're good.

Actually making the babies is up to the elephant.

Good girl.

But it looks like Goong... Come on, good boy.

Come on, Goongy.

..might be getting cold feet.

So the dream is, the hope is, that he will successfully breed with Angelique

the outcome will be that we have a new calf.

Goong, come on.

A five -ton elephant, he can be a little bit of a

scaredy -cat sometimes.

Come on, Gull.

Good boy.

Sounds like Goong's finally psyched himself up.

Good boy.

Goong's an adult bull elephant.

He's in his mid -twenties.

So when we're trying to set up for a successful mating, although we have

bulls here, Goong's a good choice because we know he's got a great

and he's a good candidate to be in with Angelique like this in a fairly relaxed

environment.

And we also know that at the end of the day, he's a proven breeder, so that's

going to increase our chance of success.

While success, or a pregnancy, has so far eluded everyone, the signs today

are promising.

Bull elephants go through something called must, and we can see physical

of it, like a fluid draining down from his temporal glands on the side of his

face. It means that they're getting this heightened surge of testosterone.

driven by just an annual occurrence that happens. Or in Goong's case, what might

happen is that it can be an indication that one of our cows is about to ovulate

and he's responding hormonally to that.

If Anjali is ovulating, she'll release an egg, which, if everything goes well,

could be fertilised by Goong.

There's just a bit of tactile between the two. This is what we like to see.

He's going to check her out all over and try and get a bit of an indication of

where she's at hormonally.

So Angelie's urinating there.

He'll sample that urine and have a little taste of it, and that's where he

detect hormones, like perform what we call phlemon.

So you see he's just having a little taste there.

And that's where he can sort of ascertain whether she's ovulating or

then that will drive him to the next step of whether it's time to mate with

or not.

Goong is giving some pretty clear signs that Anjali is indeed ovulating.

But with so many failed attempts to get Anjali pregnant, will Goong make the

difference?

In the leafy depths of Taronga Zoo, it's a big day for one particularly timid

animal.

Ekundu.

Hello. Ekundu.

Ekundu's quite an old animal.

He's what we call an aged animal. He's 18 years old. Now, that's quite old for

bongo. Ekundu. Hello.

So, as he ages in this very sort of critical part of his life, we need to be

more on top of his health.

And that's where Bet Creason comes in.

Today, he's going to draw some blood from a kundu so they can run some tests.

And drawing blood means pushing a needle into the skittish animal's neck.

Hey, mate.

How's it going?

Us keepers have really, really good rapport with a kundu, and we have for

many years.

But someone like Creason, who doesn't always get to spend as much time with a

kundu, is going to be performing quite an invasive procedure.

Yeah, so it's sort of a butterfly catheter that we're using. It gives us a

little bit of knee weight. So if he moves his head, we've got that sort of

distance to play with.

Depending on how he reacts to the needle, we'll throw a blood sample.

with this. So I've had a lot of experience working with bongo before and

can be easily spooked.

So today is going to rely on us being calm so that a kundu can also remain

and then we can get a successful blood draw and we can stay well away from

horns as well.

Kiefer Jacob coaxes a kundu over, just like a routine training session.

Oh, good work, mate. How are you going, Creason?

He's happy.

So we'll get started then. Chin.

Creason begins by just touching Ikundu to find his jugular vein.

That's it, Creason. Feel around his neck.

When dealing with such a nervous bongo, it's important to move quickly, but not

too quickly.

Touch.

Oh, that's good. That's gone straight in and he hasn't flinched at all.

I'm just going to keep scratching his head.

Oh, he's doing such a good job. Oh, good work, buddy. That's it. You're doing so

well.

Okay, that's it. You've had enough.

Good work, mate. You're a legend.

So that was really, really incredible. We trained that behavior for quite a

time, but it's amazing that it kind of exceeded all expectations.

Absolutely gold standard.

That'll get those samples to the lab.

And we'll see what test we can run on this.

And a few days later.

Hello, Ekundu. This shy bongo is back to his normal routine.

All right. And his results are in. Ekundu's blood levels have come back and

is normal. He doesn't have any outstanding levels that would insinuate

has anything else going on. And it means that he's healthy, especially for such

an old animal.

He's definitely my favourite animal to work with. For a species like an eastern

bongo, which is critically endangered, I'm really, really fortunate to be able

to work with him. It's quite a privilege.

Over the past few days at Taronga in Dubbo, bull elephant Goong has continued

mating with 18 -year -old Anjali.

Anjali has never fallen pregnant, and because of her age...

Time is running out.

So this morning, the keepers are doing the elephant walk and making a beeline

straight for the barn.

So this is a very important day for us and for Anjali. This is where we're

to take our blood collection because in recent times she's successfully mated

with Gul, our bull elephant. Good girls.

And this will hopefully give us confirmation to whether she's actually

or not.

Good girl, Anjali.

Good girl. Move up. Good.

Good girl.

Move up. So we really have to build up good relationships with our elephants to

have them cooperate with us to do something like blood draw, which is

particularly not the most comfortable behaviour to perform in the world.

Today, that task falls to Keepa Lockie.

Release. Move up.

The reason the blood is so important is it's something that we use to manage

their reproductive cycle.

It will indicate to us confirmation of pregnancy. And later down the track, it

will actually be really important for us to determine when birth is imminent.

Good girl.

Although Anjali and Goong have mated, there's no guarantee she's pregnant. So

this blood test is crucial.

It will hopefully give Taronga's elephant keepers the results they've

waiting so long for.

What Lachie's doing right now is he's got a warm water hose and he's going to

use that to heat up the ear.

Good girl.

This will draw higher blood pressure in the ear.

Good girl.

And then he'll just cut that blood vessel, the vein, off with his finger.

Good girl.

He'll create a little reservoir in that vein, which makes it much easier for

when he puts that needle in.

Daddy.

Good.

Good.

Good girl.

Good girl.

Good girl.

Then you'll be able to draw four mils of blood out of that ear.

All right. Good girl.

Well done. Good girl. So we'll take that up to our wildlife hospital and we'll

take it to our reproductive specialist there.

What we want to see is elevated levels of progesterone because that's going to

mean that she's pregnant.

We don't want to see a drop in progesterone because that'll mean that

successfully got pregnant.

No baby now could sadly mean no babies ever for Angelique.

Next is the wait for Angelique. What a good girl.

Finally over. These are Angelique's results from today's samples.

At Taronga's Marine Habitat.

You can hear the tick.

The world's only fjordland penguin breeding program.

has encountered a slight problem.

Munro, where are you going, buddy?

Munro. Good boy.

There's not been much breeding to speak of. There's not a lot known about

Fiordland penguin breeding.

We only have a chance once a year with these guys, so then every year we try

again. And every year, penguin chicks rarely ever hatched. We've had some sad

times with them where chicks haven't made it. And of the few that do...

No chick has survived past five weeks of age.

But... This year is going fantastic.

Two penguin pairs, Munro and Mareike and Dusky and Ed, have, against the odds,

nursed two strong and healthy baby penguins.

So both chicks are regularly coming out of their burrows.

Munro and Mareike's chick is 11 weeks of age.

The other chick, which is Ed and Dusky's chick, is eight weeks of age.

Health -wise, they look amazing.

They're really good weights.

And that 11 -week -old chick is getting on in its new habitat just willingly.

So this is the first time the chick has gone swimming in the water, which is

just so exciting to see.

Dusky and Ed's chick.

That one's due to probably be swimming within the next couple of weeks. Next

couple of weeks. It's three weeks younger than the other one.

Deep as Lindsay and Jo can finally breathe easy now, the breeding program

success.

Amazing. It's been so many years of us trying to breed this species.

It's been a long time in the making. I still have to pinch myself, don't we? We

are parents and we love it.

Over in Dubbo, 18 -year -old elephant Anjali is blissfully unaware of the hard

work her keepers and Goong have been putting in to helping her fall pregnant.

Anjali, good girl.

But with several matings and a blood draw done, it's time to see if all those

efforts have been a success.

And making sense of Anjali's recent blood sample to see if she is finally

pregnant is Taronga's resident scientist, Bec.

I'm a reproductive biologist for Taronga and I have a background in wildlife.

In a mammal, a sign they are possibly pregnant is an increase in progesterone

secretion.

These are Angelique's results over a couple of years.

And so what you can see here is that she has regular increases and decreases in

progesterone over time.

So every time, just before this increases, it indicates that she's

Which means in this case, one of Angelique's mature eggs was released.

and was ready to be fertilised by Goong. But if there's a signal or a lack of

signal that she isn't pregnant, it will go back down to this red line, which is

sort of baseline of progesterone.

So what does that mean for Anjali?

If you look at the results that we have from today's samples, you can see that

the progesterone has not gone down past baseline and it's actually increased

above her previous levels.

Yeah, yeah, but what exactly does that mean for Anjali?

Through the blood results, we've been able to determine that Anjali is finally

pregnant. What a good girl.

So 22 months, we will be expecting a new arrival to the herd.

It's fantastic news for us, but it's really great news for Anjali and the

of the herd as well. Good girl.

It's events like this that... give us fuel to carry on with all the hard work

that we do towards the conservation and the preservation of this species.

That's a good girl.

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