Original subtitles

It's breeding season and he's feeding his girlfriend.

He's really pursuing her.

Is he? Yeah.

They're an older couple.

They need to think about it sometimes.

Good morning.

Hello. Good morning. How do you feel today?

We have two Queensland koalas here at Zoo Tampa.

Hi, Heathcliff.

You're looking good over there.

They're such a cute couple, I feel like. They're one of my favorite couples here

at the zoo.

Heathcliff is the male, and Suduna is the female.

You ready, Suduna? You looking?

I really like the koalas. I think they are super fun to work with.

Are you awake?

I think you look awake today.

I really enjoy all the time I get to spend with the koala.

Let's put this right here.

Any action?

Nothing. They're both awake.

Heathcliff is staring longingly, so maybe, hopefully that turns into action

here.

Both Heathcliff and Seduna are recommended to breed.

And now we wait.

In the past, we've been able to welcome one koala joey into our zoo, our first

one ever.

Is that an eye?

I see its face. Look at that little cute nose.

Sydney is now living at another zoo.

I want to get all the snuggles in before he goes.

We're hoping that we can maybe welcome baby number two.

Excuse me, little fluff babies. If you could make another Sydney 2 .0, then me

and Amanda could spoil endlessly.

That would be great.

Heathcliff and Sedona live separately, so our game plan is just to kind of set

up the scene.

We set the mood for a perfect date morning.

We're just going to open up the entire space and let them come and go as they

please, and we'll be there the entire time to facilitate.

He's done his leave.

That's good.

Step one.

Be conscious.

Koalas are definitely categorized as sleepy animals. They can sleep anywhere

from 16 to 22 hours in a day.

These are the heads going in the little lie there.

Maybe I'll go sweep in there and see if that wakes them up.

Hi. You look tired.

Did you party last night?

The are you awake butt scratch is happening.

I don't think she's going to come to you, my dude.

All of our koala breeding is monitored, so we know exactly when her birth window

would be, but also because sometimes they can be a little bit aggressive.

I'm going to close the door.

Okay? You don't care.

He's like, I'm sleeping, but thanks.

When they're not showing any signs of interest, we kind of call it for the

We close the door and give them their own separate spaces.

No action.

It's like I'm acting until it happens.

Then it's exciting.

Yeah, that'll be a good turn for the doggies.

All right.

Dog. We're going to go do something with dogs.

Okay.

We have eight painted dogs here at Zoo Tampa. We have Hattari, who is the dad.

And then we have the seven puppies that are named after famous painters because

they're painted dogs.

There's the boys, Guy, Remy, Pollock, and Picasso.

And the three girls, Monet, Georgia, and Frida.

We've been...

Collecting poop all morning.

Today we're going to do a really fun enrichment.

Painted dogs really enjoy fecal from other animals.

So we have created something dubbed the charcuterie, which is just a thread of

different fecals for the dogs.

You wanted the elephant turd in the middle as the cheese ball. Yes, the

ball. Wow, we love that.

When you're making the charcuterie board to eat yourself, you want a nice

selection. You want to be able to kind of pick and choose.

Have some giraffes.

So that's exactly what we want to do with the Painted Dogs with their

charcuterie board. Give them a nice variety of poops and allow them to

them all.

We have some younger bongo poop and some adult bongo poop.

And then impala poop. And then we have some yellowback diger poop.

Painted dogs are incredibly scent motivated.

First thing they're going to do when they see the charcuterie is they're

to roll in it. They get the scent all over them. It's just going to be yucky.

It's going to be great. They're going to love it.

It's the best charcuterie I've ever seen. It's going to be gross. It teaches

them who's in the area, where food is. So any sort of scent that smells

different from what they're used to, they really, really enjoy.

Enjoy your show!

Yep.

Oh, someone grabbed the board. Did you see that?

No, it was like the tablecloth trickling. It's all gone. All the poop

there.

Oh, someone's eating, yeah. Is that Picasso?

Definitely a boy.

Kind of sad that's the last charcuterie that the puppy boys will get to enjoy.

From us, at least.

Our four painted dog brothers will be leaving us in the next few weeks.

Their genetics are incredibly important, so it is time for them to go and create

packs of their own.

Four mobilizations in one day, so, man, get your game face on. Yeah, it's going

to be a lot of work.

Good job.

Are we ready?

Yeah. Where are they? I haven't even seen the eagles.

Ross and Glory are two rescued bald eagles that have lived at the zoo for

years now.

Ross and Glory have been deemed non -releasable just due to their wing

They're going to be skittish. Okay.

We're going to have some upcoming construction that's right kind of in

neighborhood.

So it's in the best interest of our eagles that we'll need to move them.

Can maybe one person come over there?

It's always a really unique opportunity for us to get hands on our eagles. We

don't do it very often.

First up, we're going to examine Ross.

Talent's up, dude.

We have him in hand. We're going to just settle him to pick him up.

They're really powerful animals.

You okay? Yep. Thank God I have the gloves on.

Even though they're really small in stature, we have to really hold them

tight.

They definitely have a lot of fight in them.

He'll just hold his head for me. I'll go quickly here.

All right.

Eyes look great on that side.

Beautiful.

While we have Ross in hand, we're going to do a complete physical exam.

Nice fast heart rate. He's a little worked up, and that is to be expected.

Me too. I have a password.

I know.

I'm so sorry. It looks gorgeous inside, though.

The raptors have a really cool mechanism that helps it so that their prey

doesn't escape, and it means that you never want to get your fingers in there

because it's almost impossible to get your tools back when you do.

You want to get the bottom?

Your feet look good.

Today the exam went really well overall. We were able to get a good look at

Ross. One, two, three.

Where is she? In the tree.

Dang it.

Now we're ready to move on to Glory.

She's super high.

Even though our bald eagles cannot fly, it doesn't stop Glory from climbing and

jumping up into the tree.

We have access to the top of the roof that's behind her habitat. So we're

to just see if we make our presence known, if that gives her a motive to

hop back in the habitat.

Come on down, Glory!

Glory is pretty savvy to our ways, and so she can definitely decide if she

to come down today or not.

Best of plans.

Glory.

She'll throw in timeline.

There's no way to... get Glory down today.

We'll just have to wait her out until she comes down.

Since we already have Ross, we are going to go ahead and move him to his new

habitat.

Ready? Yep. One, two, three.

Ross is going to have his own bachelor pad for a little bit.

He's going to fly solo for the night.

There you go, bud.

He looks tiny.

Hopefully we'll get Glory with him. We don't want to leave him alone for too

long or her alone.

Poor Rock.

I think he's wondering where Glory is.

He's like, I need my woman.

Ready? Yep. Let's see what happens.

Hi, buddy.

He's going to wake up.

We're doing another round of breeding introductions with our koalas,

and Seduna.

Hi, lovebug. Are you ready?

We're expecting Heathcliff to kind of initiate all of these interactions.

Love you. Good luck.

Be nice to each other.

But you never know, she could be inspired and go venture to his side.

Look at him, look at him, look at him.

Oh, did it beat?

It went right out.

This morning, Sedona has blown our minds. She actually went into

space instead of him entering her space.

Thinking about it. I know.

I feel like a proud mom. I feel like I want to open the door and peek.

We kind of don't know what to expect.

She's on the other prop.

This is a little different than what we've seen before.

So Dina actually went over to Heathcliff's room.

And she looks interested in him.

Oh, my.

She's yelling at him.

When the koalas are in breeding season, they make different vocalizations to

communicate.

Seduna and Heathcliff are solitary, so just like they would be in the wild, we

keep them separate here. So when they are together, they have a lot to say to

each other.

Heathcliff bailed on her.

When Seduna does, like, her little squawky growling sound, it kind of,

takes his confidence away.

To be fair, she did yell at him.

He's staring directly at her.

I wonder if he'll come back.

Heathcliff needs to prove that he is a worthy mate.

So he needs to be brave enough to go back in and give it another shot.

He's going.

It's happening.

Oh, my God.

It's gone back over.

Hopefully we'll see some successful copulation and not just courting

That's pretty cute.

He's going to fall back asleep.

No, I think he's moving on.

That's something to say about it.

Don't you come up here.

You're scared of my way. You have to go close the door before she runs back.

So Juna is done for today.

They spent some time in the same room. We got to see some courtship behavior

between the two of them, so that's all promising.

But we're going to go ahead and end it for today.

You did good.

Thanks, sweet girl. I'll put this right here for you.

We're on the right track because they didn't completely ignore each other or

annihilate each other for that.

Tomorrow, same time?

Game play.

My word, you're kidding me.

Here at Zoo Tampa, we've had incredible success with our breeding programs.

If it wasn't for these important conservation breeding programs, there

some species that we just would lose on the planet.

This is Ubi. She's a Malayan tapir. They're an endangered species. There's

than 2 ,500 of them left.

So here at Zoo Tampa, we're part of right around 100 different species

programs. This is a collaborative effort, incredible amount of work, a lot

moving from zoo to zoo behind the scenes.

But we are dedicated to make sure we have these species for generations to

Hi! Oh, you're so cute.

Hi, Miss Missy.

This is Zsa Zsa, our female pygmy hippo here at Zoo Tampa.

What do you think? Do you want to pick?

You got to pick.

You got to pick.

She is 18 years old. She is a wonderful hippo. She's super sweet.

Everyone absolutely loves her.

She is a seasoned mom.

Open.

Nice little hippo smile.

She has a new boyfriend, so we're really excited about that. But so far, they

have not shared the same space yet.

Oh, my gosh. That is so cute.

He's truly enjoying his pool to the fullest.

He's never before been a dad.

He is sort of lazy so far is what we've been realizing, but Zsa Zsa has had many

calves before, so we'll see what the two of them end up doing.

I know you love the pool, but I want to get you moving around.

We would love for Howie to kind of...

move out of his comfort zone, go interact with other parts of the

the corners where Zsa Zsa typically tends to be, so we can see how their

interaction is going to be.

So we have some ideas of some really fun enrichment.

Look at him just gliding around.

We'll see you later.

Oh my gosh.

So cute!

Remember,

if I run past you, you better follow.

Golden rule.

We've got a very large moat here with two male alligators in it.

Chobie and Alfonso.

We've also got a large alligator snapping turtle.

All right, let's check Scooter.

Hey, Scooter.

I barely ever see Scooter.

She hasn't eaten all winter.

Well, that we know of.

She comes up every now and then to take a breath of air, but she usually just

stays to herself at the bottom. So I really only get eyes on her when we

the pool.

Got her all right? Yeah.

How much do you think she weighs?

I don't know, at least 80 pounds.

I'm going to say 98.

Today we're doing a vet checkup on Scooter. Our main goal is to get a good

weight on her.

What a big girl you are.

Yes, you do feel quite well conditioned.

So Scooter, when she comes out, you can absolutely see that her excess is

flowing out of her shell. She's 77 pounds.

77. So I was pretty close with the 80. Yeah, you were very close.

She's definitely getting her food from the gators, that's for sure.

Can I have a needle, please?

We're going to get a blood sample on Scooter.

And that's going to help me assess her nutritional intake.

You see the white chunks? Oh, yeah, she's fat.

She's, uh, yeah.

She has, um, she actually has fat in her blood that you can see, but she is

definitely over -conditioned.

The diet that she is given by the HERP staff is what is left over from the

gators after they eat.

I don't have any concerns about her definitely getting the diet that she's

fed. I'm sure she's eating that duckweed. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, most turtles are omnivores.

There is vegetation. There are insects out there in the world that she can

on whenever she wants to. So everything that we give her is going to be

supplemented. And that's probably where her excess is coming from. Our gators

are fat, too, so we can put them on a diet reduction also. Yeah, we can

just take all of them a little bit, like a notch lower.

Good to go back in?

We're definitely going to try to put her on a bit of a diet, but as with all

turtles, they lose weight at turtle speed.

Good job, Spence.

We would love to see Scooter go back down to a fighting weight.

That's my workout.

There you go.

African painted dogs are the most successful and deadly hunters in Africa.

hit their prey 80 % of the time, and that is because they're such a well

machine when they hunt together as a pack.

They're incredibly efficient, and they know exactly what they're doing.

In my opinion, painted dogs are the most dangerous animals at Sioux Tampa, 100%.

You guys want some breakfast?

Painted dogs are a carnivore predator species that live in sub -Saharan

They are an endangered species.

Their primary threat in the wild are humans, whether it be from farmers

protecting their field or habitat loss.

Oh, someone got something.

All right, Remy's in as well.

Today's the big day.

Our painted dogs have breeding recommendations.

We're going to be immobilizing our four male puppy painted dogs and moving them

over to hospital where they will get their pre -ship exams.

This morning we're going to split into two teams to be able to get through all

four dogs in hopefully one morning.

Our four painted dog boys are going to be split up. Two will be going to one

facility and two will be going to another.

So I'll be taking the two that need imaging up to the hospital to do their

exams, while Dr. Melissa will be doing the other two in the field.

All right, if you want to separate, I will start prepping the first dart.

Anytime that we have to dart an animal, it definitely takes a little bit of

forethought. You want to make sure that you don't cause excessive harm, and you

also want to make sure that you get a full injection in.

I'm going to use the rifle. I need the scope with these guys. They're way too

fast. Painted dogs are challenging to dart. They move quick, and they have a

small area to hit.

We have Remy all the way over.

Great. Painted dogs are incredibly dangerous.

The minute that they see the rifle, it's like over.

They're insanely smart.

Which one is he? That's Remy.

Also, they are so fast.

Nice shot, Kendra.

Christy to Mike. Hey, there's a dart in. He's on the clock.

We are incredibly careful and cautious when we enter the same space during

mobilizations.

He had to be completely unresponsive, no movement, nothing.

All right.

What do I pull?

Blaine, you got a scruff? Yep.

My role in this situation is to keep my hands on his scruff.

Basically, it's just a loose skin on his neck.

Put him on the stretcher and get him up.

All right, ready? Yep.

It makes sure that I am in control of his head, which obviously contains those

really sharp teeth.

He's making some vocalization.

Okay, then let's definitely stop in the shade.

He just blinked. That's not good.

Sounds like a snore, sort of. It looks like Remy is getting a little bit light

on his medication, showing some signs of reaction.

Thank you for saying something.

He's definitely really out, but I'm going to give him some just in case.

Our vet staff is just going to give him a little bit more medication so that we

can make sure that he is fully asleep and we're all as safe as possible.

All right.

So let's move him and see if you hear anything or feel it, Blaine, because

you're right next to him. So let me know.

I think you're good.

All right. Bye.

One dog down, three dogs to go.

We just lost the element of surprise.

They know that darts are coming their way.

Oh, they're amped up.

So I'm sure they know what's happening.

Did you hit him? I don't think I hit him.

It's going to get a lot trickier from this point on.

Oh, my gosh. It's so cute seeing them standing up. I know.

It always starts with daring contact.

We're a few days into breeding introductions now. We've been doing them

morning consistently.

She's bellowing.

We haven't seen her bellow that much.

This morning, Serena's vocalizing a lot to Heathcliff.

Now he's bellowing at her.

That's so cool.

We have a duet going on. Yeah.

Adorable.

Hearing the sounds of them bellowing that duet together just shows them that

they are pretty interested in each other.

I'm not really sure what's going to go down.

It's really exciting when you start to see some of the courtship behaviors

between the koalas.

Eastcliff's definitely trying to get to her and not the browse.

He's not having it.

Right now they're kind of fighting a little bit.

Those are all normal behaviors to see. The male kind of has to prove that he is

dominant and genetics are good before the female will allow them to breed.

He's going to be tired after that.

Oh, my gosh, that's so big. Is it huge?

Show me the elephant, Queen.

Where's the elephant?

Right there.

Okay, over there.

Got it? Yep.

All right, let's go.

How'd the first one go?

Great. He is already recovered over in CDC.

Oh, is he good?

And what did you get for respite? He got 11.

Yeah, we got three of them. Good deal.

The painted dog pack is dwindling.

Three out of the four are done.

His teeth look really nice.

That's a clean bill of health. I like that.

Guy is off to get x -rays and do the pre -ships with Dr. Kendra and her team.

All right.

We got a weight. We got blood.

We got x -rays. You guys want to move?

That leaves Mr. Pollack for Dr. Melissa and myself to do, so one more to go.

Pollack, just disguise yourself as a girl so you don't have to leave.

We really need to get Pollack today.

Come on, Pollack.

He's seen three other of his brothers get anesthetized and transported away,

I expect him to be a bit wise to the situation and be a bit of a challenge.

I feel like every time I try to move with him, it's not working.

Good job, Alyssa.

That was quick.

Hey, the dart is in and Pollock is on the clock.

10 -4.

Dart's in at 42, down at dog.

Good.

Pollock doesn't need x -rays, so the team will do his exam down on habitat.

Okay, vaccines are in, Jeff.

Once the pre -shift exams are done for all four dogs, they're going to be moved

over to a temporary holding before they load out next week.

Ready?

Great job, everybody.

Great job.

We did so good.

Did you get him? I got him.

Okay. I am so proud of the Africa team and the vet team.

Let's go right up the steps on the right -hand side and make it easy.

For pulling that off as seamlessly and as smoothly as we did.

Okay.

Every time we've done that, painted dogs have taken two days.

Yeah, he's trying to do it.

You know what it is, Dave?

Four in one day?

Wait.

We dropped four dogs. We did four different pre -ships and recovered them

within a few hours.

I didn't want to say anything until the last dog's head was up.

They look great. They look fantastic.

We're just a few days away from actually shipping both pairs out to their new

homes.

The best doggy ever.

It's so good to see you.

Can I give you some brushes?

I grew up coming to Z Tampa ever since I was a kid.

Then I also went to camp here, and so it's pretty cool to be full circle now

a keeper here.

Hello.

He's smelling you. He's kind of looking at you.

I hope you remember me, because I remember you.

One of my favorite animals was always seeing the Malayan tapir.

They're just the most quirkiest animal.

The elephants, I remember seeing them when they were born, and now they're all

kind of fully grown up.

Good morning.

Do you smell what I have for you?

It's kind of like a dream come true to be on the Asia -Australia team now.

It brings me joy every day since I never know what I'm going to expect.

Hello.

What do you think? I got some snacks.

Oh.

I like that they're right across from each other. It's pretty cute.

Oh, and they're making notes together.

Positive progress.

We've been doing breeding introductions every morning consistently.

I definitely think that we saw a successful breeding event.

Sadina was in the closest room to me. I was kind of in the kitchen.

It happened so fast, I didn't even really have time to pull out my phone.

I got a little bit of video, but I was actually able to see some successful

breeding.

Now we just kind of have to wait and see.

She's like, I'm ready for breakfast.

You're getting bigger. This is getting harder.

You're too fast for us.

We weren't ready.

When he's stubborn, he's just stubborn.

And that's one of the most fun parts about our job.

She's totally watching you. She's like, where's that lady going?

The other day, we were able to move Ross, our male bald eagle, to his new

Your feet look good.

Unfortunately, Glory stayed up into the tree.

But today, she's down, and we're going to go ahead and give it another shot.

One of you can take the building inside again. And do you want to come up the

middle?

Catching Glory is a little tricky. She's already kind of beaten us once, so if

she gets around us, she can easily jump back up into the tree.

It's really important to get her today because we want to minimize the time

she and Ross are separated.

They like to go kind of under the decking area.

For eagles, when something's covering their eyes and they can't see kind of

that's happening around them, they calm down pretty quickly.

It was a little tricky, but we finally got Gloria in hand.

I was like, I'm assuming that they got the bird because they're walking like a

crab, but I couldn't see her.

Everything sounds great.

Beautiful.

Glory's exam went extremely well.

Looking forward to taking her back and into her new home with Roth.

Don't worry, Glory's here.

Got your friend back.

Good girl.

reunited and go out and let them settle.

They both look pretty comfortable. It's definitely going to be a little bit of

an adjustment for them. They've lived in that habitat for years, but they look

really good.

Hi, Jeff.

You ready for some breakfast?

They're actually leaving. I know.

Today we're going to be saying goodbye to our painted dog boys.

It's been a long time getting here, but they're finally going off to their new

homes. I'm going to have you with Kendra inside there. Okay. And then Caitlin,

you and I, we're going to do the crate.

This morning we're going to mobilize Guy and Remy one more time to make sure

that they shift into their crate safely and they make their way onto their next

zoo.

You're not as smart as the girls are, are you?

What's he doing, Caitlin?

He's just pacing.

And the dart is in.

We're able to dart Guy very easily.

You got him? Yeah, let's go. Head first.

Head out.

Head out.

Everything goes well, and he wakes up right away.

All right, let's go get Remy.

All right, Remy, take.

As sad as it is to see them go, I'm really excited and really happy for

Painted dogs are an incredible species.

They're currently endangered with less than 5 ,000 in the wild, and this is an

animal right now that needs our help, and we're happy to have been a part of

Caitlin, the dart is in.

Time for it.

I feel pretty sad about separating them.

A little grubby.

But we know that they're heading out to their new homes and really excited for

what their future holds.

We're going to miss them a lot.

You're going to go to your new home today.

They've been here as long as I've been here, so it's going to be really hard to

watch them leave.

But it's important for them to venture off and meet new dogs.

All right.

Great shot now.

Going to miss you guys.

There we go. There we go. I get it.

Made a mess.

Howie!

Howie's been here for a few months now.

One thing we've noticed with Howie is on his likes list, at the very top would

be the pool.

That's his little happy place.

He's pretty busy.

I'll wait until he lifts his head back up, and then you might need to jiggle

door.

We would love to try to get him out of the pool and closer to Zsa Zsa.

So we're going to try to see if we can call him and entice him to come into the

barn so we can set a bunch of fun things on the habitat and do some enrichment.

But Howie really likes that corner, so we'll see.

Howie! All right, Crispin.

Come on, buddy!

Good boy!

We may have gotten his attention.

He's pretty lazy this time of morning. Howie moves at a pretty slow pace. He

moves hippo speed.

A lazy hippo speed.

Come on, buddy!

Come on, Howard!

Good boy!

You can probably shut it. Both his tootsies are in.

Nice. We'll set the yard.

So we're going to be setting up some fun enrichment for Howie today.

Let's do like a quarter of the bag.

Peanuts are definitely one of their favorite things.

If anything, we'll get them out. This is it.

We're going to set up the amazing grazer, which is a really great

for him. And we're also going to give him a fun ball in the pool and hope that

he has a little pool party.

We're hoping that maybe if he's up and moving around Habitat, he'll see Zsa Zsa

and go over and say hi.

Come on, Howie.

Come on.

Howie, go get your enrichment.

Are you hungry?

It's over there.

Oh, he sees his girlfriend.

We set up all that enrichment for Howie, and as soon as we opened the gate, he

immediately went straight over to Zsa Zsa instead.

Oh, they're going to flirt now.

All of us were surprised that Howie picked Zsa Zsa over peanuts.

Zsa Zsa's looking real cute today. He had to go say hi.

But hey, maybe that means eventually we'll have some baby hippos.

It feels great to know that he at least likes her through the fence line. So

hopefully introductions will go super smooth and they will take a liking to

other and we'll hopefully have a baby pygmy hippo on the way.

Can you imagine just a little hippo baby swimming around that pool? Just a

little nugget.

Hello.

Today is the 35 -day mark since we started doing breeding introductions

koalas. Eucalyptus did breed Ceduna. This is the first day that Ceduna could

potentially give birth.

So today we're going to do a pouch check.

I would love a koala baby.

When koalas are born, they're literally the size of a jelly bean. They make

their way into their mother's pouch where they hook onto her teat.

Will you hold up the eucalyptus? Yeah.

They really have to grow for a long time before you would be able to visually

see what was going on. So for us, being able to look into Duna's pouch is really

the only way we're going to know for sure if she has a joey.

Stay right there, Mama.

Come on, Seduna. We just want to see if you have a little jelly bean.

Oh, look at your pouch.

Something has happened.

And she said, don't touch that.

I can't see for sure if Seduna has a joey in the pouch. She doesn't really

me to touch it too much.

When she has a joey, she starts to get really protective of it.

So maybe she wants the baby to be a surprise.

We were able to see, like, dirt on her fur. All right. But I think she's a

little bit excited. Yeah. But not fully excited. Sounds probably hopeful.

The whole team is really excited at the prospect of potentially having a Joey,

but we're just going to have to wait to be sure.

Let's go, Seduna.

You don't have to fight your brothers for it.

The girls in Hattari have had a little bit of time to adjust since the four

have left.

And they're doing really well.

All right, last one.

That's a big one.

Gross.

Hopefully, someday, the girls will be introduced to a new pack of males so we

can have puppies again at Zoo Tampa.

I'd be super pumped to have puppies again.

I'm so used to counting to eight, and now I'm going to count to four.

I know.

It's really weird.

It's definitely really strange to only see four dogs out there. It looks really

empty. But we are really excited to see what the future holds for all of our

dogs. All right, girls.

See you tomorrow.