All language subtitles for Secrets of the Zoo Tampa s04e08 A Tigers Tale

Yeah, there's a lot of girl power going
on. The girls always stick together.

The girls!

Both of them?

Oh my goodness.

Let's see what you are.

You're going to pee right in my face,
aren't you?

I think this is also a girl.

Oh, dang.

I think the girls have enjoyed the
single life.

Yeah.

Good girl.

I would like to try.

blood draw session with Caillou today.

We have a brand new tiger. Her name is
Caillou.

She came here on a breeding
recommendation.

We do have one male tiger as well, Mada,
and the hopes are that they will

eventually be introduced.

Yes, he's so cute.

Caillou is a very nervous cat. She
really takes time to warm up the

She's been doing really well with me
lately. I know she's done well with you.

The more we can build up that
relationship, the more we can work on

better in the long run.

Since the first day Caillou arrived,
it's all been about really building that

relationship.

She really snuck into my heart. She is
really opinionated. She can be really

sassy.

But she also is playful, and she gets
excited to see you.

All these things just make me fall in
love with her every day.

Hello. Can you come?

Today we're going to do a blood draw
training session with Caillou. We're

to see how she feels about it. We're
going to go in with really low

expectations. It takes a lot of trust
from an animal to do different behaviors

like this, especially one as intense as
a blood draw. So being able to have that

trust and that relationship with Caillou
to start working on approximations for

this behavior is huge.

So this position is perfect because the
best place to get a blood draw is from

the tail.

We already started working on our
relationship. We're working on eye

I know.

You do too. You're very cute.

So we're not going to poke her with a
needle today. A big part of this

process is all the little steps that go
into it. Good.

I'm going to reline her up and then
we're going to go for the tail.

Sounds good.

How this works for a voluntary blood
draw is we ask her to line up so she

that she needs to lay down. Line up.

We'll go ahead and grab that tail and
start manipulating it because that's

really important for the veterinarians
to be able to find the vein.

What we're asking of her is that she
stays still, she stays calm, and that

stays looking at me.

Line up.

You're good to grab her tail.

All right.

Want me to continue?

Yeah, you're good to keep going.

This is a once -in -a -lifetime
experience.

Just being able to work so close to such
an apex predator is life -changing.

Touch. Yes, you can go ahead and give
her.

Can I squeeze it a little bit? Okay.

Good.

Tigers are these big, beautiful animals,
but they are incredibly dangerous.

I mean, she's over 200 pounds.

She's muscular. She has these really
sharp teeth and these claws. So getting

to choose to participate in something
like a blood draw is amazing.

You can grab tail.

Going for it.

And hands.

And apply pressure.

Pressing. Good.

On this next one, do you have a key on
you? Of course I do. Do you want to give

her a poke?

Yeah.

We're going to pretend to poke you.

This is your first poke ever.

Are you so excited?

She's like, what's a poke?

She's definitely let Carson feel her
tail before and manipulate it and apply

pressure, but this new variable of
poking it is brand new.

All right.

This is for all the money.

You can grab the tail.

In possession.

Find pressure.

Pressure.

Really poking.

Ready? Yep. Poking.

Huge for Caillou. The fact that she has
come so far in such a short period of

time and how much trust she has in that
relationship we've built, honestly, it's

so meaningful to me.

You're the best tiger in the whole
world.

Good girl.

That's awesome. That was incredible.

There's so much trust.

She's letting us take her tail, the
poking, so we can move forward with

But the biggest thing now will be
getting her comfortable in habitat.

She's been so nervous lately. I just
think it's such a different experience

her. But now that we have that
relationship and we have that, like,

factor, getting her on Habitat should be
a lot more comfortable, I hope. So

we'll take it really slow, and we'll
give her, like, opportunities and kind

build on it. Yeah.

We'll see what's next for her. I'm so
excited. I'm so excited, too.

Oh, look.

Look, what do you see coming?

Yeah,

right there.

Hey, Rex.

Rexaroni. Hi, buddy.

Do you want some grain? I have some
delicious grain.

Rex is our male Hartman zebra that we
have here at the zoo.

Rex is 14 years old. He's been here for
quite a few years. He's definitely a

staple here at the zoo. Do you know
where he's going? He's going to Disney.

Yeah. He's going to get to experience
the magic of Disney.

It will be magical for him. I'm so
excited. I hope that if we ever go

might be able to see him. It's just
super exciting.

You're so handsome. The ladies are going
to love you over there.

Rex has had many girlfriends here at the
zoo, and he also has been successful

with our breeding program.

He is alone right now, so it's really
exciting for him to go to a new facility

where he'll have more girlfriends and
the potential to have more little Rexes

running around.

I wore my black and white ring today to
match him. I like it. I have my tattoo

of Rex. Oh, right.

I just love Rex's personality.

Rex was definitely one of the animals
that stole my heart. Yeah. I'm

going to cry when he leaves. Don't look
at me when that day comes. I won't.

Hi,

buddy.

It's already me.

You're such a good ducky.

Oh, hi, Tony. You're the best.

Good girl.

Hospital to Florida, you're clear.

10 -4, we'll be up in a few minutes. Our
plan is to just bring her up in hand.

Hi, Sandy.

Good morning.

I know.

Sandy is about to turn 35 years old.
She's likely one of the oldest sandhill

cranes under human care. Got it.

Sandy's definitely a staple here. She's
been here longer than most of the other

animals and longer than most of the
keepers.

She was hand -reared, so she doesn't get
along with other birds.

When I first met Sandy, I was definitely
a little intimidated.

Good girl, Sandy.

Kind of have to work to make it into her
flock.

Hi, we are transporting a sandhill crane
from her habitat to the hospital.

How's she doing?

Good. She's being a good girl. So we've
noticed over the last week that Sandy

has been limping.

where she hasn't been putting full
weight on her right foot. Hi, darling.

We're going to do a procedure with her
to get a look at it and see if there's

anything going on that we don't know
about and make sure that we can keep her

comfortable. Good morning.

Okay, Mama.

Shooting.

Clear.

Looks good. Let's do the back vertebrae
and the legs.

One of the things that I really wanted
to check out with Sandy, and especially

in any long -legged bird, is making sure
that all of her joints are okay.

These guys, especially as they get
older, can have degenerative joint

A little bit wider there. Yeah, perfect.

Shitty.

Clear. Excellent.

All right. Got our rods done, so that's
all good. And on the x -rays, it

actually looked like there weren't that
many bone changes, so no changes to the

joint to speak of.

Ouchie, Mama.

On exam, I noticed that she had a pretty
large lesion on the bottom of her foot.

Poor baby.

The joint doesn't look too bad, but this
lesion, I'm going to try to debride the

bottom of it a little bit and get some
of the fat.

That lesion is what we call bumble foot.
And all that fat is is an extra amount

of tissue on the bottom of the foot that
is secondary to kind of repeated

hitting.

I don't want to open it too much, but
try to get the tissue off so that she's

little bit more comfortable.

So all that I'm going to do is take away
that dead tissue on the outside to

allow that face to heal. Hold the toes
back for me. Thank you.

And then can I get the bandage material,
please?

This is unfortunately a chronic issue.
And what that means is we need to manage

it. We need to prevent this from getting
worse.

We probably need to talk long -term
management for her feet.

So if you guys can help me brainstorm a
couple times a day where we can put

something on the bottom of her feet.

Working with animals, we have to be
super creative.

They don't know that we're trying to
help them, so we have to figure out how

make it successful for the long term and
make sure she's comfortable.

Florida to Animal Duty. We are
transporting our crane back to Habitat

hospital. Good girls, Andy.

Hospital to hospital, Kelly.

We have two manatees coming in right
now.

We'll have to get extra large stretchers
out and ready.

So we got a call from Florida Fish and
Wildlife that they are in transport

bringing us a mom and calf.

The mom has some watercraft injuries and
appeared to be in some shallow water,

but we don't have many more details than
that. We'll have you kind of just stay

off to the side while we're in the
truck.

Holy smoke.

The picture did not do her justice.

Wow.

So manatee calves tend to stay with
their mom for about a year to two years

the wild, and they are marine mammals,
so they do nurse from their mom.

A lot of times we find ourselves
rescuing orphaned calves, and that's

because we don't know where their moms
are.

We're always going to try to rescue them
together. It's in the calf's best

interest that they're raised by their
mom. They can do a much better job than

can, so we always really want to keep
them together and keep that bond strong.

She was in really shallow water, and
she'd been doing a lot of peck crawling

and, like, staying low.

You are a strong one, I know.

I think the water was full of, like,
cinder block and rock and just nasty

So they've been in there for probably
five days at a minimum.

Early. Yep.

Want to get them out? Might be, yeah.

Let's get them out. We're going to take
calf off first. Then we're going to

probably transfer mom potentially into
our extra large stretcher and use the

crane.

One, two, three.

The area in the truck is small, and it's
kind of dark in there, so making sure

that we get her off of the truck to
fully assess the extent of her injuries

really important.

Cabs in the water.

Florida to all animal units, can we get
a few hands on a manatee to get it out

of the truck, please?

I was amazed at how not just long the
manatee mom is, but how large she

is. One, two, three. Oh, mama.

A lot of logistics to kind of figure out
with a manatee this large. We have to

kind of position her properly on the
stretcher, and she has a very large

Her tail could definitely injure people
if they're not safe. All right.

All right, we're quit.

If one of you want to help her get off
the stretcher, I'll pull the stretcher

back out.

Calf looks to be in pretty good shape,
and, you know, oftentimes we see in many

animal species the moms compromising
themselves for their offspring. I think

lot of us could relate to that.

When we put her down, we're going to dry
dock her, so we'll try to start going

up if you're good.

Wait!

16, 5, 5!

Great job, Jamie. Your teachers at crane
school would have been so proud.

The thing that really struck me when I
first saw this team was that it was all

women. And I went, wow, you know, on the
crane and moving the manatee and all

that kind of stuff. And that doesn't get
lost on me, especially in things like

this. You know, it may take a few extra
people, but the passion and the

determination behind everybody in this
team is incredible.

All right, ready? On three. One, two,
three.

You guys got it. You got it. I believe
in you.

Okay, we're really close.

Erin, if you guys don't mind just
lifting a little bit so I can stick this

for a heart rate.

Did you hear?

I'm not confident, but I think it's 45.

Hey. Do you want me to do it again?

It's a little low. No, she's just really
big. Okay.

So it's going to be difficult. All
right. I got a picture of it.

Concerning.

Okay. Let's put her in the water. Yeah.

I am noticing this really swollen area
on her back, and it has a line through

where the skin just looks very
prominent, and it looks like this big

that has kind of developed underneath a
pretty big wound. And, you know, it's

right over her lungs. So the concern
with that lesion, as well as the fact

she isn't able to control her buoyancy
in the water column, is that potentially

that impact went into her lungs, into
her chest cavity.

The baby's nursing. That's really
awesome.

The minute that the mom and the calf are
together, the calf is already nursing

on mom, which just kind of reiterated
our concern about this being a dependent

calf. We have some animals that we're
able to successfully rehabilitate, and

we've had some other really horrible
cases that don't make it. And that's

I'm worried about with Big Mama.

funny he's so cute when he plays with us
in richmond he really is he's such a

big guy too can't wait to get kayu out
there hopefully she'll use it too i know

it'll be awesome to see her out there
i'm really interested to see like what

thing is like model you know first thing
in the morning he likes to swim he

likes to sleep on the platforms in the
cave like i'm curious like what she's

gonna like about this

our new female tiger. She's new to the
zoo here. She's just been with us for a

short time. So today we're going to do a
session to see how she feels about

going out on a habitat, which is brand
new to her.

She's so good.

You ready?

Bring on the meat.

We have the meat.

Hi, I'm putting this out for you.

A little appetizer. Today we're just
going to put the food right outside the

door just to kind of get her right
outside onto that habitat. But

would love to have her explore the
entire space.

And the entree.

This is her favorite snack in the whole
world. She loves the good raw meatballs.

It's first thing in the morning. She
hasn't really had much to eat yet, so

probably very hungry and ready to go.
Yeah.

It definitely can be a challenge
whenever you have a new animal and

used to a new space.

They do get startled very easily, and
they can be really nervous in new

environments. So we're really just going
to play it by ear and see how she feels

about all these new experiences.

Habitat is secure.

And then you can go ahead and pick her
up.

Tigers can definitely be very cautious.
They really want a good idea of their

surroundings.

So we want to make sure that she has as
many opportunities as she can. All

right, I am ready for you. You just let
me know when it's good to open.

Hey, Tori, the yard is all set, and we
were going to get started. Are you good

up there?

I'm in position, so you can let me know
whenever you guys are good to send her

out. 10 -4, we'll let you know when she
goes out.

Opening.

Good.

You can open.

Outside.

outside, Tori.

She looks a little bit nervous, but
that's totally expected for a new

It's a big move for an animal.

She's got the meatballs, so she's good
to go back inside. I think she really

heavily reinforced her coming out here,
so it was a good session.

She went all the way off the pad, so
that's pretty exciting.

Good job.

She did it.

She secured inside.

What do you think? I thought that was
pretty good. Yeah. She paced a little

bit, but she was still interested in
outside, and she was pretty calm when

went out. She went out really quick.
Yeah. I thought she might not even

to go outside. So the fact that she
chose to go outside was really amazing.

Yeah.

Mata, did your girlfriend do so good?

He's like, I want to go outside.

He's like, I want meatball.

You next, Bubba.

Our next plan is we're going to look at
the schedule and see if we can't do an

overnight.

Maybe at night she has more of that,
like, huntress temperament going for

She feels a little bit more comfortable
and confident, and maybe that will be

enough to build up her confidence in
going outside on her own. Girls night

Just only girls. Except not you. One
girl.

Girl night out. Yeah.

There we go.

Loopy loo.

Nice.

Hey. Hello.

Hello. So our newest mom and calf that
came in, we have given them names. Mom's

name is Mango, and the calf is Momo.

Her calf, we did see nursing three times
today, but we haven't seen any signs on

how mom's buoyancy is in the water yet.

All right, well, we'll see what she
looks like on the floor. I just want to

quick exam and ultrasound the area of
swelling on her side so that we can

getting a little bit of an assessment.

The thing that we don't know at this
point is does that abscess connect into

chest cavity?

So that's the question we have.

We want it to stay on the outside of the
body because it means that we don't

have this deep infection now that we're
fighting.

Hi, Nugget.

She takes up the entire pool.

The next step is going to be to see,
does she have any rib fractures from

wound? And does it look like there could
be some fluid around her lungs?

You can see your baby. Your baby's right
here.

She's okay.

When we have a mom and calf together, no
matter if the mom is injured or the

calf is injured, we always try to rescue
them as a pair.

She's there. You're okay.

We want to let the mom and allow the mom
to continue raising her offspring and

raising that calf.

She's going to do a much better job. So
if we can keep them together, that's

kind of our main goal.

All right.

Here's a pocket of fluid.

It's all pretty similar in appearance,
except she does have a pocket of thinner

fluid here.

If she's good for like two more seconds,
I just want to see how deep her ribs

are away from the swelling.

Ready? Yep. Go down.

And what we're really concerned about is
that infection making its way into her

chest cavity.

I will say on the ultrasound, the big
swelling on her side is not showing any

signs of extending into her chest, but I
want to ultrasound her a little more

thoroughly. If the infection penetrates
into her chest cavity, it could be

really a bad thing for Mango. It could
lead to her having a lung issue or

basically not being able to survive from
that injury.

Hey, Molly, will you go get with Kristen
about giving these girls access?

Yeah.

Rex has been here for as long as I can
remember, and I've been here for over 10

years.

Recently, he had a breeding
recommendation to go to Disney's Animal

The team absolutely loves the zebra, and
when he does step onto that trailer,

you know, it's going to be a sombering
moment, definitely.

This morning, we're getting ready to do
a procedure for Rex. Along with just an

overall health assessment, we're going
to do some x -rays, make sure he's

looking good for his next new home.

If everyone can stand behind me.

When he goes down, he likes to go on
that other side. So after we are done

the dart is in and we can confirm that
he's starting to feel sleepy, if we can

get someone over on the other side to
monitor him.

So Rex, he unfortunately will not walk
up to me. So in order to give him the

anesthetic medications, we will need to
dart him.

She's going in. So when we get into
these procedures or any one of these

scenarios involving animals, what's
always going through our mind is how do

minimize risk? How do we manage that
risk?

You know,

Rex is a big animal. He's a very strong
animal. We also want to make sure that

our team members have a very clear
escape and that everybody involved in

entire procedure is safe the entire
time.

Let's scrap the IV catheter. I'm going
to go a lot faster than I had planned

because we're in the sun, Michelle. So
if you just want to get blood, we'll

start fluid sub -Q.

He's trying to get up right now.

Let the ketamine take effect.

You going to go breath?

All right.

I think he's out.

Kelly, if you can just be on
temperatures for me. We are in the sun,

There's a whole lot of emotions. You're
trying to make sure that everything

you're doing is going to be minimal
stress on this animal. We want to make

that it's not going to get too hot in
the day.

We have a lot that we want to get to in
a short amount of time, all for his

health.

There's hoof trims, there's bloods,
there's all sorts of sampling and

that we're going to do. We're going to
try to take x -rays.

So this is a well -oiled machine.
Everybody works incredibly well

We should be able to get everything we
need in a quick, timely manner and get

him back on his feet.

Vaccines live here.

Michelle, you said you got the nasal
swab?

Yes. Okay, great.

Pretty hot out.

Let's finish the feet. As soon as you
guys are at a good stopping point, let's

get Rad's at the problem limb.

Okay. And then we'll probably let him
recover because he's starting to

in temperature.

Rex has had a couple of issues with his
legs, so we just want to take some x

-rays and make sure that they look okay
and that he doesn't have any major

problems that we need to be concerned
about.

Okay, that's good. All right, let's get
everything out.

We are just going that way, right? Yeah,
just so when he wakes up, you can see

an open area rather than a wall. Okay.

So there you go. He's got his head a
little bit. We need to give him space.

Oh,

buddy.

He looks really good.

Rex's exam is a really great example of
how the medical staff and the husbandry

staff work together so well.

She's up so fast.

Each of us has our expertise and our
specific jobs during one of these

procedures. And without the other side,
we could never accomplish what we do.

I think I'm definitely just going to
forget about the fact that he's leaving

right now, and I'm just going to enjoy
every time that I have with Rex.

Every moment that I have with him is
special.

We come to work every day to have bonds
with these animals, and Rex is one of

the animals that I feel like I have a
connection with.

But Rex is amazing. He's a great
ambassador for his species.

So him going to Disney, he can go there,
do what he's supposed to do, and we'll

see him again.

Good girl.

Good morning, Sandy.

Breakfast time.

Your medicine is going to make you feel
better.

After Sandy's procedure, Dr. Kendra
prescribed her to be on an anti

-inflammatory for her knee.

And also we're working on getting her
used to stepping in a foot bath for her

feet. Just going to add a little bit of
water to this tray with this fake grass

in it to make it feel a little more like
natural substrate for her.

The goal is to get her to stand in it
for at least a minute, and that we can

that daily to help with the bumble foot
that she has.

So she's going to get the rest of her
diet here while she soaks in the foot

bath. Hey, Sandy.

Hey, there you go.

Feeling kind of feisty this morning.

Any amount of time that we can get her
feet to soak in the solution, that will

help her.

She's not scared of it. She's not
worried about it, and that's the main

want her to be really comfortable around
it.

There you go.

She's not eating super great today. She
just seems like she wants to play with

everything, but she seems comfortable,
and that's the main goal, and she's

standing in it, so definitely.

A success so far.

Good girl.

It's really fortunate that it wasn't
anything more serious. She's not going

require any surgeries or anything like
that, so it's something that's easy for

us to do, easy for us to medicate her
and make her feel comfortable for the

of her life.

She's, like, going back for round two.

Good girl.

Last little morsel.

Getting to know him. He definitely has a
derpy personality.

Yeah.

If you come to Zoo Tampa and you hear a
tiger in the background, that's probably

Mata. He's super chatty, very vocal, and
it's all throughout the day.

I will.

Yeah.

I know.

Tigers in general are actually pretty
chatty cats.

They make a lot of different
vocalizations, and those vocalizations

up to a mile away.

He's pulling on it.

He's going to go in the water.

Wow, I'm proud of him.

He's had it for a while, and he just
loves it.

Oh, my goodness.

Malayan tigers are critically
endangered, and there's less than 200 in

We're really fortunate to have Mata and
Caillou with us here at Zoo Tampa.

So we can potentially be reservoirs for
the wild population in years to come.

Hi. Hi.

So, can I get to have you access?

Yes. Overnight? We've been doing really
good during the daytime, so hopefully

nighttime access will just help her out
along the way. So we can go ahead and

close up Tiger, give her access, say
goodnight, and just see what she does.

Yeah, check back on the camera, see what
happens. Cool.

It's not uncommon for tigers to be
active during the nighttime.

They have really great sense of vision
and great sense of smell.

Are you excited to go out?

We have a few different surveillance
cameras on Habitat, so we're really

to see if she wants to explore on her
own.

Habitat is open, so we're getting ready
to give Caillou access. So she's going

to be held up front for a door, so
Kayla's going to do that now.

I'm hoping to see a nice, calm cat that
walks around her habitat like she owns

the place, just sniffing things. Maybe
she'll interact with some of the

enrichment that we put out overnight and
just be more relaxed.

All right.

Can't wait to check the camera, see how
she does.

I know.

See you in the morning. Yeah. Bright and
early.

Hey, I have the Caillou surveillance
footage. Do you want to come see it?

Yeah. 10 -4, we'll be right there.

Caillou had access to our habitat all
night last night, and we are going to

up the camera footage and see what she
got up to.

So, still light out. Yeah.

Not long after we closed, either. Not
long after we left.

All the people should be gone, though,
so it should be pretty quiet.

Yeah.

Oh, no. Hey, a little farther. Yeah, I
mean. Make a progress.

Looks like she's going outside.

Here she goes. Here.

I'm going to go.

Good girl.

I like that. Even when she chooses to go
inside, it's like a much calmer, like,

I'm just going to go in, making that
choice. Yeah, her body language is

good. Yeah.

Oh, wow.

It's your habitat, girl.

Get out there and own it.

Oh, looks like she grabbed a box.

Oh, my gosh.

Love her boxes.

Knowing that she wants to and she's
capable of it is super promising for her

daytime session.

Things. this nighttime footage seeing
her out on that habitat is really

promising because it suggests that we're
going to have some success in the

daytime too so hopefully we get to see
her explore that entire habitat both

nighttime and daytime sometime soon i'm
so proud of her thank you why she looks

so tired she's been up all night party
animal she's up all night

Are you physically and mentally fit for
your dive?

I do feel fine.

That's great.

So part of my job as a manatee caretaker
is to help vacuum and clean up our

manatee pool just for proper water
quality for our animals.

Just checking in that your air is okay
and that you can hear me.

Yes, I can.

10 -4.

Being in the water diving with manatees
is definitely a very peaceful time for

me. Their nickname are the gentle
giants, and that's exactly what they

It's very quiet under there, quiet
enough that you can actually hear the

manatees eating, vocalizing and
squeaking.

Okay, great job.

I always knew I wanted to work with
animals and marine mammals in some

and as I became older, I just started to
find that the Florida manatee was this

animal that I was really passionate
about.

So you can see, that's a nice... Small
belly.

...kind of a difference, whereas acorn
had more kind of folds down here.

Every day that I get to come into our
critical care center, it's amazing to

the progress that our animals have made.
And I've been here 14 years now. I love

what I do. I love the impact we have
with just our community. It makes me

happy that this is my job.

We'll do blood and we'll do ultrasound.

I think last time we just did against
the wall.

So today we're going to bring up Mango,
just kind of another overall picture of

what actually is going on.

The calf's success depends on being able
to stay with mom, and so we want to

keep mom as healthy as we can, but also
make sure that the calf is taken care

of. All right, let's just jump into
Rad's first.

The abscess on Mango's side has sort of
fluctuated a little bit. Initially, it

came in and looked like it was getting
bigger and more prominent. It appears to

be maybe slightly smaller today.

So we have some more investigation that
we need to do. And unfortunately, Mango

is definitely not out of the woods yet.
So Steph, for this one, I'd like to

focus on like right here, like neck
part.

Ready? You're clear. Shooting.

Clear. I'd like to repeat this one and
this one and just focus on, like, this

section. Let me get a closer look at the
edge of the lung. Okay.

Looks good.

All right. We can take her off the table
and do blood, and then while we get

blood, I'll work on ultrasound.

Okay. And decide if we want to tap
anything.

Definitely still concerned.

There are still a lot of changes in her
chest that are suggestive of really bad

pneumonia. Start going for blood stuff.
I'll start ultrasound.

All her abscesses are starting to get
these pockets.

It's hard to follow.

Almost looks like a reflection.

Yeah. What's been hard is she's so moody
usually that I can't follow anything

because I'm just like getting glimpses.

I think what we're going to do is not a
full chest cap, but resample the

abscess. Okay. And try to get a fresh
sample for culture from the abscess

itself. There are some areas that still
look abnormal around her lungs, but it

doesn't look like fluid or anything.

So we may just be dealing with really
bad pneumonia in there.

It's very encouraging that we don't see
any sign that the previously expected

infection in that abscess area has
spread into her chest cavity. But on the

ultrasound, we see some changes on her
lung appearance that are very

Okay, let me have a syringe.

Okay. Were you expecting that to be
blood?

I'm going to come out.

Probably some bloody fluid.

We'll do both culture and cytology to
get a really good look at it. It should

a pretty accurate representation of
what's in her abscess.

So Mingo has a large abscess on her side
that was possibly caused by a boat

strike. At this point, it doesn't seem
like it's actually connected to her

cavity, but we're going to keep a close
eye on it.

And hopefully, if we can get it fixed
quickly, it won't become a bigger

So we'll get the culture back before we
make any changes, and we'll go from

there. Okay.

She's been fighting the whole time, so I
think that's a good sign.

Manatees always surprise us, so
hopefully she'll heal.

Giving Rex snacks is always one of the
highlights of a morning.

I got all sorts of fun things.

Oh, boy.

Do you want an apple?

Time is getting a lot closer. He could
leave any day, which is very sad.

I'm trying not to cry.

You ready?

Are you ready for Lady and Disney?

Are you going to miss Sakani?

Oh, my gosh.

I think that was a yes from Sakani.

I just love how sweet Rex is for such a
big animal.

One of my favorite parts of the day is
just when it's quiet in the morning

before things start and you can just go
over and have that one -on -one time

with him. It really feels like he's just
very in tune to the moment and he just

likes to be with you.

Love you, buddy.

I'm going to be ready.

maybe a little bit less on the emotional
side of it. But we are very, very

excited for Rex. He's really good at his
job, which is making babies.

So I'm very excited for him to go off
and be in a big social group and do what

he does best.

Our goal is for her to come and feed
from this window. So we have that

opportunity to reinforce her for being
calm, for coming over to us and really

utilizing that relationship. So our big
goal today is that she comes over and

eats from us today.

So I'm putting these meatballs a little
bit farther than we have before in the

last week or two. So I'm putting them by
our window that we have. So it's a

little bit farther than she's been
going, but we're hoping that she takes

extra step and gets reinforced for it.

Caillou has come out pretty far before.

She still just hasn't reached that
threshold to come over to us here.

She's made eye contact with us. She kind
of looks over when we talk to her. So

it's all really promising stuff, but she
just hasn't made that final leap to

come over to us yet.

So you can kind of think of it as like a
breadcrumb trail. We're trying to lead

her over to our grotto window, which is
a keeper area that's on the side of

Tiger that's protected contact.

But what we're hoping from Caillou is
for her to just come over to us on

and eat directly from us.

It'll change our whole world when she
comes over here. It'll be a way to

her for all the good behaviors that we
see from her on Habitat. We can reward

her being calm. We can work on our
relationship and really help her out

step of the way.

Opening.

So we just gave Caillou access. So I
have all of her goodies ready. I have

meatballs. I have some nice steak
chunks. So we're hoping that she comes

over.

No, you're not ready. That's okay.

Keep playing peek -a -boo.

So asking Caillou to interact with us at
the grotto is a big ask.

It is several feet away from the pad
that she's comfortable on.

I'm here whenever you're ready.

She is doing her... what we normally see
from her. She's coming out pretty

slowly. She's exploring.

She has seen me out here waiting for
her. She sees that I have some chunks of

meat available for her.

Every time you see her face come around
that corner, every time she chooses to

try again, that's all really promising
stuff.

goodness. Good job.

It is incredible to see Caillou eating a
meatball from the grotto. This is such

a big win for her. This is a big win for
us.

Yay.

Caillou just stepped up on the platform.

That's so amazing.

Look at her.

Love it.

I am super proud of this tiger. She's
come a long way in a short amount of

For something that can be so scary, to
see her out on Habitat Calm and

reinforcing herself with me, it just
makes me really proud of her for having

that confidence and that trust in us.

It's just so cool to see her on Hab.

I'm super excited.

Good girl!

This lends her so many more
opportunities to engage with her

seen by all of our guests in a way that
we can share her with the world. We can

have people come learn more about tigers
and care about them and love them just

as they are and get to learn Caillou for
who she is as a tiger. And that's

really exciting.

I wouldn't call myself a cat person.

So I never really expected to work with
big cats in my career. I was excited for

the opportunity because who wouldn't
want to get to do that and have that

experience? But she has totally flipped
the script on that. I definitely would

say that I'm a cat person now.

She's changed my heart when it comes to
tigers.

Baby girl, are you blending in with the
foliage?

Today we're going to do a recheck on
Sandy, our sandhill crane.

I'd like to see her walk first and then
if we can get a closer look at her feet.

Is she hiding from the rain?

She's hiding from me.

So Sandy has been on some anti
-inflammatory medication for pain.

We have been trying to guide her into a
foot bath to kind of prevent her feet

lesions from getting worse in the
future.

All right. Great.

Let's take a look. Okay.

I'm just going to come over and say hi.

Got her legs. She got her body.

Good girl.

All right.

That's a really good response. I
actually wasn't expecting that to

that's really good. Okay.

I'm done. I'm going to let go of her
legs, all right?

Yeah, very happy at this point. You
know, those calluses on her feet are not

getting any worse. We're not having any
active lesions. That is great.

We got really good news today with the
checkup, which is really encouraging.

Okay, I know. I'm sorry.

Good girl. So offended.

You ruffled my feathers.

She definitely will be ready for her
31st birthday.

She's looking good. She's feeling good.
So we're excited to celebrate.

Hi. How are you?

We're good.

I have good news.

I've been watching Mango, and she was
just at the feeder, but I've also seen

start eating from the surface. So I
would say pretty consistently.

That's awesome.

Mango and Momo have been with us for
some time now.

Momo has been doing really great, and
the results that we've got from Mango so

far are really encouraging.

In watching her down below here, she
definitely uses the water column well. I

have not seen her be heavy or have
inconsistencies with being able to be

neutrally buoyant. So she's looked good.
I mean, she's hovering. She's not

pushing off her tail.

Fantastic.

We were able to take a sample from the
big abscess -like swelling on her side.

And what we're finding is that we're not
able to grow any bacteria from the

fluid in that area. And it continues to
get smaller and smaller.

So what that tells us is that we've
treated the infection that was present,

it's slowly, slowly resolving.

I'm really happy that the abscess has
gotten a lot smaller, and since we're

seeing the blood work move in the right
direction, I feel like that's a good

sign that everything is starting to
reabsorb and heal. I feel like you have

kind of look at her at an angle now to
see any type of raised bumps.

She looks really good, especially with
her little needy calf.

She's like, oh, you were just talking
about my mom. Here I am.

For Momo and Mango, as Mango gets better
and her wounds heal up and she is

stable, when we release her, we
definitely want Momo to go with her

Mango is going to be the best teacher to
her calf.

We want her to learn where to eat, where
to migrate to, everything that a mother

would teach her calf. We want her to be
able to do that back in the wild. So for

the rest of her treatment, we're going
to keep continuing to treat the abscess

and keep watching that, make sure it
gets smaller.

So hopefully that will stabilize and
then hopefully we'll get to release her.

Going to be a big day. Oh, yeah. That
will be a big day, literally.

Physically and philosophically.