All language subtitles for Secrets of the Zoo Tampa s04e11 Fangs for the Memories

Hey, handsome.

Here's the lady of the hour.

Oh, I like this one. Yes.

He's cool.

You're feisty, too, huh?

You got to use your brain for this.

Here is New Tampa. Our manatee program
is one of the few critical care

facilities in the state of Florida that
deals with manatee calves.

When a manatee calf is found by itself
in the wild, we know that there's no

chance of survival.

So in many cases, that's overnight care,
all -day care, whatever it takes to get

them healthy.

Hey, bud.

So right now I'm feeding Tober. I'm
waiting for one of his... Pool mates.

Pickalina to come over.

Pickalina has been here for just over
eight months now.

She was found in the Gulf of Mexico in
Sarasota County by Florida Fish and

Wildlife with no mom in sight.

And Tober, it's going on about five and
a half months.

They're two of the smallest calves that
we've had since our hospital's been open

since 91.

They came in at 42 and about 40 pounds.

which is about 20 pounds less than a
typical newborn manatee, so they were

pretty malnourished.

Manatees all over the state of Florida
are in a troubled state, and that's

primarily due to their main food source
disappearing.

This past year, we lost about 15 % of
the state's manatee population, which

unfortunately caused a lot of orphaned
calves.

Don't fall in!

Sober looks good.

Yeah, he was ready and waiting for his
bottle, but Piccolina is kind of off

eating some of the natural diet, which
seems kind of like her trend lately.

She's slowing down a little bit on her
bottle, but she's definitely getting

bigger, so to be expected.

Getting a baby manatee onto a bottle is
not an easy feat.

No. I wish.

You know, they don't come in
understanding the bottle. They don't

going on. Obviously, just the whole
situation can be a stressful environment

them. Hi.

Good morning, Remy.

It's very challenging. It definitely
takes good communication and teamwork.

The biggest thing is patience,
persistence, and really just taking your

with each animal.

He's been doing really, really well.

I don't think he ever misses a bottle.

He was waiting right here.

Our ultimate goal is for them to gain
about a pound a day. So you're thinking

about 30 pounds every month. And that's
important for their brain development,

overall health, and making sure that
they're going to make weight to

get released in the future.

You want any more of that?

Are you done?

Done? Okay.

You think so?

I see a baby.

You see the little foot sticking out?

The one time I, like, fall into the
water. Right.

Right now we're setting up some treats
and enrichment for our Saimeng family.

I'm really excited to see if Suzuki
likes the beauty brow.

Yeah. We've got Huton, who's our female,
Sensei, who's the male, and their one

-year -old daughter, Kazuki.

Maybe a couple of banana spears.

I think Saimeng are some of the most
interesting animals that we have here at

the zoo.

They're found in the mountainous regions
of the Malay Peninsula, and they're

also found in the monsoon forest of
Sumatra.

I'm going to put some of this good food
in here. Okay. Our favorite ham egg.

They live such a hard life.

Kazuki was a little bit of a surprise.
We came in and found a little Saimeng

baby last year.

Hey, happy parents. How are you doing?

Congratulations.

Oh, hello.

Baby was happy, healthy, and clinging to
mom, so we're really happy that she's

part of the primate loop now. Wow, very
alert.

Isn't that the most adorable face you've
ever seen?

It's been really rewarding to see baby
Kazuki over the last year.

Such a cute little family. Yeah, it is.

She's growing and developing, and it's
been really rewarding to watch her hit

different milestones every day.

It seems like Kazuki's almost ready to
shift out on her own. I agree.

We're really looking to see Kazuki come
out on her own and show that she's

starting to get a little more
independent.

I feel like sometimes she's like, do I
have the courage today?

So she definitely wants to, but I don't
think she's there just yet. I've seen

her come out like in the doorway and
she's sick.

And she thinks about it, and I'm like,
is today going to be the time? And then

somebody comes back, and they pick her
up and bring her across. So it's usually

traffic.

She's the best dad.

Saimeng live in pretty cohesive family
units. So it's a male and a female who

are monogamous and bonded together, and
then their offspring.

I'm going to put a little food, like, in
her eye level. Okay.

Kazuki level.

All right, well, what do you say?

Try it? All right, let's see what she
does.

I mean, I don't blame her. That's kind
of a big, like...

Jump down.

I've seen people fall in before, so I
don't blame her.

It's a big leap into adulthood.

You ready, Sensei?

All right. Have a nice time.

Here they come.

Ah, she's on Houtan this morning. That's
okay.

Hanging out with Mom.

We opened the shift door to shift out
the Simons, and Houtan carries Kazuki

right out. And then Sensei helped
himself to the apple pizzas that we put

Habitat for her.

That's it.

courage today.

Hanging on tight to mom.

They flew out so fast, I barely had a
chance to see, but I saw that Kazuki

didn't have time to get off. No, she
didn't. I feel a little bummed out she

didn't shift out today, but it's on her
timeline, so it's whenever she feels

comfortable to really cross those rocks
on her own.

She's such a daredevil besides those
rocks.

I know. Like I said, the way she throws
herself around out here, and like she

plays a sensei, it's just like mind
-blowing. Yeah.

Typically, Simon will be with their
parents for about five or six years.

So in the wild, she would still be with
her family unit. They're a little bit

more independent around one year old
where they start to be a little bit more

confident and off of mom a little bit
longer.

It's like every time I see her, she's
doing something different. Like she's

climbing on her own or she's like
running on her own.

And now she's just being a little
terror.

We know she can do it. It's just her
becoming a little bit more confident to

cross the rocks on her own.

Awesome. Well, maybe tomorrow. Yeah,
we'll try again tomorrow. We're going to

try again every single day.

Have a good day. Enjoy your breakfast.

Hi, sir.

We have a large male family here at Zoo
Tampa.

Come get some, for dad eats it all.

They have dimorphism, which is really
cool in mammals, so the males and

look totally different when they're
mature.

So Ryan is dad.

He's the darker.

one with the big horns oh it's a buffet
he's out here with his

two girlfriends autumn and sahara hi
autumn and then everyone else are his

so we have sunny we have frank and we
have norm am i forgetting

anybody nope that's it

our one -year -old Nyala, and she is
about to leave our facility to go to a

one. Oh my gosh!

Usually Nyala gives birth in the barn,
so I thought for sure that's where it

would be, and then I got a call saying
she was out under some bushes in the

middle of the yard.

Great. Let's go see if we can see this
baby.

Whenever I'm in here and I see that palm
tree, I will think of Sunny.

Cute Sunny.

So wobbly.

Sunny was just a little one when I
started working here.

When I was first here, she didn't really
want to eat from me, but we've built

our relationship up over the last year.

Come in.

Okay, everyone likes Molly. Oh, hi,
everyone.

Do you like pepper?

I'm really excited for Sunny to be able
to meet some new friends, but also...

A lot more sad than I expected to be.
All right, now come straight back.

the Africa team is getting ready to do
Sunny's pre -ship exam. Perfect. Which

are a series of tests that we're going
to run just to ensure she's healthy

before she makes her move.

Sunny! Our breeding program has been
extremely successful, which is one of

reasons why we're moving Sunny to a new
facility.

She'll go on to breed there, and we'll
have more room for new babies here.

Africa to hospital.

Go ahead.

We are transporting a Nyala from holding
to HS2.

M4, we copy.

Anytime we're doing an exam, especially
on a hoofstock species, we want to keep

anesthesia as short and as safe as
possible.

How are we doing?

That should be good.

That's good?

One of the things that we can do is
actually dart her while she's in the

trailer.

It's going to be a very low stress
situation for her. It sets us up for

So let's get the blood, let's get the
vaccine, get everything going.

We're going to do a physical exam.

We're going to get blood work, make sure
that everything looks healthy. We're

going to update vaccine.

Let's see if you guys want to see if
she'll kick out that leg, get blood from

the back leg. Not getting that. Did you
confirm ID?

Yes.

Rabies vaccine?

Yes. All vaccines, and I feed her in.

Clostridium, hexene.

Great. She is in great condition, and
really there's no concerns on her exam.

We're going to get a couple of final lab
values back, and as long as everything

looks good, she'll be cleared to go.

I'm going to give her.

Another five minutes, if we can, to burn
off this ketamine, okay?

I'm super proud of Sunny. She was calm
the whole way through it from start to

finish. All right, you can probably take
the towel off.

She woke up really well. She stood up on
her own, held her head up really well,

and she was solid when she stood back
up, which is what we want.

Okay, everybody just stay as quiet as
possible.

We'll give her a few minutes, and then
we can quietly take stuff out.

Now that all those pre -ships are done,
it's just waiting for Sunny to get

picked up and move to her new facility.

Side by side. Perfect.

Best friends.

Good boys.

When you first enter into Zoo Tampa, The
first thing you see is our manatee

circle. It's the center of our zoo and
also the center of our conservation

mission.

This will definitely help keep that cold
air off of them. Oh, yeah.

Ready, Bubba?

Rehabbing manatees is a lot of work. It
doesn't matter what the case is. We're

going to give them the best care
possible. And in many cases, that's

care, all -day care, whatever it takes
to get them healthy.

It's okay.

Our critical care facility is very
important to Zoo Tampa because without

wouldn't be able to save this amazing
species.

Our team is very dedicated to the work
we do here in hopes that every animal

that comes through our door is able to
be released back home.

I have no other bottles for you.

Till 2 o 'clock.

Hang in there, dude. Go eat some greens.

I don't know if there's much things
cuter than a baby manatee eating greens.

Morning. Today we are doing a health
assessment on our manatee, Bellissima.

is a very large, beautiful girl that I'm
getting distracted by because she's

right there.

I can't pick a favorite manatee per se,
but I will say that Bellissima is

probably one of the most amazing rescue
and rehabilitation cases that I've ever

seen. You can go on probably up though
if you're ready to get in the water. She

was stranded in the middle of an island.
Nobody knows how she got there.

She was found by a hiker who just
happened upon her in the mangrove.

And I'm only doing level one sedation,
Jamie.

Okay. So try to keep her from throwing
her head.

Bellissima, get your face down, girl.

She got to us about 3 a .m. on the day
she was rescued, and it was probably one

of the most horrific rescue cases that
any of us have ever seen.

You can see, like, how desiccated her
skin is.

It's just...

She was so emaciated. Her skin was very
dried out from not being in water for an

undetermined amount of time.

We really didn't think she was going to
make it. I don't know how she survived

as long as she did out there, but she
surprised all of us, and she's healed

amazingly, and she's made the biggest
comeback ever.

Okay. On three. One, two, three.

Felicima has been doing really, really
well, and we are very hopeful that she's

going to be cleared to be released back
to the wild.

Today, the biggest thing we want to make
sure is that we reassess both of her

flippers. See, I don't know if we can
fit it a little more proximal, see if we

can get it to her shoulder. That's where
she starts getting really thick, too.

All right, going again.

Everybody's clear.

You're good.

So when she came in, her wounds on her
flippers were...

Really, really startling. This flipper
was completely one big open wound

exposing bone.

The most important thing we want to
confirm is that everything is still

and smooth and there's no sign of any
infection that's coming back.

We just want to make sure that she's
still totally healthy to go back home.

All right. Everybody clear?

You're good.

So as you can tell, it's still a little
bit thickened. It doesn't extend all the

way, but she can still move it a little,
and her other flipper is perfectly

functional. So it's not going to hold up
for release.

Honestly, that's really what I need, so
I think we're good.

So our official guesses are?

I'm going 1 ,530. Okay, I was going to
say 1 ,400, but I'm going 1 ,450.

Okay.

Okay, hands off.

15? 15, 1, 5, 8, 5.

Is this stretcher the 175, is it? 140.

140.

How much?

1445.

Dr.

Melissa. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited.

It's always an exciting day to be able
to see how far they've grown and how

we've kind of achieved our goal to get
them healthier and back on track to go

back home.

I love it.

And then we'll get her blood work, and
as long as that looks good, she'll be

ready to go home.

She knows how to eat well.

She's a great eater.

Thanks, Melissa.

All right. Thank you, guys.

I'm 100 % going to, like, bawl my eyes
out when she swims away in the wild.

When did she shed?

Sunday. Sunday? Yeah.

Monday, Tuesday. So go ahead and dig it
up. Let's see if we got any eggs in

there. Cool.

All right. Awesome.

We're checking on our female indigo
snake.

She bred a month and a half ago with our
male.

It's about time for them to start laying
their eggs. So we're hopeful.

Oh, there she is. Oh, there she is. Oh,
my God. She's so cute.

We decided to call her Pepper because
she can be a little bit spicy.

She's like, get out of my house. And
she's all black, so kind of like black

pepper. Go ahead.

All right.

She's all right.

Indigo snake is the largest non
-venomous snake in the United States.

They're an apex predator, which means
that they control the population of

non -predators out there, mice, rats,
venomous snakes.

All right.

Let's dig up the box.

Our indigo snake breeding program is
part of our species survival plan. We've

been breeding here for a couple of years
now and have never gotten any viable

eggs out of them. I'm sorry, girlfriend.

This year we had a new female come in.

She's a little larger than the old
female, so hoping that she'll produce us

nice fertile eggs.

All right, Spence, do you think you'd be
able to help me get this lid off? Yeah.

Is she still sitting there? Yeah.

In the wild, these guys will use gopher
tortoise burrows to lay their eggs. Good

job, good job.

So what we've done here is we made man
-made burrows.

We bought coolers, and we bury them into
the ground.

All right, boys, moment of truth.

Dig around in there.

If we find eggs, we'll raise them up to
a point, and then the species survival

plan will decide where they head off to
in the future.

No eggs.

Bring her out here when you're done.
Okay.

Here, do you want to grab her?

She's pretty big. She's thick. She's
girthy.

We can definitely tell Pepper has eggs
inside of her. You can almost see the

shape of the egg.

which is extremely interesting.

It's almost time for the eggs to come
out, considering how large they are

of her. So we're just going to give her
some time. We're going to give her full

access to her burrow to go down there,
and hopefully we will have some indigo

snake eggs in our near future.

Fingers crossed.

I'm extremely excited.

If we do end up getting eggs and we get
baby indigo snakes, that's going to be

one of the greatest milestones in my
career so far. So I'm extremely excited.

All right. Bye, good mama.

Do you hear Kasuki joining in?

It's hard to see. I can't tell if she's
singing with us.

She's right there with her dog.

Saimengs are known for their very loud
vocalizations. Each Saimeng pair has

their own unique song.

Their songs are booming. You can hear
them through the whole zoo.

It draws guests from all over the park.

Normally what they don't realize is
actually how much goes into it and how

important it is for their relationship
and for their territory.

She's like, slow down, Dad. She really
wants to go with him.

Climbers are amazing climbers. They move
in a distinctive movement called

brachiating. It's a hand -over -hand
motion that allows them to swing like a

pendulum and move freely through the
trees.

Today we're going to hopefully see
Kazuki shift out on her own. She's

lot more independent on everything out
here. I've seen her at the very top

looking like she wants to try to imitate
what Sensei does.

Yeah. Which I don't think she's quite
ready for that.

I would love to see her cross over those
little rocks by herself.

Yeah, me too.

We all really want to see her do it, but
at the same time it's a little bit sad

because that means she's growing up and
she's not going to be our little baby

anymore. But we're optimistic that
pretty soon she'll be doing this by

Morning, cutie.

You ready to go out?

Kazuki, you're going to be a big girl
today.

You're going on your own?

Have a great day.

Here they come.

She's my little mom.

Aw, I think she's on Thursday.

As I open the shift door, Kazuki is on
her own. But then as soon as she hears

that shift door move, she took a ride
with Dad this morning.

We've had a couple of full -grown
interns who haven't been able to make it

across the air.

I experienced that once, yeah. A little
bitty, tiny kusuki, like, she's gone

right on sunset today.

Oh, yeah, she was holding tight.

He's too good of a dad.

One of my favorite things about signing
are the way that they parent their

offspring.

They actually co -parent for the first
year.

Sometimes you'll see the baby clinging
to mom. As that baby starts to grow and

develop, dad also takes care of their
offspring.

It's just really been so much fun
watching her as she grows and changes

seeing them as a family because they're
such a good set of parents. Yeah, and

just seeing her little personality
coming out too.

Yeah. All right, Saimeng.

See you later, guys.

Have fun with your tubes.

Hi, good morning.

It's Molly here, yeah.

What's going on?

This morning I actually got a phone call
from a Manatee rehab facility in Puerto

Rico. When was the last time that you
guys had some success with feeding a

bottle? They have a little calf that
they rescued.

Her name is Nanichi, and she did start
to take the bottle when they first got

her, but then she went off of it. You
know, this case actually reminds me of

Tober, who we just hand -raised this
last year, and he was a challenging one

get on the bottle.

I mean, it sounds like...

You guys have tried a lot of different
things.

So we have a calf protocol that we've
written here at the zoo. So if I could

helpful, I would love to come there and
help you guys.

I was able to give them quite a bit of
guidance over the phone, but it's one of

those things that I can talk through
something over the phone, but actually

being present and working with that
animal, it can make a big difference.

Okay, I'm looking forward to it. I'll
see you guys soon.

So the plan right now is for me to try
to get to Puerto Rico as quickly as

possible. I'm going to spend a few days
with their team and see if I can help

them get her onto that bottle.

You good?

Today we will be doing...

a pre -release blood sample on
Bellissima.

She'll be getting released soon, and we
just update blood work before they go

just to make sure there's nothing else
that might pop up that might need

attention before she goes back home.

Okay, ready?

On the clock.

Okay,

coming out.

I'm extremely excited for Bellissima to
get released. She is one of the most

amazing rehab cases that I've ever seen,
and she's come a really long way.

She has over -doubled her weight. She's
overcome, like, every odd that has ever

been stacked against her, and so it's a
really big deal that she gets to go

home. All right, let me get this off the
floor, and I'd love to take our usual

photos of her flippers and her sides and
everything.

Sounds good.

Her release is scheduled for a couple of
weeks from now.

And then I'm just going to get a side
photo as well.

Right before she goes out, we'll update
all of her measurements and photos so we

have a picture of how she's looking at
the very last second and send her back

home.

It's exciting.

She's definitely ready.

I think we're all ready. Yep. Even
though we love you. That's true.

It's a little easier to pick him up
because he's a heavy snake.

When I used to go to the zoo when I was
a kid, I could have stayed all day in

that reptile house up there. These are
such unique animals. They move in

different ways.

You know, it just caught my attention.

You let it go, dude.

There you go.

I actually started out as a volunteer at
Zoo Tampa in 1998 and worked my way

into the horticulture department.

And as I was working in the horticulture
department, I would get off of work at

the end of the day and run down to the
reptile area and volunteer in that area.

That's where I wanted to be.

You're going to have to go pretty far
under her because she's trying to go

forward.

Reptiles in general are things that
people don't really understand because

are a different... type of species.

A lot of people don't identify with
these types of animals.

We try to change everybody's perception
of reptiles and amphibians in general.

So yeah, it is fun to help and teach.

Damn, I'm good.

Go do it.

We're checking on our female indigo
pepper to see if she laid any eggs.

Let's check that box right there first.

All right.

Definitely saw eggs and swelling down by
her cloaca a couple of days ago, so

we're going on an egg hunt.

Was she in there at all?

Not this morning when I checked.

We got eggs a few years ago, but they
weren't fertile.

Anticipation. The worst part.

Yeah. Hopefully we have eggs. That would
be really exciting.

Moment of truth.

We got one egg. One egg?

Yeah, she still looks pretty full.

Let me come in and take a look at her.
All right. This is very exciting.

It's right down there near the entrance.

Oh, yeah, nice.

We finally have an egg, and we got to
still wait and see. Don't want to count

your chickens, or in this case, you
don't want to count your snakes before

hatch, but this is a really nice step.

We'll start incubating that one.

Mark it, weigh it, date, and we'll check
again tomorrow.

That's awesome.

One egg.

Hopefully it means she's in the middle
of laying them and we'll get more.

We'll continue to monitor, make sure
she's doing well.

Sweet. Yeah, that's cool.

What mark that is?

One.

The next step for this egg particularly
is incubation, which should take roughly

90 days.

Temperature in there between 79 and 80?

Yeah. The incubation for reptiles is the
best way to go, just to get a constant

temperature and to give it a higher
chance of viable eggs to hatch.

One down, more to go tomorrow.

Yeah.

I'm going to go say hi to Miss Sunny.

Yeah, I can't believe she's leaving.
Stop it. It's not true.

Today is the day that Sunny will be
leaving Sioux Tampa so she can make the

journey to her new home in Ohio.

That's not true. I don't believe it.
Kind of give her a last goodbye. Give

some extra goodies and love.

Hi. Hi.

You're okay. I know. There's a lot going
on.

But you're really, really brave.

Are you ready to meet all your new
friends?

What do you think?

Do you think the Nyala at Toledo are
going to be good?

Are you?

Dana will be the boyfriend.

This is definitely a harder part of our
job, watching animals leave, but it's

also an exciting part of our job because
we know that they are moving to places

where they're going to thrive.

Christy, to all animal units, we're
going to start loading our Nyala from

Last days are weird because I still have
a job to do, so I focus on my job, and

my job is to get them to their next
destination safely and stress -free. You

cannot let emotion get in the way until
she gets to her new zoo.

Okay, everybody's ready?

Good girl.

Go, go on.

You can do it, babe.

She went on easy, quiet, but that's how
she's always been. She's never been the

problem child.

She's just a very good girl, and so I
would expect nothing less from her.

Hi.

We just need you to sign these.

He's taking our Nyala.

Moving Sunny is going to be great for
her. She's going to get a family of her

own, be able to have her own babies,
hopefully.

So while it's really sad for me and the
rest of the Africa team, it's really

exciting that an animal that was born
here is going off to do exactly what

supposed to do.

There she goes.

Bye, Sunny!

It's time to do our morning check of the
indigo snake, see if she has the rest

of her eggs. All right, fingers crossed.

Pepper laid her first egg a few days
ago.

It looks like she's in this box, so she
made it very easy for me this morning.

We still have not seen any eggs, which
is pretty concerning.

All right, so this is the moment of
truth.

And we do not have any eggs.

Unfortunately. Just from looking at her,
she looks the exact same. I can still

see those eggs are inside of her. I can
tell that she hasn't laid any eggs

overnight. So we will have to call Dr.

Kendra and get her involved to see if we
can get these eggs out of here. At this

point, I'm going to get down to the
hospital as soon as possible with

We are concerned that she may be egg
bound, and that's actually when the egg

gets literally bound and attached inside
of them and can't come out.

If untreated, that can result in death
of the animal.

Hello. Florida indigo snakes are a
native species to this area, and they

declining in the wild because of habitat
loss.

So it's really important that we get
these eggs out safely, not only for the

eggs, but also for this mom that has the
potential to create many more of her

species for Florida.

All right.

I'm going to try to give this IV if she
will allow.

So we are going to really lightly sedate
this snake. The reason for that is that

I want her muscles to be as relaxed as
possible so that we can try to get these

eggs out.

I know.

Anytime a reptile has to go under
anesthesia, it is a little bit nerve

-wracking. They can hold their breath
for a really long time and can take a

time to recover.

But this is the best thing that we can
do for her right now since she hasn't

passed them on her own.

You want to find a heart?

Good to go.

The first thing that I'm going to do is
a really thorough exam of the opening of

her oviduct as well as that last egg
there. I really want to make sure that

there is no adhesion to the wall and
that that egg is intact and able to come

all the way through before I attempt to
remove it.

Definitely feel the end of it. So it's
coming out. I really don't think that

there is an adhesion because I can move
it this way. Entire way.

So it seems like it's probably just too
large.

If this one is too big and we cannot get
it past the opening, I'm going to have

to drain it so you won't be able to
incubate it afterwards. That'll be like

last resort.

Understood.

Oh, no.

Wow.

That's quite large. That's a big egg.

That's a very big egg.

Wow. It's a big egg. Definitely intact.

We got the first egg out, and it was
ginormous.

You want to put it in the box?

Wow. Yeah. It was a weird shape, and
that definitely was blocking her,

the other eggs and all of the fecal.

She's probably been waiting to defecate
for a little while.

I'm going to look inside her cloaca and
just make sure that there is no trauma

in that area before we move the rest of
them down. Dr. Kendra, she is constantly

palpating Pepper's body and kind of just
pushing out those eggs the best that we

can without tearing any tissue.

We'll definitely give her some pain meds
and antibiotics for this.

Okay.

There we go.

This one seems a little better. That one
does look a lot better.

Yeah, that one definitely looks more
appropriate.

Yeah. The next few eggs were smaller and
they were a little bit easier to get

out. How many more are you thinking?

One, two, three.

I think three more. Three more.

This one's a little bit smaller.

Room in there.

Barely. These are big eggs.

Okay, I think that was the last one.

The total number is eight eggs.

Oh, wow.

Wow. The majority of them do appear to
be fertile, so we'll put them in the

incubator and see what we get.

Okay, so she's just going to wake up.

I think we got to her in time.

Absolutely. Yeah.

I am extremely relieved now that we have
the eggs out just because we can start

focusing on...

incubating them sorting out which ones
are fertile which ones are not and more

importantly making sure she's okay and
that she's healthy and comfortable also

this is the coolest experience of my
life six months ago i was a receptionist

and now i'm helping remove indigo snake
eggs so it's kind of amazing i'm so

excited to be a part of this breeding
program good morning good job hon

This is an amazing snake that everybody
should know about, and they are

struggling in the wild. So for us to
have a breed and release program like

it does mean the world. So my dream is
to hopefully get out there and release

some indigo snakes that I hatched out
myself.

Good job, baby.

Good morning!

Everyone's a sleepyhead.

Yeah.

I am at the Caribbean Manatee
Conservation Center in Puerto Rico.

This is Toni and Thomas.

Hi!

I am here to

help their team with a manatee calf that
they are trying to get onto a bottle.

Oh my goodness.

On Easter weekend, we got a report for a
teeny tiny manatee that was seen near

some boating docks.

That first sighting, we think that this
is the day that she was born.

So we think that maybe a boat scared the
mom away after giving birth and

abandoned the calf.

She had all the features of a newborn,
the umbilical sheath, brand new skin,

hairs were long, everything that tells
us that this was our Easter Sunday baby.

I've been working with the team very
closely to get her to take that bottle.

When I first arrived, she was really
chewing on the bottle a

lot and flaring her lips.

You need to be able to get that bottle
into their mouth, and you do need to

on to them.

And so the biggest thing is trying to
figure out what makes her comfortable.

Like, yeah, I'm not doing anything.

I'm not holding her mouth. Awesome.

I was able to come from a different
angle and be a little less hands -on

actually was really just kind of cupping
her face instead of holding around her

lips. She seemed to really like that
better.

I love hearing that foot noise.

And once she got a little bit of that
taste, she started to take the bottle.

And...

That's an amazing feeling when you
figure out what that animal wants and

you're going to be successful.

They were relieved and excited and they
had been so nervous for

that animal and put so much time and
love and effort into it for her to take

that bottle.

I don't know if there's really anything
more incredible.

am extremely grateful for all the help
Molly and the people at Zootampa have

brought to us.

Molly, I love you!

Nanichi has a long way to go. It'll be
really great to hear she is gaining

weight. And once they start to feel
better, you really start to see their

personality shine.

She sleeps a lot right now, which is
kind of expected of a baby, but she's

adorable and I really feel optimistic
about her.

Being able to share my knowledge and
help this team was an incredible

experience.

Who wants to come to Puerto Rico?

We're going to have an exchange program.

I'll take it. Every week we send one,
you send one.

All right,

Kazuki.

Today's the day.

It's kind of like grown hog day here. We
keep coming over to watch Kazuki come

outside. All right, I'm going to go
inside and go ahead and ship these guys

Okay. We've seen Kazuki grow and change
so much in the last year and a half. I

mean, Kazuki's doing everything else by
herself.

Yeah. She's swinging from the very, very
top props. She's joining in on the song

when mom and dad sing along.

So this crossing in and out across the
entryway to the night house is really

last big milestone.

Kazuki, are you going to go out like a
big girl all by yourself? You look

Moment of truth. Moment of truth.

I fell leg.

One. Aw.

Belle, maybe she'll come from there.

Kazuki, you can do it.

You can do it, Kazuki.

Oh, my God.

Yay!

Look at her. She looks so little doing
that. That's a big jump.

Kazuki jumps off of Dad, and she takes
the leap down the rock and runs across

out on Habitat, and Jane and I finally
see it.

You did it.

You're a big girl now, Kazuki.

Kazuki didn't disappoint. She did
exactly what we were hoping she would

now nothing can stop her.

That was awesome. That was.

I'm glad I saw that. Yep.

All right.

Off to Orangutan.

Oh, hello.

Hi, Orion.

Sunny left us a couple weeks ago.

She's doing great, which I would expect.

So all good things, all green lights for
Sunny. So this is Sahara up front, who

is Sunny's mom.

And Daddy's coming up right here.

Good boy.

Where's your baby?

Sahara actually just had another baby.
So the circle of Nyala kids continue.

Want some green?

Where's your baby?

Orion is an excellent breeder.

He does it very well.

Where is your child?

Why is he hiding?

Our new baby is another boy.

Where's Bill?

We have actually named the baby. His
name is Bill Nyala.

It's just so funny to me. Hello.

I have always wanted a Bill Nyala. And
now that I have one, I'm going to say

name constantly because it just makes me
giggle.

There will always be a place for Sunny
in our hearts. You never forget the kids

that you have. But now we really need to
focus on the kids we have here. So lots

of love and attention is going to go to
Bill.

Bill, Bill, Bill.

See?

Fun. It's all about the little things
here.

to release our manatee, Belissima.

Her blood work's normal and she's been
doing really well.

She's gained a ton of weight. She's
strong. She's beautiful.

She's ready to go home.

The people that are here today for
Belissima's release are a true

of the number of people all over the
state of Florida that it takes to help

these manatees. I was hoping that you
guys like... Everybody who was there

be here today. Like, this is such a big
one.

We have members from law enforcement and
from FWC that were part of her initial

rescue and are going to be part of the
team that, you know, monitors her and

gets reports of her and lets us know if,
you know, things are going well. She's

a miracle manatee, kind of.

Have you seen her since?

I saw her one time when we talked about
it. Okay, that's what I'm like. Every

time you guys come, I was always like,
you have to see her.

It's very powerful being able to connect
to all pieces of this rescue and

rehabilitation and now release for this
animal that has made such an impact on

so many people across the state of
Florida.

Hello, Angel Face.

If we could get her in the water kind of
quickly, she's just warm. Warm? Okay,

sure. Just watch her tail once we're in
the water.

One, two, three.

The island where she was stranded is not
far from here. And last time we were

here, when we released the manatee,
there's a lot of food right there.

So she's going to be very happy about
that.

Are you a gold?

Good girl. Good job,

everyone.

Seeing her swim off gracefully and
peacefully back into her home waters is

really amazing thing. And it's something
that I think.

Very few people are lucky enough to be a
part of. So it's a very special moment.

There she is. See her?

Oh, yeah.

It is a very emotional thing to see her
go off. We have just really become

invested in this animal.

It feels really good. There's a lot of
emotions.

Really cool.

You got it. You got it.

It's happy.

It was a huge honor to work with
Bellissima. She's definitely the most

turnaround story I've ever seen in a
rehabilitated marine mammal and not

something. So it was a huge honor to be
able to be a part of her team that was

so dedicated to getting her back to
healthy so we could send her back home.

She's going to go make babies. She's
going to stay away from boats and

No more islands. No more islands.

Ciao, Bella.

I'm my angel.