Original subtitles

have favorites, but she's my favorite.

As a zookeeper, it's hard to say what your favorite animal is, but you know.

I have a lot of favorite patients, but he's like the best.

Truly my favorite animal.

One of our 16 penguins loves to swim. They get their zoomies. They'll kind of

jump in and out of the water and go back and forth really, really fast. So it's

a fun time for them.

Tinkerbell, vitamin?

I love our penguins very much. For as small as they tend to be, there's a lot

personality.

You just want to play, huh?

You just want to play.

Come on.

We have one penguin right now, poor little guy, who can't swim because he is

sick.

is 15 years old, and you really can't help but love him because he's just got

this quirky little personality where he's like, are you going to feed me now?

Because I really love some food. And then he's just kind of sassing us for

nest box.

There we go, Tyke.

Good job.

Good boy.

Is that it? Are you full?

Tyke has been a really challenging case, both medically as well as for his

caretakers. We developed really close.

with the animals that are in our care, and he has been one that has been

for such a long time.

Good boy, Tyke. You're such a good penguin.

A couple of months ago, we noticed that Tyke had a little bit of a bump on his

tail area.

Here's your pitchfork.

We worked him up a little bit and found out that his preen gland had actually

become infected and ruptured.

The preen gland.

allows them to grab oil and coat their feathers with it, and this makes them

waterproof. I'm going to slide your nest box, my love. Hold on.

He actually had his entire preen gland removed because of the reoccurrence of

the infection, and so he has another procedure tomorrow to try and help.

Do you want to fish?

It's always rough when our animals aren't feeling well because we want to

much as we can for them.

This procedure that we're going to try on Tyke is definitely our last chance to

try and really help Tyke beat this infection that he's been dealing with.

Hopefully this next procedure is the procedure that gets him going.

Which one do you want? You want that big one?

I think one of the most lovable primates that we have.

Super sweet and they're adorable.

They have so much energy and they're really, really fun to watch.

Seven months ago, we saw our female ring -tailed lemurs, Pinch and Scooch,

breeding with our male Riley.

It's not something we see very often with lemurs.

Typically, they only breed one day of the year.

Breeding with ring -tailed lemurs is tricky because you only have that 24

window for them to get pregnant.

So it's a 24 -hour period out of 365 days a year.

Their breeding season is just super, super, super short.

If we manage to breed these babies or breed these two, they will add to the

whole collection and to the whole genetic pool that we need, you know,

comes to ring -tailed lemurs.

That'll be cool, huh? Yeah. Are you excited?

Yeah. I hope they're pregnant.

Cool.

Can you take me inside and take a look at it?

Last year, the ring -tailed lemur girls kind of faked us out. We were really

hoping they were going to be pregnant, and we ended up not having any babies.

this year, we're cautiously optimistic, but after last year, not 100 % sure.

Riley, you look the most handsome.

I'm going to put some food over here for the girls real quick.

She really wants a much -out pinch. You can definitely tell that the ring

-tailed lemurs enjoy having us out there, so it's always a really happy

be out on the lemur habitat.

So she's the one that we think is pregnant, right?

Either of them could be pregnant. He's pregnant with both of them.

She looks really big. So before you know it, there could be a baby hanging from

her. I hope so.

You know, hopefully this year is going to be the year where we're going to have

some baby lemurs. But because of how short that breeding period is, you never

know. You never know.

Good job, buddy.

All right, you ready to feed Blitzen and Binti some breakfast?

It'll be fun.

Binti likes to play with everything that she's not supposed to do since she's

still a baby.

Here at Zoo Tampa, we're very proud of our three eastern bongos. We have a

little trio, a little family right now.

We'll let them out, and they'll have a wonderful, fun -filled day.

Currently, we have our male Keto and our two females, Blitzen and Binti. Hello.

You ready?

They are very critically endangered in the wild. There's, like, less than 200.

Good morning!

He's like, what are you doing?

Binti was the first bongo ever born at Zoo Tampa.

Now she's around a year old, so she's becoming, like, a full -size bongo.

Having a bongo born here at Zoo Tampa was definitely one of the highlights of

career. I mean, all the benchmarks and milestones, and so exciting to watch.

She eventually will be getting a breeding recommendation of her own and

off somewhere else to continue to contribute to bongo conservation here in

America and worldwide.

And overall, I mean, honestly, they're one of my top three favorite animals,

they have such, like, cool personalities.

Good morning, guys. Good morning.

See, everybody's getting breakfast.

I can't get over how big Venti is. Oh, my gosh.

She's honestly the cutest animal in the entire zoo. I'm sorry, Jembe.

You guys ready for some exciting news?

Yeah. Yeah. What?

Our bongo herd is growing by two.

No way. So we have a recommendation.

You ought to get two more females from another Florida zoo, and they'll be here

soon. Ooh, that's exciting.

And Blitzen's going to rule the roost. You're right, Jembe.

No.

She just kind of inserts herself in any conversation, I guess, huh? She's a

great bird. You're a good bird. You're not a bongo, but you're a good bird.

Now that Keto and Blitzen have bred and Binti is here, Now it's time to start

growing this herd. We got the breeding recommendation to get two additional

females in here.

We're going to go from three to five overnight, and I can't wait.

Hi, kiddo. I haven't seen you in a while.

Gorgeous.

All right.

Enjoy. I know.

I love penguins because they have a lot of feline characteristics that I find

very endearing.

They're the cats of the bird world.

Aviary 2 Hospital.

We are on our way with Tyke.

Tyke is a 15 -year -old African penguin with a multidrug -resistant infection.

Hi, Tyke. You ready?

His is resistant to at least 11 antibiotic choices.

You're such a good boy.

Every time that I look at Tyke, the infection has spread.

Hi.

And so today we are trying a novel procedure.

He's like, I'm back again.

If this does not work, then we unfortunately will have to euthanize

Before, Tyke was one of those penguins who spent more time with penguins. But

since doing these procedures and doing checkups on him, through all this, we

have formed a better relationship.

He'll just kind of relax with me.

Any procedure always makes me nervous just as a keeper, but I know Dr. Kendra

knows what she's doing, so thanks and good hands.

Before we go any further in his case, I'm going to take some x -rays.

If infection eats any deeper into the muscle, then I do fear that it's going

get into the bone itself.

You know, the one thing that would make us not go forward with this procedure is

if the infection has gone into the spine.

So these are his old ones, comparing them to the ones that we just took

And it looks okay.

Okay.

So, you know, that doesn't mean that it's not bad still, but it means that it

hasn't gone into the bone. So we have a little bit more of a chance.

Drape, please.

So what we're using today is called Microlite, and it is a silver

matrix. So think of like a rose trellis, where that rose needs that trellis in

order to climb up. Your skin, in order to heal, also needs a trellis to climb

up. This trellis happens to be silver -impregnated. Silver is probably one of

the oldest antibacterial treatments that there is.

The first thing that I'm going to do is take all of the infected tissue away and

make it so that there's a clean bed there.

And then I'm going to apply the microlight, and it should dissolve into

wound. It's very cool.

So we're really hopeful that this silver matrix will help keep the infection

from coming back.

We are all a little bit nervous about this case. It has the potential to

not go the way that we want it to.

So I'm almost done removing the disease skin. It's going to be a pretty big

area.

I think it's time for the stuff.

This is the first time that any of us have used microlight before.

I'm going to grab Melissa.

Anytime that we have the opportunity to use something that we haven't before,

all of us get excited about it.

Kendra is going all out for this little penguin.

We've never used this type of bandage before, so it's really cool to see it in

action.

It's definitely a very cool piece of technology that has a lot of promise, so

we're hopeful that it's going to work for him.

This is kind of that moment for Tyke. It's either this works or,

it doesn't, and he may not make it through.

It's kind of our Hail Mary.

I want to see it absorb.

I'm very excited.

When Dr. Kendra pulled out the silver matrix, not going to lie, I was

that it wasn't actually silver.

It's kind of a red -orange color.

It's like saran wrap almost.

Kendra trying out this brand -new treatment is something that now I can

from and have this in my back pocket for future cases.

And then as it touches and it warms up, So it's going to completely dissolve

into it.

Oh, my God, it's melting.

Is it, like, melting his skin?

But just the wound, see how, like, over here it's not?

Yeah. So you can, like, make it this area.

It's so cool. Oh, my God. As it contacts the wound, it kind of, like, pew.

Yeah.

Super quick.

I like it.

Cool. We always like to try new things.

The cool thing about medicine is that there are very few things that are 100 %

perfected at this point. You can always improve.

It's very needy.

Good job, buddy.

You want to try?

I am real hopeful that this will help Tyke. I've grown very, very close to

penguin over the last couple of months through all the ups and downs with him.

So I'm really hoping that Silver Matrix really pulls through for him and he

starts to rebound.

Tyke's a good boy.

Penguins in general are typically a little bit longer to wake up from

than some of our other bird species.

They are diving animals, and they have a dive reflex, and it just takes a little

bit longer for them to breathe off everything.

The microlight will stay active for three days, and it absorbs completely,

don't remove anything.

When we go back in to do a bandage change, we put a new one on top of it,

then we re -bandage it.

You did it!

All right, kiddo. Good job!

It just actually heals.

Tyke is definitely going on our wall of winners. This has not been an easy case.

And, yeah, if it goes well, we'll all be very thrilled.

All right, you got it, kiddo.

This is the stairway to heaven.

We need a pulley system.

We do.

I'm putting that work order in. This is so freaking heavy.

Oh, it's toasty up here.

Today we're going to do a really fun enrichment for all the elephants in the

yard. Let's see who's hungry.

Okay, I don't even see them, so let's just see.

Bombs away!

We call it produce from heaven.

It's just a lot of fun.

Do they even see it? They're on it. The elephants, they're very smart, but they

can't quite figure out where it's coming from.

All of a sudden, apples just start raining from the sky.

Right down the middle. Woo!

That was a good one.

A lot of our enrichment tries to encourage them to run around.

So it's kind of like an exercise session.

The kids use their speed, and they run from spot to spot to spot, trying to

steal from everyone. So they're funny.

Oh!

That wasn't great.

There's an apple on your head.

Now he sees us.

You're lucky you're cute, buddy.

Come on out, bud.

All right.

Ready? You guys are seeing a pretty awesome training session.

Good girl.

You want to go down here?

Silvio is one of our best ambassadors that we have on our team. And he is just

not only a team favorite, but a fan favorite, and everyone that comes to the

and meets him loves him.

Hi.

How are you doing?

Hi. Oh, hello.

Yeah.

There you go.

You're crazy.

A tamandua is a type of anteater. They're also known as lesser anteaters,

he's just a little anteater.

Well, got it.

There are animals that you work with throughout your career that kind of

it, and I'd say he's one. He's a very special animal to me.

He is an 11 -year -old tomato, which makes him extremely old.

The concern we have today with Silvio is he has a lump right here on his foot.

It used to be about a pea size, and it's grown. It's probably closer to the size

of a grape now.

Silvio is one of my favorite animals I've ever worked with, so anytime

anything's wrong with him, I definitely worry about him.

And so I really want to get it checked out and make sure he's doing okay and

it's nothing serious.

You want to go down here?

I think that there's always a concern whenever we find a lump or a mass.

Typically, we say if a lump changes, then we want to see what it's doing.

What's it doing?

What's this? It's going to be bright, okay?

That's all right. I can hit a moving target.

Silvio is an incredibly adorable animal.

He just stops me.

It does tickle. It tickles. He kind of wants to move around, check out the

space, see what's going on. Wiggle worm.

What a cutie.

It's like, what are you doing?

I think it's so cute when he pushes me away.

It's kind of like a roly -poly and rolls around everywhere.

Which can make examinations a little bit difficult.

So he's had like a little bit of a mask there for probably over a year.

Dr. Melissa had looked at it way back when we first noticed it, and I don't

think anything came of it.

But it definitely, like, kind of blew up recently into a way bigger size than

what we had ever seen.

He is not reacting whenever I touch it or move his finger, so that tells me

it's not painful.

Do you know what's coming?

Don't do it.

The fact that the mask is soft means that there is very likely liquid that I

take out and look at to tell me whether or not there's something in there that I

need to be concerned about.

If it was an infection, it would very likely be kind of green or yellow or

white.

The liquid that came out was clear.

Anything that's cancer typically does not have clear liquid.

I'm going to take a culture. It doesn't really look like it's infected either,

but we'll just make sure that we cover all of our bases.

You okay?

This is most likely a cyst.

That means that it's unlikely to be cancer at this point.

But during his exam, we found a new heart murmur.

Significantly different.

And that is of concern.

Aw, are you okay?

He does have a murmur, which is not surprising given he's an 11 -year -old

tomato. That's incredible. So that's new for him.

So a heart murmur is just an irregular sound that your heart makes. It should

make a nice lub -dub sound.

His made a whooshing sound.

I think that maybe taking a better look at his heart is going to be really

important because if there is evidence of further heart disease, there are

medications that we can use to make him feel a little bit better. A heart murmur

can indicate heart disease.

All right, you want to go home?

So we want to take him to a cardiologist who is a veterinarian that specializes

in the heart itself to be able to tell us whether or not his heart was

functioning appropriately.

You want to go back?

Oh, good boy.

You want some scratches up here?

Oh, my goodness.

There's my favorite boy.

over matrix procedure, Tyke has perked up a lot.

He's kind of back to his old Tyke -ness where he's really excited to see his

food again. Every time we walk around with the bucket, he goes, oh, is that

me now? So it's been really nice to see this positive change in Tyke.

Very positive change, but until that wound is completely healed over, I am

holding my breath.

He's become such a part of my daily routine, taking care of him, giving him

own special treatment.

Are you done?

They love to sing to us in the morning, don't they? Every morning.

Hi, penguins. Good morning.

Our penguins are chatty Nellies, 100%.

When they call, it's called a bray, and these penguins are actually called a

jackass penguin. It's one of their names besides an African penguin because

their bray sounds like a donkey.

This is all my morning is every single day, and I love it.

So I am prepping Tyke's nebulization meds. He's being nebulized twice a day

30 minutes each treatment.

So nebulization is just aerosolizing medications and then having you breathe

them.

Tyke, unfortunately, in addition to his infection in his rear end, ended up

getting an infection in his respiratory system.

Tyke! Are you ready, Tyke? Or never.

Good morning, Tyke! So in order to treat that, one of the best ways that we can

do it is by nebulizing him.

I'm off to you. Come here, old man.

Feeling good?

This is his nebulizer box.

Here we go.

Now that Tyke is under all of these medical watches, we've definitely been

to spend a lot more time with him, and so I think that he is just kind of

wiggling his way deeper and deeper into our hearts with every day.

Oh, your toe is in the little hole, bud.

What's your toenail?

All right, I'll get the timer started.

Okay, thank you.

He'll usually lay down right by where the medicine is coming out and just kind

of close his eyes and take a nap while he's in there.

He's got that mist floating all around him. He looks like one of those mystical

beings just kind of floating around in the mist.

It's kind of like a sauna.

And he feels really good after he's done.

He looks very calm and serene like he's at a spa day.

Look at you. Hello.

Oh, did you have a good time?

It's too soon to tell whether or not this new formula of silver is going to

with this infection near his tail.

Because his infection is so resistant to everything, there is still a pretty

good potential that this does not go the way that we want it to.

But we all have our fingers crossed.

So we're right there in the birth window.

Yes, we sure are.

About five months. Yeah, Dr. Nico came by, and he noticed Gooch. So that's a

good sign.

We saw the breeding, so the ball's in their court.

All right, let's do it. Can you imagine if we went out?

And both of them had babies? We would have four lemur babies? That would be

nice. Possibly.

With ring -tailed lemurs, it's definitely a little bit harder to tell

pregnant or not. The best way to actually check would be an ultrasound,

girls are not ultrasound trained yet. Hi, everybody.

Hi. So today we're going to be getting an updated weight on Pinch and Scooch,

and we're hoping to see their weights go up. That would be a great indicator of

pregnancy. You got my keys.

Oh, you're cute.

Hi.

We are working on scale training with our ringtails.

Good girl.

We started scale training last year because we were suspicious that our

might be pregnant, but they surprised us they were not.

It's definitely tricky to get an accurate weight. We want that tail on

scale, too.

Can you put your tail on here, too?

Can we work on that?

Oh, there you go. There you go. 3 .7. That's her all the way on, tail up. 3

3 .65. Well, that's higher.

Gooch is up 0 .3 kilograms.

That's a little bit over half a pound.

So it definitely gives us some hope that she could be pregnant.

That is a huge jump.

Riley, are you ready to be a dad?

Pinch. We're going to weigh pinch here. So we're going to hopefully have an

increase with her as well.

Let's go.

Nice. 2 .8.

Oh!

Yeah, 2 .8 with the tail on. Pinch is up 0 .15, so not quite as high as

Scooch's, but it's a good sign that we saw an increase in both girls.

Your work is done, Riley.

We're excited for you all. I definitely think Scooch's belly looks a little bit

round, especially when she's sitting straight up.

But it is possible that it could just be a belly full of bananas and not babies.

Wild Africa is home to quite a few species.

There are duiker, there's malambongo, there's crown cranes, there's marabou

storks. Hi, Jembe. Good morning, Jembe.

Jembe.

Marabou in the middle.

She's so much fun.

You know, Jembe is one of a kind. She's stolen the hearts and the keys of many

people. Hi.

That was rude.

Jembe likes to be up close and personal.

She's got a lot of personality.

Sometimes she just kind of sneaks in and just all of a sudden she's there like a

little ninja.

Jembe was pulled from her nest at a young age because her parents weren't

care of her. And because of that, the staff then had to hand raise her.

She figured out that, hey, these people, they're the ones who are really feeding

me. So these are the ones that I'm going to focus on.

Jembe thinks she's a human. She does not realize she's a bird. She just wants to

be with you.

She's a very strong personality.

She is so sassy, but I love Jembe so much.

Just going for a walk with a marabou.

Everyday occurrence here at the zoo.

Hi. How are you?

I'm going to start moving.

Diane, I'm going to start opening this gate so we can start getting into

position. So today, we're looking forward to getting these two new bongo

females. We have a breeding recommendation, which is sort of a

It's sort of based off of genetics rather than whether, like, you know, you

walks on the beach and pina coladas.

And so we found two females in Jacksonville. That'll be a good pairing

Keto, our big bongo bull.

They're coming to be a part of the species survival plan to bring these

back up for the eastern bongos. Keep coming.

Lottie and Maple are their names, two little girls.

Right now we're just working on lining up the trailer and getting them

Straight back.

You're perfect right there.

Perfect.

They have hay on the back of the truck. Look at that.

We took some of the diet that Jacksonville gave us. Yeah.

Making them as comfortable as possible.

It's kind of like if you have guests coming over, you know, and this is sort

no different. They're just going to be staying a lot longer.

Definitely one.

Right here.

All right, you're good.

Francesca, you're ready? I'm coming. This is going to be our first look at

in person, you know, besides a couple pictures.

Can I fit in over there on that side? We good on this end?

We take a lot of precautionary steps.

You're going to stay behind the door?

They're prey animals, so they tend to react.

They're more flighty.

All right, I'm set.

You know.

The minute you think you know what you're doing is when the animals will

you a curveball and do something different.

All right, open it up.

Come on, girls.

All right, girls, you got to get up.

They're both laying down.

When I opened up the door to let them out, we got to see Chill. They were

there, you know, which is great to see. They're very comfortable.

That means that was a good transport.

They're being very cute.

There's a little.

There we go. Good girls.

Come on.

They're amazing animals. They're, you know, for being sort of elusive out in

wild, they're incredibly sweet. You know, they love to be hand -fed. They

to be scratched.

They're just big, impressive animals.

There you go.

Graceful.

They weren't, like, too nervous. They were just very curious about everything,

so.

There we go. Good girl.

Good job.

Nicely done.

Yeah? That went really smoothly.

Yes, it did.

We're just kind of giving them time to acclimate to the new noises and their

surroundings.

We'll take normal protocol for quarantine to ensure the safety of not

new animals, but our animals that we already have in our collection.

Okay, let's get everybody on this side of the fence so we're out of quarantine

and we don't have to live here for 30 days.

So they won't have any contact with any other animals other than humans, so we

don't cross -contaminate anything.

And after that quarantine period, we'll slowly start the plan to introduce them

to our group.

It's all new to them, to us, so it's a lot of fun.

Things are always changing in the zoo world, and I'm relatively new here to

Tampa, but I've been in the animal care field for over 30 years.

As the general curator here at the park, I do morning rounds.

Just making sure everything's where it needs to be and the animals are out and

the displays look good.

There's a little bit of a zen moment. You have this through to yourself.

If you can't stand in the presence of a zebra, giraffe, or an elephant and not

sort of feel something, there's probably something wrong with you.

I was fortunate enough to grow up on a horse and cattle farm, so I was exposed

to animals early and often.

Got to appreciate working with them.

Rhinos have always been my favorite animal, you know, ever since I was a

And just to now work with white rhinos and Indian rhinos, it's just an honor,

honestly.

If you asked me when I was eight years old if that was going to happen, I'd

been like, you've lost your mind. There's no way.

It's hard not to have a good day when you get started off with something like

this.

That is amazing.

Oh, now he's peeing.

Today I am joined by my friend Obadiah, the Great Plains Rat Snake.

He's cool.

He is pretty cool. I think he's awesome.

You going to go for a morning stroll?

Oh, my goodness.

Hi, buddy.

Wow!

Yeah, so we're going to take Silvio to the hospital today.

We're going to get some pictures of your heart.

Yes, we are. This is just a pre -med for him mixed with his favorite treat,

which is honey.

All right, buddy. We're going to figure this out.

All right.

On Silvio's last exam, we found a new heart murmur. We decided to reach out to

cardiologist who is a veterinarian that specializes in the heart. And he's over

at a specialty hospital close by.

When we get these images this morning, it'll just give us a little bit more of

an answer as to how we're going to move forward with this old man.

So we're just going to take a look at his heart and determine is there is or

there not an issue, and we'll go from there. Yep.

One of the coolest things about medicine is that we know a lot, and that means

that one person can't know everything.

Hey, bud.

And being able to reach out to those other specialists to complete the care

our animals is really important.

Look at him. He's got little Popeye arms. He does.

They're like his forearms are like legit.

Yeah.

I'm strong. Uh -huh. But, man.

I know. Four and a half kilograms and he's winning.

Ow. Yep.

Sorry. Oh, no.

This is like, I was not expecting this. Me neither.

No one tells anyone that this four and a half kilogram Tumandua got the best of

us.

I'm going to get my workout on.

All right, kid.

Philvio does not like restraint, and he is definitely wiggly, trying to move

away from the probe.

I don't want to overly stress him. We absolutely need to get this image.

It's nice to have a patient that there's no chance of being bitten.

Exactly. Literally none.

Zero.

Impossible. There you go.

Based on what Dr. Spears sees with Silvio's heart, we're going to be able

determine whether the heart murmur that we're hearing is something that we need

to be worried about.

I know. You're going to be so mad at me. Sorry.

Sorry. What if we don't restrain him?

What if?

There we go.

The way that we look at the heart is actually through the rib spaces.

So to be able to get a good image, that probe actually needs to see things

through his rib spaces, and that's a very small window for us to actually

through. So it can be difficult to get a good image.

We can try that.

Okay.

Nice.

We had to kind of adjust our plan and do a little bit more of a bribe to get him

to stay still for us.

There we go.

He definitely has mitral regurgitation.

And he has some turbulence in his aorta, which is probably age -related.

So the cardiologist was able to take a full -picture look.

It took some patience, but we were able to get everything and determine that

there is no functional change to his heart.

All right, buddy, we're going to go home and take a nice long nap.

The murmur is secondary to just some age -related degeneration and shouldn't

cause any issues long -term.

All right, bud.

And in addition to that, we got the results back from the lab about the mass

Silvio's wrist, and they did confirm that this is most likely a cyst.

We can just let him live with it.

He's like, I know you got it.

It's really good news that he kind of just gets to live out his life as a

Tamandua and have every day be the best day ever.

Where are you going?

So this should be fun. Hopefully they don't melt too quick.

Yeah.

We've had fun. Thanks for you.

Good morning, everyone.

Today, for the first time, we're going to be doing some large ice pop

with the baboons to kind of beat the heat and cool down a little bit.

Oh, my gosh. It's raining.

The weather is crazy today.

It's a very enriching activity for them because it's changing up their

environment. It's stimulating them.

It's raining, but also sunny outside.

So it's a perfect day for the ice treats because it is pretty hot today.

Oh, boy.

Opening hat fall.

The baboons are super fast. They waste no time when we ship them out. So they

always run right on habitat to see what we put out there for foraging or for

enrichment that day.

Oh my gosh, she's running with it.

But those pads, they shouldn't feel anything. Yeah, that's true.

Baboons, the pads of their hands and their butt actually is built to like sit

really hot rocks. So I think that actually worked to their advantage with

ice trees to be able to carry them for a lot longer.

Maple and Lottie, the two new girls joining our Fongo family have officially

cleared quarantine.

And this is really exciting for us because now.

We're ready to get this bongo herd together.

Yeah, I think they'll be really eager to get out there with the other two,

Blitzen and Binti.

It'll be exciting to see how they all interact with each other.

I'm so excited. Me too.

What are they doing?

Just chilling.

No, I think the plan for today is going to be to get them out and introduce

Binti and Blitzen.

And Binti's going to get some friends for her age, so it'll be nice.

All right, let's do this.

Okay. Wild Africa is filled with palm trees and a lot of thick undergrowth,

pretty similar to the dense forested regions that these animals are going to

found. They're going to love it.

And we'll just go ahead and let Maple and Lottie out. Maple's coming.

We'll let them settle in, and then we'll go ahead and invite Binti and Blitzen

to the party and get everybody introduced and show them their herd

She's coming.

Let's go.

There she comes.

They're both out.

Hi, Lottie. Hi, girls.

So on the other side of the habitat, we have Binti and Blitzen. And you can

actually see them looking through the fence, wondering when it's going to be

their turn to come out.

Let the three of us actually just come over here in the corner. I mean, anytime

we introduce animals, we understand that there's some risk associated with that.

Just want anybody to feel like they're stuck.

And we've managed every variable that we possibly can, but now it's time to let

the bongo be bongo.

Hi.

Are you our mom?

Blitzen is the largest animal out here. You know, she's the queen out here, and

they're part of her herd.

And now we'll see what happens.

Yeah, see, there we go.

Come on, girls.

Maple and Lottie got to learn how to be a bongo, and their bongo coach is

Blitzen.

That's so cute.

They're coming back around.

Always a little sniffing's got to happen, too.

Blitzen's just setting boundaries, so.

You're okay.

You guys think Blitzen, like, is just thinking how she's going to have to be

babysitter for the next, you know, foreseeable future? It's just, ugh.

She's like, Binti was challenging enough, and now I've got two more.

A little play date for everybody, and they enjoy the rest of the day.

Yeah, no, they look really good. I can see Keto in the background.

He's interested in coming out.

It's hard not to sort of think about a year from now or two years from now when

there will be three or four or six babies on the ground all running around,

it started today.

And when you have a critically endangered animal like the eastern bongo

we're able to be part of that breeding program.

It's really important to us. That's what gets us coming back every day.

I think that's perfect for the first day, you know. Now it's time to put some

more baby bongos on the ground. I don't know who doesn't look forward to that,

but that's the next chapter in this story.

tipping tubes for our ring -tailed lemurs.

They have to tip the tubes over. I think Scooch is going to demonstrate for you

guys in order to get the treats out of it.

This is some of our ring -tail's favorite enrichment to interact with.

At this point, we're past the birth window for the lemurs, so we're almost

sure that they are not pregnant.

So, pretty bummed, but at the end of the day, it's out of our hands.

I was honestly kind of disappointed.

It's not what Like, I thought it was going to be, so I have my expectations

too high.

Riley, is it you or is it them?

I know you'd be such a great dad.

Riley's perfect, so it's not him.

We'll get there one day, hopefully.

You two are so cute.

Tip away, Scooch.

In the meantime, we're going to continue to spoil our ringtails.

And we're hopeful in the future the ringtails will figure it out and they

actually have babies to help with conservation.

I see you.

Want an apricot?

He's been getting his bandage changes every three days, and the last time that

we changed it, it's starting to look really, really good.

We are all definitely hoping that his wound looks good and that he can spend

some time in the water today.

How is Tyke this morning?

He's doing good.

He's ready.

He knows what day it is. He's excited for some swim time.

He's going to be excited for that. He's been waiting.

He's gotten.

fragrant recently.

It's definitely time. Just a little bit.

Swimming is incredibly important for the penguin, not only to catch their food

out in the wild, but to keep their feathers clean and in pristine

Hey, little buddy. As a penguin, he really wants to be in the water, but we

to make sure that everything is staying nice and dry for that area to heal.

That's great.

Oh, okay.

So it's looking really, really good. It's starting to get even more

and the start of skin renewal over the top, which is really great.

You're right. Yeah.

Oh, you're not me. Okay. I know you're right. His wound has been

getting better and better. His appetite has been through the roof. He's so

hungry all the time. We walk in with a bucket and he's like, what are you

What's in that bucket? I know it's fish.

This was definitely a life -saving treatment for Tyke. This was kind of our

thing we could really try to help him out.

I'm so excited that he's improving.

Yay, Ty!

Yay, Ty!

I love you, bud.

Oh, my goodness.

Make him swim.

He'll be beautiful and handsome later.

Oh, no!

Tyke, good job.

As soon as he's dry, just give us a call, and one of us will come and re

-bandage him.

Really do some deep cleaning.

That feels so good.

No kidding.

Without jinxing it, I can see the finish line for him, and I'm really excited.

He's going to have a fun time.

I'm glad he's enjoying himself.

He's like, I'm glad too. Yeah, right?

All right, great. Thanks, you guys.

Bye.

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