Original subtitles

Ha!

This time.

Go on!

Dr. Michelle Oakley is deep in some musky business.

He's a jerk!

A new life hangs in the balance.

I'm gonna cry.

She's my bottle baby.

Aw! April, you gotta eat!

Wild horse herding takes a techie turn.

Go to left, go to left, go to left.

No We don't want 'em to cross the river!

And an easy rider treads a rough road.

Oh, it looks like a murder scene!

It's the first day of summer in Portage, Alaska,

where Dr. Michelle Oakley and her daughters, Sierra and Maya, are on a mission.

Muskox love!

So he's like, roaming right now?

Yeah.

They're headed to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

to treat two generations of Greenland muskoxen.

Two aggressive bulls have reached the end of their breeding run

and need to be neutered.

But first, Michelle is visiting a little guy

who has yet to reach puberty.

We're gonna go over to the baby.

Hi!

Is his name "Guac," like guacamole?

Cute.

Hi, monster man!

Guac is one of our newer babies this year.

He's about a month old.

Play! Play!

He was born here at the Center

to a bottle-raised mom.

At the Wildlife Center,

sometimes our moms don't know how to be moms,

and because of that, we have to bottle raise them for them.

Um, so that's why Guac is back here,

not with his mom, and not with the herd.

Before joining the herd,

Guac needs his vaccinations,

and a general physical exam to check for any birth defects.Oh, yeah.

He's been doing good on his bottle too? Oh, yeah.

So cute.

Okay. Well, let's have a look at him.

When we get in there,

I'm gonna see if I can get a quick physical exam in,

and then Maya's gonna distract him with the bottle

while I give him a quick poke with the vaccine.

Oh, buddy!

Oh, look at that little. Hi, grump!

Little muskoxy grumpy pants!

What're you doing, handsome?

Oh, my God.

You're super cute.

"I know it."

Are you a boy for sure?

For sure?

Oh, my!

Guac's parents are part of the Center's captive herd,

which has low genetic diversity compared to wild groups.

Though carefully managed by AWCC staff,

congenital birth defects from inbreeding

are a real possibility.

Just wanna feel your umbilicus!

Let me feel that belly button!

So I'm just making sure there's no umbilical hernias,

that the umbilicus is nicely dried up,

no infections, and that feels fabulous!

Oh, my God, you're so ridiculous.

I'm just, also, this is also part of the exam,

I'm making sure there's no cleft palate, which there's not.

He's got a good suckle too.

Yeah! He's got a really nice suckle, yeah. Good strong.

Woo! Now, he can have the bottle!

So, have him come between your legs,

'cause then he can't even see your mom come up from behind.

Okay. Look! Look!

This is where the udder is,

it's down between the legs!

A little distraction with the bottle

should buy Michelle a chance with the needle.

What are you giving him?

Vaccine, his clostridial one for tetanus and all those.

Ooh! You're not that distracted.

Got most of it!

Gonna have to get you one more a little bit!

Muskoxen's normal gut flora contain clostridial bacteria,

but bottle feeding can set up imbalances

that allow the clostridia to take over,

causing dangerous infection.

The vaccine can help Guac keep it in check.

It's okay!

All done! There you go!

Yay! Good boy!

He's gonna lose his mind after this is over.

So everything feels great.

You know, sometimes if there is any concern about,

you know, a tighter breeding,

then you really have to look for these defects

like cleft palate, heart defects, and stuff

but everything looks solid on him!

Yeah. Another booster in a couple months and you should be good.

It's done!

Okay. Let's go play! Let's go play!

Come on! Let's go! Come on.

Guacamole looks great!

He's spunky and grumpy,

just the way a muskox calf should be.

You have to teach him the ways of the herd.

Let's all be a muskox band!

See, we're supposed to protect you!

In a circle! Butts in, everybody!

Oh, he's being part of it! Aw!

He's in the circle!

Oh, my God, how cute! good boy

Soon, you'll be back with the real muskox herd. Woo!

Guac will rejoin the herd in October once he's weaned.

Okay! See you, Guac!

Bye, buddy!

Next, the crew is off to see his bigger,

badder relations in the Center's muskox herd,

two testy bulls in need of a quick fix.

So, we're here to neuter Wrangell and Yukon today,

the Center's big breeding bulls.

So, um, the plan is for two today, right?

Definitely we wanna try and get Wrangell for sure.

Okay. He's the priority.

Um, he's the priority.

So, the Wildlife Center has two male muskox

they are at kinda the top of the pecking order.

We decided that we should castrate the adult males

because we don't need any troubles with inbreeding.

Is he like the breeding bull? Yeah?

Last year, he was.

Last year?

Wrangell has already fathered his fair share of calves,

so it's time for him to pass the torch to new blood.

Do you think you'll have luck getting Wrangell in?

I think he'll come,

they'll come right up for the food. Okay. Perfect.

And then it'll just be a game of Russian roulette

getting him to go back out again. Right. Okay

We have to just kinda see what happens.

We can bait with the grain a little bit.

Come on, Wrangell!

Oh, my God, look at him come running!

Ready or not,

Wrangell and a slew of other muskoxen jockey for the grain.

Just wait, just let 'em all in if they gotta.

Wrangell's coming.

While the herd is chowing down,

Michelle will sedate Wrangell

and then chase the others back to pasture,

but it's no cakewalk.

Muskox are a really hardy, prehistoric species.

They're like a holdover from the last Ice Age.

They can be grumpy at the best of times.

When he comes in here, I'm not kidding,

we have to get out, okay?

'Cause he's a jerk.

Wrangell might attack or escape

if they try to drive the others off now,

so they'll have to wait until he's sedated.

Okay. Shut it!

Okay! Hi! Is this him?

So, he's right next to the fence down there.

The last one?

Yeah.

Okay. Who's this?

This is Yukon.

He'll stay with me and the bucket. Okay.

Now that Wrangell's within striking distance,

Michelle can move in with the needle.

Hi, Wrangell!

I know you know what this is.

I know. I'm sorry.

You're not dumb.

I know!

Did she get him, did she get him, did she get him?

Whoa! Go on.

Let's see how much of that he got.

Woo-hoo! He got it all!

He, he might go down really quick,

he's already doing a bit of a funny.

He's mad at me.

I think I'll try and just get past him.

They have a roar like a lion! it sounds like a lion growling!

They do actually!

They have the same kinda mechanism for a growl,

for a roar, I mean.

In their larynx.

You know how grumpy he is?

Yeah. He was pretty annoyed.

While Wrangell's drugs take effect,

the Oakley women gear up for the procedure.

We got everything for surgery ready to roll, right?

Towels.

There, we were using the black thing.

It's in between the two towels.

Sierra's riding shotgun as Michelle's vet tech,

with Maya assisting them both.

Okay.

Heads up, he's going down now, so.

Perfect!

Yukon! Go on, Yukon!

With Wrangell down for the count,

the rest of the herd must be evicted,

but Yukon has other ideas.

Oh, geez.

We got a problem.

No, you don't!

Leave him be! Shoo!

All right, everybody out!

Shoo.

Out. So now that Wrangell's down,

Yukon's taking that opportunity to kinda step up in the herd.

Muskox are social animals,

and so, if they have a leader

and that leader starts to show a sign of weakness,

Yukon's gonna pick on Wrangell

to prove to the lady folk that

he is actually more fit to be the leader.

Shoo! Out! Get out!

I know what you wanna do,

but you're not doing it!

If Yukon can't be shooed away,

he could seriously injure the unconscious Wrangell.

Get on out! Get outta there!

Here! Here!

Go.

Git! Git, git, git!

Out! Shoo, shoo!

Open it! Come on.

Get out! Come on!

Go on. Get out!

Get out.

Go on!

With Yukon banished beyond the fence,

Michelle can prep for Wrangell's surgery.

Come on. Help me push him up.

Oakley power! One, two, three!

Okay, stop.

We're gonna put his blindfold on.

Go grab the hoof trim kit!

Do the eyes and then we can get a temp too.

Monitoring Wrangell's vitals is crucial

to ensure a smooth surgery with no complications.

Sierra, get that oxygen turned on and running at two.

Where is your butt?

Oh, gross!

hat is the dirtiest skirt I've ever seen!

They have a little tail, as you can see,

but you normally don't see it.

It's sorta like a little rabbit tail or something.

38.2 for temperature, Sierra!

With Wrangell's vital signs stable,

Michelle can get a feel for the task at hand.

They're both there.

Good lord!

Are they monsters?

Well, it's just this hair is so yuck!

He has got some skanky ol' underpants on back here.

He's a dirty boy!

He is, man.

Little bit of cleanup in aisle one to do here.

Right. Start working with them.

Yuck.

While Wrangell's rear gets sorted out by Michelle,

his AWCC handlers are taking care of his overgrown hooves.

You're gonna have to cut that split off.

And making sure his horns aren't a danger to the team,

if he should suddenly twitch or wake up.

Oh, yeah! Tennis balls.

Thank you!

Okay. Put them on the horns.

This one is. That's good!

Can you, can you hand me the lidocaine syringe?

'Cause I'll block these right now.

Thank you.

Here, I'll take it.

So right now, I'm just blocking the testicle

where I'm gonna cut and crush.

He doesn't feel that.

Uh, he got 40 mils total.

With Wrangell feeling no pain,

Michelle is ready to scrub in.

Sierra, you wanna get my gloves out and stuff?

The goal is to make this surgery as sterile a procedure as possible,

as much as you can do that in a muskox pen.

Okay. I'm making a cut!

Everybody ready?

Watch for a jump,

just watch your head there, Jen, for a second.

Let me make a cut

and then we'll see where he's at, okay?

Oh, boy.

So he's not reacting at all, which is all good.

So with these guys,

you take the bottom of the scrotum right off,

and that allows for drainage.

They're way less likely to get infected.

You want it to heal from the inside out.

So, this is the testicle right here.

And right here if you see all this mess going on,

that's a whole whack of vessels in there,

the pampiniform plexus.

And it's basically a ton of huge vessels

all wrapped around each other,

and the reason for that is so that

muscle can let it drop and pull it in

and those vessels can cool

and keep the sperm at the exact right temperature.

All right, so we're puttin' this on now.

In addition to sperm,

the testes also produce testosterone.

Cutting off his supply should soften Wrangell's abrasive personality.

Make sure I don't have any little bit of tissue in there

or he'll still have hormones.

Okay, nut to nut, and, yeah!

And, there we go!

Muskox oysters. Ha!

Wrangell's surgery is half over,

and Michelle preps the next testicle for removal.

You can do castrations closed or open,

and that just, what that means is

whether or not you leave the tunic around the testicle itself;

it's like a little membrane.

And I'm not.

That's the tunic, I'm taking it right out.

'Cause this way, I can see the vessels better,

be really, really confident about my tie and about any bleeding.

The only downside to it is if they have a hernia,

guts can come through that canal,

and they could herniate out on the ground.

But I had a good feel up in there,

did not feel any signs of a hernia.

All right!

It's kinda like, "What's your bigger risk?"

You know? The risk of bleeding,

I think, is higher than the risk of herniation.

Yeah, totally.

Wrangell's blood vessels are securely tied

and Michelle can complete his surgery.

Yeah, I'm doing the second one.

Second ball!

All right. So get ready.

Okay.

Maya, pull up the reversal for me and chop-chop!

Ha, ha, get it? Chop-chop.

Wrangell's surgery was a success

and Michelle can reverse his sedation.

So I'm gonna give him the reversal.

But waking up fully takes time

and his movements may be dangerous and unpredictable.

Ooh! Okay, everybody out!

Put that in the blue tube, Maya.

They have to clear the pen

before Wrangell's hooves and horns start flying.

How will you wanna--oh!

Frick! Damn it!

Wrangell the muskox's castration went well.

I'm sorry, buddy!

But he's flailing dangerously

while coming out of his anesthesia.

Let's get you up!

Watch yourself!

And trying to help him up is risky business.

Darn it! Get out, Jeff!

There. Oh!

With big animals like muskox,

there's only so much a couple humans can do

to try and get 'em back on their feet.

Watch it!

If they're struggling a lot,

it could be really dangerous for us to be in there.

We've just gotta step back,

keep our fingers crossed, and watch from a distance.

Geez, buddy! Why are you so tricky?

We didn't quite get him sternal yet,

so he had a hard time getting himself sternal,

until he burped a few times, so.

It doesn't hurt him at all.

It's just stressful.

And it hurts my heart.

I don't like to see 'em like that.

Feet look way better.

At least he's walking around, like, really well.

That's good.

I'm just glad you didn't get kicked.

Dr. Oakley finished up with Wrangell.

Look at him walking.

He looks like he needs a bag of peas.

So we're gonna try and get Yukon next.

Yukon is another large male who must not be allowed to breed.

Come on, Yukon!

Here he comes! Sucker!

But it's down here in Portage, Alaska,

and at the Wildlife Center,

it likes to rain.

And it looks like it could be a messy one.

Conditions are nasty is what they are.

Stop raining!

Aw, it's getting worse!

No, no, we're gonna probably have to call this.

This is too nasty.

It's not that we're gonna melt or anything.

It's just trying to get an animal down

if it's not like an emergency procedure.

It just adds more risk to it.

When anything gets soaking wet

and is under anesthesia for a while,

then I could set him up for hypothermia,

which wouldn't be nice.

Ah, too much rain!

All right.

Let's just call it.

Too risky!

Yeah.

It's Yukon's lucky day,

as the Oakley crew packs it in

and rests up for their next day's work.

They're headed to the sprawling reindeer farm in Palmer, Alaska,

whose breeding herd is on display for visiting animal lovers.

Put on sunscreen today, just in case.

Oh, it's busy here today!

Oh, yeah.

There are about 150 reindeer in the farm's herd,

but owner Denise needs Michelle's help

with one very special calf

who's been sick for much of her short life.

So today, we're gonna look at my baby, April.

Oh! I'm gonna cry.

She's my bottle baby!

Aw, aw! Aw! We'll help you with her.

And she's struggling, so.

Aw, I'm so sorry!

Yeah. Okay.

Let's bring her around and see what we can do.

That's the one who's been having trouble

like just going on and off the, her bottle,

not feeling like eating.

Uh-hmm. Yeah. Fevers off and on. Yeah.

Okay, okay.

Don't worry, we're gonna help her!

Don't you worry!

I know how, I know how hard it is with those babies

when you put everything into 'em and.

Yeah. It's hard to watch.

So we're gonna go to where, uh,

Denise has the reindeer calves.

Um, they're right behind her house,

so she can keep an eye on 'em.

She's out here throughout the night.

Sometimes, she has 'em in the house.

Hi, babies!

Aw, look at the babies and the babysitter!

I mean, she loves all of the reindeer here,

but when she has to look after the babies that need extra care,

I mean, that's a 24/7 job,

and it's impossible not to get attached to them.

April is the first one there,

with the red halter and the red tag.

The silvery one.

April is so sweet.