(rooster crows)
NARRATOR: Running a zoo of Taronga's size and animal diversity
takes hundreds of people working around the clock.
Some animals are active during the day,
others are awake at night,
and it's a never-ending job keeping all of them fed.
And for the marine team,
that means starting every day at 6 A.M.
KRYSTAL: We're arriving at our office
to get all of our gear ready to start our day,
grab all our boots, radios, and gear,
get ready to check the diary
to see if there's any updates for us
and head over towards our fish kitchen
where we're going to prepare all the food for today
for our marine mammals.
NARRATOR: For every animal at Taronga,
the food is always of the highest quality.
KRYSTAL: We separate all of our fish and seafood into species,
and we basically have thawed it out overnight,
but this just allows it to get a little bit more defrosted
for us to work with.
Most of this fish is used for the seals
but also some for our pelicans and penguins.
NARRATOR: But there's more to keeping animals healthy
than just giving them the right food.
MEL: Now what I'm doing
is actually preparing to put the vitamins for all the animals
into their fish.
So these ones are for our marine birds.
So penguins and pelicans get these small ones,
and these larger ones are made for our seals,
and they're just a multi-vitamin.
Then all we do
is we just slide the vitamin in underneath the gill of the fish
so that the fish doesn't look like anything's different,
and then we just put it to the side
so that we know that that's for those animals.
KRYSTAL: Let's do it.
MEL: Alright, we'll be back.
Yeah, so this is just half of the buckets
that we're delivering today.
These are all going up to our seal theater,
and we have other buckets to deliver
around the section later on.
NARRATOR: Prepping the food is just the first part of a busy day.
KRYSTAL: Good morning, buddy.
NARRATOR: With more than 20 keepers in the marine department,
making sure everyone knows their role each day
is crucial.
KEEPER: We've got no Josie, our volly today.
She's still off with that feral cat bite.
KEEPER: Feral cat bite?
KEEPER: Yeah.
Jo and Mel stores time.
I wrote down 11:30.
Dubbo keepers are coming for a behind-the-scenes
between 11 and 12.
Krystal, little penguin burrow checks this morning.
You guys are on top of that.
That's it. All good.
KRYSTAL: Okay, so let's head on up and check the burrows.
LINDSAY: Yay!
NARRATOR: Today, keeper Krystal is learning how to check
the little penguin burrows for eggs.
LINDSAY: Hi, guys.
So we have minimal disturbance,
we'll get Parni and Liv to feed the majority of the group
while we do the burrow checks.
That means there should be at least one parent out of the boxes
so that there's less disturbance.
They don't know what we're doing while they're eating.
(bell tinkling)
NARRATOR: Taronga breeds little penguins
to share them with other facilities,
ensuring captive penguin populations
are genetically diverse.
LINDSAY: Hey, let's head on in.
We have to be really careful when we're doing the burrow checks.
They're very flighty little birds.
If they feel threatened at all,
they're just going to leave their burrows,
and we obviously don't want them to abandon their eggs,
so we want to give minimal disturbance.
NARRATOR: So far, the penguin breeding season
hasn't produced many eggs.
LINDSAY: Okay, so we'll check burrow two.
NARRATOR: Lindsay is hoping Krystal brings a bit of luck
to this nest check.
LINDSAY: We've got a parent there.
Let's have a little look underneath.
NARRATOR: Away from the gorillas, sea lions,
giraffes, and other high-profile animals,
keeper Paul has spent 30 years
working on one of Taronga's more peculiar collections.
PAUL: This is one of the areas
where we keep all of our off-display invertebrates
or what most people probably think of as bugs.
But the real sort of, I guess definition of it,
is an animal that doesn't have a backbone.
We've got far more species of invertebrate
than there are anything else on the planet,
and in here we've got all sorts of different animals.
We've got some redback spiders, we've got plenty of huntsman spiders,
they're great.
Love having huntsman spiders around the house.
They're fantastic.
Then around here we've got our baby phasmids,
or what people think of as stick insects.
So what we do is we hatch them out here,
grow them up so they're a bit bigger,
and then we can put them on display.
Very cool indeed.
Got a lot of growing left to do on this little one.
NARRATOR: But where some people see squashable creepy crawlies...
PAUL: This is what I really love.
So wait for this.
Check this out.
NARRATOR: Paul only sees beautiful creatures.
PAUL: Have a look at this little beauty.
These are giant burrowing cockroaches.
This one's a male, and I can tell he's a male
because he's got this little tiny sort of scoop there
on top of his carapace there.
These cockroaches give birth to live young.
They only give birth once a year.
And the female will actually look after the young
for up to about a year.
So it's a cockroach that actually has a motherly instinct.
NARRATOR: But the prize invertebrate in his collection
is the Sydney funnel-web.
PAUL: Funnel-webs are definitely an animal that sort of get me in
because a lot of invertebrates
have this real sort of negative association
for a lot of people,
but I'd never pick one up in my hand
because, well, to be perfectly honest with you,
that's just stupid.
I'm aware of the danger there, but rather than fear for me,
I'd say it's probably more a healthy respect for them.
That's probably a better way to put it.
NARRATOR: And like all animals at Taronga,
invertebrates are also entitled to health care,
and Paul has noticed that one of his new arrivals
isn't looking so good.
PAUL: She's going to be uncooperative.
NARRATOR: The question is,
how do you treat a sick funnel-web spider?
Australia has some of the most distinct wildlife on Earth.
KEEPER: You can see he's really starting on the leaves now nicely,
really tackling the big ones.
NARRATOR: Without doubt, one of the most unique is the platypus.
Platypus are native to the east coast rivers of Australia,
and while they're common in Australian zoos,
not one platypus exists outside of Australia.
But that may soon change.
Taronga is planning to send a male and female platypus overseas.
If the pair successfully breed, they'd be creating history.
LARRY: They have historically been very, very tricky animals
to work with and transport.
There's an interesting story where during the Second World War,
actually, Winston Churchill requested a platypus be sent to the UK.
It died before it actually got there,
so there is a bit of anxiety.
For us to be involved with this is very significant.
NARRATOR: And the lucky recipients of two of Taronga's platypus
will be the world-renowned San Diego Zoo.
SAVANNA: We've been working on this project for quite a long time,
and we just have been anticipating this for so long.
NARRATOR: Keepers Lori and Savanna have just arrived from San Diego
to learn all they can about this Aussie icon.
SAVANNA: We're very excited to be here
and can't wait to actually be able to transport him
to his new home.
NARRATOR: They won't have to wait too long,
because the platypus
are scheduled to leave for the United States
in just two weeks.
ROBERT: Well, at the moment over here
we've got two on display and two off display.
SAVANNA: Okay.
NARRATOR: And there's a lot of learning to be done
in that time.
ROBERT: Okay, so in here we have our female.
Come on up.
LORI: We've, you know, done everything we can
on the other side of the world
as far as reading and researching,
but there's nothing that comes close to being here in person
and being able to work with the keepers
that know so much about them.
ROBERT: You would never handle any other platypus like this.
A, she's a girl, so she doesn't have the spur,
but she is somewhat special.
She was hand-raised.
She came in after a really rough start to life.
She was attacked by a dog when she was a baby
and came into the zoo as an orphan
and was the first platypus ever hand-raised,
to my knowledge.
So we had no idea what we were doing.
But you are fed up with being held at the moment, aren't you?
So we'll put you back down here,
and we'll open this door so you can go to work.
Off you go, little one.
Come on up.
LORI AND SAVANNA: Okay.
NARRATOR: The male platypus the San Diego Zoo is receiving
is young Bira.
ROBERT: So, we've got Bira in here,
and he's a really feisty little platypus.
You can see the way he's wriggling around in here.
He is an excitable little brat.
NARRATOR: But males have venomous spurs on their heels,
and one mistake could mean a world of pain for the handler.
ROBERT: Like anything that you're working with
that has the potential to do you harm,
there are good ways of learning and bad ways,
and make sure you don't get spurred.
Okay, one platypus.
So I'll show you quickly before we bag him,
you can see the spurs on the inside of the back legs there.
They're folded up against the femur.
That's the bit you're really watching out for.
Let that slide a little bit more. That's it, a nice deep pocket,
and straight into the bag.
SAVANNA: Beautiful.
ROBERT: We now have one safely contained platypus.
SAVANNA: Okay.
You've been here for quite a while?
- Twenty five years tomorrow. - Oh, my goodness!
- Happy anniversary! - Ta.
Yeah, I wish I could absorb all of your knowledge and experience
working with the platypus.
NARRATOR: Rob's decades of experience make it look easy.
ROBERT: Whoops, there he is.
NARRATOR: But Lori and Savanna have just two weeks to master his secrets.
NARRATOR: It's breeding season at Taronga for the little penguins,
and keeper Krystal is joining Lindsay
to learn how to check their burrows for newborns.
LINDSAY: Okay, so we're checking for chicks in this one.
NARRATOR: After a slow start to the season
they're hoping that today, they finally find some eggs.
LINDSAY: We'll check burrow two.
I don't think there's any activity in this.
Okay, there's a nest in there,
but, uh, yeah, no penguins.
NARRATOR: It's not the start that they were hoping for,
but with 14 other nesting boxes,
there's still plenty of chances for success.
LINDSAY: No, a bit of poo, but no nest.
So what was happening in this last week?
KRYSTAL: So, um.. just a really good nest.
We know that there is a pair in there, Chomp and Drill.
LINDSAY: Chomp and Drill.
KRYSTAL: But no eggs have been sighted as of yet.
Okay, so there's potential for eggs in this one
'cause we've got a pairing,
um, so we'll duck in and have a look.
Whoop, no, so no one in there. That's a great nest.
Um, but yep, no parents, no eggs.
NARRATOR: For the keepers...
KRYSTAL: Somebody is obviously living there,
but it might just be a single female.
NARRATOR: ...today has been one disappointment after another.
LINDSAY: Okay, we've got two parents here.
So we just need to have a little look.
NARRATOR: But finally...
LINDSAY: We've got two eggs. Did you see those?
NARRATOR: ...some good news.
LINDSAY: Okay, so now number ten.
Fingers crossed.
NARRATOR: After a slow start...
LINDSAY: Okay, so we've got a parent there.
Let's have a little look underneath.
NARRATOR: ...the rest of the nesting boxes produce some great results.
LINDSAY: We've still got an egg.
Sorry, matey.
Two eggs.
NARRATOR: But it's the next burrow that gives keepers an unexpected surprise.
LINDSAY: A tricky one to get to.
Okay, so we have...
whoop, very, very protective parent and two little chicks.
Aw.
Okay.
We have 15 burrows.
We have a population of 43 birds,
and to have majority of those burrows filled
with partners and eggs,
not to mention the chicks that are already hatching,
that's a really successful start to our breeding season.
NARRATOR: While there's now plenty of eggs and some new chicks,
there's one nest box that has the keepers concerned.
Two platypus are being sent to an overseas zoo.
It's an ambitious undertaking.
NICK: Platypus don't jump, but they certainly are good climbers.
NARRATOR: One that requires a huge transfer of information
between Taronga and the receiving zoo.
NICK: Before we open up the nest box,
one thing that we want to do is just slowly open it
to ensure that the plat isn't up high.
NARRATOR: For the past two weeks,
two keepers from the San Diego Zoo
have been at Taronga Zoo to learn as much as they can
in the remaining days that they're in Sydney.
NICK: And then we just locate,
locate where the animal is within these chambers.
So it looks like she's down here.
LORI: Restraining a male platypus has some inherent risks,
so it's pretty important that we absorb everything that we can
so that we can adequately train our staff once we return to the States.
NICK: We want to try and grab hold of it quite quickly.
You don't want to second guess yourself.
NARRATOR: While Lori and Savanna are put through their paces...
NICK: There we go.
NARRATOR: ...up at the wildlife hospital...
LARRY: Going to let you do most of this today, Meredith,
'cause you've got to...
MEREDITH: Got to know how to do it when we...
- LARRY: Train. - MEREDITH: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Vet Meredith, also from San Diego,
is starting her intensive training on Eve,
one of the platypus she'll be looking after
back in the States.
MEREDITH: Here's the head.
LARRY: Sleepy enough?
- LARRY: Ooh, she's still pretty active. - MEREDITH: She's still pretty active.
LARRY: Just get her head out
and just pop that little bill in the, um... that's the way.
NARRATOR: But unlike the keepers,
Meredith only has one week to learn everything she can
about this most unusual animal.
MEREDITH: Getting a platypus isn't just like getting a new tiger
from another zoo or shipping a bongo.
A platypus is a totally unique creature.
140 heart rate.
A platypus lays eggs but is a mammal,
has this bird-like bill,
which it uses to actually see underwater.
And this is where a lot of the little pores are
for their sensing, right?
LARRY: And along the edge as well.
That's a very sensitive area.
I mean, you know, they are really just a cross
between a beaver and a duck, really, so...
MEREDITH: With some lizard thrown in for good show, yeah.
You don't learn about platypus veterinary medicine
when you're in university.
It's something that we can only really learn
from those who have learned before us.
LARRY: So, see how she's got food in her pharynx there?
MEREDITH: Yes, and that's--
LARRY: So that's, you know, quite normal
that they'll store some food in their cheek pouches.
NARRATOR: There's plenty of pressure on Meredith to take it all in.
MEREDITH: Okay, good saliva.
NARRATOR: Once back in the U.S.,
she'll be the only Taronga-trained platypus vet
in the Northern Hemisphere.
LARRY: It's quite a big milestone to send platypus outside Australia,
which is a big event in its own right.
And actually Meredith did a lot of homework
before she even got here,
which is fantastic in terms of her preparation for this,
and, of course, she's absorbing as much as she can
while she's here with us.
MEREDITH: So the eyes are really quite small,
really, considering.
LARRY: Yeah, tiny little eyes, very tiny eyes.
So they don't use vision at all
to navigate or detect their food underwater.
That's all done through the electro and mechanoreceptors
in the bill.
NARRATOR: It's a solid start to her education.
LARRY: It will be interesting to see her nails.
MEREDITH: They're the best platypus nails I've seen all week.
Quite a lot of excitement and quite a lot of work
and a bit of stress
to make sure that these animals are going to thrive
and do great under our care.
NARRATOR: And not surprisingly,
the enormity of this project is sinking in.
LARRY: Alright, there you go.
NARRATOR: Keeper Paul has a problem.
A new edition to his invertebrate collection,
a female Sydney funnel-web, is unwell.
PAUL: She's got these little tiny cream sort of colored spots on her.
These are little mites that we quite often see
with the wild funnel-webs that get brought in.
NARRATOR: So it's up to vet Kimberly
to give this very venomous spider a once-over.
- KIMBERLY: Hey, Paul. - PAUL: Hey, Kimberly.
KIMBERLY: As vets, we work with all of the animals in the zoo,
from the big elephants all the way down to the invertebrates.
So that includes the spiders.
- That is a big funnel-web. - PAUL: It's not a bad size.
KIMBERLY: And anytime we get a new funnel-web spider
or any spider into the zoo,
we examine it before we add it to our collection.
NARRATOR: Extra care is needed when examining this spider.
She has a bite that can kill a human within 30 minutes
if left untreated.
KIMBERLY: I'm not afraid of spiders. I completely respect them.
But he's really good at handling these venomous spiders
so they're not going to hurt me.
PAUL: As you can see, she's got these mites on her,
which we find fairly common with the wild funnel-webs that come in.
KIMBERLY: Yeah, she's got a lot of mites on her,
more than we typically see.
Yeah, a few more than we normally see for sure.
KIMBERLY: Okay. She's got all of her legs. Can you have her stand up a little bit?
PAUL: Yeah, try and get her to... There we go.
KIMBERLY: She's definitely got her fangs, doesn't she?
PAUL: She's actually been quite relaxed, all things considered.
KIMBERLY: Well you're so good at handling them. I'm glad you're here.
I don't put my hands in there.
PAUL: No, and why would you?
KIMBERLY: So from a veterinary perspective,
I'm looking if the spider looks robust, in good condition,
if it's got all of its legs.
But what's going on with her abdomen?
PAUL: Oh she's got... looks like a bit of a blister there.
KIMBERLY: She does. It's a bit white on the left side.
We don't know what causes that in these guys.
PAUL: We have a theory.
Just over time, it seems to be stress-related.
KIMBERLY: Oh, yeah.
So you think you're seeing these blisters
come up from spiders that are handled too often?
- PAUL: Yeah, yeah. - KIMBERLY: Okay.
Be good to aspirate her,
and we can look for viruses, look for bacteria.
PAUL: Okay.
KIMBERLY: But for now I'm going to leave her in your hands
to take care of the mites,
and let's keep her in a quarantine situation
until we're happy with her.
- PAUL: Not a problem, can do. - KIMBERLY: Alright.
Paul has his little task of brushing off the mites,
making sure that they're all off of the spider.
So we can't really use any kind of insect control
because we don't want to kill the spiders as well.
Well, I'll leave you to it.
- PAUL: Thanks, Kimberly. - KIMBERLY: Thanks, Paul.
No, I'd be happy to do that, but, yeah, that's Paul's job.
(laughs)
I'm going to go off and look at some other animals in the zoo.
NARRATOR: Keepers Lindsay and Krystal have reached a nesting box
that they know from previous checks contains eggs,
but they may not be fertile.
LINDSAY: Okay, so these ones are overdue hatching,
so if they haven't hatched now, I'll take them.
NARRATOR: Penguins who sit on unfertile eggs
won't breed again,
so Lindsay needs to intervene.
LINDSAY: Both parents, beautiful nest.
Sorry, guys.
Yeah, so I'm going to take the egg.
Oh, gosh, they're normally more protective than that.
KRYSTAL: I guess maybe they know
that something's not quite right.
LINDSAY: Yeah, I'd say it's not fertile.
Um, but we'll check it downstairs. - KRYSTAL: Yep.
These eggs, they are way overdue hatching.
Same with these ones.
We give them a little bit longer to see if they might hatch,
but then we take them because they're just going to keep sitting
and nothing will happen.
NARRATOR: To be absolutely sure,
Lindsay conducts a light test on the egg.
Okay, so have a look at this one,
and, yeah, it's as I expected.
There's a yolk and a bit of egg there,
but there's no development.
You're looking for membranes and sort of red vessels
and things like that,
but there's nothing there, so, yeah, infertile unfortunately.
Look at the others.
Yeah, so same there again.
Hopefully by removing those eggs, they'll mate again
and then produce some more eggs.
It's still early enough in the season for them to have another clutch
so we'll give them another go.
It's not unusual.
They are new pairings as well, so sometimes it can take them a season
to kind of work things out with each other.
Um, so even if they're not successful this breeding season,
it's likely they'll pair again next season,
and hopefully we'll get chicks then.
(penguin cooing)
NARRATOR: A new arrival at the zoo,
a Sydney funnel-web, has a mite problem.
And it's keeper Paul who has to remove the tiny mites by hand.
PAUL: Okay, what I'm going to do now
is I'm going to get the spider out here onto the bench
so I can start getting some of these mites off.
Being a spider, of course,
they're not necessarily always that cooperative.
So what I'll do is once I get her out, she should just sit there like that,
and if she decides to move, what I can do is just annoy her like this.
And when she feels threatened, she's going to sit up
and she should just stay like that.
NARRATOR: But no matter how comfortable Paul may be with funnel-webs,
he still leaves nothing to chance.
PAUL: The reason I'm doing this on a nice clean bench like this,
you got a nice big white bench, which means I can see what's going on.
She's got nowhere to run and hide,
the bench is nice and slippery, which makes it a little bit harder
for her to get any sort of traction to get any real speed up,
so it's a lot safer for her and me.
So what I'm doing here,
I just get a little bit of water on my paint brush
and brush her.
And what happens is
these little mites get caught in the water droplet there,
and I can literally just wash them off her like that.
She's being quite relaxed,
which is a little bit of a surprise considering what's going on here.
These mites, I've been led to believe, are not necessarily parasitic,
but one way or another, it's got to be a little uncomfortable
for her to have all these things climbing around on her.
It's really hard to see exactly how many are on there.
A bit of a rough guess, I'll say there have to be at least a hundred.
Having all these things crawling around on you,
it's got to be annoying.
But now I've pretty much got all the mites off
that I can get for the moment anyway.
So what I'm going to do is I'm preparing a home for her...
with some fresh peat moss here.
I'm just going to get this bit of paper towel in here,
make it nice and damp for her.
They need to stay cool and damp in order to survive.
So it just means that having the paper towel in there,
she'll make a bit of a home under it.
So if I do need to check her out or anything like that,
I can do it with as minimal disturbance to her as possible.
And there you go.
She's all ready to go back and join our collection.
Unfortunately she still has some on her, so it's going to take at least another go
to try and get the rest of them off,
but if nothing else, she's going to be a lot more comfortable.
She's definitely going to be a lot happier now that they're gone.
NARRATOR: In less than a week,
Taronga is going to make history
by sending the first breeding pair of platypus overseas.
Keepers Lori and Savanna
have been at Taronga for the past two weeks,
learning how to handle this cute but dangerous animal.
SAVANNA: A great experience.
Yeah, so this is our last training session with the platypus.
KEEPER: Do you want to just check that he's in the box first?
And then we can grab our equipment to do a weigh.
SAVANNA: And he is inside.
We are now getting ready to head off to the United States.
We're heading home,
and then eventually they will be joining us.
So I'm picking him up, and I'm switching positions.
I'm removing this towel.
I'm keeping the spurs away from my mate's face,
and I am...
KEEPER: Bag over the box. SAVANNA: Bagging.
KEEPER: Perfect.
SAVANNA: Alright, we're twisting the top of the bag,
securing it with a rubber band.
LORI: And holding him away from my body.
KEEPER: Yep, excellent.
So that is a platypus in a bag,
ready to be weighed or transported.
SAVANNA: And we're aware of where his head is
from the movement.
So when I replace this platypus into the nest box,
I'm going to make sure that he has an easy exit
so that he's comfortable.
KEEPER: Yep, so the face will be pointing away
and towards the opening.
SAVANNA: And I am removing
the pillow case gently.
KEEPER: Perfect. Nothing else left to teach you.
(laughing)
SAVANNA: Yes, yes. We passed platypus boot camp.
(laughing)
KEEPER: I think our platypus are in very capable hands.
SAVANNA: We're very grateful for the collaboration
and the camaraderie that we've gained
while we've been here at Taronga.
LORI: Yeah, we just can't wait to see them in San Diego
and to see them in their new exhibit, their new facility.
We hope that they're going to love it,
and now that we know them as individuals,
we feel pretty confident that they're going to be happy
- over there with us in the States. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: Eastern Australia
is experiencing one of the longest droughts on record,
with temperatures regularly breaking 40 degrees Celsius.
And at Taronga's Western Plains Zoo,
keeping the animals comfortable in such brutal heat
is a huge challenge.
While the three female Asian elephants and their calf
cool down with a swim,
zookeepers Christina and Stephanie
have another heat-beating surprise for the two young bulls.
CHRISTINA: We have two Asian elephant bulls.
Lookchai is ten years of age,
and he was actually the first Asian elephant born in Australia.
And we have Patihan, who followed a year later.
So they're pretty much like brothers.
They've grown up together,
and they spend four times a week in this front paddock.
At the moment, I'm putting out some spices.
It's a part of our enrichment program.
Elephants are natural foragers,
and their sense of smell is about eight times stronger than a dog,
so they'll forage with their sense of smell.
The boys will pretty much find this spice in no time,
but we try to hide it in little spots,
make it a bit challenging for them as well.
NARRATOR: But a three-ton elephant
needs more than a bag of nutmeg to keep it going each day.
So in the wild,
elephants have to eat up to 100 kilograms of food a day.
But because we give them higher nutrition, such as hay,
they only need to eat about 60 kilos a day here.
So we just put up their hay net so it's above their level,
and then they can eat it
like they would eat high trees in the wild.
NARRATOR: But the biggest treat of all, especially on such a scorching day,
needs to be put out last.
CHRISTINA: So we're just putting out some ice block enrichment today.
Okay, so we'll just place them on these three rocks.
And we'll try to put maybe two on top of each other as well.
Every single week on a Friday, we go collect from a juice store in town.
It's just pulp and left-over fruits and vegetable
that we add water to, and then we freeze it.
This one has watermelon in it and also banana peel,
and it's definitely a favorite.
A great treat on a 40-degree day.
The first thing that they do
is pretty much check out their whole enclosure
and find all the yummy treats that we may have hid for them.
Our Asian elephant Patihan is going about and exploring.
He's, um, foraging.
He'll wander far and be like,
"Did they hide anything here?
I'll get it first."
NARRATOR: While the two bulls get on well,
there's still a social hierarchy.
CHRISTINA: He wants to get the best of all the foods,
and Lookchai is a bit less dominant so he'll just let Pati have first dibs.
And it happens in a herd as well, in the females,
there's a dominant female who's the matriarch,
and she gets first dibs of all the food.
NARRATOR: But on such a hot day,
it's the ice blocks that get the most attention.
CHRISTINA: The elephants absolutely love the ice blocks.
The elephants here, they weigh about three tons on average.
Sometimes they can't break it, and they use their whole weight
to try and break it with their foot.
If they get frustrated, then they just slam it on the ground.
NARRATOR: While Dubbo are dealing with the heat
in their own way,
back in Sydney...
- NICK: Hello, how are ya? - ROBERT: Good, mate.
NARRATOR: ...platypus keeper Nick has a temperature problem of his own.
NICK: So this is our second box, platypus box for Eve, hey?
Yeah. That's brilliant, mate.
It looks so good.
NARRATOR: He's had to come up with a way to safely transport two platypus
halfway around the world.
NICK: One of our biggest concerns for the platypus for this trip
was just making sure that we keep our temperatures
below that 20-degree mark.
It's huge, mate.
We've never sent plats in my time before overseas.
Yeah, so this isn't just your typical transport box.
This actually has three layers of reflective foam within it
to try and keep the ambient temps from outside
without getting in.
We obviously did have to try and address the airflow with that.
Because we've got such an insulated box, we had to make sure
that we had enough air flow throughout the crate
to ensure that the platypus would arrive 24 hours later doing well.
NARRATOR: Now they have to get the platypus
used to their temporary home.
NICK: Yeah, push forward.
Yep. That's great.
That's good there.
Yep.
So now we've just finished installing
the transport box for the platypus, for Eve.
So Eve has just come back from her 72-hour pre-shipment exam,
and our vets have deemed her as suitable for travel.
Her condition is great.
Her tail volume is really good, she's got a great body weight.
So now the next step
is to just pop her into the transport crate
for transitioning,
so she'll scent it up, she'll make it her own.
It means that on the day when we actually come along,
close off this slide here, basically it's no different
to just being locked in her nest box for a little while.
So it is ultimately going to be
a very comfortable space for her.
So I'm very confident that we've done everything that we can.
I don't think we've ever put as much thought
into a transport crate before.
So certainly on the day, we'll give one final check
just to make sure that she's tracking okay,
give her a once-over, close the box off,
and we won't see her again until the other side.
NARRATOR: The platypus wasn't born to fly,
but that's all about to change.
(penguin calling)
NARRATOR: This week's penguin nest checks are nearly done.
LINDSAY: Oh, cute.
Such a darling.
That looks like one chick.
- KRYSTAL: One chick? - LINDSAY: Yep.
NARRATOR: And the breeding season is going from strength to strength.
LINDSAY: Oh, hello, bubbas.
So two really good-size chicks there.
Same sort of size as well.
Sometimes one's a lot smaller and not doing,
you know, not getting as much food.
They usually catch up, but they're doing really well.
So we'll leave them alone.
`So we have two new chicks...
KRYSTAL: An extra egg.
LINDSAY: An extra egg, an egg left to hatch,
- another burrow left to hatch. - Yep.
So, um, yeah, we're doing really well.
- KRYSTAL: Good season. - LINDSAY: Good season.
- KRYSTAL: Really good season. - LINDSAY: Excellent.
NARRATOR: The first chicks to hatch this season
are already starting to explore their new home.
LINDSAY: So we're in our penguin creche,
and this is an area that we use when we've got little chicks
that we need to teach to feed from us.
- Ooh. - KRYSTAL: Jeez!
- LINDSAY: Out you come. - JO: Little snatcher.
LINDSAY: Come on. Come on. That's it.
JO: Whoa.
LINDSAY: We want them to come out and be comfortable with us.
We hand-feed them every day
because it's a good way to health-check them
by getting them to come to land and feed from us.
And you can see it's still got
its fluffy little feathers around its face there,
and once it loses those, there we go,
it will be ready to go out into the exhibit
and swim in the pool for its first time.
So you can see that fluff around its neck,
and that's its juvenile baby feathers basically,
and you can see that beautiful adult plumage
that has come through there,
those beautiful blue feathers on the back.
So the fluff is not waterproof.
So once that's all gone, he'll be ready to swim.
So, the average adult penguin weighs a kilo, right?
This guy, when he came out of the burrow, he was 1.3 kilos.
In all my 23 years,
I don't think I've ever seen a penguin chick that big.
LINDSAY: Yeah, amazing.
- JO: That's huge. - LINDSAY: 1.3. (laughs)
Once they've accomplish feeding really well from us
and they've lost all that down,
then they'll go out into the exhibit and become adult penguins.
So it's a really fast growth rate.
These guys,
they're eight weeks of age when they go out there,
and so they're close to that at the moment.
NARRATOR: With feeding school almost done...
JO: Oh, that's excellent, Linds.
LINDSAY: Alright.
Are you going to stay out? Yes.
JO: Oh, that's fantastic.
LINDSAY: Okay, back in.
NARRATOR: Swim school is just around the corner,
but they may need some convincing.
JO: Come on, little one.
NARRATOR: It's the day of the big move.
NICK: How are we for time?
Ten to. Yeah, we gotta move.
NARRATOR: Two platypus are being transferred
from Taronga Zoo to San Diego Zoo in California.
NICK: Because of the size of the crate,
we actually have to come out through the back way here.
TONY: We have to come out through the backdoor, unfortunately.
Hopefully they're both in their nest boxes already
that they've had a bit of time to get used to.
NICK: Alright, so that's great. So he's in there.
NARRATOR: For keeper Tony, today is especially important
as he'll travel with the platypus
on their history-making journey.
TONY: I'm feeling pretty good, actually.
You know, obviously tense.
There's always going to be tension,
but I'm feeling quite confident.
NICK: Just put this end forward.
TONY: I'm actually more calm than I expected to be, to be honest.
NICK: Yeah, that's perfect.
So she's just sitting under the towel there.
I won't overly disturb her, but it's fantastic.
I think, you know, she just spent the night in the pool,
she's eaten at least three yabbies in there
and I'm sure a whole heap of mealworms.
So I think it's the best start possible for this trip.
You good?
NARRATOR: But packing the platypus is the easy part.
NICK: Alright, mate, let's get to the airport.
NARRATOR: Now all the platypus have to do is survive the flight.
NICK: Lift up. Lift up.
TONY: What we're going to do is put the animals in the forward hold...
- Yeah, yep. - ...in the doorway,
so we've got access to them.
The animals will go in last, so they'll be first off.
NICK: First off. Yeah, that's perfect.
It's absolutely fair to assume that a platypus should be in water,
but in actual fact, they'll spend 13 hours easily asleep in a burrow
as part of their normal day.
So the fact that we're extending that ever so slightly,
we're not concerned about.
We've set those transport crates up for Eve and Bira
exactly the same as their nest boxes are
that they've been living in for the last few years.
Alright.
Okay, that's good.
I'm happy with it.
NARRATOR: While Nick says his goodbyes...
on the other side of the globe,
Lori and Savanna are waiting patiently
to say "g'day."
Oh, we can't wait.
Yeah, we're getting very excited for sure.
Things are starting to come together,
and our facility is looking good,
and we're eager and ready to receive them.
SAVANNA: We've been designing a habitat for over two years now,
and we're very excited about having them introduced to that habitat
and make sure that they're comfortable and enjoying it.
And we can't wait to see them
swimming in the area that we have for them.
We have food ready, temperatures are set,
the lighting's all ready for them,
so, yes, we just need the animals.
(both chuckle)
(bell tinkling)
LINDSAY: Out you come into the big wide world.
(whistling)
NARRATOR: It's been eight weeks since the first little penguins hatched.
LINDSAY: So, Tasty and Haloumi are our new chicks,
and they're doing very, very well.
Don't go back in.
They're so used to being in the creche.
It's their safe place.
But it's time to grow up.
Come on.
NARRATOR: They've lost their baby coat
and are now fully waterproof.
So, the next milestone in their development
is to go for their first swim.
LINDSAY: They're both new chicks, first time out.
So you can see they're looking around,
and I'll just encourage them into the water.
They'll feel safe in there.
Go on, little ones.
So we'll really have to keep a close eye on them today,
just make sure that they're able to get in and out of the pool,
that they don't get picked on by any of the other penguins,
because they can do that sometimes.
NARRATOR: And when a penguin hits eight weeks old,
they're instinctively drawn to water.
LINDSAY: There's so much for them to take in.
I mean, this is the first time they've seen the whole world,
the big wide-open sky.
So they're doing really well, though.
NARRATOR: While Haloumi is straight in,
Tasty isn't quite as sure of himself.
LINDSAY: So Haloumi is speeding around, having a great time.
Tasty is a little bit more nervous.
NARRATOR: But with a gentle bit of encouragement...
LINDSAY: Come on, little one.
NARRATOR: ...Tasty finally joins his sister in the water.
LINDSAY: First swim ever.
It's amazing, isn't it, how they just know what to do?
Just instinct. Fantastic.
So you can tell they're a little bit more uncoordinated.
It's their first time, so they're just finding their flippers,
getting used to the water, getting used to diving deeply.
Yeah, look at Haloumi go. Amazing.
I think she's loving it.
And Tasty is getting really into it. Look at that.
I love it when they go for their first swim.
Out on land, you know, there's so many things going on
and birds of prey and things, so that water is their safety net,
and of course in the wild, that's what they do.
So they come out of their burrows,
straight to the ocean, and they spend days out there.
So it's been another really successful breeding season
here at Taronga.
We've had eight chicks so far.
We've got another probably eight on the way.
So a huge bumper season for us.
Our parents have done an amazing, amazing job.
NARRATOR: It's a great start for these little penguins.
Some will continue to call Taronga home
and some will be sent to other zoos
to boost their breeding programs.
San Diego Zoo is a home away from home
for many Australian animals.
Now, after years of preparation,
the only two platypus outside of Australia are coming to join them.
MAN: You want to set them on top of that box?
LORI: The fact that platypus are here
and outside Australia for the first time in 70 years
is a pretty significant experience
for all of us to be a part of.
It's taken a lot of collaboration between our facilities,
and it's been a lot of work to make it happen,
but we're so thankful that it has
and that they're here now and enjoying this facility.
NARRATOR: Bira and Eve have been in their travel packs
for nearly 20 hours, and vet Meredith is impressed
with how well they've handled the journey.
MEREDITH: His condition is beautiful.
Yeah? Excellent.
NARRATOR: And they quickly settled in to their new surrounds.
LORI: This is a species unlike any other
that we've ever been able to exhibit for folks in America,
and this facility has a lot of features
designed to kind of optimize their welfare
and our ability to care for them.
So we have a pretty state-of-the-art life support system
to maintain water qualities.
We have a pretty elaborate lighting system,
so we're able to reverse cycle them
so that we create a twilight nighttime event for them
during our daytime
so that it enhances the opportunity for people to be able to see them
during their active hours.
Bira really seems to love being in here in this middle pool.
Yeah, it's been a long, long effort,
and it's great to be on the other side of it now,
to have them here, to have them healthy and safe
and happy in their environments, and now the energy is definitely rising.
You know, the anticipation is building
that we're soon going to be open to the public
and able to share them with the world.
NARRATOR: But they didn't come all this way just to be looked at.
SAVANNA: I've seen both of them get up several times on the logs.
You're right, the hollow-outs are working perfectly.
NARRATOR: The entire platypus project is part of a much bigger picture.
LORI: It's an extraordinary, just, honor and of course responsibility for us
to be able to share their conservation message
and the conservation message of Australia
and how comparable that is
with the conservation message that we have here in California,
how we're facing similar threats, even on opposite sides of the world.
I think having the platypus here,
they're going to be great ambassadors for that message
and to gain awareness and to draw people in to learn about
the threats that all these animals are facing.
Captioned by Visual Data Media Services