NARRATOR: A large part of Taronga's activities
are focused on educating the public.
But they are also dedicated
to giving injured wildlife a second chance.
ADRIENNA: We have such a great message
about education and conservation.
Bondi! Hi, kiddo!
I think it's really important
that we give back to the community
and we give back to the animals that we're looking after.
So, making sure we put effort into their wild cousins
is really important.
Hey, kiddo.
(seal grunts) Good.
This is Bondi,
and he is a six-year-old New Zealand fur seal.
Bondi is pretty special
because he was found on south Bondi Beach,
pretty much split open by a shark.
So he ended up in our wildlife hospital,
and after that, after a few months of rehab,
he came down to Seals for the Wild
to help be an ambassador animal for his species
and help talk about education
and conservation for the species.
Hey, up here!
NARRATOR: When an animal can't be released back into the wild,
Taronga will help them adapt to zoo life.
ADRIENNA: When we first start working with an individual,
we spend many, many weeks and months
gaining rapport with them.
They really need to be able to trust us
in order to do what we do with them.
When we get our seals, like Bondi from the wild,
he started learning his husbandry behaviors first.
I can pat him all over his body when he's in this position.
I can also open his mouth and check his teeth.
Good boy. And most of the behaviors we teach them
are derivatives of natural behaviors
that they would be doing anyway.
Woo!
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Seals are just one of the many animals
the marine team take in each year.
JO: We are heading into the penguin exhibit,
and we are going to be weighing
our four Fiordland crested penguins.
NARRATOR: Native to the New Zealand South Island,
the elusive Fiordland crested penguin is a bit of a mystery.
LINDSAY: They're actually one of the rarest species in the world,
and not many people have ever even heard of them.
So we get to showcase them to our visitors
and actually get them a bit of a profile.
Oh!
So we weigh the Fiordland penguins every fortnight,
and that's just to keep a track of how their weights are going.
It's a really good indicator of animal health generally.
We train them to do it.
So they're trained to jump on these scales.
It means that it's stress-free.
They're very charismatic.
In fact it's hard to keep them off the scales.
Hello, mister.
Oh, he loves the scales.
NARRATOR: Of the four Fiordland crested penguins here,
there are three female and one male,
and like Bondi the seal, they all share one thing in common.
LINDSAY: They're all rescues.
They all came to Australia sort of out of their range.
And Dusky was actually found in Perth.
So she went all the way back around.
Here we go.
And she was taken into care
because she had quite a few injuries on her underside.
She'd obviously been attacked by something
and couldn't be released back to the wild.
NARRATOR: And Taronga Zoo is about to receive
its fifth Fiordland penguin.
A female with a broken flipper
is being transferred from Melbourne Zoo.
JO: We're going to be picking up a new penguin.
She has come from the wild, injured in the wild,
which of course is not the best thing to happen,
but it's going to be so awesome to have another one
to join that beautiful family at the zoo.
JO: Woo-hoo! Looks grand. GRANT: That's our pet-pack.
JO: She's arrived! GRANT: She has.
JO: Alright. Hello. OFFICER: Hello.
JO: How are you?
OFFICER: Penguin off the flight from Melbourne.
JO: Thank you very much.
I can just see you through there.
Hello. Hello.
Hello.
(Jo coos)
Are you talking? Yes, you are.
(penguin grunts)
(Jo cooing)
She looks really good.
She looks like she's had a great flight.
Hello, beautiful.
You going to say something?
(Jo cooing)
Alright, I think we should get her into the van.
OFFICER: Yes, you do.
GRANT: Alright.
JO: She's a very special bird.
So I'm glad that everybody
is really taking excellent care of her,
because she's going to get five-star hotel treatment
at Taronga Zoo, I can assure you.
JO: All good, mate? GRANT: All good.
NARRATOR: Being away from the water for too long isn't ideal,
so Jo wants to get back to the zoo
before the penguin overheats.
GRANT: We'll get this bird on the road,
seeing we've got to air condition the van up,
it's been on the road a bit, so.
JO: All good? GRANT: Alright, mate.
JO: OK.
NARRATOR: In 2015, a mysterious virus swept through
the Bellinger River on the New South Wales north coast.
As it spread upstream, it infected almost the entire
Bellinger River snapping turtle population.
KARRIE: This is one of the animals
that had incredibly swollen eyes.
The turtles were turning up blind,
they were pawing at their eyes,
some of them had the skin ulcerated all around their eyes,
so it was really a grisly finding.
Every animal that was infected went on to die.
Probably about 95% of the population was lost.
NARRATOR: But the species was about to be offered a lifeline.
KARRIE: The last group of adult animals
from the last pond upstream
were taken into a captive breeding program
before the virus swept through.
NARRATOR: And today those adult turtles are housed
at Taronga's purpose-built breeding ponds.
ADAM: These are the hardest ones to catch.
In the wild, there's no breeding,
so we have the last 16 remaining breedable adults
in this facility.
This is it, this is the future of this species.
NARRATOR: To date, the breeding program
has been a huge success.
ADAM: Yes. I knew it.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: And currently all six of the female turtles
of breeding age are carrying eggs.
LARRY: So you can see, you know,
the perfect structure of the egg there.
Her eggs look fantastic.
WOMAN: Yeah.
NARRATOR: As they wait for these latest eggs to hatch
in a few months, the previous breeding season's juveniles
are about to begin an epic journey of their own.
ADAM: Today's their second health check,
so if they pass this health check,
means that we can release them,
which is exciting.
So they look quite good.
NARRATOR: After two years of care, the plan is to release
10 juvenile turtles back into the Bellinger River.
ADAM: They're just so striking when they're little.
Really pretty.
NARRATOR: It's an ambitious repopulation plan
that the zoo has been working on
since the turtles first arrived.
ADAM: When we release these around two years of age,
you know, they've still got another maybe 6 to 8 years
of growing before they're even going to be sexually mature.
So, you know, we're starting them off young.
Hopefully they'll navigate the river and learn it quite well
and contribute back to the population,
which would be so amazing to know in the future
that, you know, you're finding turtles
that are from, from these guys, that would be remarkable.
LARRY: Hello. Are we on time or not?
ADAM: You're on time.
NARRATOR: Before they release a turtle,
they all need to be given the all-clear by Larry.
LARRY: So just a quick exam.
Check them over, make sure eyes and mouth are OK.
Nothing abnormal.
Skin's good.
Looks great, actually.
So anything, you know, abnormal, you know,
whether it's a physical abnormality or a skin lesion,
skin infection, things like that would be a problem,
and we'd probably have to reject the animal
from the release cohort.
You always know they're healthy
because they've got a permanent smile, these guys.
Beautiful little face.
122.
That's the biggest one.
NARRATOR: The most important hurdle to clear before release
is to ensure that each turtle is free of the virus
that pushed the species to the brink.
LARRY: So this swab we're taking now is from the eye
and the cloaca, or their bottom.
Just gently rub this over the eye.
NARRATOR: A positive result will mean that the turtle
will need to be removed from the population
for fear of contamination.
ADAM: All the turtles that we were looking at
have good weight.
There's always a little bit of worry
what results might come back from the swab test.
There's always that doubt that something could go wrong.
What you doing?
NARRATOR: Taronga has just received
an injured Fiordland crested penguin from Melbourne Zoo.
JO: Alright, little birdie, here we go.
Alright!
NARRATOR: Hot and stressed from her flight to Sydney,
vet Frances is waiting at the wildlife hospital
to conduct a quick check on the penguin's injured flipper
before she's moved into a much cooler quarantine area.
JO: Alright, here we are.
How are you going, little girl?
Hey.
Yep, I know.
Great, you're going to come out.
Are you ready?
I think she's going to come bolting, so we might have to...
FRANCES: I just want to make sure she doesn't fall off here.
JO: I have her right here.
Oh, baby.
Straight down there.
FRANCES: I'm concerned that she's very hot,
and we need to like spray her down and just let her settle.
JO: Do we want to spray her now, Frances?
FRANCES: Yes. We can just wet her down here.
JO: Good girl. That's better.
Good girl.
Yes, good girl.
NARRATOR: The trip has taken a toll on the penguin,
so to reduce stress Frances wants to put her
straight into a quarantine pool.
FRANCES: So, Jo, shall we pop her in?
JO: Yeah, I think, yeah.
FRANCES: We'll take her down.
JO: That would be really good.
FRANCES: Make sure she settles in OK.
JO: Good girl. Won't be long. Promise. Promise. Promise.
Alright. Aw, look at this, it's brilliant. OK.
NARRATOR: They need to get her into the water
as soon as possible.
JO: I am going to let her out because she really is hot,
and we'll see how she goes.
There we go, little girl.
Coming out?
(whistles)
Good girl. Come on.
There's a girl. Yay. Look where you are.
Come and try it.
Come and try this.
(squawking)
Oh, go in the pool.
The pool is good.
So it may take her some time to feel comfortable.
FRANCES: No, Jo, I feel much happier with her now.
I think she was pretty keen to get out of that pet-pack.
But she looks quite settled.
JO: So she will be up here in quarantine for roughly two weeks
and during that time we'll be just keeping an eye on her,
we'll be feeding her.
NARRATOR: With her temperature back to normal...
JO: And now we need to give her some rest.
NARRATOR: ...all attention turns to her injured flipper.
It's not only seals, sea lions and penguins
that need the water at Taronga Zoo.
There's also the pigmy hippos, the otters,
and the very obscure and lesser-known fishing cat.
MAZ: Fishing cats are quite an elusive species.
Not much is known about them.
They are found throughout Southeast Asia,
from Cambodia, all the way through up to Pakistan even.
Being a carnivore, they primarily do eat meat,
and it ranges from fish to small birds
or small mammals that they can catch.
Even reptiles as well.
They're probably one of the best swimmers
in terms of when it comes to cat species.
And they're very much built for the water.
At Taronga Zoo Sydney we have two fishing cats.
We have our male Jalore and our female Mao.
Mao is a bit smaller than Jalore.
The male fishing cats are a lot larger in size
compared to the females.
So Jalore and Mao have been selected
for our breeding program here at Taronga Zoo.
And Mao hopefully in the future will have kittens of her own.
NARRATOR: But unfortunately for Mao, the carnivore team keepers
have noticed a worrying problem.
MAZ: Fishing cats have this amazing coat.
So the coat is really quite dense and packed.
That kind of creates that barrier
between the skin and the air.
One morning one of our keepers did notice
some fur thinning out on her back.
So we did keep a close eye on Mao,
and then we have reported to the vets,
and the vets have decided to have a general anesthetic
to find out what exactly is going on with that fur loss.
FRANCES: I'm not planning on intubating her down there.
That should all be fine. Yeah.
This morning we're just getting ready to go down
and anesthetize our female fishing cat.
Skin conditions can be due to an awful lot of things,
and in order for us to know why the skin is like that,
we need to do some testing.
So let's head out.
We're taking this fairly seriously,
and we want to make sure that we can keep her
in the best possible health.
NARRATOR: Taronga Zoo is giving the critically endangered
Bellinger River turtle a second chance at life.
ADAM: This one's never going to scratch.
NARRATOR: All juvenile turtles have come back clear
of the virus that drove them to the brink of extinction.
ADAM: So, Chelsea, if you want to bring me over the last one.
NARRATOR: But there's one more important step to complete
before they can begin their journey back home.
ADAM: Yeah, it's just a little bit wet.
So what I'm doing today
is we've just attached some trackers to the turtles.
You know, we've bred these turtles in captivity,
we've raised them for nearly two years,
and we want to get them back into the wild.
So we want to make sure that we can see what happens to them.
Trackers are weighted to their bodies.
So they only weigh a small portion of their body,
so it doesn't affect their swimming.
When we first put them in the water,
the turtles sort of, you know,
they feel, oh, OK, what's that?
Their sort of bodies sort of move slightly,
but then within five, ten minutes
it's not even like they have anything on them.
So they're all painted.
They're all ready to go back, so we're going to go now
and take them and chuck them back in the pond.
If you have a look in the box, Chelsea, it's like we've got
a remote-control car race ready to get going.
Watch this little guy.
Stick your head over there.
See how they sort of just hold them to that side?
CHELSEA: Yeah.
ADAM: So that's why we will do the trackers, you know,
a few days before we release them, just to let them
get used to the weight before they go into the wild,
because there's so much new stuff's gonna go on.
CHELSEA: Yeah, absolutely.
ADAM: So by putting a tracker on and sticking them back
in their pond for a period of time,
it just lets them learn to navigate with it on.
They're all just going to hang down there now.
They're all really comfortable.
They are all like, they don't look stressed at all.
They're moving quite calmly in the water.
They're not swimming erratic.
They're not freaking out, and that's what we want.
♪ ♪
They're the little things that I mark as a win in our program
is like, you're up here every day,
I'm feeding them or I'm cleaning their tubs,
and then, you know, now we're getting ready to release them.
It's pretty awesome.
Next stop, Bellinger River.
Amazing.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: The fishing cat is one of the more obscure animals
at Taronga Zoo.
Unlike the majority of cats,
this vulnerable species has adapted to a life
of living and hunting in streams and rivers.
But keepers have noticed that their female fishing cat Mao
has a problem with her very important fur.
MAZ: She does have a bit of fur loss in some certain areas
on her back, so we are, you know, wanting to make sure
that's nothing too serious.
Hopefully we'll find out what's going on with Mao.
FRANCES: Bring the intubation tray.
WOMAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
NARRATOR: The vets have arrived on site,
but fishing cats, like domestic cats,
are very suspicious of changes to their daily routine.
FRANCES: Frances to Maz Boz.
NARRATOR: So they have to hang back
until keeper Maz has her in position.
FRANCES: I'll go ahead and draw up my drugs,
and you just give us a yell when you're on to something.
So Maz has gone up to the holding area where the cat is,
and he's going to get her into a much smaller cage
so that I can administer the injection.
So, luckily, it's only a very small volume to inject,
which is good, 'cause that will make it easier to inject
and better for the cat.
Once we get the call from Maz,
Liz and I will head up to the holding area.
I'll go in and do the injection,
and then we'll wait for her to go to sleep.
Are you alright walking backwards?
NARRATOR: And with Mao anesthetized,
Francis and her team can start trying to solve this mystery.
LIZ: Yep.
NARRATOR: The Fiordland penguin has been in quarantine
for a week since being moved from Melbourne.
JO: Hello!
Yes, I know that's your sore, that's your sore wing, isn't it?
NARRATOR: While the penguin continues to get
the very best care Taronga staff can offer...
JO: Goodbye, gorgeous.
Goodbye, beautiful.
NARRATOR: ...the one thing they haven't given her yet
is a name.
JO: We're going to head to the office, Mel,
have our coffee at morning tea and all will be revealed.
Ready for the big penguin reveal.
JO: Oh, thanks, mate. WOMAN: So excited.
JO: Yeah, you excited?
Alright.
So our Fiordland crested penguin
has been now with us for one week.
There has been a voting going around, right?
And today is the big day, right?
Not everybody's here, but let's go around the table
and see who voted for what, and that might give us
a bit of an idea before you let us know.
Michelle.
MICHELLE: Um, I voted for Pio.
JO: Bad choice.
KEEPER: Pio as well.
JO: Crystal? CRYSTAL: Tahi.
JO: Yeah. KEEPER: Potato.
(laughter)
JO: Mel.
MEL: I can't remember what I voted for,
but I've been calling her Denise.
(laughter)
JO: Liv? LIV: Pio.
JO: Pio? LIV: Yeah.
JO: Oh. Lindsay.
LINDSAY: I'm Pio, too, must be all the Pio people here.
JO: It sounds like there's a lot of Pio people here.
What did you vote for?
KEEPER: I voted for Tahi.
JO: Did you? KEEPER: Yeah.
LINDSAY: Have you told them what the full name is?
JO: I can't even pronounce it, Lindsay.
Can you pronounce it? OK, so. Yeah, go on.
LINDSAY: So, Piopiotahi is the Maori for Milford Sound,
which is where, one of the places that they're from.
So it was, we can't call her Piopiotahi
for the rest of her life, so it's either Pio or Tahi.
NARRATOR: Over the last week the entire marine team
have had their say on the new penguin's name,
and now the results are in.
KEEPER: Come on.
What shall we call her?
Her name will be... Tahi.
(cheering)
FRANCES: One, two, three.
NARRATOR: Anytime an animal goes under general anesthetic,
the vets take the opportunity to do a complete health check.
FRANCES: So what we're doing right now is at the moment
she's only had injectable anesthetics,
which will wear off fairly quickly.
But we want to make sure she stays nice and stable
and we have control of her anesthetic during the procedure,
so I'm going to put a tube into her airway,
and then we're going to manage her with anesthetic gas.
FRANCES: That's a good fit. NURSE: Nice.
FRANCES: Do you want just to move her up
that end a little bit?
Would that be easier or you got enough room there?
NURSE: No, I'm fine.
FRANCES: We're going to take some screening x-rays.
We're not expecting to find anything abnormal with her,
but that doesn't mean there couldn't be things
that we don't know about.
So it's a good opportunity
for us to get some normal x-rays of her.
We hope they're going to be normal,
and that way we have got a comparison
for, you know, if she ever were to have something in the future.
(beep)
OK.
Make sure we get full thorax.
That should work.
OK, right.
Last one, we hope.
So we've got a nice x-ray here of her abdomen,
the bottom half of her body, which basically shows her liver
and her digestive tract, kidneys and so on,
and this would have been her last meal already gone.
They've got a very quick transit time
through the gastrointestinal tract.
So she's waiting to politely poo that out for us.
MAZ: Get a whiff of that smell.
FRANCES: Fishing cat smell. MAZ: How's she going?
FRANCES: Alright. So, so far, everything looks good.
Now I'm going to look at the reason why we anesthetized her
and have a close look at her skin.
OK, so we can see here that she's got,
she's got a bit of fur missing.
There's still some fur there,
but she's missing mostly these outer guard hairs.
Some of them are a bit broken off.
MAZ: Mao has probably one of the most beautiful patterns
you find on a fishing cat.
She is an absolutely amazing cat herself.
She is a favorite with a lot of us keepers,
so just to see her obviously close up is, is pretty cool
and quite a privilege as well to working with fishing cats.
Not many institutions around Australasian region
have fishing cats, so we're very lucky.
FRANCES: The skin itself doesn't look terribly irritated,
but she's certainly got sort of thinned hair over that area,
so what I'm going to do is I'm going to pluck some of the hairs
out of her back and we'll look at those in the lab.
I'll take a little bit of a skin scraping,
and then just from this worst affected area here
I'm going to take a small skin biopsy.
MAZ: Cool, yep.
FRANCES: And we'll get our pathologist to have a look
at that and see if we can work out why she's losing this hair.
NARRATOR: Taronga is home to over 5,000 animals,
and while the zoo regularly welcomes newborns...
KEEPER: How you going, beautiful girl?
NARRATOR: ...it also has its fair share of elderly residents
who all require very special care, like Rin Tin Tin.
STU: Larry, we initially noticed that his teeth
weren't coming through.
After he'd knocked a tooth off after eating some food,
you'd normally see a little tip of a new tooth coming through.
We didn't notice that,
and that's why we decided to give you a call.
LARRY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like little sort of black stuff in the sockets,
so, yeah, that's abnormal
because they should be coming through.
NARRATOR: Saltwater crocodiles regularly lose teeth
and can go through 3,000 in their lifetime.
But they always have a second tooth sitting underneath.
Mysteriously, not Rin Tin Tin.
LARRY: Yeah, so, it's difficult to know what's causing it.
I mean, he's an older animal.
It could be a nutrient problem, we don't know.
He's otherwise fine.
He's eating well and everything, it's not actually affecting him,
but one option is to give him some vitamins.
Hopefully that'll boost his immune system,
just help him along a bit,
maybe help promote the growth of the teeth.
So obviously he's a very large, very dangerous animal,
so getting the drug into him is a bit of a challenge.
So what I'm going to do is use this pole syringe
so we can inject him from a bit of a distance,
basically giving him a short course of vitamins
to just try and boost his immunity,
and hopefully it will help him grow back some normal teeth.
So it's a very concentrated vitamin made for,
made for large domestic animals, actually, livestock.
So the volume is actually fortunately quite small.
Quite a large needle, though.
NARRATOR: But they need to create a diversion
to administer the injection.
LARRY: So the positioning in here of the food
is really important to be able to get the injection.
So, so I reckon, yeah, just about here.
STU: Just about here, yeah.
LARRY: About here, because I will be standing at the door
here with the bottom closed, and so I just need to get,
as he sort of grabs them and presents his neck, I'll jab.
STU: And I'll just place a few around as well.
LARRY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're ready to go.
STU: Let's go. So if you can do the gate
and I'll stand here so I can communicate with Larry.
LARRY: Yeah, because he'll come over pretty quickly,
and we don't want to miss that opportunity.
STU: One second.
What I'm going to do is just take this lock off.
LARRY: Is he already at the door?
STU: He's at the door.
LARRY: He'll have swallowed that food in seconds,
basically he does it very quickly,
and then he'll start moving away.
So I've got to pick that moment that he's focusing on
swallowing the food, and jab him in the neck.
STU: Are you ready, Larry? LARRY: Yep.
STU: Yep, OK, Michael, open the door. Opening the gate, Larry.
LARRY: Yeah.
STU: Gate's open.
LARRY: OK, so he's coming in now.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: And it's all over in a flash.
LARRY: There you go. Got him.
Needle bent a little bit.
I mean, their skin is very thick,
obviously a lot of muscles in that area,
and he was moving around,
so, you know, it's reasonable that the needle would blend.
This is his third injection.
So he's had a course of injections.
We're not going to give him any more.
So let's have a look there now, just quickly.
He's right at the door, literally right there.
Things happen very slowly in reptiles,
and it'll probably be another couple of months
before Rin Tin Tin grows his teeth back
if it is going to work.
(birds chirping)
NARRATOR: Fishing cat Mao has fully recovered from her exam.
MAZ: It was awesome that Mao was nice and calm.
The whole procedure went very smoothly
and her recovery went really, really well as well.
So after an hour or so, Mao's appetite came back up,
and it was like nothing has happened.
NARRATOR: But it's still an absolute mystery to everyone
what's been causing her hair loss.
NAT: So I'm just putting some hairs from the fishing cat
into some KOH just to digest the hair.
So we can have a look under the microscope.
LYDIA: So, Mao the fishing cat,
we found that she had some hair loss on her back today,
so Nat and I have just been looking at the hairs
under the microscope, Nat has been examining that
to see if there's any evidence
of in particular some kinds of infection.
NAT: So I've got a hair here, just focusing up and down
through the hair just to see if I can see any fungal elements.
LYDIA: So there are a whole bunch of things that could cause
hair loss in a fishing cat like Mao,
and they range from infectious things like little mites
and critters that are climbing around on their fur,
sometime fungus, ringworm, that even people can get.
NAT: I can't see any mites, can't see any fungal elements.
I can't see anything through here.
LYDIA: Yeah, no, I agree.
They look nice and clean,
those edges there of the hair, don't they?
I can't see any fungal elements either.
Certainly not any mites.
Which is great.
We don't want there to be an infectious thing there.
Great news is today absolutely no evidence of any bugs
or critters or fungus,
so we can tell Mao and Mao's doctor, Frances,
that there's nothing to kind of be really worried about
in that regard at the moment.
MAZ: So great news about Mao,
the pathologist and the vets have come back with the results,
that's kind of relieving, but also still there's
a bit of a mystery as to why that fur was thinned out.
She is still under observations and close watches
to see exactly what's happening, but it's kind of a relief
that there's nothing kind of sinister
or there's no complications of her health,
so, yeah, it was great news.
KEEPER: I saw.
NARRATOR: Tahi the Fiordland crested penguin has come
to Taronga Zoo after she was found injured on a beach.
JO: Do you want me to get on the end of that?
Give you a hand?
KEEPER: One each side.
JO: Yeah, might be easier for you.
NARRATOR: She has now finished her quarantine period,
but vets won't clear her for release
unless her injured flipper is strong enough to handle
any aggression she may face when she joins her new flock.
JO: I might actually let her out rather than have her contained,
because when we picked her up from the airport,
she was really super stressed in here.
There you go, darling.
Alright, and just let her wander around, because she was panting.
NARRATOR: Most animals aren't too fond of going to the vets,
but Tahi is taking it all in her stride.
JO: Come on! (whistles)
Come on!
(Jo cooing)
Good girl! Good girl!
Come on. Up here.
Come on. (whistles)
Good girl. Ready? Jump!
Good girl.
NURSE: Two-eight.
JO: Good girl. Yes, good girl.
Good birdie. Come on!
Good girl. Good girl.
Yay.
Come on, Missy.
GABRIELLE: So we're going to wrap her up and mask her down.
So she may object.
JO: Alright, well, she's coming over to you, Liz.
GABRIELLE: So we're inducing anesthesia in her,
and the way we do it is by mask,
and no bird likes to be restrained.
♪ ♪
So, turning her up to three, Liz.
JO: Tahi is looking very relaxed,
and these guys are going to check her out
to have a look at that injured wing,
which is what was the reason that she came into captivity
in the first place.
GABRIELLE: OK, so she's got these kind of funny elbows
that kind of lock in extension.
JO: That's amazing. GABRIELLE: So, feel that.
JO: That's incredible. So is that normal?
GABRIELLE: Yep, that's normal.
Turn her down to one and a half.
JO: Do you need to x-ray her?
GABRIELLE: Yeah, I do.
The lesions on the right wing around her elbow
is what we're looking at.
Because she had an infection there,
and that looks like black holes in the bones.
JO: Yeah, right.
GABRIELLE: So what we're looking for is the black holes
shrinking in size and filling in with bone
so they won't be so black.
JO: Wow.
NURSE: X-ray. X-ray.
NARRATOR: So far, it's been quite an ordeal for Tahi.
Now her future at Taronga
comes down to the results of this x-ray.
GABRIELLE: OK.
JO: Oh, what are you seeing?
NARRATOR: Five years after a virus virtually wiped out
the Bellinger River turtle species,
the big day has arrived.
ADAM: Oh, hello, kiddies.
Emma and I are catching up ten turtles
to take to Bellinger for our turtle release.
There's one.
Oh, you're trying to-- I'll hand them to you.
Today is pretty massive, actually.
It's our second trial release.
This is part of our work.
This is what we've sort of been aiming to do
for the last several years.
To breed these turtles
and then finally get them back into the wild.
You know, so many people are working together
to get them out there, and today is one of those days
where we all come together
and, you know, get to see the fruits of all our labor.
EMMA: Oh, look at their trackers, they're so cute.
ADAM: Look like little remote-control cars.
EMMA: Amazing.
ADAM: To be able to release animals back into the wild,
it's pretty, um, it's pretty awesome.
EMMA: So I've got B-A-F-F.
NARRATOR: Bellinger River is over six hours' drive
north of Sydney...
ADAM: They're going to the country.
NARRATOR: ...and Adam is going the extra mile
to make sure his precious cargo will be comfortable
during the long journey home.
ADAM: We're just bagging up the turtles.
We bag them up in a dry bag to ensure their safety.
If we were to transport them in water,
you know, you can drown them.
It acts like a washing machine when you're moving tubs around.
So the idea is we just keep them nice and cool in a dark place
and they just relax and stay safe.
♪ ♪
I'm contained because it's early days yet.
We've still got a six-hour trip, and it's going to be a long day.
We're off.
NARRATOR: Tahi has finished her quarantine period,
and all that's left now
is to check whether her injured flipper is healing,
so Gabby can introduce her to the rest of the flock.
GABRIELLE: OK.
JO: Oh, what are you seeing?
GABRIELLE: She had an infection that affected the joint
and the ends of these two bones here,
and when she came in from the wild,
she had a big swelling and she couldn't bend her elbow.
Whereas now she can bend it nicely.
The bone's filling in,
and I think that she should be just fine.
She's cleared.
JO: Woo-hoo!
Yay, quarantine is good. OK.
GABRIELLE: Tahi has cleared her quarantine today,
and so the exciting thing for her now
is that she's going to go and meet her mates,
the other Fiordland crested penguins.
JO: Oh, she is moving a lot in there, Parnee.
PARNEE: She's ready to go. JO: Yeah.
JO: When we're doing any type of introduction,
we don't want to have all the birds put into the mix together.
I need to be looking out for aggression and certain things.
There you go.
She has been in quarantine in Melbourne Zoo, then over here.
She hasn't seen another Fiordland for quite some time,
so we don't know how that's going to go.
Going in the pool?
Not yet.
Come on, Missy.
JO: She's obviously feeling a little bit,
ohhh, a little bit concerned about the area.
She is checking out the whole exhibit at the moment.
Oh! Looks like she's going to go in.
PARNEE: Yay!
NARRATOR: It's a great start.
She's taken the plunge.
JO: Oh. How did that feel?
NARRATOR: But the big question is
will she mix with the other penguins?
PARNEE: Never seen this exhibit before,
so there's so much for her to take in.
JO: Good girl! Yay!
Is that good?
Good girl.
Good girl. Yay.
She's come over to us and she feels comfortable with us.
Let's go and have a look if we can see the others.
Dusky! Garry!
She's hanging to get in here,
so I might let her in and let's see what happens.
PARNEE: Sure. OK, this is a big moment.
So, Jo is just about to open this gate.
She is going to be letting Dusky in.
JO: Here we go.
We don't know what's going to happen.
PARNEE: And they're about to meet.
This is their very first meeting.
JO: Can you see another Fiord?
PARNEE: Oh, my goodness.
It seems like they're fairly comfortable with each other,
but we do have to just watch out for any signs of aggression.
NARRATOR: One after the other, new penguins are introduced.
JO: Off you go, Garry.
Hello.
PARNEE: Here we go.
She's just spotted Tahi.
NARRATOR: And to the joy of the keepers,
it seems she's going to fit in just fine.
JO: I'm going to bring Moey and Mamhoe out into the mix now.
Mamas, do you want to go in?
I mean, it's been quite a fast introduction so far,
but because they're showing such calm signs,
why not give it a go?
(whistles)
We will be doing more and more and for longer times.
We won't keep her out in the pool overnight.
We're going to put her in another area,
because we can't see how she's going overnight,
and we want to make sure that everybody's safe.
PARNEE: Yeah, Tahi's got her new family now.
So we'll monitor them really closely, especially today,
and over the next few days we'll be watching really closely
just to make sure there's no signs of aggression.
She loves testing that flow, doesn't she?
JO: She's really enjoying that.
PARNEE: I'm really happy.
It's so nice to see Tahi in the pool,
getting to know her new buddies now.
It's fantastic.
NARRATOR: It's an historic road trip
that may just save a species from extinction,
and the Bellinger River snapping turtles
are almost home.
EMMA: I'm really excited. It's going to be perfect.
ADAM: Oh, you're going to love this, hey.
It'll blow your mind. It's so pretty.
EMMA: Yeah.
ADAM: Today we've traveled up to the Bellinger River.
We're going to release ten
of our Bellinger River snapping turtles.
ADAM: Yeah, sweet. EMMA: They look good.
ADAM: I'm happy, you're happy. Let's go.
They've sat in the car for six hours to get up here,
and now we're going to set them off
and let them start the rest of their lives
in this beautiful location.
EMMA: Yeah, this looks absolutely perfect.
ADAM: Yeah, look at that.
EMMA: It's beautiful.
NARRATOR: It's a bittersweet moment for Adam
as the Bellinger River has become
a place of mixed emotions.
ADAM: This is where the virus went up and down
this river system at speeds that we've never seen before,
just wiping out turtle after turtle.
We estimated we lost close to 4,000-odd turtles
in a matter of weeks; just gone.
NARRATOR: Thankfully, the deadly virus has never returned.
ADAM: We know that they're disease-free.
We haven't detected any disease in these locations.
History showed us that there are Bellinger River turtles
in these particular locations,
and these animals can just go off and live their lives
as natural as possible without human disturbance.
NARRATOR: Five years on, and Taronga's dream
to rebuild the species is one step closer.
ADAM: Do you want to let it go?
EMMA: No, you let it go. You're already in there.
ADAM: Alright.
I get anxiously nervous for them,
because I want them to do so well,
so as I let them go, you just have this connection.
Because I spend so much time with them
and now I'm letting them go to the wild
so they can repopulate and live a life
that we didn't think of a few years ago.
EMMA: Go, buddy.
ADAM: He's going, "No, I don't want to go.
I want to stay with you."
It's alright. You can do it.
EMMA: (gasps) Amazing.
ADAM: That's it.
This is really cool.
EMMA: He's looking around.
ADAM: He's just like edging in, edging in, edging in.
Imagine what's going through its head.
It's like, all this new stuff around me.
It's the biggest pond you've ever been in, mate.
It's amazing.
EMMA: Fend for yourself now.
Look at him, he's so happy.
ADAM: That's it.
EMMA: That's way better, isn't it?
ADAM: That's what I love to see.
Look at him, and he's just like, you know, if you didn't know
he was there, you probably wouldn't even notice him.
He would blend in there so well.
And that's why I like this hole because there's a lot of life.
EMMA: Even just looking around
there are so many little fish and tadpoles.
There is heaps of food here for them.
♪ ♪
ADAM: You know, this, just think it's the first time
they've seen, like, algae like this and those rocks
and little fish swimming past them, you know,
it's like tasting this water would taste so different
from the water back in Sydney, you know.
EMMA: Absolutely.
ADAM: They've got to taste and smell their home now.
Oh, look, now he's just disappearing.
And you've got one over here who's, like, foraging.
He's like, looking, having a bit of a go.
NARRATOR: And then remarkably, right on cue,
up swims a turtle from last year's release.
ADAM: I'm stoked. It's unreal.
This is what we all work towards, you know.
We've been working on this project for so long
and we're putting them out there
and, you know, we're adding to the wild.
It's amazing.
This is the last one.
EMMA: Lucky last.
ADAM: This is Taronga to me,
and I'm so proud of the work that we do.
We always talk about conservation;
we are always talking about
trying to, you know, do it for the wild, and we literally are.
To me it's like a privilege that we actually get to give back,
and you know, as an animal person,
you couldn't ask for anything more.
EMMA: He's home.
ADAM: Look at that. He's just hanging around.
He doesn't want to go anywhere.
I will miss them now we've let them go,
but now they're here, it's a worthy miss.
It's like that they've gone off to live their lives,
and that's a really good reason to miss them.
Prefer missing them because they're now swimming around
here in this, just how it should be.
Captioned by Side Door Media Services