All language subtitles for Taronga s02e14 A Bugs Life

Sydney Harbour is home to one of the
world's most iconic zoos, Taronga.

Everyone stand as far apart as possible.

But never before... Make sure you've got
your mask on. ...has it faced a year

with its many monumental challenges.

It's really hard to see because I'm
fogging up.

Attaboy, Jim. Nearly home, mate.

The teams across both of Taronga's
zoos... Open.

...meet every challenge head on. And our
cameras are there.

Every step of the way.

On this episode... We're going to put
our male and our female together today

hopefully have them mate.

From Huntsman Spiders... Here we go,
little one.

Please be kind to him.

...to Parrot.

Hopefully they're giving each other a
bit of a lesson in the birds and the

Tasmanian devil to zebras. Gee, it looks
like Mum's attending him really well.

Yeah, he has his seventh foal, so pretty
well -intruded as to what goes on. It's

an all -out love fest right across
Taronga. All right, so two girls and one

And who let the alpacas out?

Whee! Good job. To these three boys,
it's a walk in the park.

The best part of the day. Yeah.

One of the most dramatic differences
between Taronga Zoo in Sydney and

Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo is space.

And keeping all those animals healthy
when they're spread out over almost 400

hectares demands a different approach to
veterinary care.

Domestic animal vets in the city tend to
see small animals. A rural vet... A

large component of their practice is
hoof stock.

Many of those patients are seen in situ,
out on the property, looking at their

animals in the context of the groups in
which they live. You know, they're

looking at herds of animals, thinking
about herd health, which is a

part of what we do.

And today, that's exactly what Senior
Vet Ben is doing.

I'm working as a vet in the context of
an open plain zoo.

Some days, going on morning rounds is
just like going on safari.

And keeping with the safari theme, this
morning Ben is checking in on a recent

addition to the African Animals
Precinct.

Brooke. Hi, Ben. How are you going?

Good, how are you?

What do you say? There he is.

He's pretty cute.

Well, he looks pretty nice on spec.

Yep, so he's four days old now. Yep,
okay, no worries. And it looks like

attending him really well and he's
sticking by her, isn't he?

Yeah, she's really confident.

He is her seventh foal, so she's pretty
well in tune as to what goes on.

So we came in in the morning on a Sunday
and she was really clean. We couldn't

find any placenta. Oh, okay, no worries.
He was really clean and up and moving.

So we assume that she gave birth pretty
early, in the early hours of the

morning. Yep. Being that experienced
mum, she's cleaned everything up pretty

well.

I mean, they're all as relaxed as can
be.

Just another day, just another foal for
the rest of them.

Our zebra group is managed naturally.
The stallion runs with the mares.

He serves the mares. They fall pregnant.
They give birth, all within the context

of the herd. And that's just the way we
want it. You know, we want these animals

to develop naturally and to acquire all
of the life lessons that go towards

making them a behaviourally normal,
content zebra.

From one herd animal to another. But
there's a lot more riding on

breeding this lot than the zebra.

Scimitar horned oryx are a desert
adapted antelope that are critically

endangered. In fact, have been extinct
in the wild up until recently when some

small groups were reintroduced into
their range state.

Ben's dropped by at Oryx Keeper Roger's
request.

G'day, Rog. How's it going? Good, how
are you? Yeah, very well, very well.

Roger has asked Ben to check on the body
condition of the herd.

He's worried they may be enjoying the
good times a little too much.

Gee, it's looking green up here.

It's easy at the moment.

This time last year, it was horrendous
up here.

It was probably more desert -like where
oryx would naturally occur, but this

year we've had to think about diet
specifically.

Just due to weight gain, there's so much
grass and natural forage up here for

them. We've cut back all supplement
feeding, bass and pellets, which is

on their zinc.

But their body condition from here looks
great.

It's almost too good, isn't it? Yeah, a
little bit.

Well, they're certainly maintaining
their individual distances today.

Vets always give every animal in the zoo
a little bit of that.

Nervous edge.

Yeah, no, that's it.

We all know you guys love animals, but
the animals don't necessarily all love

you.

With his morning paddock rounds
complete, Ben heads back to the wildlife

hospital, where one of Taronga's most
important patients is waiting.

We're extraing the little ones as well?
Yeah.

Down at the backyard to Bush Precinct, a
small herd of Taronga's more

domesticated animals are about to embark
on a little adventure.

Got some nice treats for you.

So this is our beautiful alpaca herd.
We've got three boys.

They are all five years old.

We have Cartouche, who's the white one
here, and he's the biggest of them.

The little black one in the middle,
that's Aragon.

And then the brown one there is
Scaramouche.

There you go, Cartouche.

You are being so well behaved.

Alpacas come from South America
originally.

They're actually a really unusual
species. They're quite exotic.

But believe it or not, they're members
of a family called the camelidae family,

which means that they're related to
camels.

People are often really surprised to
hear this, but when you have a look at

shape of their neck and their beautiful
big eyes and their muzzle, you can

really actually see a resemblance
between them and camels.

The other big thing they share with
camels are their feet.

And today, they're putting them to good
use.

I'm going to take the alpacas for a walk
down the hill. I've got Kartush with a

halter and lead on.

The other two alpacas, Garamush and
Aragon, are going to be following along.

just going to let them free range and
we'll see what happens.

It's a really great enrichment for them.
So this is just part of their routine,

part of what we do with them on a day
-to -day basis, making sure they're

getting lots of really great
opportunities to express their natural

Good boy. There we go. Good boy.

Here come your boys. That's it. Come on,
we're going down the hill today.

This way.

Once Scaramouche and Aragon realise that
we're coming down to the concert lawn,

they tend to take off ahead of us and
race down to the grass so they can start

grazing. Okay, you ready to go for a
run?

That's the way. Off you go.

Good boy.

Whee!

Good job.

Love it when they do that.

Bringing the alpacas down here is a real
highlight for us. We love just getting

to observe them, watch their behaviours,
see how they're interacting with each

other and just see them really enjoying
themselves down here. It's really

relaxing for us too to just get to sit
back and enjoy the alpacas.

It's the best part of the day. Yeah,
definitely.

A lot of people with farms or small
holdings often use alpacas just to keep

lookout for things like foxes and feral
dogs as well. They're really alert, so

they really keep an eye out what's going
on and they become really bonded with

the animals that they're with as well.

While the alpacas enjoy a final bite to
eat before they call it a day, out at

Dubbo, two of their camel cousins are
enjoying their final meal before they

start the long journey.

to join them in Sydney.

This is a pretty momentous occasion
because there hasn't been camels at

for such a long time.

The animal kingdom in all its glory is
well represented at Taronga.

But for color and diversity, you can't
go past the world of birds.

Across both its two, Taronga exhibits
140 bird species.

Come on, buddy.

That's around 2 ,000 individual birds.
Hello, buddy.

Hello.

And in one aviary, Nipa Leanne is hoping
to add a few more.

So we're just in one of our breeding
aviaries here that has our pair of swift

parrots.

Taronga is one of only a handful of zoos
that breed the critically endangered

swift parrot.

The swift parrot is a native species of
parrot in Australia. It's a small

species. They're a green parrot, but
they have a beautiful red mask on their

face.

They're what we would say is a nomadic
species.

So they breed in Tasmania, but they will
come to the mainland to forage for food

in the off -season.

They rely upon the blossom of eucalypt
trees, mainly the Tasmanian bluegum,

which is what they nest and eat upon
during that breeding season.

The ongoing destruction of the swift
parrot's natural habitat means there are

only about 2 ,000 birds left in the
wild.

So breeding programs like Taronga's are
critical for the survival of the

species. So at Taronga we have nine
swift parrots here. We have three

pairs and three juveniles from one of
our successful breedings last year.

Breeding birds in zoo care is
notoriously challenging.

and it's complicated by the fact that
their reproductive organs are internal.

It's important for us to be able to know
the gender of our swift parrots so that

we can put future pairings together and
make sure that we are doing it

correctly. We don't want to put two
females together or two boys together

because we won't get the success that
we've had so far.

And the way the vets work out the sex of
the parrots is truly bizarre.

G'day, how are you? That's right.

All right.

Ready to go?

Taronga Zoo is a conservation society.

Watch out. And breeding programs are at
the heart of almost everything they do.

But it's not limited to just the cute
animal.

These are our banded huntsmen.

We've got one male and one female here.

This one here is our male.

And we're going to put our male and our
female together today and hopefully have

them mate.

It's not without its risk, because if we
don't do things just right, she may

just decide to eat him.

It might be that she's just hungry and
he's small enough to be a food item. It

might be that he hasn't approached her
in the right way.

If you don't say no please in the right
way, that's all I've been done with.

Adding to this spider's anxiety is the
fact it's all new to him as well.

This one hasn't bred before.

He's mature, he's ready for it.

But this will be his first time
breeding.

And one of the problems he's got is it's
a very steep learning curve. If he

doesn't get it right, that's it for him.
He doesn't get a second chance.

This is just one of those things that
he's going to have to learn about the

way.

There you go, little guy.

Good luck.

You're going to need it.

The daring deed is so hazardous to the
male that Paul gives him every chance to

get out alive.

The black mesh I've got in there is just
to give them a little bit more cover.

If he does get a little bit over the top
and he needs to get away, it just gives

him somewhere to go.

It just gives them both a better sense
of security, which also means they'll be

a little bit more relaxed.

and more willing to mate as well.

So now it's time for our female.

She's also mature, and this will also be
her first time being with a male.

So hopefully she's going to be well
behaved for him.

Fortunately enough, she's actually got a
cricket in her mouth there, so she

won't be as hungry, therefore less
likely to want to have lunch with him.

I'm actually feeling pretty confident
with it today.

We've had a pretty good success rate
with it, actually. We've only had a

of instances where our females have
decided to get a little bit over

But because she has just had something
to eat, it just makes our chances just a

little bit higher.

Okay, here we go, little one.

Please be kind to him.

So they're both in together now, nice
and close, which means that the chance

something happening sooner rather than
later is higher.

If you're looking at the spider now,
you'll see the two what look like

legs at the front there. They're the
pedipalps.

Now, for the female, they're more used
for helping sort of guide food into the

mouth area, but for male, they'll
actually use those to help pass the

him to the female.

But after an hour of not much
happening...

Paul decides to give them some privacy.

But it really is now just the waiting
game.

She'll sit back, wait, and keep her
fingers crossed that he impressed her

right way and she's not going to eat
him.

Good luck, you two.

Taronga Zoo in Sydney is about to
welcome a species it hasn't housed in 10

years.

One mile to go.

And preparation for their new home is in
full swing.

We're very excited. We haven't had
camels for a while.

And this exhibit has suited us well. It
was a bull elephant exhibit. Then it was

our temporary giraffe exhibit for two
years. Now it's going to be our camel

exhibit.

They're coming from our sister zoo in
Dubbo, so they've got a little bit of a

trip.

The camels are very stoic, docile
animals, and I'm sure they'll take that

in their stride.

And out at Dubbo, Keeper Glenn is doing
a last -minute check -in on this

intriguing animal before their big trip.

We have four camels here at the zoo. We
have one male and three females, but

they're not a breeding group. They're
just an exhibit group.

And the main reason for that is camels
in Australia breed very, very well.

There's close to a million of them in
the wild in the interior of Australia.

And it is even considered that we now
have more wild camels in Australia than

any other part of the world.

Camels were introduced by early
explorers in the 1840s as they were

adapted to withstand the searing
temperatures of the outback.

Things that camels have that enable them
to adapt in such a really hot climate,

number one is their hump. The hump is a
storage reservoir, mostly of

carbohydrates, that they can use when
there's no water or no food source.

They have a very soft pad on their toes,
which enables them to walk across very

sandy area as well. But it's also tough
enough that it can withstand walking

over very harsh, rocky area as well. And
then also, too, they have beautiful

long eyelashes, which helps them in the
dust storms.

Camels have also evolved to live in
cooler climates as well, making them one

the hardiest animals at the zoo.

If you look closely at them right now,
you will see that they're actually

molting. So they're going from their
winter coat into their summer coat. And

they almost look like a bit of a
bedraggled mess, but this is really

for them to come down to that really
fine hair that they've got all over

body so that then they can cope with the
very hot summer temperatures we have

here.

But it's not just the weather that
camels have adjusted to.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo historically
had African elephants. We ended up in a

situation where we just had one lone
African elephant remaining.

Unfortunately, we couldn't introduce any
of the other elephants to her and so

therefore keepers decided that these two
individuals would possibly be the best

candidates to introduce her. It took
approximately six months for us to

our goal and we got all three of them
running together daily for about seven

years.

Now two of these camels, Raz and Storm,
are about to run off in a different

direction.

They're about to head down to Taronga
Zoo, Sydney.

And this is a pretty momentous occasion
because there hasn't been camels at

Taronga for such a long time.

And by taking these animals down there,
hopefully we're able to not only

showcase what camels are and what they
look like, but also educate.

Taronga Zoo aims to increase the number
of swift parrots in the wild through its

extensive breeding program.

But first, the team must solve a
perplexing problem, working out whether

parrot is male or female.

We don't want to put two females
together or two boys together because we

get the success that we've had so far.

And the only way to do this... is a
rather invasive procedure.

G'day, how are you?

Alright, ready to go.

Today we're going to do some surgical
sexing on some swift parrots and that

means we're going to put a little scope
just inside them to see what sex they

are because obviously the gonad, the
testicles and the ovary are internal in

birds. So the only way to tell is to
look inside.

So we just give them a little bit of...

Gas anesthetic.

Larry uses a tiny laparoscope for the
job.

It's got a light source and a camera so
we can see the image on the screen there

quite nicely.

And basically I make just a little hole
in the side of the bird and pop this

through and we actually always go in the
left side.

And the reason for that is that most
bird species, the females only have an

ovary on the left -hand side.

So it's a very simple, minimally
invasive procedure.

So just a little nick in the side there.

And the bird's unique anatomy helps
Larry see the organs clearly.

So the scope goes in.

So you can see I'm looking through this
very fine membrane like cling wrap.

That's the air sac membrane.

Birds have several air sacs inside them.

And it's part of their amazing
respiratory system and also keeps them

light. And because all the organs are
separated by the air, we can just see

straight away what sex this bird is.

And I can see the testicle clearly
there, so a male.

Beautiful little birds, these guys.

This little guy looks pretty healthy.

Banding will assist keepers with
breeding.

Males get a band on the right leg and
females on the left.

But with such little leg, it's fiddly
work.

And you want to make sure you're not
putting it on too tight or too loose

because both can cause problems.

And also in the process of putting it
on, you also have to be careful that

you're not injuring the bird's leg.

So we just get a weight on it.

How much is that?

62 .8. 62 .8 grams.

All right, well, we'll just wake this
little guy up and then we can have a

at the next one.

While every bird will help build
numbers... I have one male swift parrot

He's just about awake.

You think? Yeah.

Studies have shown that there are fewer
females in the wild. All right, Liz,

we've got the next one here lined up.

So the team are hoping this next one
restores the balance.

There you go.

With an area of nearly 400 hectares,
Taronga's Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo

requires a different approach to animal
welfare than in Sydney.

Senior vet Ben has finished his morning
rounds inspecting the herd animals in

Dubbo's vast paddock.

But back at the wildlife hospital...

There's a never -ending supply of
animals needing Ben's attention.

So we're all good for the
planeswanderers, Jane.

I touched base with Mark this morning.
He's on track to deliver those birds to

us at 9 .30.

We'll get hospital rounds done before
those planeswanderers get here.

We see over 500 individual native
animals that are in trouble, sick or

that are presented to us by members of
the public or by our registered wildlife

carer colleagues.

So underneath we've got the two turtles
with the shell fractures. I might grab

one of those out.

Yep.

By virtue of our veterinary expertise,
that really positions us to detect

emerging diseases, health problems,
conservation threats and issues, and

play an important role in conservation
of species and maintenance of

biodiversity in the Central West.

And nowhere is this premise more
accurate.

than with one of Taronga Zoo's most
important species, the plains wanderer.

Things are so dire that it was decided
to remove some birds from the wild to

establish contingency populations in
zoos. And today we're health -checking

chicks that have been hatched from a
pairing of wild -caught birds and their

father. They represent a significant
proportion of plains wanderer left on

planet. His body condition is ample. I
would call him three to four out of

The plains wanderer has been decimated
by foxes and cats and Taronga is now the

only lifeline between these tiny birds
and extinction.

So the zoo -based breeding component of
the recovery project has a really big

role to play in ensuring that given the
ongoing current decline of the species

in the wild that there will be
individual animals.

remaining available to be re -released
into habitat that it has been secured

that Plains Wanderer will persist into
the future.

This is the actual sire of the clutch of
sub -adults that we'll be looking at in

a minute. So he's a wild -caught founder
bird.

That is, he's responsible for
establishing the foundation of the zoo

breeding program.

The hatchlings are only two months old
and are a testament to the great work

that Taronga is doing to boost the
numbers.

But the smaller the patient, the harder
it is to work with them.

So Ben needs total focus.

They are challenging to manipulate,
particularly where blood sampling and

sampling is required because their
structures are all so small.

So tiny little bird, tiny little blood
sample.

very conscious of that.

What feels like a tiny little volume of
blood to you or I could be life

-threatening to a bird like this. These
animals are small and they're shy and

they're quiet and they're unassuming,
but really very, very precious. And it's

an enormous privilege to be working
towards their conservation.

With this exam complete, Ben's final
appointment today is another Aussie

facing huge problems in the wild.

But this one is nowhere near as delicate
as the plains wanderer.

Back in Sydney, Paul has paired up a

couple of banded huntsman spiders in an
effort to boost the numbers of these

creepy crawlies at the zoo.

But breeding spiders is not an exact
science.

So he's keen to keep checking in on the
female huntsman to see if there's any

development.

One of the problems we've got is even
though the spiders get mated, there's no

real way to tell how long it's going to
be until they actually lay their egg

sac. They can go months without laying.

And that's where things get a little bit
tricky for us because we have to sort

of say to ourselves, do they mate? Do we
have to put them back together again?

And of course, with that, you have the
risk of the female eating the male.

But this one here is exactly what I've
been looking for.

Just a couple of days ago, she's laid a
lovely egg sack for us. I don't want to

disturb her too much.

There she is.

So this is the egg sack. It looks like a
nice little white pillow.

And inside that sack, there's going to
be a couple of hundred little eggs just

waiting to hatch out sometime in the
next few weeks.

And that's where the real fun begins
because once they hatch out, we then

to catch up all those little babies.

and put them into little individual
containers to grow them up. It also

a lot easier for us to feed them.

But as you can imagine, when you've got
a couple of hundred little babies in

there, all going in different
directions, it can get really exciting.

The egg sac is just made out of web.

So spiders are able to make all sorts of
different kinds of web depending upon

their purposes.

And they have a special kind of web they
use to make the egg sac out of.

It's not particularly sticky at all.

It's actually surprisingly tough.

In fact, spider web in itself is an
extremely strong material.

It's almost leathery.

to get into it.

Surprisingly, the huntsman spider is
quite maternal when it comes to their

So she doesn't incubate eggs like a
chicken would, as an example.

They don't sit on the eggs and keep them
warm for the young to develop and

hatch. All she's doing is protecting the
egg. She doesn't want anything to get

anywhere nearby because there's a lot of
things out there that would love to eat

that. Inside this egg sac, there's going
to be a couple of hundred little babies

just waiting to hatch out.

Most of those...

out in the wild are not going to
survive.

Most of them become food for all sorts
of other things, even each other.

So that's one of the reasons why a lot
of our insects need to have so many

youngsters, because the vast majority
will end up dying or becoming food

they become sexually mature.

It's a numbers game.

And to improve the odds, Taronga breeds
multiple spiders simultaneously.

So we've had some great success with
this one.

But also with these two here,
potentially between the three of them

got here that have already got the egg
sacs, we could have over 600 little

babies right around the place.

And that, for me at least, this is just
as important as any other animal we've

got here in the zoo. We keep this room
at a fairly constant temperature and a

fairly constant humidity, so we're
pretty certain that we're going to get

success with this in a few weeks.

As Sydney wakes up...

Across the harbor at the soon -to -be
camel exhibit, keepers Alan and Tracy

putting the final touches on Raz and
Storm's new home.

Have you worked with camels before,
Alan?

Yeah, many years ago.

We're making a lovely, comfortable bed
for our two latest arrivals, which will

be coming in early this afternoon.

We're very excited. We haven't had
camels in the zoo for a little while.

are very entertaining to work with.
They're very intelligent.

So this is pine shavings.

It's what we popularly use for a bed
because, unlike straw, the animals don't

eat this.

I think we've pretty well got the job
done here. Nice, big, clean bed for our

two new girls. Some of my best work.

Camels have got such great
personalities. I'm really looking

them and finding out what these girls
are like.

With the stage now set, it's time to
welcome the guests of honour.

And keepers are hoping to avoid a repeat
of the last animals that were

transferred from Dubbo.

Hello, beautiful.

You heading out?

when a giraffe mum and calf took 36
hours to come out of their crate.

So we're just giving them a minute.

There's no need to rush.

We've been travelling for like five,
nearly six hours now, so, yeah, we're

on the clock.

We just let them be calm. I'd much
rather them be calm than upset and

And all the rest. So we'll just give
them a minute. Yeah.

Slowly, girl.

Slowly.

Thankfully, this time it was only four
minutes before the camels decided to

stretch their legs.

They seem to have very calm disposition,
very calm demeanour. You wouldn't have

think they'd just come from a drive from
the country into the big city. They

seem very laid back. They're eating
already.

So I'm really thrilled that they're so
calm and placid.

So Lockie, one of our wonderful Dubbo
keepers, he's just walking them around

orientate them to their new exhibit.

It's just a good way for them to be able
to see all the boundaries.

They're going to be introduced to where
their water is.

They're going to be shown their other
food sources, just so that we know that

when we leave them here, they are going
to be very comfortable and feel a bit at

home.

But it's a bittersweet moment for Glenn,
who now has to say goodbye.

I've brought brushes for you. Yep.
There's lots of hair there to be brushed

I understand.

I completely understand.

All right. Yeah, okay, cool.

I will miss them because I like working
close up with animals like this and now

that they're here I'll find that very
difficult.

But I'll definitely come and make sure I
take the time to come and visit them.

But happily, he's leaving Raz and Storm
in good hands.

Because they're so calm, we are going to
let them have the whole exhibit

tonight. We're not going to leave them
locked in holding and over the next few

coming days we'll be getting used to
them, they'll be getting used to us.

And so I can see this is going to be the
beginning of a great friendship between

two camels and the keepers.

Back at the wildlife hospital, Larry is
still going strong, trying to determine

the sex of these critically endangered
swift parrots. These are three animals

that we've actually bred here at the
zoo, which is a great result, but very

difficult to tell the difference between
the males and females.

Obviously, if you're pairing birds for
breeding, you need to know that they're

off sexes.

And in some cases, we might want to move
birds out to other zoos for breeding

programs elsewhere.

And, of course, in that case, you want
to know that you're sending the specific

sex to another institution.

I can see the testicle clearly there.

The first bird was a male.

All right, Liz, we've got the next one
here lined up. Now the team have their

fingers crossed that this little one is
a female.

Pop this little head in the mask.

I'm going to guess.

I reckon it's a female.

How do I?

I don't know why. I just feel it's a
female. Yeah.

And as Larry knows, there's only one way
to find out.

All right, so we're spot on. It is a
female.

I can just see a little structure.

It looks like a bunch of grapes just
sitting just underneath the kidney.

I can actually see what's called the
oviduct and the ligament of the oviduct,

which is going over the kidney, which
confirms without doubt that this is a

female.

Also an opportunity to quickly look
around and see what else is going on in

there. And we can get a good look at the
lungs and, in fact, moving a little bit

towards the head of the bird.

We can actually see the heart beating.

See that?

So it's a good opportunity to actually
assess the health of the bird as well.

We don't stitch the wound either,
actually. We just spray a little bit of

antiseptic on there and leave it open.

Okay, number three.

Our final swift parrot for today.

Sounds like a boy.

Let's have a look. Let's pop the scope
inside.

Like that.

That's a girl.

So a nice little ovary there.

That's that. Done.

The vets have done their job. Two girls
and one boy.

Now it's up to these three to do theirs.

After a long wait, Keeper Paul has
finally had success breeding his beloved

banded huntsman spider.

After they've been mated, we don't know
how long it's going to be until the egg

sac is laid, and even sometimes it's a
bit sort of iffy as to how long it's

going to take for that egg sac to start
hatching.

All up, it took around 14 weeks, from
the introduction to the pitter -patter

thousands of little spider feet.

So here we have all our little baby
banded huntsman spiders, which is what

been waiting for. But I've managed to
get the vast majority of them here into

our jar, which is great news.

So mum's not in the jar here with all
the youngsters. I've actually had to

remove her because she's very protective
over these eggs and her babies.

So if I'm trying to do anything with
them at all, she gets very fiery and

might get a bit of a bite.

Now, these spiders, they're not
endangered, but by being able to breed

ourselves means we don't have to take
them out from the wild, which is a

good thing. We can be self -sufficient
here.

Unfortunately, not all of these will
make it to adulthood, which is one of

reasons that spiders do have so many
babies.

A lot of them will be eaten by each
other and even just doing simple things

shedding their skin.

So being an invertebrate, they've got an
exoskeleton.

As they grow, their skin doesn't grow
with them.

And even sometimes they can have
problems with that.

So a lot of these will probably just
naturally die off. But what I'll need to

is I have to actually start separating
them and put them into little individual

jars where I can look after them a
little bit more intensively.

It's a triumph for Paul, and no amount
of unease from arachnophobes is going to

take that away from him.

The whole process, going from the mating
all the way through the hatching,

there's so many things that can
potentially go wrong along the way. To

people, breeding our spiders here is not
really such a big thing. It's not as

spectacular, shall we say, as a gorilla
or an elephant.

But for me, this is just one of the best
things that could have happened today.

Really great.

Taronga's Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo
operates a state -of -the -art facility

for breeding the endangered Tasmanian
devil.

And on Ben's last call today on his
round, he will be doing a final health

on a couple of joeys soon to be
transferred to another breeding

Hey, Ben, how are you? Very well. How
about yourself? Very good, thank you.

You ready to go?

Yeah, absolutely. I've got them locked
in their nest boxes.

Okay. Generally, I want to make sure
that their body weight is stable, that

their body condition is good, that there
are no obvious injuries. There's

nothing that might preclude their coping
with a transfer to another zoo.

Shall we pick her up and have a good
look? Yeah, please.

She's a little cranky.

I don't blame her. I've woken her up.

When handling a devil, keepers must be
extremely careful, as this is one animal

whose bite is worse than their bark.

So just really examining her behaviour,
this is really appropriate.

So she's spicy, her eyes look good, her
body condition's great.

All right, mate, run her into a bag and
we'll get a weight on her and make sure

that her body weight's been stable.

You know, we don't want to make friends
with them. We want to do the best we can

to keep them as wild as they possibly
can be. So we try and make the whole

process as quick and easy as possible.

We pick them up, have a good restraint
on them, and then pop them in a bag, get

a quick weight, and let them go before
it becomes too stressful.

6 .25 kilos, Rach.

Great.

I think she's good to go.

That's one down, one to go. All right.

All right, mate.

He's in good shape. He's heavy. He's a
big boy. He's got a good layer of

subcutaneous fat, and that'll stand him
in good stead for subduing a female.

Great. He's got a nice pair of...

Testy's hanging down. That's a very
important part of his breeding future.

So today we can confirm that he's in
good shape and ready to go.

It's really very exciting that today
we're sending away these two animals

we got to know as joeys off to another
institution where they will be paired up

with mates and produce their own joeys
in turn to ensure that Tasmanian devils

persist into the future.

As Ben farewells these two little
devils... Great.

Thanks, Rach. That was great. No
worries. Thank you.

He'll be back tomorrow caring for
another group of animals and continuing

job he loved.

I've been here for 18 years now.

As you can imagine, my job's divert and
no two days are the same.

Springtime in Sydney, and in Taronga's
swift parrot aviary, keeper Leanne is

watching over every breeding pair.

We're coming into the breeding season
for the swift parrot. We have nest boxes

in the aviary, so we're just checking
the nest box to make sure and see if

they've been using that box.

I've seen the male displaying to the
female from the outside, and we can see

that they've made a nice little...

scratching in the middle of the box
there. So hopefully that means they're

giving each other a bit of a lesson in
the birds and the bees.

And hopefully babies with parrots very
soon.

And before long, this nest box contains
five eggs. It's very exciting and it's

really important that these chicks are
born. But Leanne knows better than most,

you can't count your chicks before they
hatch.

So mum sits on those eggs for roughly
three weeks.

It's normal for not all of those eggs to
be successful.

Leanne also knows all she can do now is
to make sure she feeds and waters the

breeding pair and waits.

And finally, she has good news to share.

We've had three chicks hatch out of five
eggs, which is an amazing number, and

they've recently emerged from their nest
box.

So you can see mum here with some of her
bub.

At first glance, you would think that
they're all adults. They all look like

they're the same size, but those are
actually youngsters, so they grow really

quick. Once they fledge from the nest
and they have their first flight,

almost the same size as mum, so not much
growing happens after that point.

We've got mum on the left, and that's
one of the juveniles on the perch there

the right.

And you can tell by the colour of its
eyes. So mum has that yellow -golden

coloured eye, whereas the juvenile has
that black coloured eye.

Eventually, once they mature, they will
go that same colour as mum, but at first

glance, that's the way we tell them
apart.

At the moment, they're in what we call a
weaning phase. So you'll see mum stick

very close.

She's feeding them at the moment, but
weaning is when she starts to kind of

teach them how to eat solid foods on
their own. So she's essentially teaching

them how to bird.

In probably another three weeks' time,
they'll be fully independent.

Swift parrots now number 12 at Taronga,
and with every successful clutch,

keepers learn more and more about the
best way to breed them.

Swift parrots are very tricky to breed.

So the fact that we've cracked the code
on that is amazing and not once now but

twice. So this is our second successful
clutch.

So we had three last year and now we've
got three again this year and that's an

amazing accomplishment for us.

And each fledgling's arrival heralds a
brighter future for this critically

endangered species.

We can actually spread genetics around
to other zoos.

and ensure that this population is
healthy and it can grow and that we have

secure number of birds that can
potentially be released back into the