Original subtitles

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Kim: These animals drink a lot of water,

Especially when it's hot like this.

Austin: Hi, bud.

He said no thanks.

♪ ♪

Howie: Alaska has the widest temperature range.

Jamie: What's up, kevin?

Sonia: Hi, cutie.

Howie: We're in portage,

Typically the armpit weather of alaska, right?

Like it's always kind of a crapshoot down here.

Going from hot summers to cold winters

Means we need to prep these animals for the coming months,

And that's why training is important,

So we can make sure we can get this done safely.

Kobukie bear, what do you smell?

"I don't know, but it smells good."

Austin: Come on!

Howie: Yeah, I'm not running.

God didn't make this body to run.

Kobuk is our male four-year-old black bear.

His mom was a dumpster diver,

Which was actually a pretty sad situation.

She got chased off by a group of town dogs,

And she never came back for her baby.

Kobuk is near and dear to my heart.

I've spent a lot of time with kobuk,

Especially when he first got here.

I spent a lot of time with that little bear.

Austin: Kobuk's a ham. (laughing)

He loves playing ninja, so he takes really big sticks or bones

And likes to just twirl them around in the air.

He has a lot of personality.

This is his station training.

So howie is sending him to his station,

Where we expect him to be when we start going in with him.

Howie: Kobuk, since he's still a youngster

And he's still pretty little,

He's actually the only bear

That we do still go inside the pen with.

We fix up his pen.

We clean up his yard.

But anytime we go in there, he wants to come follow us around,

Which isn't the safest thing to do

Because he's getting bigger and he's getting older.

He was 20, 25 pounds, now he's 200 pounds.

(radio chirps)

Just so all staff knows, we're going in with kobuk.

So we really need to get a station established

So we have complete control.

Kobuk!

(whistle tweets)

Good boy.

Stand!

(tweet)

(dog barking)

There's a dog barking.

Austin and I have been working with kobuk pretty extensively

Ever since he was a baby.

And because he's by himself,

You can visibly see that he has a positive reaction

When he interacts with us as his trainers.

Austin: Stand!

(tweet)

Good job, bud.

Stand!

Howie: All right.

Austin: Not that.

Howie: We're gonna call him back over

And we're gonna end.

Kobuk!

(tweet)

Kobuk was paying attention to the dog,

And he actually took a step when he stood up,

And unfortunately, he put his paw on austin.

All right.

You want the bucket?

Here, good boy.

That's time to call it, and we need to get out of here.

Austin: I didn't even-- was that aggressive?

Howie: No, it wasn't.

It was a total accident.

I just didn't want to push it 'cause he was super hungry today

And that's too much of a safety risk.

His training will be tested in a few weeks

When we prep his den for winter.

Austin: We're gonna really be overhauling his den,

There's gonna be a lot of commotion happening back there.

And it's really important for us

To continue to get the station training established with him.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Laura: Good job, mister, take a good splash bath.

Good boy.

Dr. Carrie: So our pup here has had a long day.

We're gonna do the admit exam,

But we need to break it up into little pieces

Because this is very stressful.

This morning we admitted a sea otter pup

From homer, alaska,

Who'd been observed without a mom in sight

For several hours.

So let's go ahead and bring him up.

Jessica: Normally with mom, he'd be nursing every couple of hours

And it's now probably been 12 hours.

Dr. Carrie: Oh. Let's first confirm

That he is, yes, he is a boy.

And then we want to look at his umbilicus.

I mean, just based on his umbilicus,

It looks like he's at least a week old.

Jessica: So small.

Dr. Carrie: Yeah, he's small.

He's one of the smallest we've had.

Jessica: Me, personally, from the otter pups

I've helped raise here in my short time,

I'm a little worried about him.

Dr. Carrie: We're going to start with checking his blood glucose

And giving him some sub-qs so we know what his status is.

(squealing)

Sea otters depend on blood glucose

Not just for general energy,

But also so that he doesn't get really cold

Or his body doesn't start shutting down.

Got 88, so, so, that's actually quite good...

(squealing)

...For otter pups, that is.

Let's give him a little bit of a break.

But I'll be anxious

Until we can see a positive weight trend on this pup.

We want to start off

By working on getting him used to the formula.

I do think he's ready for a bottle.

(whimpers)

Jessica: I know, I'm still here.

Dr. Carrie: Look at him go, it's awesome.

Jessica: He's even trying to hold the bottle.

Dr. Carrie: (laughs) he's a good little man.

In between feeds, we have to groom him.

Jessica: You have so much hair to comb through.

Otter pups, they're really so helpless.

They require around-the-clock care,

So we're here 24/7 looking after this guy.

Dr. Carrie: Being a sea otter mom is hard work.

I'm a mom myself,

I know all the hard work that goes into raising kids,

And I have the utmost respect for a sea otter mom,

Because I think their job is so much harder than mine was.

Oh, wow, he's sacked out, isn't he?

All sea otter pups

Are considered critical care patients when they come in

Because they need that constant attention.

I will be checking on him at least every day,

Probably more than that.

Jessica: He's so tired.

(cooing)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Jamie: Pip-pip!

Howie: Pip and jo

Are this year's rescued orphaned moose calves.

And they came in, they were between 25 and 35 pounds.

I certainly have a soft spot in my heart for orphans.

They need someone that's gonna kind of be their best friend

To work with them,

And this year that's jamie and sonia.

And now they're doing really well,

They've grown really fast.

And that's kind of the moose m.O.

They get big real fast.

Sonia: She likes the inner leg.

Jamie: Is that good?

It's the secret spot.

Howie: Sonia and jamie have done a great job

Working with these two,

But we have to plan to get vaccinations on board.

Jamie: Watch out, baby girl.

Sonia: Come on, ladies.

I know, you guys are the cutest.

Jamie: So starting today sonia and I

Are going to be working with pip and jo

To touch train and get them ready

For their round of injections that they'll need

Going into this winter.

Sonia: Oh, goodness!

Chandelle: Just let them know your touch is coming.

And so just tell them "touch"

Before you actually put your hands on them.

I think the big secret to it

Is learning how to speak their language,

So training really does that.

It gives us something in common

And a way to communicate with each other.

Sonia: Touch. (tweet)

Perfect.

Jo and pip are a lot of fun.

I love working with them.

I have been working with animals since 2016,

But I've never worked with baby moose before.

Jamie: Touch.

(tweet)

Sonia: That's it.

Good girl.

Jamie: So back when they were 35 pounds, 40 pounds,

It was a bit easier to manage them.

Hi, yeah.

But now when they're so excited, jazzed up, drinking the bottles,

They'll stomp your toes pretty good.

You're on my foot.

And you gotta just kinda work with them

Because they got enough force to push you around.

Pip-pip.

Target.

(tweet)

Howie: These animals are going to live with us

The rest of their lives,

And so it's nice for us to be friends with them,

So they can help participate in their own healthcare

And things like that as they get bigger.

Chandelle: Good job.

They're doing good.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Dr. Victoria: Is it an adult or?

Jen: No, it's a young one, and he's tiny.

We just got a queen charlotte goshawk in,

Which is a subspecies of the northern goshawk.

It came from wrangell, alaska,

Which is closer to the canadian border.

They're very jumpy, they're very skittish

And very high stress birds

Because they're not used to being around people that much.

We're going to need several hands

To speed up the examination process

So we don't stress out the bird.

Dr. Victoria: All right, when I go to hood, I want you to see.

Kara: Oh, look at you.

Hi!

I love hawks.

To me they're the most beautiful raptor

And probably my favorite animal in the world.

Dr. Victoria: Give it a try.

Jen: Yeah.

Dr. Victoria: That's a bad wing.

Jen: Oh! Look at it!

Kara: Wow.

Jen: Looks like it's been bleeding up here.

Kara: We know very little right now,

Just that the bird was found with an injured wing

By the forest service.

But they couldn't really tell what happened.

Jen: Let's get x-ray first? Kara: X-ray?

Dr. Victoria: Yeah, let's go straight to x-ray.

I've just had a quick look at the bird.

We found blood on both sides of the wing.

I'm a little bit worried.

Sometimes that can mean a fracture.

Jen: Victoria, he is so skinny.

Dr. Victoria: This did not just happen, then.

The keel is the bone that's down the center

That the flight muscles attach to,

And he basically has no flight muscles,

Just this very narrow bone that we are touching.

And that means he is starving, very underweight.

Jen: Okay.

One, two, three.

(beep)

Kara: Okay, buddy. God, you're so little.

Dr. Victoria: Oh, god!

It's a mess. Dammit.

I think this bird was shot.

Kara: Mm-hmm. Oh, my gosh.

Dr. Victoria: There it is. This bird was definitely shot.

You can see all the teeny tiny little pellets there

That are basically the shattered bullet.

It totally shattered the bone.

Kara: Goshawks are notorious

For getting in chicken coops and such,

And people just kind of take matters in their own hands.

The thing is they shoot this hawk,

And it's probably going to die.

And then it doesn't.

And it's like it's just in pain, and it's just terrible

That people don't know the repercussions.

And it's just very disheartening.

Dr. Victoria: The radius is intact.

This is acting as a splint.

There is a chance this could bridge and this bird could fly.

I can't do surgery on this bird.

It is way too thin.

It would die under anesthesia.

So I'm going to count on the radius

And the confinement to stabilize this bird.

Jen: Okay.

They're endangered.

Dr. Victoria: The queen charlotte goshawk population

In british columbia, which is next door to us,

Is listed as a threatened species.

This is the same bird that's going back and forth

Between alaska and canada.

The chances aren't great of release,

But because of its status, we need to try.

I'm going to quickly scrub up the wound.

And I'm give it some antibiotics, pain meds, fluids.

Oh, it's so small compared to an eagle.

Oh, this is going to be uncomfortable. I'm sorry.

So we're going to provide supportive care.

We're going to keep it very, very still.

I would like to offer it food tonight.

Kara: You're okay, you're okay.

Dr. Victoria: We're going to cross our fingers

And say some prayers.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(squealing)

Jessica: I hear you.

Dr. Carrie: Our young sea otter pup

Has been here for a few days now.

It takes a village.

It takes our whole center

To make sure pup continues to hit the important milestones

Of continuing to grow.

Jessica: All right, should we eat?

We named our little otter pup lupine,

After a plant that's commonly found here in alaska.

Just gonna give your antibiotic.

I know, you're not going to like this.

I know.

It's banana flavored.

This antibiotic can help him

Get rid of bacteria that he may have.

All right, little man.

(squawk)

Are you going to eat for me today?

(squawk)

Just a little bit.

(squealing)

He's really not having it.

One of the problems with this little man

Is that he's not really wanting to take to the bottle too well.

He kind of started out well.

But then he kinda started slowing down some,

Wasn't finishing his entire meal.

He says no thank you, over and over.

Otter pups should be gaining at least like 0.1 pounds a day,

But he has not really gained any weight.

All right, little man,

You are just rambunctious today, aren't you?

(squealing)

Change it up a little bit.

(squealing)

Jessica: I'm hoping floating in the water

Will encourage him to eat.

It's a more natural environment,

Since otters spend the majority of their lives in water.

I know you're just wanting to play.

I can't have you burn off all this energy and not eat, though.

Please?

There we go!

Just took a second, huh, and a lot of patience.

Come here, mr. Otter man.

It's hard to leave work at work,

Especially when our kiddos are in such critical condition,

Like, I may find myself like overnight, like,

"oh, I hope he's eating okay."

We'll keep tracking lupine's progress

And hopefully he'll start gaining weight soon.

Are you going to go to sleep? Is it sleepy time now?

(chuckles)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Jen: We need blankets.

We got a call from a local who was out on her daily walk,

And she noticed this young eagle

Sitting on the side of the trail.

Jen: Okay, we will be there in a few.

Immature birds are really difficult to find

Out in the woods.

Babies are totally brown,

And they have very dark black beaks with dark eyes.

And they blend into the scenery of southeast alaska

Exactly like they're supposed to.

Okay, boss cross is on her way.

Kara: Okay, do you want me to go still?

Jen: Yes.

We've asked our executive director jen cross

To come along with us on this rescue.

Frankly we're going to need all the help we can get

With this one.

We got blankets and nets and ready to go.

Jennifer: Okay.

This is my second rescue,

And there's often situations where we're short-staffed,

And I desperately wanted to get out and gain this experience

To able to go and answer the call.

Kara: Do you want to net, jen? If possible?

Jennifer: Sure, I'll net yeah.

Kara: Okay.

Hey there!

Woman: He's still there.

Kara: He's still there? Okay.

Jen: I'm gonna go up the hill right here

Just to see if I can see him.

He's going to be so hard to find in here.

Kara: Right.

Jennifer: Oh, there he is, he's right there.

He's right there.

Kara: I see him, good eye.

Jen: Okay. I'm gonna see

If I can scare him down to you guys.

Okay, he's down on this side, you guys.

Oh, coming back.

Kara: Oh. Okay, I see him, I see him, I see him.

Jen: This young eagle was able to fly a little,

But it's not able to get very far off the ground,

So it's really important that we pick up this bird

And take it back to the clinic.

Kara: Jen! Jennifer: I saw him!

Kara: I'm gonna go after him, but he might come down to you.

Jennifer: Okay!

Kara: Oh, he's moving.

Jennifer: Okay, I'm coming.

Kara: Jen, oh, so close!

Jen: Dang it!

Jen: Oh, geez, he's all the way down there now.

I'm really concerned that he's gonna get away.

Jennifer: Might be good to just go for it.

Kara: Yeah.

♪ ♪

You got him, jen, ugh!

Jennifer: I got him!

I got him, kara!

Kara: Okay, I'm coming.

Nice job, jen!

Jennifer: Thanks.

Kara: You're a baby.

Jennifer: It was a little sloppy.

Kara: You're a little guy.

That was amazing!

Kara: Woo!

That was an eagle rescue for sure!

I haven't done that in a while.

Jen: We'll have to wait

Until we get back to the center to really check it out.

Jennifer: Stop squirming.

(laughing)

Jen: I'm so happy that we finally got jen cross trained

To capture eagles.

She was amazing.

There was no way I was getting

Through that forest as fast as she did.

She, I think she's a cat.

Kara: Get a hood on him.

Oh, are you mad?

You're very mad.

Jennifer: Oh, wow, yeah, his hackles are up.

Kara: God, you're beautiful.

Jen: Let's do an x-ray. Kara: Okay.

Jen: So, I'm hoping an x-ray will reveal any hidden injuries.

She's not that skinny.

I wonder what's going on.

Kara: Okay, one, two, three.

(beep)

Jen: I think this is a hatch year bird,

It was born this year.

Kara: Oh, really?

Jen: Yeah, look at his tail. Kara: Mm-hmm.

Jen: Or her tail, its tail.

In the x-ray you can see all the sheaths, like see?

Kara: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jen: They're all still growing in.

Eagles grow to full size by nine weeks old,

So it's very difficult to tell how old they are

Just by looking at them.

So this is a sheath that grows on the feathers.

So this may be why this bird isn't flying really well,

Just because it's a baby.

Jennifer: It's not broken.

Jen: Not broken.

Jennifer: Well, look at you.

Jen: Bald eagles actually have it pretty rough

In their first year of life and only have a 50% survival rate.

Kara: All right, we can take him to main flight.

Jen: Putting her in main flight with the adults

Hopefully is a helpful thing for her.

She can watch them and kind of imitate their behavior.

Kara: On three. One, two, three.

There you go, bud.

You're okay.

Jennifer: Beautiful bird.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Howie: Being out here in portage, alaska,

Raising alaskan wildlife puts us at a pretty good advantage.

We don't have to travel far for just food that they love

And it comes naturally to them,

We can just kind of come around the corner

And take some willow and go feed the moose.

Jamie: Doing some snippies.

When I was in school, all I wanted to do is see a moose.

I got to help out with a project

Tracking the genome of the vermont moose population,

And they're kind of like just below sasquatch

In the level of scarcity.

So coming in every day

And getting to see them and work with them

And have relationships with these animals is surreal.

What's up, joey?

Pip and jo are progressing quite well

For all the training that they've been going through.

I think pip will go just fine with the injection.

Touch!

(tweet)

Jo has always been a bit more cautious,

But I'm hopeful that our work with them will pay off

And they'll just be distracted by the bottles.

Pip-pip!

They're pretty funny, jo and pip,

When you put out the browse,

'cause usually they'll have a pile where I leave it,

And they'll get so excited

They'll just run away with their own little piece,

Drag it away from the pile

And then see that I'm putting stuff up

And get distracted all over again.

They're babies.

They're silly.

All right, pip and jo, enjoy your snack.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Dr. Elizabeth: Our little otter pup lupine

Is a month old today.

Hannah: Good job, bud, that was great.

Almost all of it in one go!

Dr. Elizabeth: The team has done a great job

Getting him used to the bottle,

And he's finally starting to gain weight.

Can you see the people?

They all came to see you.

You got to make some new friends.

Yes, you did.

Today we're going to give lupin an exam,

Just like I would give your dog or cat at home.

We're going to start at the tip of his nose, at his head,

Work our way, all the way to the tip of his tail,

And make sure everything in between is functioning properly.

Look at this playpen we set up for you.

Do you want to explore while you get a little exam?

Before you get too wiggly, can I listen to your heart and lungs?

Good, how about your belly?

How about this belly?

Oh.

Gurgles.

Good boy. He sounds absolutely great.

Jane: Hey.

I think I'm going to warm up his bottle again

And see if he eats a little more for us.

Dr. Elizabeth: That sounds like a good idea.

Want to go in here?

Get it, get it.

Good use of your front paws.

Yes, that's very good.

Jane: Okay, mister.

So you can see he's floating kind of high,

And that's a good thing.

A sea otter's pup coat is very thick and it holds air in it

So that he can't sink, he's like a little cork.

And that's so mother can go foraging

And she doesn't have to worry about him drowning.

(squeaking)

Dr. Elizabeth: Nice job.

Jane: That's all we needed, mister!

Dr. Elizabeth: All right, let's get out of your tote,

'cause it got poop in it.

So it's been really fun today

To see how well our little otter boy is doing.

He is quite the pup.

I love watching him using all of his flippers.

Look at that spot, though?

Got to get these spots, yes, we do.

He's got a couple of little spots

That need a little bit more work,

But we'll work on that over the next couple weeks

And hopefully get that coat absolutely perfect for him.

You're just too fun, I don't want to leave you.

What do you think, kiddo?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Kara: All right, let's go get a goshawk.

Dr. Victoria: Our special queen charlotte goshawk came in

So malnourished and injured from the gunshot

That I'm having the team check in with him

To see how he's doing.

Sheila: Nicely done. Kara: Okay.

Sheila: All right, babe.

Kara: That's a beautiful bird.

We actually gave the goshawk the name kanga today for kangaroo,

Because goshawks are high stress, high energy birds.

Sheila: All right, kiddo,

Let's see if you passed all your food.

Today we're going to be checking

To make sure kanga managed to digest the food we gave him,

Just to make sure it's not sitting in his crop.

Kara: A bird's crop sits kind of on their neck.

And it's where they collect all their food,

And so it's just like a big food pouch.

Yeah, sheila, he still got a full crop.

Sheila: Okay.

Kara: Man, he hasn't digested any of that food.

Any of it.

Sheila: They can get what's called septic crop

Where the food in their crop starts rotting,

And then it can kill them basically

When they're in this skinny of a state.

Oh, my god, your skin is so non-existent.

Kara: So tiny.

I know, his skin is in rough shape.

I would call vic now and tell her food hasn't passed.

(phone ringing)

Sheila: We're doing the goshawk right now,

And he has not passed the quail we gave him.

His crop is huge.

Sheila: I have not checked, let me check.

Gonna smell your mouth, babe.

It smells a little bit, but not like super horrible.

Sheila: Okay, we can do that. Dr. Victoria: All right?

Sheila: Thank you. Kara: Thank you.

Dr. Victoria: Okay. Kara: Bye-bye.

Dr. Victoria: Bye.

Sheila: Okay.

Hi.

Get your mouth open.

This is the same fluids we just injected into him.

Kara: The reason we're giving this orally

Is so that these fluids can go down into the crop,

Kind of swish around the food

And help to digest it a little bit better.

Sheila: There you go. What do you think?

Kara: I'm being hopeful for this goshawk.

You know, I feel like we're doing everything we can

To up his chances.

All right, another day. You made it!

When people shoot these birds or hurt these birds,

They don't really know what they're doing to the ecosystem.

Sheila: Okay, kid, here's a sheet for ya.

Kara: That's why I feel like it's very important

To try to save this bird.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Austin: What's up, big guy?

Oh, my goodness.

Howie: Temperatures are dropping,

The season's clearly changing.

Kobuk is starting to show us some signs

That he's being a bear.

He wants to go to bed. He wants to sleep it off.

And that's an indication to me and his caretakers,

We need to get in there, we need to clean that den out,

Get it ready for winter.

You guys just stick with austin,

Austin might linger back a little bit,

So I'm not sure who's gonna be the one crawling into the den--

My vote's on the little guy.

Kobuk, he's a little bougie, he's a bougie black bear.

He gets his own den.

He doesn't have to worry about sharing with anybody,

And we're going in to fluff his den for him.

It's really important for him to stay engaged,

Because if he starts to get curious and wonders,

"what's going on back there?"

You know, he might lose that focus

And then he'll go check it out.

Kobuk did get distracted in an earlier training session,

So we stopped it for safety reasons.

Austin: Stand.

(tweet)

Howie: All right. Austin: Not bad.

Howie: We're gonna call him back over, and we're gonna end.

Austin has done a lot of training with kobuk lately,

So I'm hoping today will go smoother.

Austin: Howie's going to be on the outside of the fence,

Keeping him distracted.

Howie: All right, kobuckle bear.

Austin: While myself and other staff

Are going in and cleaning out his den.

I'm going to be mainly on lookout duty.

Howie, are you good?

Howie: We're good.

That's yummy, isn't it? Yeah, good boy.

Austin: All right, pete, hop in there.

So we're raking out all the old straw from his den.

We're able to put the new straw in.

It just helps them stay warm

And gives them a nice little cushion,

So they're not sleeping on the bare ground.

We're also just always aware

Of what kobuk is doing and where he is.

Howie: Good boy.

I like to think that kobuk loves us, but he's also still a bear.

It's okay.

And we all know what can go wrong when you surprise one.

Oh, kobuk!

♪ ♪

Howie: All right, kobuk, I got some yum yums.

Oh, kobuk, it's okay. What a good boy.

Austin: He was interested in us when were first walked in,

But he's with howie, he has all the fun stuff,

So he's just hanging out with her.

Pete: It's probably good.

Austin: Howie, we're going to start making our way out.

Howie: Okay.

Yeah, you see those guys?

Good job. Good boy.

Austin: Yeah, you guys can go ahead.

I'll be the last one out.

Thank you.

We couldn't have asked for a better session.

He wasn't freaked out by any of it at all,

And he did amazing.

Howie: Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

(laughing)

He did so good!

Austin: Yeah, that was awesome.

These animals are like our children.

So it's kind of like when your kid gets an a on his test,

It's a really good moment.

You're super proud of him.

It's just the best feeling in the world

Knowing that all that work has paid off.

I love him.

(howie laughing)

Howie: Thanks, kobukie bear.

Hope you like your new fluff.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Sheila: All right, kiddo.

Dr. Victoria: When kanga first was admitted

To the alaska raptor center,

We were pretty nervous about its chances.

But we've seen a lot of improvement with kanga so far.

He's eating, he's digesting, and he's feisty.

Sheila: Swallow, swallow.

Hannah: Good job.

Dr. Victoria: Unfortunately he's becoming very jumpy,

Which is not good for a healing fracture.

And this is typical of a goshawk.

So we're going to move him into a convalescent mew.

Kara: Uh-huh.

Dr. Victoria: My hope is, is that, when he has some space,

He's away from people, he'll actually settle down

And get strength and its ability to fly.

Kara: Yeah.

Dr. Victoria: Goshawks need to be able to fly perfectly

Because it needs to be able to maneuver

Through the trees in the forest.

That's what its habitat is.

Kara: Gotcha.

Hey, beautiful.

Dr. Victoria: I want to check out his injury first

Just to see how it's healing.

Can I feel the wing?

Kara: Sure.

Dr. Victoria: Fractures heal in stages.

First they develop what's called a soft callus,

And then the callus calcifies and becomes hard.

I think that the callus that has formed is soft callus

And that we've got a long ways to go.

But I don't think we need to take an x-ray.

Kara: Okay.

Dr. Victoria: Let's go ahead and just move him

Into a convalescent mew.

What my hope is, is that, when he has some space,

He's away from people, he's away from our sounds,

He'll actually settle down

And that callus will become a hard callus and fully heal.

Okay, here we go, one, two, three.

♪ ♪

When kanga flew, it was something like this,

And it should be like this,

But I have hope that will straighten out.

They're a very high stress bird,

They don't do well in human care.

So we're going to be shooting for release.

That's my goal.

All right, let's all get out of here.

Kara: Okay, let's go.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Kristen: Oh, hello!

Why does she have to sit that way?

(laughing)

(squealing)

Jane: I know.

(squealing)

Dr. Carrie: A few weeks ago, we started seeing

Some concerning spots on lupine's coat.

(squealing) jane: I know, that's right.

There's still some places he can't quite get to,

But he's not letting us work with him

As intensely as we used to.

Their coat is so dense,

It is air trapped in their coat that keeps them warm.

So for a sea otter, it's very important

That their coat stay in great condition.

Dr. Carrie: Okay.

So today we're going to do a groom session

To fully dry out and fluff his fur.

Jane: The sedation is in.

Dr. Carrie: We're choosing to do anesthesia at this time

To make it easier for us to help him.

Jane: Halley, come on in and do oxygen, please.

Dr. Carrie: When an otter's fur is damaged,

The clock is ticking.

Jane: So, jess, if you want to go on the other side,

I'll be on this side, and we're gonna go to town.

Dr. Carrie: Yep.

Jane: Okay.

We're going to roll him gently towards me.

Dr. Carrie: Oh, man.

Dr. Carrie: Oh, man.

It's definitely worse than I expected.

So here he gets wet to the skin there, and it's matted.

It's like putting your kid out

With a wet towel or blanket on them

In the middle of the winter.

That water gets right to the skin,

And it actually transfers the cold that much faster

Than just cold air.

Almost a third of his back is in poor condition,

And that would be a death sentence in the wild.

Where do you want me to stand?

Dr. Carrie: Okay.

Jane: We are acting like mom

And grooming them just like she would,

Except we're using combs and hairdryers and fingers,

While she would be using her teeth and her tongue.

We'll just kind of pull apart those little furs

To keep them fluffy and allow the air to trap in there.

What do you think? Good?

Dr. Carrie: I think we'll be repeating this.

All right.

He's not in the best shape,

But I mean, it's definitely way better than it was before.

He does have his coat issues, we are able to stay on top of that.

Halley: Here you go.

Dr. Carrie: But otherwise he's healthy,

He's a healthy, growing otter pup.

(cooing)

♪ ♪

(chirping)

♪ ♪

Jennifer: Just checking on twiggy here.

Oh, here she goes.

Wonderful.

There was a lot of branches and twigs that had to be broken

In order to capture this eagle.

So yeah, twiggy seems like a fitting name.

She's looking nice and full figured.

(laughs)

She's definitely picking up on things, there's no doubt.

On admit we discovered

That her feathers weren't fully formed yet.

I think if we would have fattened her up

And sent her out,

At that point, she would have ended up

In the same situation all over again.

So we are keeping twiggy until spring

Because the salmon are finished in the river now,

And they're the main source of food for eagles around here.

So she'll spend the winter with us just honing her skills.

It might be because I'm biased,

Because I had a hand in catching her,

But I think twiggy's pretty special.

She's just such a cute, little, curious, quirky bird,

And I can't wait to get her back where she belongs.

Thanks, twiggy, you're a peach.

(laughs)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Jamie: Hi, joey.

Hi, pip.

Howie: Oh, well, howdy hey.

Sonia: Hello. Jamie: What up, howie?

Howie: Not only are they four months old today,

But it's a huge day for jo and pip.

We're going to get their vaccines on board.

We like to get these vaccinations before winter.

It's basically their version of the flu shots,

And it helps keep them healthy throughout the year.

Are you guys ready?

Jamie: Always. Sonia: Mm-hmm.

Howie: So, it should be quick.

Like, I'm thinking you guys will just do your normal thing,

They're going to be so occupied by their bottle

That I can just kind of swoop right in

And then I'll poke around on the butt,

And then eventually I'll just pop it in.

It's going to be a big test

To kind of see how they've done with their training.

But I have every confidence in jo and pip

And in sonia and jamie.

Jamie: I think it should go pretty smoothly with pip,

I think she's pretty easily distracted.

She's kind of an oddball and loves when she's on the bottle.

And I want her to stay as still as possible.

She can push me around pretty easily if she wants to.

So I got to really try my hardest

To keep her in one spot with that bottle.

Howie: I'm confident we'll crank pip out, no problem.

Jamie: Yeah.

Howie: I think I feel the same.

Jo's a little sketch-ball.

Jo is very skeptical and very shy.

So, I'm going to go ahead and give it with jo first,

And pip will be after that.

Sonia: I kind of am one of those like worst-case-scenario people.

Jo is not as fond of being touched,

Even if it's just a pet.

We'll see how she does.

Howie: Well, I'll throw on the charm

And she'll be all about it.

So it'll be just fine.

There's a lot of nerves in the air right now.

Sonia and jamie have done a great job

Working with these two.

Jamie: Look at you.

You darling baby.

Howie: I'm hoping that the milkshake

These calves are getting

Is going to completely keep them occupied

While we give them a poke in the butt.

All right, we're gonna go in for it.

Getting vaccinations is never fun.

When I was a kid, you know,

I screamed bloody murder on my poor grandma's lap.

I feel like if I would have had a milkshake

Before I got the vaccination,

That would have made it so much smoother.

But they are still moose, they're still wild animals.

Jamie: I'm getting attacked.

Howie: Their instinct reaction is to run away and kick.

Touch.

Howie: There's a lot of nerves in the air right now.

They're still wild animals.

Touch.

Good girl.

That was nothing.

Jo did extremely well.

Good girl! You did so good.

Yeah, look at you and your milk 'stache.

All right, pip-pip.

Touch.

(tweet)

Done.

Pip went great.

She was so focused on that bottle, she had no idea.

Cool, you guys did a great job.

Sonia: They did a good job. Huh, jo-jo?

Howie: Yeah. Sonia: You did a good job.

Howie: We got to care for these guys

Until they're 10 to 15 years old.

I'm super excited for the future with these guys.

Bye, kids.

Sonia: See you later.

Jamie: Bye, pip-pip. Sonia: Love you.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Jane: There he goes. Look at that.

Such a big boy, you are such a big boy now.

Lupine is three months old.

He's eating solid food, he's lost his pup fur,

He's swimming and diving.

Jessica: He's like growing so quickly now.

Jane: Mm-hmm.

Jessica: His coat looks great now,

We're so happy with the progress that he's making.

Jane: I gave him a clam treat.

Look at you go, mister,

You're using your paws so well with that slippery ice cube.

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

He's exhibiting a lot of adult behavior.

Jessica: Like really twirling and diving.

Jane: Oh, look at that spin underwater.

Look at you go, mister!

So that twirling behavior you're seeing

Is actually trapping air in their fur,

And it's that air trapped in the fur that keeps them warm.

Are you done?

You ready for a dry-off?

Here you go, here's a dry towel.

You got it.

Jessica: He's like "I can groom myself."

Jane: We've been playing with him.

He knows that humans are fun,

And this will help shape his behaviors in the future,

And this is because he's going to be staying in human care.

Doing the otter shimmy.

You can see how quickly he's fluffing up,

And that's what we want to see.

Jessica: Yeah, you're the cutest.

Jane: Good job, mister!

Good job.

All done.

Nope.

Jessica: No, back in the water. Jane: All right.

Jessica: And after all that hard work, back in the water.

Jane: Yep, back in the water.

Then we start all over again.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Dr. Victoria: Kanga has been here for about three months.

Kara: All right, let's go feed kanga.

Dr. Victoria: When this bird first was admitted

To the alaska raptor center...

Kara: Flying good.

Dr. Victoria: ...We were pretty nervous

About its chances for release.

It had been shot, it was an open wound, open fracture.

But a miracle occurred,

And that bird flies beautifully now.

Kara: Got this little chunker.

Jen: There you are. Kara: Gorgeous. Wow.

Jen: So kanga looks really good right now,

And we are thinking it's probably time to release him.

Jen: Ready? Kara: Ready?

Jen: One, two, three.

But first we kind of need to do a quick checkup

And see how everything looks

Before we make our final decision.

(beep)

(dr. Victoria laughing)

What?

Dr. Victoria: Are you sure this is the right bird?

Jen: Yeah, I'm sure. Why?

Dr. Victoria: It looks so good, that's why I'm saying it.

Kara: Yay!

Dr. Victoria: Here is our first x-ray

With this absolutely shattered...

Kara: Mess. Dr. Victoria: ...Bone here.

Look at that.

Jen: Oh, my god! Kara: Wow.

Dr. Victoria: Unbelievable.

Kara: Oh, my gosh!

Jen: Holy cow!

That's gorgeous!

Dr. Victoria: You can see the food--

No food, food.

This guy is beautiful.

He's fat and sassy.

Let's go out.

Kara: All right, ready to go, kanga!

I'm so happy.

When I went over and saw both of those two x-rays right together,

I was amazed.

I, I didn't think it was the same bird.

I thought we put it in the computer wrong, but we didn't.

It was the same bird, and that's amazing.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Dr. Victoria: Ooh, it's a pretty day out.

Kara: We're here in the muskeg at the alaska raptor center.

It's kind of our backyard.

While it's too late in the year for an eagle release,

Goshawks are actually amazing hunters in the winter.

It's just, it's crazy that this bird that came in

That we didn't think was going to make it,

That we were just like, you know,

We're gonna give it a shot for the species' sake,

Made such a quick turnaround and is doing great.

Dr. Victoria: All right, squat. Oh, the tail looks good.

Kara: It's ready. He's ready to go.

Dr. Victoria: On three.

Together: One, two, three.

♪ ♪

Kara: Yay! (clapping)

Dr. Victoria: Perfect, that's where I wanted him to go.

Kara: Yes! Beautiful. Jen: Oh, he looks amazing!

Kara: Kanga! Oh, my gosh!

Jen: That was incredible, you guys!

Dr. Victoria: It looks so good! Look at it!

Today our prayers were answered on kanga.

And we are so thankful.

Kara: It was a miracle.

I mean, honestly, a miracle that this bird lived.

For us wildlife warriors, there's no better feeling

Than to see that bird get another chance at life.

Captioned by side door media services