Original subtitles

Howie: I want to see the little baby.

John: What a cutie.

Hannah: You guys hungry?

Oh, they're so cute.

Julie: See all the little pups?

(grunting)

♪ ♪

Lisa: A couple weeks ago,

Our steller sea lion, mara, gave birth.

We're super excited.

We have a new baby.

Named her mist.

Already nicknamed her misty, so.

Mist and mara: M&m.

Steller sea lions are endangered,

And so the birth of this pup is a huge win for us here

Just 'cause we are the only facility in the united states

That breeds steller sea lions.

And we're really looking forward to what she can offer

To steller sea lion conservation in the future.

Julie: We're starting to see mara kind of relaxed and calm,

And get used to her new life as a mom.

We are ready to start socializing the pup,

Because she's more comfortable with us being in the pup's area.

Hi, mist.

We can start enriching her life

And start adding us more into the picture.

Getting her used to us, getting her to like us,

Getting her comfortable being around us.

Evelyn: Good job, misty.

Hi.

Good girl.

Julie: And hopefully at one point,

She's like, "oh, every time I see evelyn; I love evelyn!"

You know, that relationship right there becomes

Very valuable to take the best care of the animal

That we can for their life.

Evelyn: Get it. Get it.

(grunt)

Shelby: Mist is going to grow up,

Become a 500- or 600-pound female,

Hopefully in our care, if not at another facility,

And so we already want to start establishing

A positive relationship.

We can't quite do it with food right now,

Since she's only nursing, but we can find other ways.

Wakey, wakey!

Julie: One of the toys that she likes playing with

Is a knot ball that's attached to a string.

She loves her toy.

And it's really cool because we can use that

To associate with us to make her love us, too.

(laughs)

Shelby: Oh, you're so beautiful! (laughing)

Julie: We're also desensitizing mara to us being around her pup,

That she's so protective and, and being a mom about.

Shelby: Let's go, little misty.

Good girl.

Julie: Alright, let's call it for now,

So they can have some nursing time,

And then we'll try this again in a little bit.

She's excited to see you.

Working with this steller pup is so fun,

They are so amazing to watch grow up

To become these amazing animals

That are ambassadors for their species.

Good job, little puppy!

♪ ♪

Howie: When folks come to alaska,

They really want to see those charismatic megafauna, right?

They help us teach people about the importance

Of alaskan wildlife and conservation.

Lily: The dominant individuals are usually mom and dad.

And a wolf pack is comprised of a mated breeding pair.

Howie: But sometimes, the bigger the animal,

The bigger the problems.

Come on!

So the red flag at awcc for fall, for rut,

Is when any of the males on property

Start being really ornery.

Would you stop?

That was certainly a pucker factor moment.

Go away.

Whoa. Rut's in the air.

Hey, chris, back up.

Get back.

The wood bison are one of the first to get moody.

Look at this guy.

Austin: Rut is breeding season,

And their primary drive is to find a mate.

Howie: And look at him, he's just super ornery.

Next would be the elk,

And then the reindeer will start shedding their velvet.

Brittany: Oh, they smell.

Howie: They really stink!

Brittany: Messy.

Austin: The velvet is what encourages those antlers to grow

Throughout the summer, then the velvet sheds during rut,

And they have those nice, classic antlers

That everyone thinks of.

Then those antlers fall off at the end of winter every year,

And then that whole process starts over again.

Howie: Our moose are typically always the last ones

To go into rut.

Austin: Arnold! You want some snacks?

Howie: Arnold's our two-year-old male moose.

We're waiting for arnold any day to go into rut

And to shed that velvet

And to start telling us what he's made of.

Austin: Hi, buddy.

Not many people can say their best friend is a moose.

I raised him since the day we got him

When he was 83 pounds of a tiny, adorable little orphan.

I spent so many hours with him

Trying to teach him that people weren't bad.

I'm dad and he's my child, I would do anything for him.

He and I have a really special relationship.

Howie: We were really worried about him last winter.

He had a really bad injury on his antler.

Austin: Turns out arnold fractured his skull.

We were initially told that due to the severity of his injury,

He was never gonna grow this antler again.

Clearly he proved us wrong.

He is the best moose on the planet.

You want this?

Arnold's kind of that first year in rut.

I'm not really sure what to expect from him.

So we are currently in the process

Of redoing our moose fence lines.

We have had individuals

That like to challenge the fence line in rut.

Matt: They'll lock up with the game fence

And they'll just bow it out and bow it out,

And, yeah, rut could start any day.

And god help us if there's a cow in the neighborhood.

Because they do just get so fired up.

I just know he's a ticking time bomb, so.

Howie: I think we're gonna see a little bit of that teenager,

Test the waters scenario.

I think he knows who he can get away with the most.

Probably austin.

Austin: I think he's going to stay the exact same

'cause he's perfect.

So it's kind of anyone's guess what's going to happen.

Man: These guys have stinging cells just like sea jellies,

But they're not strong enough to get through our skin.

Julie: Mara and mist have been staying in our holding area,

Which is a space just off of our exhibit.

And the exhibit is the area

Where the public can see sea lions from topside

And they can also view them from underwater.

Lisa: Hello, little girl!

Julie: Are you guys ready?

Alright. Let's go.

Shelby: We now think that mara's ready to finally go back out

Onto the main exhibit and be reintroduced to pilot,

The big daddy of mara's pup.

You'll see his eyeball peering through the window,

Definitely vocalizing and looking for mara.

I don't think it's his paternal side kicking in,

Saying, "where's this baby?"

It's more saying, "where's this female?"

Julie: And so today pilot and mara get to reunite

For the first time since mara's given birth.

(bellow)

Just like, you know, when human parents have a baby

Or you have kids,

Mara, you know, needs a break from her own kid, too.

So it'll be nice for her

To have, you know, go have adult time.

Shelby: Good girl, mar.

Julie: I'm going to close this.

And when parents leave, you know, the baby at home,

They have a babysitter.

And mara knows that she has us.

We're her babysitters, which is really fun for us, too.

So it's going to be pretty much a stress-free moment for her,

A really happy reuniting for pilot.

And it's just another one of those days

That we're just so happy that we've made it here.

Jamie: Dr. Jamie.

Julie: Hey, we're really close to getting ready

If you wanted to start shifting off pilot.

Jamie: Okay.

Shelby: First step we have to make

Is to get pilot off of the exhibit.

And this is a ginormous animal,

And that means he's always behind some sort of barrier.

Game on.

Once we can remove him successfully,

We pull mara out onto the habitat.

Julie: Good girl, mara!

We'll give her, you know, some time to settle down.

We always have to take these events cautiously.

For some reason, if mara doesn't want to be near pilot,

And she starts running away, pilot could go chasing her,

Corralling her, get really worked up,

That could lead to animal bites.

Good.

This is the biggest pilot has ever been.

He's huge. He's basically four times bigger than mara.

Shelby: Let's go, pi! Good boy, buddy! Hi, bud!

They haven't seen each other in literally months.

Julie: Good job, mara.

Shelby: Oh, this is cute.

Right to the hind end.

(bellowing)

So because mara gave birth about a month ago at this point,

She's no longer susceptible to becoming pregnant.

Shelby: I know, totally.

He might still be a little bit hormonal,

But even if we were to see some interesting behaviors,

We don't think that it would produce

A successful pregnancy for mara.

Shelby: She does. She's such a dominant female.

I know.

Shelby: We think mist is super cute...

(bellows)

...But we're not looking for another one.

♪ ♪

Jen: We get calls about injured birds from all over the state.

Our first priority with those birds is to get them treatment

To be able to release them back into the wild.

A lot of birds come to us by plane,

Like the bird we got a call about today

That was hit by a car in juneau.

From the photos that I got, looks like it has a wound

On its left side, and it looks pretty bad.

I always worry about the birds flying down from juneau.

They're put in a kennel.

They're put on this loud airplane.

I'm guessing it's on that one.

I'm sure it's very stressful for them.

Can you just bring that bird over here, please?

So I can go help it?

We're going to take him straight into emergency surgery

With dr. V, and see what we can do to fix it.

Dr. Victoria: My understanding is that this bird

Was hit by a car yesterday,

And that is has a fairly severe injury, a huge laceration.

Jen: I'm ready.

God, he's so beautiful I can't stand it.

Dr. Victoria: The fact that he's survived the night is great.

Jen: The head is uncovered.

Okay.

Dr. Victoria: It is beautiful.

It has a lot more white body feathers

Than the average young bald eagle.

Wow.

Oh. Oh, god.

This is way worse than the photo.

Oh, my god.

I kind of want to just go straight into anesthesia.

Jen: Okay. Yeah.

Dr. Victoria: Looking at this bird,

I am just shocked that it's alive.

I think it's going to be very challenging.

Um, go get burgess.

Jen: Okay.

Dr. Victoria: Burgess is my husband.

He is also a veterinarian.

And he is also the original raptor center vet.

Dr. Burgess: Ho...Ly...(bleep).

Jen: I told you.

Dr. Victoria: This piece of...

Dr. Burgess: I'd cut that damn thing off.

Dr. Victoria: Yup. And then it's got a chunk of muscle on it.

Dr. Burgess: It's a chunk of muscle.

I'd sew it.

Just get in there and close everything.

Dr. Victoria: Between the two of us, 75 years of experience.

Dr. Burgess: Put a muscle stitch in there.

Dr. Victoria: It's so nice to be able to get

A second opinion from him.

I call him in all the time, and he calls me in all the time.

Dr. Burgess: Just give it the opportunity to fail.

And sew his ass up.

Dr. Victoria: Okay. Thank you for your opinion.

Dr. Burgess: Cut that thing off. Dr. Victoria: Yeah.

The more I look at this, the more optimistic I get.

I want to save as much muscle and as much skin as I can,

To increase the chances of release for this bird.

This is going to be a very challenging case for me.

But I think I can do something for this bird.

Dr. Victoria: I am about to start

A very challenging surgery,

Sewing this poor eagle back together that was hit by a car

And had very significant damage

To both flight muscles and leg muscles.

Jen: I would say this is probably the worst wound

That we've seen all year.

Hopefully we don't see anything worse than this,

'cause this is pretty bad.

Dr. Victoria: I'm sewing up a flight muscle,

A muscle that attaches to the bird's chest.

I am worried, because these are such powerful muscles,

That the bird is just going to tear the sutures out,

So I am going to put extra sutures in.

That is my goal, we'll see if I achieve it.

Bit by bit, one puzzle piece at a time,

I'm trying to put this bird back together.

Jen: This is probably one of the longest surgeries

I've ever been around.

Dr. Victoria: It's really difficult to see.

Here's muscle, here's skin with feathers on it.

You can hardly tell the difference.

If those muscle sutures don't hold,

That's pretty much it for the bird.

I think I might be done.

Jen: Dr. V did a great job, yet again.

I just want it to make it, 'cause not only does it have

A big, horrible wound, it's a beautiful bird.

Like, I haven't seen an eagle this pretty

In a long, long time.

Dr. Victoria: Alright. Quick review. Baytril.

So, antibiotic, pain meds.

Put him in a crate with a lot of shred.

Jen: Okay. Go back in. It's been a hard day.

Dr. Victoria: I want him to be fairly confined

So that those muscles can heal.

Jen: We're going to try to not move him

For, what, three days, you think?

♪ ♪

(pecking)

Brittany: Look, they're right there.

Austin: What are those things?

Brittany: Ermine.

Howie: Oh, there is.

Brittany: They're white in the winter.

Howie: Today I got an interesting phone call.

The whole conversation, I thought we were talking

About a bear or something.

Hi, kobuki.

Look at that cute bear.

Threw me for a loop when I find out at the very end

That we're actually talking about a squirrel.

I was just like, "what?"

Orphan squirrel.

And he needs a permanent home.

So awcc is home to about 17 different species.

Most of them are wild rescues.

This'll be our first squirrel.

It's just really entertaining to watch squirrels.

It's kind of hard not to smile

When you see them out doing their own thing.

So I need to head out to chickaloon today.

It's about a three-hour drive from portage.

So I got to go up to mat-su valley

And just keep on going north

Until I hit the residence of our squirrel rescuer.

Howie: Hello. Dean: Hello.

Howie: So I hear we have a squirrel friend.

Dean: Yeah. I saw it running across the parking lot.

So I thought, well, I'm going to get a nice video.

This would be a great facebook post.

You know, a little baby squirrel.

Looked over at me and just...

Ah.

...Ran over and ran up my leg, went under my coat,

Up my shoulder, and there he stayed.

Howie: Oh, my gosh, look at him. (laughs)

Dutch: This guy had no fear.

Howie: He's actually imprinted; someone raised him by hand.

He's super habituated to people.

Dean: Nonstop going.

Howie: He's a character, alright.

Dutch was kind of letting him roam free.

Dutch: That's his nap place.

(laughs)

Howie: And I realized, oh, boy, this is a squirrely squirrel.

Dutch: There he is.

Howie: When they get imprinted like that,

They, they have to stay with us.

Dutch: I'm so used to him in the garage

When I'm working on something,

Jump on my back and wanting to play.

Howie: Catch him up maybe,

And we'll give him a home at the wildlife center.

Dutch: This is, this is perfect for him.

This is what he wanted, and this is what I wanted him to do.

Howie: Road trip.

Dutch: Oops, sorry, bud!

Howie: It's gonna be the most famous squirrel.

Alright.

I just really enjoy the thought of having the squirrel

Around the wildlife center to teach a whole bunch of kids

And alaskans about red squirrels and their environment.

Dean: Oh, I'll miss him.

But I'm gonna go visit.

I'm definitely gonna go visit.

I can't wait to see his new home.

♪ ♪

Shelby: Alright. This is a big pool.

Good girl, mist! Come swimming.

Julie: Our steller sea lion pup mist is about four weeks old,

And it's about time that she learns how to swim.

Shelby: We're kind of at the phase where we think

That she might be able to handle swimming

In our backup holding pool.

So today's the day we're gonna give that a try.

Lisa: I say we allow mara to take the lead

And take her to the water and see how it goes.

Do you, do you want to be net, if we need to intervene?

But we're not gonna need to, right?

Shelby: We're never quite sure what's gonna happen.

We're gonna be on standby

In case we need to get her out of the water.

Julie: Everybody ready?

Alright, open three.

Jamie: Oh, it moves!

Julie: This is about the same time out in the rookery

Where the pups start kind of investigating more of the ocean.

You know, we want to kind of keep them on the same schedule,

Give her the option.

You know, if she's ready for this,

We're gonna allow her to do it.

Jamie: Come on, mist!

Lisa: Oh, gosh.

We always want the mom to raise the pup.

Mom, here, you know, this is your job.

Teach mist to swim.

Alright.

(bellows)

Oh!

Julie: So you can see there, she's kind of telling her pup

To get back from the situation.

(bellowing)

Lisa: Mara is definitely-- she's trying to block her, yeah.

Julie: Mara's having instincts that, you know, maybe, you know,

This new thing, you know,

She doesn't want her going over there yet.

She's being a mom.

Lisa: It's not unusual,

Especially since she's a first-time mom.

There's probably a pretty steep learning curve going on,

And she's being very protective.

Julie: And this doesn't mean

That the pup isn't ready to swim.

This is just meaning that mom's not ready

For that situation as of yet.

Lisa: You could just be nice and take her to the water, you know.

Oh, jeez.

She's being a very great protective mom

And just keeping a close eye on that little pup.

Lisa: Take the plunge!

Julie: Mist will go investigate the water,

Which would seem promising at some times,

But mara is not having it.

Lisa: Mara really wants to have a lot of control

Over where the pup goes.

That's a really good mama bear instinct.

Shelby: Without real-world mom experience,

Mara is actually relying on her instincts.

In the wild, the ocean can be a dangerous place

With surf and rocks, and a lot of pups may not survive.

We're trying to prove to her that we've got her back

And that mist is ready to learn to swim.

Lisa: Right now what we're seeing,

I mean, she's not gonna let it happen for a while.

I don't even know if the pup's gonna come out now.

Julie: I'm gonna get in trouble!

Lisa: Mama yells at me!

Julie: So we're gonna do something different,

And this time we are going to step up with a trainer as well.

Good job, good girl.

I'm gonna manage her maternal instincts,

May keep her more calm.

Water!

We'll send her to the water, have her hold there calmly.

Good, wait.

And hopefully mist is gonna follow her in.

Wait.

Water!

Good job, little puppy!

Wait! Good. Nice job, mar.

Shelby: It's really funny because you think

That young steller sea lions, swimming will come

Very naturally and very innately for them,

But it's something that they have to learn.

Lisa: Come on, kiddo.

Julie: Good.

She doesn't know that she can hold her breath,

And eventually she'll be able to hold her breath

For over 20 minutes.

She doesn't know that she has these, you know, huge flippers

That she can easily swim, so she doesn't have the confidence yet.

She's about to go in!

Lisa: Oh! Here she goes, here she goes!

Julie: She's gonna slip in there.

Lisa: Ah!

All: Woo! Yay!

Julie: Yay!

Good girl, mara!

She did it!

Yay, she's growing up!

Every time the pup reaches a new milestone,

It's almost like seeing your own child

Go through these milestones.

For us it's the same thing, you know.

We just want to hang up their work on the refrigerator

And look at it every night, you know, type thing, so.

There's no turning back now.

Now, we have to figure out how to get her out of the water,

Because she's probably going to want to spend

Most of her time in there.

♪ ♪

Howie: Sweet, a pool.

♪ ♪

This squirrel, in just the couple days he's been here,

Has brought so much joy to my life.

You just get to feed him some food,

And he's high on life because he got that walnut.

It's just a lot of fun.

I can't help but smile when I'm around him.

It's just entertaining to watch a squirrel being a squirrel.

Getting an imprinted squirrel presents

A really awesome opportunity for us and our education department.

Sonia: People don't tend to have the fondest views on squirrels.

He's so cute.

Hopefully we can change some minds

So people don't see them so much as pests.

I cannot wait to have a squirrel

That I actually get to train some cool behaviors.

Howie: What's happening back there?

Sonia: I want to make sure he has a good relationship with us.

So that all starts with trust and relationship building.

So that's gonna be my focus for the next few weeks.

Howie: I'm ready. Sonia: Alrighty. Squirrel party?

Alright, what are we gonna name him?

Howie: This year at awcc,

We have a naming theme of literary characters.

(laughter)

Austin: What are the contenders?

Howie: Sherlock.

Sonia: Heathcliff.

Howie: Mr. Darcy.

Mr. Darcy?!

Sonia: Pride and prejudice.

Howie: Oh, pride and prejudice.

I sparknoted it.

What about sawyer?

Oh! We like that one. Look at the excitement!

Sonia: Ebenezer. Austin: Yes!

Howie: Ebenezer scrooge?

Austin: I love it.

Howie: Yeah, out of left field comes ebenezer scrooge.

That wasn't even on the list for voting.

I'd like to make a motion for ebenezer scrooge.

Austin: Everyone.

Howie: All in favor.

There we go.

Robert's rules.

Austin: Ebenezer!

Howie: 'cause he does get a little feisty.

If you're trying to feed him a peanut or a, or a walnut,

And if you don't give him enough,

He gets a little grumpy with you.

Sonia: He's precious, so he's definitely winning our hearts,

That's for sure.

(train horn blows)

Howie: Would you stop?

You're a brat!

You guys are kind of the worst.

Rut's really quickly approaching.

We know it's that time of the year

Because the males on property start to get extra ornery.

Austin: Arnold today is just frantically

Running around the pen; that's very unlike him.

Howie: He's starting to get a little, a little testy.

He really has a problem with matt working on that fence,

So matt needs to kind of quicken the pace a little bit,

And he knows that.

He's here sunup, sundown, getting that fence tied up.

And it's ticking arnold off.

Matt: He's been on that hill and on that fence watching me daily.

He'll be like, "is that matt? Is that matt?!"

Do-do-do-do-do-do.

His hormones are really starting to skyrocket.

But he's still got all of his velvet on his antlers.

But once it starts to shred off, it'll just take a matter of days

Before he'll be down to just bone white antlers,

And then he's got a couple significant tools

To lock up with the fence.

Howie: Since he's showing first signs of rut,

We have a small window to do something to calm him down.

Brittany: Do you want to take him,

Like, so you're walking towards the boardwalk?

Austin: So we do have a shot.

It's called depo.

Basically female birth control,

And it helps bring our animals out of rut

A lot faster than it would if they didn't have the shot.

Arnold! Come here!

Howie: Rut can be very challenging for an animal.

Their hormones change.

Sometimes they almost stop eating entirely.

Brittany: Hi, bud.

Howie: All the animals around awcc know the jab stick.

And they know when that comes out,

Sometimes they get poked with pointy, sharp things.

Brittany: I'm gonna keep walking him down this way.

And give him some bananas.

You ready, handsome?

Howie: Austin has worked really hard to make sure arnold

Is kind of desensitized to it,

Because he's gonna have to get a shot every fall.

We're gonna get to a point where he leans into it

And almost gives himself the shot.

And that's really excellent training on austin's part,

And he's worked really hard for it.

So we're gonna go ahead and let austin try it.

Austin: We don't want arnold to be

An incredibly aggressive animal during rut.

So this depo shot is just gonna help us manage him

A little bit better.

This has to be close.

Brittany: Hi!

Austin: Got him! Brittany: Good job, bud.

Austin: Uh, that went pretty well. He got the whole dose.

Brittany: He lined up perfectly. All went super smooth.

Austin: A couple days ago another keeper pointed out

That there was a cut right in front of his eye.

We don't really know on what,

But this is basically neosporin for moose.

Because I've been able to work with him

Since day one he got here,

And we've, we have a really strong relationship.

So it allows me to take better care of him

When he does have injuries that need to be addressed.

Bye, bud.

So now we just see how his demeanor changes throughout rut.

♪ ♪

Jen: Oh, my god, he's tiny.

Baby bald eagles start out as little, fluffy, gray balls.

Then they turn dark brown, chocolaty color

With a little bit of white speckling.

As they turn three,

They will get more white feathers on their head.

When they turn five, they're the iconic bald eagle.

The white head, white tail, and they're adults.

Dr. Victoria: We had a bald eagle come in last week

That was hit by a car, and it's very unique looking.

My goodness.

The bird's been in icu for about three days now.

We are going to pull him out in the dark,

Because I want this capture to be as quiet

And atraumatic as possible.

I am very concerned about him.

Jen: There's a color morph in southeast alaska

That's called a white belly morph,

And I think that he is a white belly morph.

Just so white and so beautiful.

If it didn't stress him out,

I'd just sit there and look at him all day long.

Uh, we're just gonna check the wound

And see how the bird is doing.

Dr. Victoria: Sewing this bird up was a real challenge.

Looks really good.

Jen: After four days, this bird is looking pretty incredible.

Considering he had a huge hole

Basically down his entire left side,

I'd say he's doing pretty good.

I don't think I'd be standing up after something like that, so.

Dr. Victoria: I wanted to call him puzzle,

Because it was such a puzzle

To put him back together surgically.

But I was outvoted.

Everyone else wanted to call him stitch.

Jen: We didn't really want to pick him up this soon.

But because he's not eating,

We need to do something to try and stimulate his appetite.

Dr. Victoria: Woo! Wow.

I think we are gonna get a little spunk here

After that attempt. Oh! Yeah! Hi!

I would like you to eat this.

Didn't work. (laughs)

I have a special trick for getting birds to eat

That any parent will recognize.

Here comes the airplane!

Yes! Good job!

Darn it.

Okay, here comes the airplane. There we go!

Jen: If you pretend it's an airplane

And bring it in really fast,

They will bite at it because it's kind of shocking to them.

Dr. Victoria: Here comes the airplane.

And they'll open their mouth to hiss at me,

And I pop the food in, and they eat it!

Jen: There you go.

The benefit of being in sitka is that there's plenty of salmon,

And eagles love salmon, so we're pretty lucky that way.

Dr. Victoria: It'd be a lot easier

If you weren't being a-- ooh, look at you!

Jen: There you go.

Dr. Victoria: Good job! Good job!

There you go!

Oh, my god, you are a mess.

Jen: He's got at least 6 or 7 more days in icu

Before we even think about moving him anywhere else.

Hi, baby. No, no, no, no, no. There you go.

Dr. Victoria: Nicely done, jen.

♪ ♪

Vet: It looks like he still senses light on that side.

Dr. Carrie: Anybody want to come see a fish heartbeat?

...Or we'll give mammals a heads up.

Today, we're gonna do a one-month post-partum

Physical exam of both mara and pup.

Lisa: We're moving mist into the elevator, aka the waiting room,

While mara has her workup.

And we're separating them so mara won't hear mist calling,

And she will stay calmer.

Dr. Carrie: With mara being the size that she is,

We essentially need to bring the clinic to her.

Okay. Just gonna do it from here?

Jamie: Target!

There you go.

Lisa: What is really unique about this,

Is that the team is going to present a cone to mara,

And she is gonna stick her head in this cone,

And she's gonna go under anesthesia voluntarily.

Jamie: Okay, that's good. Good!

Lisa: This is an amazing behavior that is so valuable.

Woman: Do they want to take it down?

Jamie: There you go! Good girl, mara. Wait.

Lisa: It makes me really proud of the team

To see that behavior, especially just right after she gave birth,

When she could have a lot of other distractions going on.

Jamie: Mara!

Dr. Carrie: Bummer. She's out. Her head's out.

Jamie: Mara, cone. Good girl, mara! Cone!

Lisa: While mist waits for her workup,

The team is experiencing a little setback

With mara getting her under anesthesia.

Jamie: Mara!

Dr. Carrie: She's out. Her head's out.

Lisa: She'd already felt the effects of the anesthesia.

So she was, she was a little groggy and wobbly.

Jamie: There you go.

Good! Good!

Dr. Carrie: It really goes to show the strength

Of the relationship that jamie has with mara,

That jamie was able to get her

To put her head back in the cone.

Jamie: We'll take that.

Good girl.

There you go.

Wait.

Nice job, mara.

Lisa: And she's under.

Alright, we're gonna roll.

The one main thing is we're just wondering

If mara's producing enough milk,

And that way we'll have an idea if we need to supplement or not.

Woman: A little bit. It's coming.

Lisa: Oh, here we go. Julie: Lisa's got the touch!

Jamie: Okay. Lisa: Mama found the milk!

Dr. Carrie: Okay. Jamie: It's producing.

Dr. Carrie: We're getting ready to do the blood draw.

I'm going to get the ultrasound.

Lisa: Alright.

Dr. Carrie: Yes, it looks good.

Jane, we're done.

Lisa: We've just finished mara's procedure.

And next is moving into doing the anesthesia event on the pup.

Jamie: Good job, mara! Awesome.

Lisa: Mist is probably our last sea lion pup

That we will have for a while.

Mara is reached an age where we will no longer breed her,

And it will take some years before we have another female

That will be old enough to breed.

Jane: Okay, weight.

Dr. Carrie: Dr. Ashley's going to go for blood.

Okay. Yeah, we're almost done.

Julie: 46 for hip.

Lisa: We have this great opportunity to love on mist

And give her lots of attention

And just treat her as any baby in the family.

Nice job.

Julie: Good job, girls.

Lisa: And so we're really looking forward

To just basically spoiling mist rotten.

(laughing)

Jamie: No, none of that!

♪ ♪

Howie: Ugh, yuck!

There's spiders all over it! Ugh! I got to go, I got to go.

Oh, my god, get it off! Ugh!

I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm just having a moment.

I'm sorry, I don't do spiders.

This summer, it was a crazy summer.

Oh. Pfft. I hate everything right now.

If I'm having a bad day and I just need to get away,

You know, I can go hang out

With this neurotic and crazy little guy

Named ebenezer scrooge,

And you just get to call him, "what's up, scrooge?"

I'm just hopeful he really loves his new, his new digs.

Sonia: I'm pretty sure there was no doubt in anyone's mind

Who was going to be primary on the squirrel,

Because I nearly peed my pants

When I heard we were getting one,

So I'm going to be his squirrel interior decorator for sure.

All kinds of stuff that's gonna be fun for him:

New structures, scents, hiding lots of things.

Austin: Hey, brittany.

Ask sonia how long it took her to realize

The drill was in reverse.

Sonia: Stop.

I'm excited to see how he interacts with everything.

Hi, buddy!

And I also repurposed this box to act like a cache box,

So he can put nuts and whatever he wants inside of it.

Howie: It's kind of a hard life being a squirrel.

You're hiking through the woods and you hear them.

They'll sit there and they'll yell at you,

Get right in your face and go, "di di di di!"

Sonia: He's like, "get away from my cache."

Howie: Every day they're dealing with predators

Up and down the food chain: Wolverines and mink and fishers.

Owls and eagles will totally make an easy meal

Out of a squirrel.

So he kind of has to be a little neurotic

Because that's his life.

So I think that presents a really awesome opportunity

To teach people all about squirrels,

And really why they are the way that they are.

Sonia: I'm going to head out and let him explore

Without me watching.

Bye, buddy!

Howie: I really love this little guy.

He's going to be the most popular animal

At the wildlife center.

(elk bugling)

♪ ♪

Arnold has actually been separated

From his most sacred place, the bunkhouse shelter.

That's really his favorite spot.

Unfortunately, though, that's the side of the pen

In the field that matt needed to work on.

So arnold's been locked out of that side of the field

For the last month.

He's starting to get upset.

He still has a shelter.

It's a perfectly good shelter, but it's not his shelter.

And so he's getting a little frustrated.

Austin: He's a hot mess, but you still got to love him.

Howie: At the same time, he's coming into rut.

So, lots of things going on for young arnold right now.

Matt: Our new fence is nice and tight.

I think we are ready for arnold

To have all of his enclosure back.

I'm going to give howie a call and let her know.

Austin: It'll be really nice for him

To have his entire territory back.

Matt: Sarah, do you copy? Sarah?

Arnold's pen is ready for him.

Howie: Awesome, I'll head over, get brittany,

And then we'll head over there.

It's done.

Matt: It's done.

Howie: Wow, it looks really good.

He's chomping at the bit to get back in his bunkhouse.

Brittany: Oh, he loves his bunkhouse.

But I think he'll be pretty pumped.

Howie: He's gonna run here and be like, "my home."

The way the straw nestles into a corner,

It's definitely a lot cozier.

We'll go release the arnold.

Howie: Woo.

Arnold!

I want him to know this gate's open now

So he can come back home.

I just, I don't know if arnold was feeling a little left out,

'cause he went to the other side of the pond.

He's totally checked out, like, "whatever,"

Ornery teenager, "I don't get to go home today."

Arnold moose!

Arnold!

So I'm trying to get his attention.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring any treats with me,

So I just have to use my voice and my charm

To see if he wants to come with me.

Arnold moose!

Come on.

Come on, arnold!

Brittany: She's trying grass.

Howie: But he has to come over so he can see it. (laughs)

Look it. You can come back home.

Come on!

Once he's back over there,

I don't know if he's going to frolic,

But I feel like the inner arnold definitely would be frolicking.

Handsome man!

He's coming.

Slow moving, but he's coming.

Brittany: Oh, here he comes.

Austin: Arnold was pretty slow to come over.

It is something new.

He's not used to having a fence line

In the middle of his exhibit.

Howie: Come on, bud.

Austin: And the fact that he walked through it

Now with that gate,

He's going to have a significant portion of his habitat back.

Come on.

Hi, buddy.

Howie: Good boy.

Arnold came through the gate

And it was like watching a little kid at legoland.

Like, he came back in, he realized

There's so many good food to eat on the ground.

I think I saw some duckweed that he immediately hit up.

And then when he finally came into the bunkhouse,

It was like, "I'm back. This is my home, my bedroom!"

You know, I'm stoked, this is how everything I left it.

Nobody messed with it.

Austin: He definitely seemed really happy

To be back in a pen he loves.

Arnold's going to be super chill.

♪ ♪

Jen: Stitch has been down in convalescence for two weeks.

Just being able to flap his wings and move around.

He has gone through a lot.

Dr. Victoria: Stitch, how is that bird doing?

Kara: I think stitch is doing well, moving around pretty good.

Flying from perch to perch.

Dr. Victoria: No kidding. Kara: Yeah.

Dr. Victoria: How do you guys feel about

Putting stitch in main flight?

Kara: It makes me nervous, but he's eating well.

Dr. Victoria: Okay.

I would really like to see stitch when we move stitch.

Today I'm going to examine stitch,

And if everything looks good, we get to put him into main flight.

When you think about what this bird has been through,

His flight muscles were completely severed,

His leg muscles were severed,

I can't believe how well this bird is doing.

Oh, jeez!

We had a lot of trouble catching stitch,

Which is a really good sign.

It tells me that he's a fighter.

There is one spot that I'm worried about,

And that's where I had to remove the skin

And there was too much tension.

Use my phone to give myself a little extra light.

So I'm going to be looking to make sure

That healing is progressing.

Oh, yeah. Those look great.

He is good to go into main flight.

I am so amazed at the entire process with stitch.

I can't wait to see how well this bird flies.

This bird came in hit by a car,

I didn't know if he was even going to make it.

Certainly putting him back together

And him healing well enough to fly was a long shot.

Kara: Oh, my gosh. Dr. Victoria: There he goes!

Kara: Whoa!

Dr. Victoria: It's really exciting

To put him into main flight today.

That means there's real potential that this bird

Will be released back into the wild.

So I'm really feeling good about this.

♪ ♪

Lisa: Mist is swimming, having a great time,

So today's the day we're gonna put mist on habitat,

To give her the opportunity to see what she thinks

In the big, deep pool.

Julie: Let's go, mist-mist!

Lisa: So she's ready; we're ready.

Julie: Mist going out into habitat

Is going to be a huge deal.

People just want to see her.

And she's going to be a crowd-pleaser.

People are going to fall in love with her.

First, we got to get pilot off the exhibit.

Shelby: Open seven!

Julie: Let's go, bud.

Shelby: Good boy. All the way in!

Pilot is super well-trained.

Mist at this stage is like a terrible two's toddler.

You love them, but it's really tough to get them

To listen to you and do what you need.

Lisa: I'd love to see her go out and explore on her own.

So we're going to give mist access to the habitat

And see if she just goes out and takes that plunge.

Open it, see if she follows you.

Shelby: Come on, let's go.

We're not going to force her.

We're just going to give her access to this environment,

And see if she checks it out.

Lisa: She seemed very hesitant,

Not really sure about what to think of the situation.

Julie: She definitely did some drive-bys to check us out

And was looking, but she seemed pretty nervous.

So we're going to go for plan b.

Lisa: We're going to put mara out.

Julie: Mara, let's go.

Lisa: And see if mist will go out with mara.

Julie: Maybe that will make mist be like, "mom!"

And go out, okay.

Jamie: Good girl, mara!

Nice job.

Wait!

Shelby: So it took a few attempts.

Lisa: Get on it, julie, we got mist in the corner

Of the run in 4, between 2 and 4.

Oh, my god.

Shelby: But after a little while,

After watching mara do it a few times,

I think it kind of struck mist...

Julie: Good girl, mar!

Shelby: ...That she can follow mom all the way out

To this new area that she's never been before.

Julie: Oh, I just-- she's peeking around!

(giggling)

All: Yay!

Julie: You got it, little mist!

(bellow)

Good girl! Water!

Good! Go mist!

All: Yay! Woo!

Shelby: We don't get a ton of opportunities

To geek out on things at the center.

We try to be very professional.

Think a lot of that protocol went out the window.

We're all running downstairs,

I think we made a human pyramid once or twice.

Um, just really trying to celebrate

How excited we really were.

Julie: Look at her by herself!

♪ ♪

She's going to be quite

The little entertaining character to watch.

It was really special for us to be able to share it

With the visitors that are here.

To all be together for the experience

Was really personally valuable.

Shelby: There's nothing better than that for team mammals.

Captioned by side door media services