Original subtitles

Wait a minute.

She's too cute.

Yeah. It's a very sweet bird.

Hey, can I get somebody to bring us a bunch of bananas to a tortoise?

Shooting? Awesome.

Oh, look at those nails. Yeah.

You're being very good. You are, sweet girl.

Ready? Ready. Cool. Let's do it.

Oh, that was cute.

Take a look at Bolt.

Yeah, I think he's about ready to go out.

He's been eating really well. His weight looks great.

It's hard to believe he came so far from when he first came in.

He's been one of the most challenging cases that we probably have ever really

had. Volt is one of our manatees that was rescued about a year ago. He came in

as a juvenile orphan.

That's him right here.

He was rescued out of the power plant and had a juvenile enteritis, basically

parasite, and was emaciated.

If you want to come up here, Kelsey, you can help just guide him back.

Right now we're getting Volt into a med pool for his pre -release health

assessment with Dr. Lauren.

Hopefully he will be clear for release.

Yeah, you can kind of just stay by his side and guide him through.

Coming.

Good job.

Today. The team's going to bring him up, and I'm just going to get an overall

look at his body condition.

All righty. Ready? As long as he allows it. Okay.

Hi, boo -boo. He looks really good.

He's a different manatee.

One of the benchmarks that dictates when these animals can get released is their

weight. He had a hit 600 pounds, and he is well past that. He's actually around

650 pounds.

On three.

One, two, three.

Nice round belly.

Bolt was a really challenging case. He didn't eat for us for a really long

We actually had to tube feed him for weeks on end.

We were really nervous that he wasn't going to make it several times.

But he was amazing and pulled through and is actually thriving now.

I'm just blown away. I look at this manatee and I feel like it's not the

manatee that we were tube feeding a year ago.

He looks wonderful.

Completely filled out. He's ready to go.

These cases are terrifying.

They're like a punch in the stomach when you see how skinny these guys get.

So when we started to see that weight go up on the scale, he started to eat.

And we started to see some of that improvement.

I was beyond ecstatic.

Good, Lisa?

Yeah.

Volt is ready to go. He has his pre -release health assessment completed.

Everything's checking out great, and the team's going to transport him out to a

power plant here in Florida because during this time of year, all the

come to this warm water site, and this will be a really good location for him

see other manatees, get imprinted, and know where to go when it warms up and

they start to go out and look for food.

Lauren, I was going to have us do like a team photo with you and him.

He's pretty special.

Oh, I'd be so happy. Okay.

Everybody say fall.

Fall.

It is so rewarding to see an animal come in really debilitated and to watch

their transition, and they basically blossom right before us into these big,

beautiful manatees that are ready to go back out. I think that's probably one of

my biggest joys.

He's ready to go.

Oh, there's a Komodo. Hey, dude.

When we do walking vet rounds, it's a really great opportunity for us to check

on animals in their home habitats throughout the zoo.

Hey, just want to let you know, we got a good look at the Demi Crane, and she's

walking around great. So I know she's not on any meds. We are actually going

medically clear her.

And of course, that's good.

We want to be able to see how they're acting, how they're eating, how they're

working with their animal care team members.

She looks comfortable, at least.

Yeah, she totally does.

It's also a really great opportunity for us to talk about cases and kind of

bounce ideas off of each other. We're definitely a big team here.

It looks really dark yesterday. There was a brief second where she put it on

mesh. I didn't see any red or anything that was irritated.

We want to enjoy our jobs because, you know, if you can't have a good time at

your job, you know, what are you doing?

One of my old vet school professors would do this every morning.

Today, Dr. Lauren and Dr. Melissa are here to check out our baby orangutan,

Ripley. Oh my gosh, you're so cute.

Ripley is Randy's son, and he is four and a half months old.

Randy, can we see your baby?

He is super cute, and it's really been amazing to see his development as he

progresses in his age.

Can I see him?

Soon after Ripley was born, the animal care staff noticed that he had a little

pooch by his belly button that was really consistent with what we call an

umbilical hernia.

I see his belly. You can see it. See it?

The risk is that if this part of their belly opens up more, literally abdominal

contents can herniate through.

So it's really important that we monitor it really closely.

Can I see his belly?

The team's been working on basically do a baby present to where Randy presents

Ripley over to the mesh, and that way it gives me an opportunity to palpate the

umbilical area.

His belly. Oh, my gosh.

Randy is trying really hard to figure out what we're asking her to do.

Not that part. Here's his foot.

She knows that we want to look at Ripley, but she's not sure which part of

body that we want to look at.

Good, Randy.

I don't like that one. Yeah, I hope they're just right there.

All right.

At this point, the way that Randy is presenting the baby, it's not quite safe

for me to put my fingers in there.

This was a really good start, so we'll just keep working on that. Okay. She's

trying. She knows what we want.

She's got to hold him.

We'll continue to work with Randy on a little baby present.

It's going to be important that together we recognize if there's changes in the

shape or if the umbilical hernia gets larger.

His hair is so perfect.

He has like a double mohawk.

It's so cute.

We have a tight, small team, and we do incredible things together.

The passion and the dedication that this team has to taking care of the animals

is something that makes my job incredibly fulfilling.

Yesterday morning, I went down with Stacy, and we looked at every man and

Which one is this one?

The next few weeks will be bittersweet for all of us in the zoo, but certainly

our tight -knit veterinary team because Dr.

Lauren will be moving on to another position.

We are all really excited for her, but of course we're all feeling sad that

we're going to be losing her from our team.

I've been working at Zoo Tampa full -time for about six years, and before

actually was involved heavily with the manatee program as part of my post -doc

program. We took four new cases in.

over the course of a week.

As I'm leaving, it's going to be really, really hard because I've been so

involved medically with these animals for such a long time, and it's going to

a real shift for me to not have that anymore for quite some time.

All right, thank you. Thank you. We'll catch up later. Thank you.

I saw Hannah over there, like, delicately drinking her water. Did you

showing off the moth that he had?

You're so cute.

Good morning.

Can you roll out of bed?

Wow. Burst of energy.

He's alive.

Hi. I brought you this. You want it?

You think you can go outside?

Okay, let's try this. Step one, we got him up. Keep the momentum going.

Johnny, the greater one -horned rhino, is now 32.

Usually, under human care, a greater one -horned rhino can live into their 40s,

but he's definitely starting to show a little bit of age.

You're moving real slow, but you're moving. We'll take it.

Along with Johnny, we do have two other Gritter One -Horned Rhinos, his

girlfriend Jamie, and their offspring, Gronk.

This morning, we are going to clean out Johnny's horn. This is Johnny's normal

morning routine.

All right, start with the air first.

You okay with this?

Very healthy.

Last year, Johnny had this hole in his horn.

We weren't sure exactly what was going on with it. So he underwent a few

procedures. We got some radiographs. It turned out it wasn't so bad.

So we are treating it every day now. We're just using an iodine treatment to

flush it out.

Oh, goodness.

Bless you.

Make sure there's nothing gross in there that could grow any bacteria.

And it's just part of his old man routine.

You okay?

You got it?

Good job, buddy.

His face isn't as swollen today.

I adore Johnny, but he always seems to have some sort of medical issue going

Oh, Johnny, it's always something.

That was worth getting up for, right? You got savored, pampered, got your horn

cleaned? That wasn't so bad.

Ready for the bath.

A few days ago, the animal care staff reported some changes to Johnny's face,

and they actually saw that there was a couple of these little lesions popping

on his face with some drippy, nasty fluid. And the second I took a look at

I knew something was going on.

Oh, good morning. What a breath.

Everything is changing really fast with the appearance of these lesions on his

face. And so we're treating him for a suspected infection.

Okay, we need your face to come out pretty far.

He's been on antibiotics for the last few days. We got those started right

The horn issue is completely separate, so we want to get some radiographs to

look for any signs of infection and help us to know if that's the direction we

need to go with his treatment.

Do you remember this?

Do you smell it?

Good? Yeah.

Johnny is a very unique and special and wonderful creature.

Now the next step is getting this next to your face.

He does have a tendency to be a little bit nervous about new things and new

sounds and can be very easily startled.

Is this okay?

You happy?

It's one of the things that makes working with him a challenge, but it's

one of the things that makes him him.

So we just do everything we can to make him as comfortable as possible.

We'll just kind of see what he does. Maybe he freezes and we're both lined up

even not the ideal position. Let's just grab it.

Can you come more this way?

Is that angle okay?

Yeah, honestly, yeah.

There's a lot at daycare. We need to figure out what's going on with him and

make sure that he's okay. So we're going to give it all we've got. Can you come

a little further?

Okay, here we go. Prepping shooting.

All right.

We're getting the back of the teeth, so we're in the right spot, which is great.

Those are his caudal molar.

These are his upper, lower.

It doesn't look like there's any super obvious underlying infection of the

but we still don't totally understand what's causing all of these lesions.

Chum chums.

We reached your threshold for today.

The next step is collecting a voluntary blood sample that will really help us to

look for signs of infection or anything abnormal with his kidneys, his liver.

That's your five -minute window.

Just ticked off.

So it can help us identify if there's an area that we need to be a little bit

more targeted about looking at.

Your ears are the best ears that ever existed out of any animal in the entire

animal kingdom.

This place is not really made for people that are my height.

We are getting ready for a procedure on a great Indian

hornbill, Crescent. We are going to remove a tumor from her cask, which is

portion on top of the beak that looks like a square extension of the beak.

And we are going to take that off and replace it with a prosthetic.

Hi, Crescent.

How you doing?

You going to come over?

Do you want some goodies?

Crescent first presented with a change to the appearance of the cast.

As we watched her for a little bit longer, we noticed that it was growing.

So we took a piece of the cast and sent it in for analysis and diagnosed cancer,

squamous cell carcinoma.

What we have here is a 3D printed head and cast of Crescent. She had a CT

performed and using those images, they were able to recreate her entire skull.

This red portion.

is what they can say definitively is tumor tissue.

This portion right here in pink is abnormal tissue, but we don't know for

whether it's actually tumor or if it's just infection.

To be safe, we're going to take it all and replace it with a prosthetic.

Sound okay?

Good girl.

I've worked with Crescent since I started at Zoo Tampa, which now is over

years. Can you bring it back to me? Thank you.

And... She's been here for over 20, so I've gotten to build up a really great

relationship with her.

How you feeling, huh?

The biggest thing with Cressen, for me at least, is her personality.

She's, especially for me, very sweet.

It's sometimes funny hearing from the other keepers how much of a terror she

be sometimes with them.

You're back to me?

Thank you.

I have nothing but sweet things to say about her.

Good girl.

All right, so we can actually leave the...

This way, because we won't have her on the ventilator initially, but I am going

to want her on the rebreather so that it's easier to switch over.

This cancer in this location in Hornbill is not uncommon.

And unfortunately, prior to a couple of cases ago, did not have a great

prognosis.

All right, do we want to move this inside now?

Probably because the rest of it doesn't really need to be sterilized. This is

only the second time that this kind of procedure has ever been performed.

The first of its kind was done in Singapore, and that bird is doing

really well, so we're hoping for the same outcome for Crescent. The dental

acrylic, we have that, right? Yeah. Yeah, that'll be the last step.

If this procedure is successful, then we have the chance to continue to give

Crescent 25 -plus years here at Zootampa.

Good girl.

Look at those people.

McCormick, what are you doing?

Clean some pony hooves. All right.

Here at Zoo Tampa, we have three halflinger horses.

Kariba, you're so dirty.

Aw. Come on.

We have McCormick. He's an adult male. We have Kariba, adult female. And last

but not least, we have Lady, another adult female.

I would like to take Lady so I can get a good look at her and just see how she's

doing. Sounds good.

About a year ago, we noticed a weird lump on one of Lady's teeth, and we

actually ended up sending her in for surgery, and she needed a full

First giant vessel.

See that? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, very big.

They did a removal of both of her mammary glands.

Can I look at your old incision site?

Wow!

It was insane to see the size of her incision site. I mean, we could have fit

two bowling balls in there. It was a huge process.

It was so much healing that needed to get done.

I can't even imagine the resiliency that it takes and all the discomfort that

she must have gone through, through this whole process. And she did it without

even batting an eye.

It looks like it happened a lifetime ago.

If it wasn't for this surgical procedure and her mastectomy, she wouldn't be

here today.

So we're incredibly grateful to have her with us.

We'll just go through what we have set up first before they bring Crescent up

and make sure that everything is good for you guys.

Today, our great Indian hornbill Crescent is coming into the hospital for

procedure to remove the tumor from her cask and place a prosthetic.

We are lucky enough to have two visiting surgeons from the University of

Florida. Our surgical guide and then our prosthetic are in here.

There's only one case report of this having been done. So we talked with the

surgeon in Singapore. He was great in helping us with this and preparing for

There's not a lot of literature to draw from, but we've done similar cases like

this with orthopedic stuff where we use the guides and the prosthetics. So it's

applying that knowledge in a new and innovative way, which is great.

Hospital to Aviary, Marcus.

You're already at the hospital if you'd like to come up. 10 -4. We'll be on our

way in just a few moments.

10 -4.

Let's go.

Today is the big day.

I'm hoping for the best.

Got to prepare for the worst. I really don't want to come out of this with her

being completely debilitated or not making it through the surgery.

So it's a stressful time, but we'll get through it as best we can.

All right. So I'm going to give her an injection.

Okay. Watch your hands.

Stick. It's very stressful watching everything happen, especially once we

into the actual surgery. Hopefully everything just continues to go.

The smooth.

All right, got her body. I've got her head.

The biggest issue with the procedure itself is going to be making sure that

get entire margins.

Margins are the area of normal tissue that is surrounding your tumor.

I'm just going to place this and see how it fits.

This kind of tumor has little fingers that grow out, and we want to make sure

that we get all of those little spidering fingers.

In order to make sure that we do, we have the help of our 3D surgical guide

has 10 millimeter margins, which has been shown to allow for full removal of

tumors of this type.

You want to hold this and then we can kind of press it down?

The cask and the beak are made of keratin, which is the same substance

makes up human fingernails and our hair. So the cask itself doesn't have any

feeling, but there are nerves underneath that portion.

So when they're sawing, they definitely do need to be careful that they don't

accidentally go all the way through. Ready to go.

I'm going to start up here.

Any time watching a surgery like this, it's very stressful.

Stay right along the guide. Perfect.

Good. Let's see where it is now.

Let's see if it'll free up.

I'm just trying to elevate this so that I can get anything that is grossly

abnormal.

There you go.

Yes.

Okay.

It's actually really interesting to see the tissues inside. You can see where

that tumor was.

Not a view you normally get with an animal like that.

We'll get their tissue samples so they can submit it.

Good.

We will send that piece of the cast that we removed out to a pathologist to

review for biopsy, and he'll be able to see whether we removed the entire

portion or whether there's anything left.

All right. The signification all in there, so I think this is all normal

Yeah. Don't worry about that as being, like, evidence of disease.

The guide works beautifully.

See how this guy fits on top?

Beautiful.

So we'll hold it for a few more minutes.

Once we have this, then we can finish it up.

So over time, this will colorize with her and she can heal underneath.

This material is biocompatible, so it'll actually uptake the dye from the glands

underneath the tail. Apparently there's a lot of behavioral issues if it were to

stay a different color. So the bird, it sounds like, has no idea it's even

there, which is great.

Okay. Good job, guys.

That was incredible to watch.

The procedure went very well. We were happy with how the 3D guide went. It

us a really nice line of where we need to cut. So we were able to get the cut

done very precisely where we needed it and get out of there.

All right, beautiful. Let's see it again.

There you go.

A little nosedub.

Nice.

We're still a little anxious to find out that all that cancer was removed, but

it's such a relief that the surgery is done, and hopefully this whole cancer

thing is behind us.

Ooh, good job.

Can we see my lamp?

She's doing this so she can poop on me.

I think that Randy's baby, Ripley, has a herniated belly button, but the vets

haven't been able to examine it yet. So we're working on a behavior to allow us

to get hands on him.

I'm going to have you play the role of Dr. Lauren.

All right.

You're going to put the belly button when I ask.

Okay, I can do that.

It's a hard job touching the baby. She touches the baby.

If you don't take care of a herniated belly button, it could continue to grow

size. And if that happens, it's basically a pathway to the inside of his

stomach. So we want to make sure that it's staying small and that there's no

organs or fatty tissue or anything coming out of it.

Can I see his belly?

Can we see his belly, Randy?

Can we see his belly?

There you go.

Good girl.

All of our orangutans are really smart.

Can I see it?

But I think Randy is next level intelligent.

She was showing me his belly on Habitat the other day.

She loves to train.

Can we see his foot? She's going to ask for a little foot.

We think that this baby is going to be a super genius orangutan because Randy is

so, so smart. We hope that she'll pass that trait down to him.

Good, Randy.

Good girl.

I think Dr. Lauren will be able to come and poke it. Yeah, she should be able to

get a good look.

Now that Ripley and Randy are comfortable with two people stepping up

manipulating his belly button, we're ready to try it with Dr. Lauren.

He's very handsome, Randy.

You did a good job.

Bye.

I think she's done.

Good.

Good girl.

Oh, hi.

Thank you.

We are attempting a voluntary blood draw with Johnny, our Indian rhino.

Hi!

Dr. Melissa did a couple of different radiographs with Johnny.

We still don't know what's going on with the lesions that we were seeing on the

underside of his jaw.

Hi, buddy!

So getting a blood sample will give us a lot more information and kind of tell

us how he's doing.

We're feeling positive that Johnny's responding to his antibiotics, but what

don't know is if there's still an underlying problem.

There he is. You ready?

The radiographs show us any bony changes, whereas the blood helps us look

little bit more internally at how his body is functioning with his immunity

with his metabolism.

So we have to put it all together to figure out what's going on.

Okay, come into the crate.

There you go. Good boy.

Hi. You're the best.

Hello, handsome.

Can I have you over here, please?

Thank you.

What did you hear?

Come back.

Just opening the wrapper. It's really nothing to be concerned about.

No, no, no. Don't back up.

Uh -oh. John, John. Dr.

Melissa had to open up one of the packets that had the syringes in it and

needle so she could get it all prepped.

The wrapper.

And that kind of startled Johnny a little bit. He heard that noise and he

like, I don't know what that is.

John, John. Really?

At the end of the day, he's a really big baby. We always say that John has a

sensitive soul, and anything can set him off.

Delicate flower.

John, John, come back.

Hi.

The needle is unwrapped now, so.

Johnny, being a little bit of a delicate soul, he did not really appreciate me

opening the envelope of the needle set.

Come on, bud.

Come on that way, over here.

Hi, there he is.

We always learn something with him, and that's something that now I'll continue

to do is have that open and ready to go.

Thanks for coming back over here.

Blood draw is one of the more complex behaviors that we can ask from Johnny.

He's going to have to put his front left foot forward, so he's going to have to

hold a specific position.

And then he's going to have to hold in that position until we can get that full

sample, so all the blood that we need from that. Now put your foot in the

perfect position. Oh, thank you.

Don't move.

Going for it.

Leave it there.

Okay, if you stay like this, I think I can make it work.

I see you thinking about it.

No moving, Bubba.

It's perfect.

Thank you, buddy.

Wow!

You were a rock star, my friend. You get everything.

This is a really, really big deal that he came and was comfortable enough to

give us this sample, and it's going to play a really large part in

his medical journey, too.

We're seeing a lot of good changes with the swelling and everything, but we want

to make sure that his kidney, liver, everything's still functioning well.

And then we'll regroup and reevaluate where we're at.

As long as things keep changing with the meds, we'll keep going.

Okay. So we'll run this blood and compare it back to his previous values

just make sure that there's nothing that is flagging any concern.

All right. I'll stare at him all day, but I have to get the blood back to the

lab.

I've been working with the Manatee Critical Care Program for about eight

It's absolutely been a cornerstone of my career, and in large part is what

brought me full -time to the zoo.

We've got Kyle right here. He was a boat strike case, and the damage was so

severe that he's actually not really pulled back out in the wild.

There have been so many standout cases in my time with the Manatee Rehab

Program. The first animal that comes to mind is the volk. The whole team lost

sleep over this case.

He was extremely weak, very lethargic. He was emaciated.

And that's a very different manatee than the manatee that I see today.

Looking at his buoyancy now, I'm thrilled.

He's actually slated for release. We'll be getting him out soon.

Whenever these special manatee cases get released, I'm really sad to see them go

because there's so much investment. You spend so much time with them. I've spent

more time with some of these animals than I've spent with my own family.

It's really challenging and really hard when you see a case and you just wonder,

how are they going to get through this?

What we're seeing here right now is night and day compared to what these

came in at.

But then one day, they just make that turn, and that to me is always

rewarding. We've taken so many critical care cases, and these animals would have

died otherwise. So for us, this is something that is very fulfilling, and

so proud to be a part of.

How's it going?

Today is baby Ripley's exam with Dr. Lauren.

We've been working with Ripley and Randy for a while now, but today is the day

where we're going to be adding Dr. Lauren into the mix.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at him climbing.

Ripley is adorable in the mornings. He's normally his time where he's practicing

his climbing skills, and he's usually showing off his two teeth that he's

getting in. So that's definitely a great time for us to interact with him and

start building that relationship.

Hi.

Can we see him? Can I see his belly?

Good girl.

And here's his butt. You've got to move his hand.

Can you move his hand? Hey, good boy, Ripley.

Umbilical hernias are really common across all types of species, primates

included, and it just depends if it gets larger if it becomes a medical

emergency for them.

Can I see it?

She's like, juice, please. She's like, juice.

A little bit.

He's wiggling.

He says, oh, my goodness.

Randy has got this behavior dialed. She knows exactly what the team is asking

her for.

She presents Ripley perfectly, but now Ripley is getting strong, and as his

little feet hit up against the mat, she's able to push off, which pushes him

further away from me.

Do you think I can go in?

I'll wait until y 'all say.

I think it looks larger today.

If I'm not able to get hands on Ripley and palpate it myself, it's going to be

little challenging for me to know exactly when it's time for us to

It's out a lot today.

Hi.

Can we see him? Can I see his belly?

All right, there we go. Perfect.

Finally, we get a really good opportunity, and I'm able to palpate the

hernia.

Good. That was great. That was great.

When I'm palpating or feeling the umbilical hernia, I'm assessing the

wall, so the actual opening itself, and trying to get a concept of how large it

is. I can feel the defect.

Okay. There could be a little bit of scar tissue. The abdominal wall has got

seam down the middle, and it's just a small little opening.

And I wonder if there's getting a little bit of scar tissue around it. Oh, my

gosh. Look at you steaming up. Keep them strong.

The good news is Ripley does not care about his umbilical hernia. He is a

thriving baby.

He is really bonded to mom. He's getting stronger every single day.

And so right now, this isn't an immediate medical concern, but it's

really important that we're watching closely because if there are any

we're going to have to jump in.

Surgically, if you just make an incision over there and you just put a couple of

sutures and close it up. Okay.

Can you not feel this for me? That would be nice.

All right, fine. You can have it.

Oh, my goodness.

I'm super proud of Randy and Ripley. It takes a lot of trust for Randy to be

able to let Dr. Lauren, someone she doesn't know that well, touch her baby.

Oh, the baby. Oh, the baby.

She's a thief.

Oh, he's going to make you mad. See?

Oh, my God.

You see that thief?

Good job.

Yeah, thank you for that.

So here at Zoo Tampa, we have seven different species of hornbills. They can

come in all different sizes, shapes, and even colors.

Hornbills are usually found in Africa, Asia, and down around Indonesia.

Tony! Good boy!

The species of hornbills we have, they're all a little bit different. They

have small, special adaptations, whether it's their coloring or how they're

going to eat, that help them thrive in their environment.

Tony keeps leaving session right now because it's breeding season and he's

feeding his girlfriend.

Corn bills are one of my favorite species to work with. They're all so

incredibly smart. You give them enrichment, they figure it out, they are

with that enrichment. So it's always keeping me on my toes to keep them

and happy, and it's really great to kind of just hang out with all of them.

Hi, bud.

You got your blueberries today. You didn't have to work for them.

It's been a few weeks since Crescent had her surgery.

Tristan's been great. She doesn't seem to be bothered at all by the prosthetic

on her cast, so it's great to see that. She's such a resilient bird.

Good morning.

Hi, you happy to see us?

Dr. Kendra's going to come down this morning, check on her cast, make sure

prosthetic is still holding nice and tight. Do you have your beak?

Good girl.

Okay. Ready? All right.

So today we have Crescent's biopsy results from the sample of the cask that

submitted after her surgery. The results came back that there is no evidence of

cancer tissue. Right now we are cautiously optimistic that we got

Looks good.

And dental acrylic is in place.

Wow, look at all that pigment deposition. This is so cool how fast

We knew the prosthetic was going to uptake some of the pigment that she has

naturally in her preen gland, but we had no idea how long it was actually going

to take. So we were very surprised when, you know, just 24 hours after the

procedure, we were starting to see that prosthetic turn from white to yellow.

Yeah, before long, you won't even be able to tell it's there. I know.

I'm super relieved now that we know that everything came back normal. There's no

more signs of that cancer. It just goes to show how hardy and resilient these

birds are.

We didn't really know what to expect with this procedure. It really hasn't

done more than once before that we know of. So the fact that she rebounded so

quickly is very rewarding.

What a good girl.

We see you, Krasten.

Just a few days ago, we were able to get a voluntary blood sample from our

Indian rhino, Johnny.

It's like, where's my breakfast?

It's a morning lap.

It's been a roller coaster with Johnny, not knowing what was going on. We had

things going on with his horn and then with the blowouts on his face.

Yeah, this is a browser diet. We give it to him just to kind of give him a few

more pounds.

Johnny's results are that everything looks good, which is a great thing.

Unfortunately, I don't have the exact diagnosis of what caused all of this to

start in the first place. We do know that that infection was present, and

all the information we were able to get really quickly.

Johnny's been on the right antibiotic, and he's been improving steadily ever

since we started that medicine.

Oh, my goodness, boy. So brave.

Even without his current problem, it's a great thing to see this normal blood

work in an older rhino. They can hide a lot of things, so it really gives us an

inside look as to how his body is functioning.

And so far, so good.

Oh, boy.

Well, all right. I'm over here. Bye.

I am so incredibly happy that everything looks good.

Johnny will go on living a healthy, happy rhino life here with Jamie and

Sometimes he has to think while he chews.

Johnny is definitely in his golden years. And at this stage, we definitely

him to have a happy retirement. And he's going to stay with us forever.

All right.

Good job.

Good boy.

You can start going up, Maria.

I think you look good there, yeah, probably.

Today is a really special day. Volt is getting released today into a local

plant area.

It might swing a little bit our way, Kelsey, so just watch yourself.

I'm sure Volt has no idea what's about to happen.

We always figure it's a really good surprise.

So do you come back more? You're good on my end.

We've released a lot of mantis over the years, and it's been really successful.

A little bit closer, Lisa.

Straighten out a little bit.

Mantis are really amazing animals and can handle a lot of adversities in their

life. And so the best day for them is getting to go back out in the wild. And

feel like Volt's going to do really well. He's really healthy. He looks

He's done great here over the last year.

He's really social.

He eats great. And those are all the things that we're looking for in an

that's about to get released.

He's doing good.

All right, ready? One, two, three.

Okay. There we go. Perfect.

The manatee program is incredibly special. We've had some amazing cases

working together and just seeing some of these animals defy the odds.

Did you get one?

Yeah. Okay. I'll get another one.

Though it's always bittersweet to see them leave, you know it's for the right

reason and it's fulfilling the mission of why we're even here.

All right.

All right, guys, have fun.

Thanks. Happy release.

Bye.

See you straight booty.

I'm entering the final days of my time here at Zoo Tampa.

There's Zach.

The last couple of weeks have just been unreal, and now it's really starting to

hit me.

Hi, Zachary.

Sweet man.

The decision to leave was a really hard one. It's an incredibly special place.

The grounds are beautiful.

The animals are so, so special.

And the people are incredibly special.

So Tampa's always going to have a very special place in my heart, and I'm

grateful for my time here.

We've got painted dogs here watching us.

I'm going to miss them so much!

We've said farewell to animals before, and this is just taking on a different

turn, because now I'm having to say goodbye to an entire zoo of animals that

love dearly and have spent a lot of time with.

Oh my God, that's ridiculous.

I've just had some really special times here from getting to rear a baby black

bear cub to all the amazing animal births, baby rhinos, baby tigers, baby

orangutan. They bring and spark so much joy.

You can have a bad day, but then go look at a baby orangutan playing, and I dare

you not to smile and laugh. It's really enriching. It's really incredible, and

I'm just so honored to have been a part of their life story as well.

You think they're going to like this? I think so. I'm really excited. I haven't

seen them interact with bubbles yet, so I can't wait.

Today we're going to do a huge amount of bubble enrichment with our orangutans.

You think we can set it up here? He's ready. Yeah, he's looking.

They do see them quite often when guests have bubble guns around their habitat,

but this will be the first time that they're actually going to be able to

interact with them. We're all loaded and ready to go. I think we're ready.

All right.

Let there be bubbles.

Oh, there we go.

Where's Ripley?

Ripley is doing fantastic.

We've been able to check his belly button daily.

The hernia hasn't gotten any larger, and if it continues to resolve on its own,

the vet staff says that surgery might not be necessary, which is great news.

Randy, come get some bubbles.

Randy used to be the silliest orangutan that we had. She was always having so

much fun. She was super playful.

She's coming right now.

Ripley.

And breakfast.

Yep.

Breakfast and bubbles.

And then she had Ripley. In the first few months with Ripley, she was really

attentive to the baby, so she was in full mommy mode.

I just love her.

Oh, my goodness.

But now that she's a little bit more comfortable with the new baby, Silly

is back, and she's playing a lot more now.

And a Randy good girl.

Ripley's just watching.

Ripley seems a little unsure about what to think about all these bubbles.

Help me!

But the rest of our juveniles are having a great time.

What do you think?

That's a lot of bubbles.

They're really into it.

Bubble enrichment for everybody.

All right, we're here.

We just arrived at the power plant where we're going to release Volt.

This is actually where he was rescued from, so this is a really great full

circle moment for all of us.

All right, special delivery.

One, two, three.

Generally, when it's nice and cold out, there are hundreds of manatees that use

this power plant.

One of the things that it creates is warm water, and that's where manatees

to go in the winter.

Watch your step.

Release days are a really great day for all of us. I'm really proud of our team

for helping him get better and our vet staff, and we're just super excited to

get him back out there.

It's such a great moment when you get to release a manatee. It's something that

we work really hard for. To see him going out here today is...

Really spectacular.

Really special moment for him and for us as a team.

Everyone's hard work paid off, and now he gets to go back.

It happens so fast.

Then they leave home.

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