The Zoo - Season 12 Episode 1
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00:00This is a production of WGBH.
00:30Coming up, a beautiful calf is born to Nyalla, the southern white rhinoceros.
00:37The zoo's turtles go for their annual health checks, Lumara the Okapi pays a visit to the
00:43farrier, and the zoo bids a sad farewell to one of its most iconic residents.
00:53From the day it opened its doors in 1831, Dublin Zoo has been one of Ireland's most
00:59beloved institutions.
01:01Over the course of its history, it has become one of the most respected zoos in the world.
01:07More than half of the species that call the zoo home are part of internationally managed
01:12conservation breeding programs.
01:15The southern white rhinoceros on the African plains are no exception.
01:19Eighteen months ago, Shaka, the breeding bull, was reintroduced to the youngest female in
01:24the herd, Nyalla.
01:26It wasn't long before keepers Ken and John were preparing for a new arrival.
01:33She's actually 16 months pregnant today, and this will be her second calf.
01:38She's our smallest female, so she's one of our little favourites.
01:41She's getting on very, very well.
01:43Pregnancy is going extremely well.
01:45It's like with any pregnancy, there is an element of risk as well.
01:48There could be something wrong with the calf.
01:50If she gets burnt, she might reject the calf.
01:52If the calf is too big, you can put a major strain on the female as well.
01:56She becomes very, very attentive to keepers.
01:58When she'll come over, she'll want attention.
02:00She wants her belly rubbed, especially around her face and her ears.
02:03So she's letting us know.
02:04We just go by all her indications and all the information that we're reading from her
02:08as best we actually can.
02:09It's very important, this birch for Nyalla, it's our second calf, and it's important
02:14for Dublin Zoo to keep on breeding rhinos.
02:20I was on a trip some years ago to Zimbabwe.
02:22Dublin Zoo supports Save the Rhino.
02:27This was first-hand experience of what poaching can do, and all it is is for the rhino's horn
02:32itself.
02:33So with breeding rhinos in zoos, we are actually hoping that we have a strong enough gene pool.
02:38Hopefully one day, the dream will be to start releasing rhinos back into the wild, because
02:42that's what conservation is about, it's about breeding species and protecting species as
02:46well.
02:47So basically, she has her birth and self set up for that, so when she does go into labour
02:52and have her calf, if it's during the night, she's confined and she's safe, and the calf
02:56is safe as well.
02:58So we're all ready, we're all prepared, and she is too, she's a great little girl.
03:04The zoo is home to a staggering 400 animals.
03:08This means that veterinary observation and monitoring must be carried out 24-7, even when
03:14the animals aren't sick.
03:17Zoracic World is home to the zoo's reptile population.
03:21Their keeper, Donal, is rounding up three different turtle species so that they can be given their
03:26annual health checks.
03:27Today, we're going to bring our Innocent tortoises in for a health check and an X-ray, just one
03:33of them has been presenting with respiratory problems.
03:36And we're going to grab our male African spur tortoise from the African plains today as well,
03:41because he's actually been showing a bit of problems with one of his eyes.
03:44We're also going to bring in our Chinese striped-necked turtle today as well.
03:48So these guys are freshwater turtles.
03:50They live around streams and rivers.
03:52They do prefer the slower moving waters.
03:54They're found in China, Taiwan, some small parts of Vietnam.
03:58They get the name striped-neck because they have these beautiful yellow stripes that go all
04:02down their neck.
04:03You can always tell the males and the females when they're fully grown, because the males have
04:06a dip on the underside of their shell, which is called the plastron.
04:10This is actually to help them during the breeding season, because as you can imagine,
04:13the female shells are quite awkward.
04:15So these guys do live in the water, but they do breed oxygen still.
04:18As you can see, he has a pair of nostrils here.
04:21So when it's time to get their oxygen in, their nostrils will break the surface to allow
04:25them more air in.
04:26Cartoons and things like that make it look like the shell is something they just carry around
04:30with them and that they can leave the shell.
04:32But these guys actually are part of their shell.
04:34The shell is part of them.
04:35So their spine, their rib cage, things like that, they're all actually built into the shell.
04:40When they're hatchlings, they're omnivorous, they'll eat fruits, they'll eat veg, they'll
04:44eat pinky mice, they'll eat carrion if they can come across it, anything that falls into
04:49the waters and insects as well.
04:51Females, when they're adults, they'll tend to stay a bit more on the herbivorous side,
04:54staying more around plants, that kind of thing.
04:56Males will stay omnivorous though, and they will stay on their mixture of proteins and veg.
05:03So we're just going to bring our Chinese striped neck across to get a general health check
05:08done, just to make sure everything is okay with him.
05:10We'll get a few blood samples taken off so that we can run a few tests to make sure he's
05:13healthy.
05:14We'll get an x-ray just to make sure there's nothing wrong with his shell or any of his bones.
05:17And we'll just do a general health check and just make sure that his skin, it looks good,
05:21his nostrils are clear and his beak looks healthy.
05:26Lumeara, the okapi, has pulled up lame.
05:35Even though she is one of the rarest species of animal in the zoo, she is nonetheless an
05:40artiodactyl.
05:41This means that she has the same cloven hooves as many of the farm animals which are common
05:46here in Ireland.
05:47Team leader Helen and Frank the vet have called in Stephen, a farrier, to get to the bottom
05:53of what is bothering the 11 year old female.
05:56So there's been an issue with Lumeara.
05:58She's had some abnormal hoof growth going on.
06:01About three days ago she became very lame.
06:04So there was obviously something very acutely sore within the foot.
06:08So can we just say that she's noise sensitive?
06:11Yeah.
06:12She's not used to having a lot of people around so we have to respect that.
06:16We want to hand inject her if we can.
06:18Now she's going to feel it, she's going to react.
06:20But it's just, you know, she's quite manageable there.
06:24But it's just, she's a little bit wary of us I think.
06:27Yeah.
06:28She's a lovely animal isn't she?
06:30Lumeara's keeper Jenny is on hand to provide moral support as Frank administers the sedative.
06:38She's had the beginnings of the standing sedation.
06:43We'd like her to be settled enough so that she stands very still for when there's an x-ray being taken
06:47and then be ready for the fire to kick in.
06:50An x-ray will give Stephen a better idea of what's going on inside Lumeara's hoof.
06:56Similar to a goat or a sheep, Lumeara is an even-toed ungulate, meaning she walks on her toenails.
07:03So any issue here would be causing her considerable pain.
07:07So it is as you said, that crack has gone much deeper look.
07:12Oh yeah.
07:13And the hoof's gone well.
07:14Right.
07:15That toe, one looks as if it's very good, the other one does look like as if there's a little bit of bony erosion.
07:21Let's get Stephen at the foot now and then we can do more x-rays afterwards and take blood.
07:28As Stephen gets to work on Lumeara's hoof, team leader Eddie has stepped in to keep her as calm as possible.
07:34The damage to the hoof is immediately clear, but there is cause for optimism.
07:41That's the chipped hoof that we're looking at there.
07:44Yeah.
07:45And has it gone infected or not?
07:47I don't think so.
07:48Looking at it now.
07:49Yeah.
07:50It could be just an exposure of sensitive tissue.
07:52Is that what you're thinking?
07:53Yeah.
07:54So I don't see an indication for antibiotics here.
07:56I don't think so.
07:57There's no infection as such.
07:58It's just a...
07:59She's chipped that toe.
08:01Yeah.
08:02So if you tidy that up, Stephen, would that be the job?
08:05Yeah.
08:06There's a chip that has exposed the sensitive laminae, and that's where her pain came from.
08:12There's no evidence of infection there yet, so she doesn't have to get antibiotics.
08:17What the farrier is going to do now, he's going to tidy it up.
08:20That'll self-resolve and grow with time.
08:22At the veterinary surgery, the team are preparing to give the turtle species their health checks.
08:35Niamh, the vet, is being guided by Pavel Kvapel, the head vet from Ljubljana Zoo in Slovenia, for today's procedures.
08:43So this is our striped-necked turtle.
08:46He's a male, just peeping out to say hello to us there just about.
08:50He spends a lot of his time in water swimming up and down.
08:54He's basically pulling everything in as tight as possible under that shell.
08:58We're going to take some bloods and an x-ray on him.
09:01I'm going in this direction, up here, underneath here.
09:05Go out, and go a little bit higher.
09:11A little bit back.
09:15And then go a little bit left.
09:17A little bit left.
09:19What's coming out now is lymph, which is, you know, kind of near the bloodstream, and we can run all the same tests on this as we could on a blood sample.
09:29This is our star tortoise.
09:31She has not left us many access points at all.
09:34So she's able to protect all her important spots, which means she's pulled herself right back in there.
09:40So she's essentially presented us with a stone to take blood from.
09:44So here you can see she's got quite obvious scales.
09:47So the needle has to go between those.
09:49Her armour.
09:55Next up is Ray, the much larger and thicker shelled African-spurred tortoise.
10:01He had some signs for respiratory disease a couple of months back.
10:04So we're just doing a health check.
10:06And we're also going to take some swabs just to look for any of the viruses that can cause respiratory disease in this species.
10:11Because he's had a little bit of a discharge from his right eye.
10:14So we're just going to send her for something called mycoplasma to see if we can grow that and if that's what's been causing the problem.
10:20Good boy.
10:21Even though the turtles are not injured or sick at the moment, it's important to take their x-rays when they are healthy.
10:28So as to have them as a comparison should any issues arise in future.
10:33We are looking at her here head on.
10:35We can see her head and her two feet.
10:37And we're looking at her lungs.
10:38So her lungs are black because they're filled with air.
10:41And then looking at her straight down here, we can see her pelvis.
10:44You can see her hips, her two back legs, head, two front legs.
10:49So her bone density looks good and there's no issues that we're seeing there at all.
10:53Excellent.
10:54So good news for her.
10:55Getting an x-ray of Ray, the African-spurred tortoise, poses a bigger challenge due to the thickness of his shell.
11:02So the information obtained from his blood samples will be particularly important.
11:08How do you think he looks?
11:11He looks okay, healthy and orientated.
11:14You know, so I think that the infection that has been there is quite okay.
11:18And unfortunately we couldn't get a nice pictures of the lungs to see if there are any pathology.
11:24But so far it looks okay.
11:26Looks okay, yeah.
11:27So hopefully the bloods will give us some more information.
11:30Yeah.
11:31At Dublin Zoo's African savannah, Nyala, the southern white rhinoceros, has given birth to a beautiful calf.
11:55John, Helen and Ken have popped in to take a look at how the two are getting on.
12:02And to let the calf out of its birthing stall for the very first time.
12:07She's a fantastic mother.
12:09This is our second calf over the last few years.
12:11Really, really pleased to announce the next morning when we came in, we found out it was a little girl as well.
12:16Any calf is a big boost, and when there's a little girl, it's the icing on the cake.
12:23Everything went really smoothly.
12:24The calf was standing up within 35 to 40 minutes.
12:29Nyala is such an attentive mother.
12:31The ears are forward and back, forward and back, you know, listening around.
12:34Even when she's lying down, it appeared to be relaxed.
12:36Ears forward and back.
12:38The calf was fantastic, like she's checking out her surroundings.
12:41In the wild, when a female gives birth, the calf is up on its feet and it's moving with mum.
12:47It's not hanging around.
12:48It's important now that the calf has had a few days of being in the birthing stall to get it out more now, because it will exercise.
12:55When I know babies are born, little pads on her feet are quite big, so they actually, they literally have to go into her feet.
13:07So it will be a different substrate as well, and the calf will be taken very, very easily, and then the aloe will keep an eye on her all the time.
13:13It's actually, it's great to have her out in the main stall now.
13:17Not only for different smells, but also she'll be sort of looking at the neighbours, which the mum and calf actually went over, seeing the neighbours.
13:23All right now, let's go girl.
13:25Said hello to our previous calf young, so that's great.
13:30Yeah, the youngster's having a great time.
13:32This is like, it's more space as well, it's a new environment, new smells.
13:36Because like a human baby, it's a big adventure.
13:39So you can actually see there, she's enjoying herself.
13:42What's going to happen is, once we finished cleaning out the stall and giving mum some food, we let them back in.
13:47And I'd say, mum will just lie down and the calf will go over, get a drink and go to sleep.
13:52Everything, it takes its toll.
13:54So we did exercise and then let her rest.
13:56And that's the way she knows herself exactly what to do.
13:59But she's a fantastic mum.
14:02We're delighted.
14:03Our very first calf was a female, and now this one here.
14:07We've had quite a number of males born.
14:09And the thing about it is, quite a few of them will end up in bachelor herds for a while.
14:13Because your genes are just very well represented.
14:15So to get a female coming along, that's hugely important.
14:26At the indoor Okapi habitat, Stephen the farrier must finish paring back Lumara's chipped hoof
14:32tooth in order to prevent her from damaging it further.
14:35All 30 years of Eddie's experience as a zookeeper are crucial here.
14:40While there's no sign of infection, the pairing is getting close to her nerve endings.
14:45It's a sensitive but necessary procedure.
14:47So she's just coming out of the sedation.
14:58But Stephen the farrier needs to address the lesion to make it a saucer like.
15:04So that you don't get a repeat trapping of dirt or infection up there.
15:12Because the white line has been exposed.
15:14All right Eddie?
15:15In spite of Lumara's protests, Stephen must finish his work on the hoof.
15:24The area is sensitive.
15:26But to leave the chip as is, could mean a more serious procedure for Lumara in future.
15:45So there's no indentations now, it's nice and clever.
15:58Nice and, that's lovely.
15:59Just once she gets this back.
16:00Yeah.
16:01And now she goes to here there.
16:02Yeah, just take a picture of them here.
16:03That's okay.
16:04I've got no worries about this there, do you know?
16:05That's not what I think.
16:06Okay.
16:07With the procedure complete, Jenny comes in to comfort Lumara as she comes around from her sedation.
16:16The main thing is now, the foot has been taken care of.
16:17She's standing on the foot much better.
16:18And the next day or two will be a bit more of an improvement.
16:20Everything went very, very smoothly.
16:21Yeah, just a little bit of connecting with her, because I work with her everyday myself on a call.
16:22And we don't want her having a bad issue with ourselves because we're working with her everyday
16:26so she sees I'm not any threat to her.
16:29So we'll be best pals again, won't we?
16:30Yeah.
16:31Hey, see if you can do it, the first thing I've got.
16:33And we're doing it.
16:34That's it.
16:35The new day you're walking through it.
16:36That's it.
16:37And the next day and the next day, they'll take care of what we need.
16:38And you know what we need to do.
16:39And if you have done good work, how are you doing it?
16:40Something you can do better.
16:41And you can do it.
16:42That's a negative, but the good thing is we're doing it.
16:43That's a positive.
16:44And I'm really good.
16:45If we need to go, I'm really good.
16:46And I'm really good.
16:47All right.
16:48And we're really good.
16:49So we're there.
16:50with him or her every day, so she sees I'm not any threat to her.
16:54So we'd be best pals again, won't we?
16:56Yes, we'd be pals.
17:02With their health checks complete,
17:04the Indian star tortoises and striped-necked turtles
17:07have been returned to their habitats at Ziracic World,
17:11while Ray, the African-spurred tortoise,
17:13has returned to the African savannah.
17:16Donal is monitoring their progress.
17:18So the health check for our Chinese striped-necked turtle went very well,
17:22got a clean bill of health, he's brilliant.
17:24Our African-spurred tortoise had a bit of an eye infection,
17:27so we're going to keep an eye on that, and he's going to get antibiotics.
17:30In terms of our Indian star tortoises here,
17:33one of our females was given a clean bill of health,
17:35whereas the other who was presenting respiratory issues
17:38such as bubbling and mucus.
17:40We did a full check, blood's taken, and an X-ray,
17:43and we found that there is a bacteria present called mycoplasma,
17:46and that's something that we're treating for now.
17:49So females get a lot larger than the males,
17:52and females will carry eggs, so they have this much larger size.
17:56And they get their name of star tortoise
17:57because of the beautiful little star patterns
17:59that are actually found on their shell.
18:01Once the male and the female are together,
18:03they will mate,
18:04and the female will then find a place that she can lay her eggs.
18:09So these guys have strong legs and sharp claws
18:11to dig into the ground so that they can bury their eggs.
18:13Generally, what they do is they'll actually urinate on the ground
18:15just to soften up the soil,
18:17and they'll cover the area over and flatten it down
18:19because predators and other animals
18:21will look for these signs that there's a nest around,
18:23and then the eggs will incubate then
18:25in the den that the female has made.
18:27These guys eat mostly grasses, vegetation,
18:30and they'll eat fruit that falls to the ground sometimes as well.
18:33So here in Dublin Zoo, we try to mirror that diet.
18:35We give them a green veg,
18:36and we'll plant wheatgrass in the habitats for them as well
18:39so that they can graze on that as they want.
18:41One of the most iconic animals at Dublin Zoo for generations,
18:47Saiboo the Bornean orangutan,
18:49was a firm favourite of visitors for over 40 years.
18:53Unfortunately, after a brief battle with illness,
18:56his keepers, including Anthony and Ciaran,
18:59were devastated by the loss of their old friend at the age of 45.
19:03It's something that got us right to the corner, I have to say.
19:09We're all still reeling a bit now.
19:11He was a very relaxed male.
19:13We were extremely lucky.
19:14We're very well-known in the zoo.
19:15It's gone back nearly 40 years, you know,
19:17and in a way, for me personally,
19:19it nearly came full circle
19:20because my grandfather brought him here to the zoo,
19:22and I was here the day he passed away.
19:23Ciaran as well.
19:25Ciaran would have worked on him for many years.
19:2730 years.
19:2830 years, you know, and as you rightly said,
19:30there was a lot of tears on the day.
19:32You know, we knew he was unwell from December.
19:34We tried everything with him.
19:36You know, he was treated for every ailment
19:38that we could possibly treat for,
19:40cold, chest infection, everything.
19:43It did become apparent
19:46that maybe it was something more sinister.
19:48We did put him on the heart medication.
19:50We've seen an improvement, a slight improvement.
19:53It gave us a window to go in.
19:55It was very hard for our veterinary teams to treat
19:57without diagnosing what the problem is.
19:59So the decision wasn't taken lightly
20:01to put him under anaesthetic,
20:03but that was the window we had.
20:06We had to go in and see what we could find.
20:10It was a huge team here, over 35 people.
20:13He went to sleep, and he never came back out of it.
20:17It'll probably be something that the team
20:18will take a long time to get over,
20:20but it was very dignified.
20:22Look, the team had time to grieve with him,
20:24and the wider teams that would have worked him
20:26in past years.
20:28We still have members of the public coming in,
20:30and even there, deeply upset over it.
20:33He was always there.
20:35No matter what was going to pass by here,
20:36Boo was always there.
20:39At the moment, we have three orangutans here.
20:42We have three females,
20:43that's Major, Rina and Leonie.
20:46Dynamic has shifted.
20:47We are missing a male.
20:48We have a very good record here
20:50at the Zoo of Breeding Apes,
20:51so we're hoping to continue that on.
20:53The long and short again is that
20:54if their numbers reach critical levels in the way,
20:56we want to ensure that we have a zoo-born population
20:58that are genetically healthy.
21:05His legacy hasn't finished yet.
21:06We were very lucky in that we managed to get samples from Sibiu
21:10that could be used for breeding.
21:12It's never been done,
21:13so it could be a big, big legacy.
21:16And hopefully, you know,
21:18there may be little Sibiu's from around the future,
21:21you know, so as hard as it was,
21:23the future is looking right.
21:24Ken and John are making their way to the African savannah.
21:34Nyala's calf is having its first ever run out on the plains.
21:38We're doing really well.
21:48She's doing really well.
21:49She's five weeks now,
21:51and this is her first morning in the big, wide world on the savannah,
21:54so this morning is going to be a big adventure for her.
21:57This is a big, exciting world.
21:59It's a big area.
22:00A lot more noise going on with different birds.
22:03You see, even with the trees, the breeze swaying as well,
22:06with the big logs, the wallow as well.
22:08This is a big adventure for her, especially on her first day.
22:11It is important to actually make sure that she's happy and she's content.
22:15She's not getting stressed, and also with mum as well.
22:17So we're watching for different signs.
22:20You can tell by her little skips and sort of how little trots she wants to go for a run,
22:25but mum is actually controlling that as well, which is great.
22:29With the white rhino calves,
22:30they've had a tendency to run in front of mum all the time.
22:33If the calf's in front with the white rhinos,
22:35mum can see everything that's going on.
22:36Her sense of smell, and I hear it in her lexions.
22:39She knows me and Ken in the morning time.
22:41She smells us, she hears us, and then next of all,
22:43she's trotting around the stalls.
22:45Her sight, yeah, they say up to maybe 20 metres away from the floor.
22:48So with the calves, probably a little less.
22:51You can notice she's really protective.
22:52She watches her every minute.
22:54Even when she's running around, she's charging after her as well as mum is,
22:56so she really is not letting her out of her sight.
22:59She's quite dainty as well.
23:00She's very neat.
23:01I want to stay with mum.
23:02Mum will look after me.
23:03But in a few days now, when she gets used to the environment,
23:06she will start running around and enjoying herself more.
23:12The birds of any rhino is very, very important,
23:15especially with the numbers, the winding in the wild,
23:16like approximately 16,000 rhinos left.
23:19It's not an awful lot.
23:20With it being a female, it is very, very important, breeding-wise.
23:26Ideally, we'll hold her with our mum here.
23:28Plus, it's like having your own child.
23:30You just give them the best opportunities you possibly can,
23:32and then whatever the future holds for them,
23:34you can just hope for the best.
23:36You just give them the best.
24:06You just give them the best.