01x04 - Tampa: One Way or the Otter

Episode transcripts for the TV show "Secrets of the Zoo". Aired: July 29, 2018 - present.*
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01x04 - Tampa: One Way or the Otter

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(growl)

♪ ♪

MELINDA: He pretty cool?

♪ ♪

CHRIS: Zoo Tampa's
an incredible place

with beautiful animals
from all over the world,

but there's just
something about big cats

that get people really excited.

We have clouded leopards,
Florida panthers,

and of course the Malayan tiger.

ANGELA: Hey, 'Zui.

CHRIS: That is
a gorgeous cat.

ANGELA: She is pretty.

CHRIS: How many litters
has she had now?

ANGELA: She had three cubs
the first litter

and then she had one
this last time.

Bzui is a Malayan tiger,

she's years old,
she's a breeding pair.

Her mate is named Mata.

Today is an exciting day.

We're going to be putting
Mata and Bzui together.

Bzui is in cycle

and Mata is showing
a lot of interest in her.

So we normally don't put
the tigers together on habitat

for safety reasons.

These cats are solitary,

so the only time they would
really come together in the wild

like this is when
the female is in estrus.

Whenever we're doing
tiger introductions

there is a little anxiety
involved with that,

because it can fairly aggressive
and has potential to go wrong.

That's why we're gonna
take some precautions.

We're gonna go to
the top of the boardwalk,

there's gonna be some staff
under the boardwalk

with some pots and pans,
that's just for noise‐makers,

in case there's any aggression,
and an extinguisher in case

we need that to separate
the cats for any reason.

Amanda and Jackie, I'm in
position on the boardwalk,

you can open the gates
when you're ready.

AMANDA: ‐ .

ANGELA: Alright,
intros are started.

We're gonna have bouts of
breeding and bouts of resting

throughout the day and
we're gonna keep them together

as long as we see
appropriate behavior.

(growling)

Oh, Mata, buddy.

It is quite noisy.

It can be a little intimidating,

but that's just the female
protecting herself from the male

when he mounts
and bites her neck.

If it's complete and successful,
she should rear up,

she should be loud,
she should swat at him.

That would mean it's most likely
a successful copulation.

years of age
for a Malayan tiger,

for any tiger for that matter,
is really middle‐aged.

Bzui's a great mom and
she's not getting any younger,

and it's difficult as
the females get a little older

to continue to reproduce.

So this is really
an important time in her life.

CHRIS: I'm really, really
excited for the opportunity

to get another cub.

And this is a species that
is critically endangered,

somewhere less than tigers
of that particular species

left in the world.

We can play a small role
in preserving the species,

making sure they
don't disappear.

That's huge.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARKUS: What you doing, Elaine?

Look what I got you.

Want a grape?

RYANNE: Come on, guys!

TORI: Aviary to control.

RYANNE: You stay in here.

KEEPER: Aviary to control.

TORI: The penguins will be
off habitat for a few minutes

while we get ready
for the birthday party.

KEEPER: ‐ , thank you.

RYANNE: Go on, Emily,
good job, good job.

TORI: So today is Tiziri and
Wendy's first birthday party

that we're celebrating.

So we have some fish cakes
for our penguins.

So we've got some colored ice,

some frozen capelin
and herrings.

This is our penguin version
of a birthday cake.

Hopefully we're giving them
everything they want,

which is fish, fun things
to play with, and attention.

I think that's pretty much
all they ever want.

Welcome to Penguin Beach.

We're just getting set up for
our penguin birthday party.

We're celebrating two of our
penguins' first birthdays today,

Wendy and Tiziri.

RYANNE: They got a little
stage fright?

TORI: Wendy and Tiziri are
really special to all of us

because they were hatched
at Zoo Tampa last year.

TORI: Anyone wanna start
the Happy Birthday song?

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

They might be a little nervous,

just 'cause it's a lot
of people watching.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

Yay.

RYANNE: As you can see,
they're thrilled.

TORI: They tend to
wanna kinda stick to us

and they might be
more comfortable

if we bring out
all the other birds.

RYANNE: Penguins!

TORI: Come on, kids.

Thumbelina is the only penguin
who didn't come out

to attend their birthday party.

She has started nesting,

so she just wanted to stick
inside and stay near her nest.

JULIE: Good girl.

TORI: Rocky and Thumbelina are
a pair that's been breeding

pretty successfully, so they did
have some chicks last year,

and right now
they do have two eggs.

JULIE: Alright, mama.

TORI: It's especially exciting
seeing Rocky and Thumbelina

starting the new
nesting behaviors,

because hopefully we'll have
some new chicks soon.

Fingers crossed.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MOLLY: Here they come.

JAIME: Otters!

MOLLY: We have two
North American river otters

that are both rescues
from the wild.

Their names are
Harriet and Indie.

JAIME: Good boy.

Do you wanna start the A to Bs
on the back wall first to see?

MOLLY: Yeah.
JAIME: Okay.

MOLLY: That sounds good,
let's do that.

Basically an A to B is we have
the otter come to a person

and then we ask them to go.

JAIME: Go!

MOLLY: And then the other person
calls them and says, "Come".

Come!

JAIME: Our goal for doing
any type of training

is mental stimulation for the
otters and physical activity.

MOLLY: So we're gonna
send out Indie first.

JAIME: Indie! Come!

(whistle tweets)

MOLLY: Right now we're just
doing simple behaviors

where we're just asking them to
move from one keeper to another

where they will be able
to interact with guests

a little bit more.

JAIME: Go!
MOLLY: Come!

JAIME: That just sets us up
for all sorts of possibilities

for our guests to really
learn about otters,

interact with them and
just see them up close

because there's nothing cuter
than an otter face.

(tweet)

Good boy.

Good job.

♪ ♪

(tweet)

KRISTINA: Let's go.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

AMANDA: We're suspecting Bzui
could be pregnant

because her and Mata
did breed successfully

from what we could tell.

So that's why we're doing some
ultrasound training with her.

The ultrasound is the easiest
way for us to tell

if she does have a cub or not.

You need a little more time?

It's quite a process to train
the ultrasound behavior.

Bzui lays down,
then she presents her belly.

So we have to build
a trust‐based relationship

where she knows nothing bad
is gonna happen to her.

DR. LAUREN: She's such a queen.

(laughs)

I call Bzui Queen Bey
because she is...

she's a diva.

I have often found myself

positioned outside of
Bzui's holding area,

just us looking at each other

and seeing if she wants to
come over and participate,

so this isn't uncommon.

AMANDA: I don't think she's
gonna stop at the moment, so.

ANGELA: I think what we'll do
is when you come back in

I'm gonna stay in the kitchen,

so it'll be one less person
in here.

AMANDA: I do work
with Bzui a lot,

she's very independent,
like most cats.

She's quite sassy.

She definitely prefers
certain people over others,

so she's a challenge
to work with,

but when you win her over,
it's super rewarding.

Let's step out.

ANGELA: I guess
she never came over.

AMANDA: She was not
calming down.

ANGELA: Did she lay down at all?

AMANDA: She did not.

She was just doing,
walking back and forth

between the three dens.

ANGELA: Okay.

DR. LAUREN:
Today Queen Bzui said no.

But that's part of the job,

and, you know, requires lots
of patience and persistence.

I mean, this is how it goes.

But we will try again.

This is not a disappointment,
this is part of the process.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(squeak)

DR. RAY: Alright.

I got this boy, it's the otter.

RYAN: Oh, my God, he's cute.

DR. RAY: He is cute.

So let's check him out
this morning.

Got home last night from work,
a neighbor gave me a call,

a very young, lethargic
otter pup in his yard.

Before I decided to bring it
to the zoo hospital,

I went to, you know, my backyard
and set this little guy down,

see if he made some noise,

see if Mom would come and
claim him, take him back home.

All done.

(squeaking)

Hang on, buddy.

We gave it a couple hours
and nothing happened.

Orphans are always sad,
so scooped him up

and brought him
into the hospital.

I kinda gave him
a quick once‐over

when my neighbor had it, too,

nothing real obvious as far as
fractures or anything like that.

RYAN: Okay.

DR. RAY: First thing we wanna do
is anesthetize him,

and we're just gonna get him
a good physical, radiograph him,

try to get some bloods,

let's just see what's going on
with this guy, is he injured?

Did he get rolled by a car

and maybe that explains
what happened to Mom?

He has a full set of teeth,
he's fully furred.

I'm thinking this guy
is , weeks old.

Baby otters have to be
some of the most adorable

baby animals out there.

So hopefully we can get
this guy turned around.

Heart sounds good,
breathing's nice and regular.

One of my biggest concerns
actually with this little pup

is that he could have
some internal bleeding.

Okay.

I'm just gonna maybe
feel a little bit here

while he's still getting
a little bit sleepy.

That feels kinda odd.

DR. RAY: That feels kinda odd.

So this morning checking out
a baby otter pup

that I rescued from my backyard.

He's obviously orphaned.

I have some concerns about
something I found in his hip,

and I need to figure out what's
going on with this little guy.

It's not as good a movement
in the thigh,

but it moves higher,
like in the pelvis, yeah.

Why don't you start
setting up for films?

There's something
in his hips that bothers me.

If there's some issues with
his hip being dislocated,

that could affect his potential
to be released.

DR. RAY: Clear.
RYAN: sh**ting.

(beep)

DR. RAY: Come love the otter.

DR. LAUREN: Aw.

DR. RAY: Alright,
I got the plate.

Okay.

DR. LAUREN: Oh, my gosh,
he's so little.

You're so cute.

I do think something feels
a little bit odd in the hip,

but there's a couple of things
that this could be.

With him being such
a young, little animal,

they have a lot of growth
and development to do,

so this could be trauma or this
could just be actually normal

for him as he's growing.

DR. RAY: Yeah, still got all the
growth plates in his vertebra,

everywhere, yeah.

DR. LAUREN: Yeah, it looks like
there's no trauma or anything,

so that's excellent.

DR. RAY: Yeah, I think the only
problem with this guy

is that he's homeless.

We didn't see any
signs of injury,

there was no broken bones.

Because this little pup
is so young,

there's a good chance that
what I'm actually feeling

is just some motion associated
with a growth plate,

a place where the bone hasn't
completely formed yet

because of his age.

You can say it's
similar to a baby

with a soft spot on his head.

That part of the bone has
not formed yet, but it will.

That's kind of what we see
in babies, young like this.

Wakey, wakey.

On top of my regular job
as a zoo veterinarian,

I consider it a privilege to
be able to work with wildlife.

In addition to all the animals
we take care of

from around the globe here,

I think a lot of people forget

that Florida is a huge
wildlife destination,

and we have a lot
of diverse species here,

and there's a subset of that

that's right in
our own backyards.

I think everyone
in this profession,

it's just part of their makeup

that they see an animal
in distress, there's an orphan,

there's an injured animal,
something like that,

we do step up.

Let me see here.

Ideally we'd like to get
this otter raised up

so he still can be a wild otter.

I'm encouraged.

So far everything
looks pretty good,

so maybe we can get
this guy home.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(chirping)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

JOSHUA: Do you need me to save
any for Rocky and Thumbs?

TORI: Yes, if you can put
some in their nest.

JOSHUA: Okay.

TORI: Right now
the penguin team is keeping

a really close eye
on these two eggs

that Rocky and Thumbelina
are incubating.

Hey, Rocky man.

Rocky is on the nest right now
with the two eggs,

so we're gonna be
interacting with him

so that we can pull out those
two eggs from underneath of him.

JULIE: You gonna be the grabber?

JOSHUA: Sure.

JULIE: Thumbelina and Rocky
have been together

a little over a year and a half.

The eggs were laid
a couple of weeks ago,

and if they are both fertile

we expect them to hatch out
in about two weeks.

TORI: Today we're gonna
be do some candling,

which just means that we're
gonna take a look inside

Rocky and Thumbelina's eggs.

Whenever we're candling
and looking inside the egg,

we're just looking
for development,

which in terms of the egg
is gonna be some veining

and some darker coloration.

JULIE: Okay, that one's
definitely developing.

TORI: Yes.

JULIE: Let's compare it
this one.

Yeah, that one doesn't look like
anything's happened with it,

but I would‐‐well.

It's very had to see
what's going on in there.

No, that one does look like
it's got some development.

So it looks like we've got
two fertile eggs.

TORI: We still think
they're both fertile.

Half the time we're
candling eggs, they're not,

because of course
they'll lay an egg

regardless of whether or not
it's been fertilized.

So it's just really exciting.

JULIE: Just note that
this one is cold, so.

TORI: Okay.

JULIE: The second egg is cold.

TORI: Julie did notice
when handling one of the eggs

that it was cooler to the touch
than the other ones.

JULIE: Get 'em back under them.

TORI: So the fact that
one of these eggs is cooler

is a big deal to us.

We're pretty concerned about it
because we think that maybe

this egg isn't going to be
growing properly.

Hey, Rocky man.

Good boy.

JULIE: There you go, buddy.

TORI: You're so smart.

JULIE: That's‐‐he's awesome.
(laughs)

TORI: I think
penguin parents,

sometimes it takes them a long
time to kinda get it right,

so hopefully they'll just
do it on their own

and we can just be
on the sidelines.

Good job, mister.

JULIE: Fingers crossed.

JOSHUA:
Sit nice and tight, buddy.

TORI: I know.

♪ ♪

BOY: Hey, look,
there's a big one!

WOMAN: What?

Do you see a really big bird?

ANGELA: This is a tiger.

BOY: Oh!

ANGELA: I don't see a tiger
right now, though.

Bzui's mate Mata is supposed
to be in habitat this morning,

but he's not out,
so I'm gonna go check on him

and make sure he's okay.

What I'm seeing in Mata
right now is not normal.

What's normal for Mata is
to be up and moving,

food‐motivated,
and if he's laying down

to be laying in
a comfortable position

without the look of
"I don't feel good" on his face

and you can literally
see it in his eyes.

I need to get Dr. Ray
over to check Mata out

and see if he's okay.

DR. RAY: That's not
a real normal pose for him.

ANGELA: And for him
to go back and forth,

so he was laying on his side
last time I was in.

DR. RAY: Okay.

ANGELA: And now he's up
on his back,

and I've seen him like this
over the past hour twice.

DR. RAY: One of the reasons
we're so concerned about Mata

is that a couple years ago
he had a rupture,

a puncture in his intestines.

We had to do emergency surgery.

Let's see if we can make
anything out of this.

Hey, buddy, what do you do
if I touch your tail?

He won't come over to let me try
to get a blood sample.

I can't even get a really,
really close look at him.

That's another indicator to me
that he's pretty sick

because he's good
at all those things.

Today he doesn't
wanna do any of them.

He's a big, tough tiger,

and for him to act like this,
it is, it's scary.

Yeah, he's pretty sick.

Let's bring him up.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

DR. RAY: Come on, buddy.
ANGELA: You look at me.

DR. RAY: This is rude.
ANGELA: Look at me.

There you go, it's okay, I know.

DR. RAY: I'm worried about Mata.

Based on his attitude
and his history

and how he just looks to us
right now,

this is an emergency.

We need to get in and
make sure he's okay.

RYAN: Transporting a tiger
from Asia to clinic.

KAELA: Asia to all units,
we're transporting an animal

from the Asia service area
to the clinic

if you could keep
the roads clear.

DR. RAY: The worst‐case scenario
is the radiographs

and the exam overall indicate

that there's another
perforation.

That would indicate that, okay,

we need to roll him
into surgery.

One, two, three.

Right, let's roll him in
and get him intubated.

We never take surgery lightly
in any of these animals.

It's a major ordeal.

It's a lot of wear and tear.

He's all yours.

RYAN: Okay.

DR. RAY: We're gonna do
everything we can

to prevent us needing
to go to surgery.

White count's good, , ,
hematocrit's normal.

Total protein
doesn't look bad, ‐ .

RYAN: Sat's .

DR. RAY: Nothing
too crazy there.

I need the whole abdomen.

Clear. (beep)

ANGELA: We're not really sure
exactly what's going on

with Mata, so you have
this question mark looming,

you know, what's wrong with him?

Is it something that we are
going to be able to fix?

DR. RAY: There was a little
doughy, ropey kind of thing

in the middle.

DR. LAUREN: I feel it, I feel
like his stomach is right.

DR. RAY: Yeah.

DR. LAUREN:
I don't feel any masses.

I'm trying to palpate his liver,
palpate his kidneys,

but I'm also trying to palpate
the loops of intestine

to see, you know, are these
a little thickened?

Can I feel anything
solid within them?

HEATHER: Pull my way first.

DR. LAUREN: Sometimes
if an animal's got

a foreign body obstruction,

you can actually feel
that obstruction.

DR. RAY: That's
a little surprising.

Yeah, you see that guy
right there in the middle?

Yeah, then there's
another loop of it

that kinda comes up
alongside there.

On his ultrasound exam

there was a little something
that surprised me.

We saw the loops of his
intestine sort of stacked up.

The thing that comes to mind is,

are his intestines just not
moving like they should

and that they've sort of laid
on top of each other?

It's unusual.

DR. LAUREN: I do think,
like you're saying,

I think his colon's packed.

DR. RAY: Oh, yeah. I mean,
you can see it, you can see it.

Let's go ahead and then
we'll get him on his side.

Let's give him
a little bit of an enema

and see if we can kinda help
clean out anything that's there.

One, two, three.

This way and then roll.

Atta boy.

He has a lot of material in
his colon and his intestines,

so I think to help him out we're
actually gonna give him an enema

because if it takes him a couple
of days to get fluids again,

I don't want him
to become constipated

and just make his existing
problem even worse.

It's not clear enough
in my mind to open him.

ANGELA: Okay, good, okay.

DR. RAY: He definitely
has got a flare‐up

of probably pancreatitis
based on the blood work.

ANGELA: Okay.

DR. RAY: That's actually
pretty painful.

ANGELA: Okay.

DR. RAY: The blood work
came back,

there's some elevation of some
of his pancreatic enzymes.

They're not crazy screaming high

but that's the only thing
that's really jumping out.

Alright.

Pancreatitis is really just
inflammation of the pancreas,

and if it gets inflamed,

those digestive enzymes
sort of get into a cycle

where they're painful

because they're digesting
the pancreas itself.

But not going to surgery
is a good thing.

So we're gonna give him a lot
of fluids and let his gut rest

for a few days and
see how he responds.

Ready to roll?

ANGELA: We're taking it
day by day.

We may end up needing
to sedate him again

and do more of
an intrusive procedure.

Transporting a tiger
from hospital.

JAYME: Hi, Django.

What do you smell?

TORI: Hey, kids!

Where's Thumby? Hey, you!
Good girl!

No! (laughs) My gosh.

Penguins.

So now that we've seen that
Rocky isn't really sitting well

on both eggs, we're bringing in
his mate Thumbelina,

'cause she might kind of
take control of the situation

and help him out a little bit.

You wanna see Rocky Man?

He's waiting on you.

Okay, one, two.

(laughs) Not everybody.

Thumby, come here.

Yes, yes, yes, go, go, go.

JULIE: There she goes.

TORI: My gosh.

Thumbelina is a little spitfire.

So she is our smallest
penguin, actually.

Go on, Mama.

Get in there, Thumby.

Big jump. There we go, yay.

African penguins do co‐parent.

The parental responsibility
is pretty much equal,

because when you're sitting
on the nest on a beach,

you're fasting, so they need
to be able to swap off

so that each parent
gets an opportunity

to go into the water
to get food.

JULIE: So I am concerned that

they haven't been sitting
on that one egg.

TORI: Right.

JULIE: But I don't wanna act
too quickly,

so we'll give it
a little while longer.

We had a chance
to candle the egg,

and it does not look like
there's any activity in there,

but we're still gonna leave it
with them for a couple more days

just to make sure.

Come on, Thumbs.

TORI: Take it over.

She must not be too concerned.

JULIE: But we are.

KATELYN: Yay, there he is!

That's the best bear.

You want the blueberry?

Is that a good one?

(squeak)

DR. RAY: I hear the boy.

(squeak)

Dude, I wanna see him jump
in that water.

RYAN: He was in there yesterday
when I came in, yeah.

DR. RAY: Was he? Oh.
RYAN: Yeah.

DR. RAY: That's awesome.

RYAN: He was sitting
right next to that fish.

DR. RAY: Oh!
RYAN: Yeah.

RYAN: We're still taking care
of a little baby otter

that was rescued from
Dr. Ray's backyard.

Currently the baby otter
is doing pretty well.

Up until this point we've
offered frozen thawed fish

which he's eating really well.

You wanna try and
put a little pan out?

DR. RAY: Let's do that,
a small dish,

like, close to him
so he sees it.

RYAN: Catching live fish,
live foods

is basically what an otter
is meant to do,

and without that
hunting instinct,

the animal will starve.

Dr. Ball got some live feeders
in from a local source.

I really hope that he goes
for these live fish.

DR. RAY: I got it.

I got them.

Come on, back up, come on.

Back up, buddy.

We've got him stable.

He's eating food.

He's active but he needs to pass
this first little test

with these little fish.

He needs to catch them
and eat them,

know that that's what
he's supposed to do.

Go check it out.

(squeak)
Ooh, what you got?

If he doesn't take
this first step,

then I'll know right away that,

okay, we'll need to find
a home for him

and he won't be able to go
back out in the wild.

That's gonna be sort of
the make it or break it point.

Come on, kiddo, figure it out.

(squeak)

DR. RAY: We're gonna offer
this little guy some live fish.

This is a first
big test for him.

He needs to catch them
and eat them.

Seeing that is gonna be
a huge milestone

for getting this guy back
out into the wild.

(squeak)
Ooh, what you got?

Get it, get it.

I'll be damned.

Come on.

Come on, kiddo, figure it out.

(whispering)
That's awesome. Awesome.

He's taken his first step to
going back to where he belongs.

So we just wanna take advantage
of that hunting instinct

that he has and foster it
and make him a wild otter.

This is the first day
he caught his own breakfast.

Alright.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

DR. LAUREN: I'm gonna go over
and check in on Mata,

our tiger that we did an exam on
about two days ago,

just kinda see how he's
feeling this morning.

ANGELA: You want a sip of this?

DR. LAUREN: How's he doing?

ANGELA: He hasn't taken
anything from me yet today.

He did take a lot of blood
and baby food water yesterday.

DR. LAUREN: Okay.

So I'm looking at Mata
this morning.

He's just laying down, which
my first thought was, "Oh, no."

I'm still concerned.

He has not rebounded
like I would have hoped,

and it's a tough call of whether
this case is surgical or not.

ANGELA: I'd like to see him
drink something.

DR. LAUREN: Here we go.
ANGELA: There we go.

DR. LAUREN: There you go.

ANGELA: Come here.

Well, so, do you want us
just to continue this?

DR. LAUREN: I would,
I wouldn't do solids yet.

ANGELA: Okay.

DR. LAUREN: I think this
is good improvement.

I would continue with
the liquid portions.

ANGELA: Just the fluids, okay.

DR. LAUREN: And hold
on any solids for now.

What we're seeing so far
is encouraging.

He's kinda sitting up here and
there, but nothing's % yet.

ANGELA: Even though
I think he looks better,

I'm not gonna get
too comfortable just yet.

DR. LAUREN: I agree with you.

I agree.

ANGELA: The next couple of days
are gonna be pretty critical.

Right now the most important
thing is to get fluids into him,

and if we don't,

then that's gonna be
a different conversation.

DR. LAUREN: You know,
he had a big day yesterday,

even just the, you know,
sedation might make him feel

a little groggy and a little bit
of time to come around,

so we're gonna be patient

and this is kinda
the hardest part of my job.

♪ ♪

(chirping)

RYANNE: Little baby.

TORI: Over this past weekend

one of Rocky and Thumbelina's
eggs did hatch.

I think it's the cutest thing
I've ever seen in my life

and I already love it. (laughs)

JULIE: Oh, my gosh,
it's so cute.

Okay. There you go, sugar.

(peeping)

DR. RAY: It's very nice to see
the staff excited about this.

Let me take a quick peek
at this guy.

They love the penguins.
We all love the penguins.

I just wanna see
his umbilicus here.

No, that's good.

TORI: Okay. So we're pretty much
done with that.

So that second egg that
Rocky and Thumbelina have

still has not hatched.

JULIE: Quick check.

It's just hard to see
what's going on down there.

But the last day it could hatch
within the window is Saturday,

so we'll at least keep it.

DR. RAY: No, you got
a few more days.

JULIE: We'll keep it until then.

DR. RAY: The hatchling
looks fantastic,

progressing well,
good weight gain.

The second egg, not so good.

But never say never, you know,

as long as it's not disrupting

the chick
that's already hatched,

we'll go until
the absolute last day.

TORI: Alright, Mama.

DR. RAY: So you got
three more days,

hopefully that egg stays warm.

JULIE: Yeah, it was warm
today, too.

DR. RAY: Okay, good,
no, that's encouraging.

JULIE: That's promising. Yeah.

DR. RAY: Any chick that
hatches out is a success.

That's one more penguin that
goes into the colony here,

and it's a good day.

MICHAEL: Come on, pups.

MADISON: Let's go, guys!

Good job, everybody!

ALICIA: Excellent.
Good job, bud.

That was awesome.

♪ ♪

DR. LAUREN: Hi, Miss Bzu.

(growl)

Oh, Lord.

Today we're gonna give Bzui
another ultrasound.

We're really thinking
that she's pregnant.

The staff has not seen her
come into cycle again,

so perhaps she does
have a baby in there,

so I'm gonna do my darnedest to
try to to see if I can find it.

Given the recent scare
with Mata,

I'm really hoping that
I can capture an image

and give some really good news
to the Asia team.

AMANDA: Hi, beautiful.

Down.

(growling)

(whistle tweets)

That work for you?

DR. LAUREN: (laughs)
Yeah, just come around.

AMANDA: We do have to
communicate between the keeper

and the vet staff to get Bzui
in the right position.

DR. LAUREN:
What you thinking, Bzui?

AMANDA: Down.

(whistle tweets)

So we do a lot of different
reinforcement with the tigers.

They like their snacks,

and that's the easiest way
to get them to participate.

(tweet)

DR. LAUREN: Do you wanna keep
her like that? Let me try that.

AMANDA: Sure.

DR. LAUREN: I see the liver.

You got a liver.

AMANDA: Down. (tweet)

The reason that most people
become a zookeeper

is to help animals everywhere,
not just animals in zoos,

so the idea of contributing
to a backup population

to help animals in the wild is
an amazing perk of the job.

DR. LAUREN: There you go,
yeah, come closer.

I don't think I've ever
wanted to find a baby

so bad in my life.

If she's pregnant, I should
be able to see the cubs.

It literally looks like
a big balloon

with cute little babies inside.

AMANDA: Seeing anything else
interesting?

DR. LAUREN: No, I don't,

I'm running into her bladder
over and over.

DR. LAUREN: Woo!
What happened there?

AMANDA: I don't know.

DR. LAUREN: Well, I could
give you the answer

and I want Bzui to be pregnant
'cause I wanna help the species

and I want Malayan tigers
around forever,

but also they're just
the cutest darn babies,

I mean, let's just be honest.
(laughs)

DR. LAUREN: Let me try that.
AMANDA: Sure.

AMANDA: Down.

DR. LAUREN: I just don't see it.

AMANDA: Maybe it's just
not there then.

DR. LAUREN: At this point
I'm feeling honestly

a little discouraged
'cause I really wanna be able

to tell the staff,
"Hey, your tiger is pregnant."

Aw.

I'm not seeing a baby.

I mean, I would still like to
continue to ultrasound her.

We can try again next week.

Let's just give her
a little bit of a break.

But yeah,
I'm a little discouraged

that I'm not finding it.

AMANDA: Yeah.

DR. LAUREN: I really do think
that this far in her gestation

based on her breeding date,
I should be finding the babies.

AMANDA: We'll let you know
if we see any signs

that point otherwise.

DR. LAUREN: Okay, no,
that sounds good.

(growl)

♪ ♪

ANGELA: Breakfast time!

SUE: We have five meerkats, we
have one female and four males,

and they're all siblings.

I love the meerkats,
I think they're so fun

and they're always eager to come
over and interact with us,

and they're super easy to enrich
'cause they're engaged in things

that we give them when we
change up their environment.

Enrichment is something
that is going to stimulate

a natural behavior that
they might see in the wild.

So what we have prepared
for the meerkats today

is a bin full of plastic balls,
kind of like from a ball pit,

and inside we have
crickets and mealworms,

some of their favorite
extra snacks,

and they're gonna have to forage
and dig down into that ball pit

to find all their treats.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

These guys love to dig, and they
get to play around in there,

look for food,

the crickets throw like
a whole other element to it.

DIANA: Yeah, definitely promotes
their natural behaviors.

♪ ♪

Look at all those
little meerkat butts.

(laughs)

SUE: I love it.

So they definitely found
every little last crumb,

every cricket, every mealworm
that was in there,

and they even pushed a lot
of the balls out of the bowl,

so maybe next time we'll look
into getting a bigger ball pit

to keep some of the balls in

but make it a little
extra challenging for them.

They're back on lookout,
heading for the tunnels.

DIANA: They are,
they're heading out.

Bellies full.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

AMANDA: Mata.

Mata man. (laughs)

You're looking
real good right now

with your tongue sticking out.

DR. RAY: Mata's still
on his liquid diet.

He's acting better.
He's more comfortable.

He doesn't give me
the impression

that he's in pain
like he was before.

But we wanna try to get
some more fluid into him,

some electrolytes

and actually maybe even
just a touch of nutrition,

so we're gonna make him
some chicken soup today.

Amber, how's the soup?

AMBER: Looking good.

DR. RAY: Alright.

DR. RAY: Yum.
AMBER: Good?

DR. RAY: That's perfect.
AMBER: Okay.

DR. RAY: You know, it's pretty
basic, pretty much like,

you know, your grandma probably
made chicken soup this way,

my grandma made chicken soup
this way.

Perfect.

Mata!

Good boy. You want some soup?

Good boy.

This is really encouraging.

Knowing where he was just
a couple days ago,

I feel good about his progress.

Mata looked really good today,
it's very encouraging signs

and he was quite the fan
of the chicken soup.

He had a snack and
I guess he's good now.

So until we get him back
on solid foods

we're gonna keep him inside.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

ANGELA: Ready?
AMANDA: Yup, he's ready.

ANGELA: Alright.

Mata, our male tiger,
did give us a bit of a scare.

We were all concerned,

we just weren't sure
how concerned to be,

so when he started acting
like the old Mata,

it let us kinda
breath a little bit.

This is a big relief, the fact
that he was ready to eat,

the fact that he was
excited to see us

because he thought we might
have food, that was huge.

You can open.

AMANDA: Okay.

Mata's clear to go
back out on habitat.

We're going to let him out
and observe him for a while

to make sure
he is acting normal.

So we're happy that he
gets to stretch his legs.

(growl)

ANGELA: Hey, what do you think?

DR. RAY: The boy looks good.

CHRIS: Yeah, he looks great.

ANGELA: Right? Aw.

DR. RAY:
Ah, there we go, on cue.

AMANDA: It's awesome
to see him outside again.

He really seems to be
enjoying himself.

(roar)

DR. RAY:
And he sounds good, too.

AMANDA: Yeah, he does.

Now that Mata is back to normal
and healthy again

we will probably be doing
tiger introductions again

and hopefully they will
make some tiger cubs.

He's having fun.

DR. RAY: He is having fun.

(squawking)

JAYME: They fly low.

(squeak)

DR. RAY: So our little otter's
been with us

for a few weeks now.

He's gaining weight,
he's chirping,

he's active, he's vocal.

He's catching small fish
on his own.

(squeak)

It's time for him to move on
to the next phase

of his convalescence
and hopefully release.

(squeak)

We've got the weight
and the pass

and we're gonna go ahead
and hit the road.

KEEPER: ‐ .

DR. RAY:
Today's an exciting day.

We're taking this
little otter pup

to one of our wildlife
rehabilitation partners.

He'll have access to
a natural spring system,

he'll be a lot closer
to another otter

so he can start to develop
some of those social skills.

(squeaking)

TRICIA: He'll be housed
right next to the otter

that we have here, Valentine.

DR. RAY: Great.

(squeak)

Alright.

Alright.

TRICIA: He hasn't been
on natural substrate yet.

DR. RAY: No, he's not been
on mulch for a while.

TRICIA: So it's gonna be
a little bit weird for him.

DR. RAY: This is a big day
in this little otter's life.

The last several weeks have been
pretty comfy, you know,

he's gone from the safety
and security of the zoo

to the big, scary world.

You and I just step out?

TRICIA: Yeah.

DR. RAY: Okay.

LEANN: Oh, he wants to so bad.

DR. RAY: Wow, scary stuff.

That's the first
green thing he's seen

since the yard
I picked him up in.

LEANN: Oh, he's touched it.

DR. RAY: He hasn't felt rain
in weeks now.

He's outside, he's checking out
all these things,

and it's probably
sensory overload.

You have to put yourself
in his perspective,

okay, this is a whole big thing

and you're just a little tiny
guy, and the world's scary.

For him to be cautious like that
means he's gonna be cautious

about all kinds of things, he's
gonna be cautious about people,

he's gonna be cautious
about cars.

He's learning to
take care of himself.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

TRICIA: Alright,
he smells the fish.

DR. RAY: Got all four feet out.

TRICIA: He's got a fish, yay.

Way to go, buddy.

DR. RAY: There you go,
that's what otters do best.

LEANN: That's a good sign
if he's already eating.

DR. RAY: Chomping fish.

And he's actually
pretty indifferent

to us right now, too.

LEANN: He is.

TRICIA:
Well, that's a good sign.

DR. RAY: That's a very
good sign, yeah,

he's choosing food over coming
over here and crying with us.

Otters can be rehabilitated
and successfully released.

It's always best to have
your parents show you

the ways of the world,

but short of that,
good, dedicated professionals

can do not quite the same job,
but they can do the job.

I'd very much like
to see him move on

to the next phase of his life,

hopefully his life
in the wilds of Florida.

It's very fulfilling.

It just makes you feel good.

DIANA: Amy!

Good job.

Are you a fast eater right now?

Big piggies.

TORI: I brought fish.

RYANNE: Well, she's hungry.
TORI: Good.

RYANNE: Now we see
how much you can eat.

TORI: Probably a lot.

RYANNE: It's like, "No, you come
to me, that isn't how it works."

TORI: Our chick that
Rocky and Thumbelina had

is one month old.

Penguin, you're huge.

RYANNE: Only gonna get bigger.

TORI: She's a female,
and her name is Palmera,

which does mean palm tree, which
is perfect for here in Florida.

So we call her Palmy
sometimes for short.

Baby, can I have you?

The chick is doing awesome.

Rocky and Thumbelina's
second egg isn't viable,

so right now all of our focus
is really on this chick.

You're huge, oh, my goodness.

Penguin chicks grow
like little weeds.

They grow so fast.

So our chick is
already pretty big.

By six months old
they're almost done growing

for the rest of their lives.

RYANNE: You get more
at one o'clock.

Oh, that fully belly.
Wanna go back?

TORI: It's exciting times
in the penguin house as always.

Every hatching of an African
penguin is a really big deal,

whether it happens here at
Zoo Tampa or in South Africa,

'cause this is
an endangered species,

and we love celebrating every
single chick that hatches out.

♪ ♪

JENNIFER: Oh, yeah.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

AMANDA: Good morning, tigers.

Hello, beautiful girl.

How are you this morning?

Are you showing
signs of cycling?

Are you interested
in your boyfriend?

So because the ultrasounds
have been inconclusive

we've been keeping
a close eye on Bzui.

So we noticed her rolling
and rubbing her cheeks

and showing interest in Mata

which is a good indication
that she's coming into cycle.

ANGELA: I'm gonna go
on the boardwalk

and then we'll all
go on channel

and call each other when
we're ready to open gates.

AMANDA: Okay, sounds good.

ANGELA: Alright.

I'm feeling
a little disappointed

because she's cycling,

and I was hoping that she was in
fact pregnant, but that's okay.

(growl)

We're seeing the correct
behaviors from Mata and Bzui

so we are gonna move forward
with the breeding introduction.

As long as both are showing
interest in each other

we'll continue this
for up to seven days,

but we hope to see
successful copulations today.

So hopefully tiger cubs
in like three to four months.

♪ ♪

CHRIS: Having a successful
breeding encounter

is the first step to continuing
to support the population

of Malayan tigers and get
another cub back into the world.

Alright, how's my girl doing?

KAELA: She's good. Yeah.

CHRIS: It's one of
the main reasons why we're here,

to support these species,
support the populations.

It's such a privilege
coming in every day

knowing that the work you do,

the work that's
really meaningful

and you're dedicated to
makes such an impact worldwide.
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