♪ ♪
WOMAN (off screen): Hi, Logan.
You've got to get in the wallow.
Get in there.
Watch your step.
♪ ♪
All four feet, nice job!
Oh, yes!
(indistinct conversation)
(all laughing)
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Another beautiful savanna morning
at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park.
♪ ♪
Like every day, the residents are hungry.
RORY: Basically, my job is one of the cooler jobs
we have here on the team.
I get to feed everybody today.
NARRATOR: With over 100 animals on the savanna,
Rory and the rest of the care team have their hands full.
(lowing)
RORY: We've got one of our springbok.
Do you want to come up too?
You're a good girl!
Do you want some produce?
Hey, come here.
Oh, you're such a good girl!
You're such a good girl!
NARRATOR: Each one out here has a special place in Rory's heart.
RORY (off screen): Hello, ladies.
Oh, you're all right.
Are you a good girl?
NARRATOR: But there's one savanna species
he really dotes on.
RORY: Let's see what the giraffe are up to.
I have been training giraffe now for about six years,
and I've been trained by some giraffe.
NARRATOR: Not too long ago, Rory worked with his giraffe BFF, Kenya,
to voluntarily position herself for a hoof trim.
RORY: Food!
That's a good girl, come on.
Might be here a while.
NARRATOR: Kenya tested the team's patience
for eight months.
Progress was... slow.
RORY (off screen): Good afternoon, Kenya.
Let's rock and roll.
Show your stuff, honey.
It's okay. There we go.
Yes!
That was awesome.
I'm psyched. I'm psyched!
So we're really lucky here
to be a part of the Masai Giraffe Species Survival Plan.
Giraffe are actually undergoing something called a silent extinction.
In the last 40 or so years,
a large percentage of their wild population has decreased.
Uh, and not a lot of people are aware of that.
We're helping people learn.
Every truck that's going through the safari,
the drivers try to teach them about conservation.
You know, if you can hit one person on one truck,
if you're talking about all the trucks that are going through every day,
if those people can go home and talk to somebody,
it's a conservation win.
♪ ♪
I gotta go back to work.
So we actually have, from left to right,
we got Mara, Humphrey, Lily, Jabari, Maple, and Isla.
And then Kenya's all the way in the back.
And Willow is all the way over there.
You can actually barely see her, she looks like a tree.
She's a great example of their camouflage.
They look pretty different, at least to me.
NARRATOR: If you say so, Rory.
Step one when feeding the supermodels of the savanna runway:
entice them with something tasty.
RORY: Every day, our animal nutrition center delivers
a thousand pounds of browse.
Today, we've got acacia.
And then this is what some of our giraffe really, really love,
and we'll mix it up with, uh, the acacia.
This is Elaeocarpus, or, uh, Japanese blueberry.
Browse is great for us
because not only are they eating the leaves,
but they're eating sticks that are green like this,
and then they're also stripping the bark.
So it's really important for their dental hygiene,
and also just their natural stimuli of their brain.
So I made up that bundle, I had it in the back of the truck,
and I'm ready to hang it.
And that's all it takes.
♪ ♪
When they're moving their mouth like this, this is her chewing her cud.
This is her digestive system doing its job.
When I see a giraffe chewing its cud,
I am seeing a happy giraffe.
Giraffe have a really interesting digestive system,
they're ruminants.
They need to keep their stomach going.
So we need to offer them food at all times.
NARRATOR: But Kenya, Mara, and the rest of the herd
can't rely on appetizers alone,
so the team offers an all-day buffet
with everything they need.
RORY: We just hung some browse.
We try to, throughout the day, feed them their pellet diet,
which is their primary source of all their nutrition.
And we have these hanging bins in the trees.
All right, we'll give her a little extra goodies in there.
NARRATOR: From almost 18 feet up,
the savanna looks a little different to a giraffe.
One thing is certain:
a keeper plus a truck equals chow time.
RORY: They know what's going on.
They know this is the ice cream truck.
Uh, so we're gonna get a couple of bundles made
'cause she's coming right up.
She's hungry. She wants to party.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: When the giraffe aren't eating, they're playing their favorite trick:
standing in the road.
With thousands of guests visiting the savanna every day,
that's instant gridlock.
RORY: When an animal goes into the ride path,
we do everything we can do to get them out of the ride path,
but we use positive reinforcement.
So we basically show them food
to come to us out of the ride path.
NARRATOR: These "giraffic jams" happen all the time,
and nobody moves until they decide.
RORY: So what's happening right now is that a giraffe is in the road.
So we're gonna go and see who is causing the problem.
So Mara's right in the road.
So we're gonna get some browse up for her,
and we'll see if she's gonna come on over here.
♪ ♪
Oh, Mara! Come and get this delicious browse!
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Not tempting enough today.
RORY (off screen): Okay.
I love her.
NARRATOR: Back to the drawing board.
RORY: I've always said you guys are smarter than what people think.
♪ ♪
MINDY (off screen): Oh, oh, oh, ho-ho.
Hey, buddy, what did you find?
He's very curious.
Komodo dragons are extremely intelligent.
Ghidra's a great boy.
I'm very used to people thinking I'm a strange girl
for loving these animals.
Look at that eye ring, it's fantastic as well.
So you'll see crocodilian have that light eye ring,
and some other lizards.
Makes them pop, huh, bubba?
Ectotherms have to thermoregulate
because they're not making their own body heat.
If it's a cool day, he's gonna find warm rocks in the sun.
His rock out here is magical, it's magically warm.
They are very happy to spend lots of time sitting there.
I call it a lizard lounge chair, it's the perfect shape.
They get up there and they're sometimes snoozed out for quite some time.
It's completely possible to fall in love with a lizard.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: On the safari's Safi River,
a big day arrives for one little hippo.
♪ ♪
Recent arrival, seven-year-old Rosie.
SHANA: Rosie, she's been here about five months.
And, uh, she's a great hippo, um, very smart hippo.
NARRATOR: She was brought here as part of the Hippo Species Survival Plan.
SHANA: Hippos are really struggling out in the wild.
People would be surprised to know
that there's fewer of them out there than African elephants.
One of the main threats to hippos is the hunting.
Their meat, fat, and ivory are very valuable to poachers.
Rosie has a big personality.
She wants everyone to know she's here.
She's not shy at all.
Today, we're introducing Rosie to all of our female hippos.
NARRATOR: Rosie knows a couple of these gals already,
but today, she's meeting two more.
SHANA: Today is Rosie's introduction to Tuma
and Tuma's offspring, Greta.
Tuma is still protective of her.
Every once in a while,
you'll still see Tuma get in between Greta and another hippo
and be like, "Oh, that's enough."
So there is still that concern that she's still very protective of her.
NARRATOR: Rosie's never lived with this many adult females before,
so this is a new dynamic for her.
With the rest of the hippos already in the water...
(blowing whistle)
...Rosie hears the call and heads on out.
♪ ♪
SHANA: Look, there she is.
Come on, Rosie!
You're gonna meet the rest of the bloat today!
NARRATOR: The team's worked hard for months
to prepare for this moment.
SHANA: So behind the scenes, Rosie has been housed with various hippos,
whether it's a few stalls down or a stall directly next to her.
Kind of getting a gauge for how they would do with each other.
NARRATOR: That preparation continues up to the very last minute.
SHANA: They love lettuce.
After they finish eating all of this,
they'll kind of settle down and be more relaxed.
So then when Rosie does come out,
they're not kind of in attack mode or, like, defense mode,
they're just kind of calm and relaxed back there,
and she can approach them.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: But with a 3,000-pound hippo,
anything can happen.
Hippo introductions can be tense.
It's a delicate balance of showing confidence
as well as proper submission.
It's all very natural behavior.
But Rosie needs to mind her manners today.
Hippos have an entire language.
SHANA: They do wheeze-honks, grunts, snorts,
um, and they're just communicating with each other.
NARRATOR: And Rosie's still learning.
SHANA (off screen): Come on, Rosie! It's time to meet everybody!
NARRATOR: She heads straight for the hippo she knows best.
SHANA: Ramona's greeting her at the haul-out,
which is pretty typical, um, just... saying hello.
Ramona's a friendly face for her right now.
NARRATOR: With no experience of fitting into a group,
Rosie's been getting a crash course in communication
from Ramona.
SHANA: She's been very great with Rosie, kind of teaching her the ways,
like, "These aren't appropriate behaviors. These are okay to do."
So that's been really good to teach Rosie all that,
especially before we introduce baby Greta
and Tuma, who's a new mom.
Ramona's just kind of telling Rosie, "Be submissive."
All right, since this bloat is pretty established,
they have their hierarchy.
So coming in, Rosie needs to submit to them.
This is their river, she's the newcomer.
She needs to definitely be submissive to be accepted in.
The hippo that can open their mouth the biggest
is the most dominant.
"My teeth are bigger than yours. Hey, just back off."
"I have these big teeth and I can use them, so don't make me."
Ramona's just kinda putting Rosie in her place.
That's just her telling her to stop.
(grunting)
NARRATOR: But Rosie's not following orders.
SHANA (off screen): Rosie, relax, baby girl.
Slow down.
I hope she doesn't go around the island and ambush Tuma and Greta.
Rosie's getting quite close to Greta now.
So it looks like Rosie and Greta have spotted each other.
Slow down, Rosie. Give her some space!
Ahh.
You're getting too close.
♪ ♪
Rosie and Greta are approaching each other.
Tuma's staying close and keeping a watchful eye.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Bloat elder Viviana senses trouble
and moves in to referee.
SHANA (off screen): If Tuma doesn't like it,
I'm not sure how mom Tuma's gonna react.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: At The Seas with Nemo & Friends at Epcot
lives the park's oldest resident.
ALLISON: Tolstoy is a loggerhead sea turtle.
He's estimated to be 100 years old and still going strong.
So he is probably one of the-- the oldest sea turtles in managed care.
Tolstoy's favorite thing to do is to hang out at his cleaning stations.
Oftentimes, we see him soliciting from our fish.
Kinda like a fish car wash.
NARRATOR: Like many sea turtle species,
loggerheads are endangered.
ALLISON: There we go.
They have a lot of obstacles out in the ocean: pollution, fishing nets.
Disney's Animals, Science and Environment has rehabbed over 300 sea turtles
to release back out into the ocean.
NARRATOR: To have a chance of surviving the wild,
rehabbed turtles need to be in fighting shape.
Given the miles on his odometer,
Tolstoy's safer right here.
ALLISON: He's been here for about 15 years,
so I've really kind of developed that relationship over those years
'cause I was here for his first day.
NARRATOR: But Tolstoy's age might be catching up with him.
The team has treated growths around his mouth for years.
Now he shows signs of a new problem.
ALLISON: We've started to notice
that he's not opening his mouth all the way.
He's really hesitating to eat his food.
I do believe that it's-- He's-- He's in some pain
and that we need to step in and manage this.
NARRATOR: Solving this mystery requires anesthesia and possible surgery.
Though Tolstoy's not eating,
at nearly 280 pounds, it still makes for one hefty reptile.
ALLISON: All right.
So let's go ahead and let Nicky fly out.
NARRATOR: Backstage in the veterinary treatment room,
help is at hand from Dr. Ryan.
DR. RYAN DE VOE (off screen): May I peak under the towel really quick
to just get an idea about what we're looking at here?
ALLISON: You want the good side first?
DR. RYAN: Yeah, let's-- let's see the good side first.
-ALLISON: Gonna take pictures? -WOMAN: Yep.
DR. RYAN: All right, he doesn't look too...
Ooh, that one's a little barnacly.
It is pooching out. It is more swollen. Okay.
Oh, buddy.
Okay.
Tolstoy has been a real diagnostic, uh, challenge for us
because he's an older animal.
He's had this problem for quite a while, years even,
and has had myriad, uh, diagnostics done,
uh, multiple procedures to try to figure out
what-- what is causing this and-- and why he has this issue.
Did you already give him his meds?
-ALLISON: Yes. -WOMAN: We're just giving it.
NARRATOR: Now that Tolstoy's fully under, Dr. Ryan can get a better look inside.
DR. RYAN (off screen): Oh, my goodness gracious!
ALLISON (off screen): Oh, boy!
DR. RYAN: He accumulated a lot of necrotic... debris and fiber,
and he has tracks that go back in his mouth along the jawline.
So it's no wonder he's been having some trouble
prehending or grabbing food and swallowing it.
And there's no wonder why,
'cause this stuff is getting in the way of-- of the movements of his mouth,
and it's pretty extensive.
That looks huge.
A big chunk of stuff back here.
See this?
That was packed up right into the corner of his mouth
into a track that goes back there,
so it's-- it's almost like this is mechanically limiting
the way his mouth operates right now.
NARRATOR: The dead tissue inside Tolstoy's mouth
must be removed.
He feels no pain.
DR. RYAN: It's so extensive.
Knock a little bit of this off and see what is going on over here.
I've gotta stop.
♪ ♪
All right, let's clean him up.
He still needs a little bit more debridement
or removal of the scab material.
But I think that with his history and-- and his age
we need to make some big decisions.
♪ ♪
MISSY: We're gonna go into Affection Section.
It's exciting! Don't run into me!
Woo!
(laughs)
Sometimes it's calm, sometimes it's not.
This is my favorite time of the day.
Before the guests get here, I get to be out here with the animals
and yes, touch them. (laughs)
I love the connection between the people and the animals.
That's what we're hoping for,
is they see somebody kinda down wanting to scratch them,
and then they let them scratch them.
They create empathy and teach people that animals aren't scary.
All of our animals in Affection Section train to do other things.
We teach them to be able to walk to the hospital.
So unlike a tiger that might need to be anesthetized,
all of our animals can actually go to the hospital
and get checked out.
When they bring 'em up to our offices...
Rose wants to say hi.
WOMAN: Rose! Hi, Rose!
How are you doing?
MISSY: People love it.
You can hear the animals coming,
you see people popping their heads out of their offices.
-MAN: Hi, Rose. -MISSY: She got her bath today.
MAN: What a nice surprise. She looks great.
MISSY: It's a really great thing to be able to do.
MAN: Hello. I always love getting visitors in here.
Do these look delicious?
MISSY: Not just for the animals but for the people.
We all need a little enrichment, and it's a really wonderful thing.
WOMAN: Maracas, dance.
(all laughing)
MAN (off screen): That was awesome.
MISSY (off screen): No particular reason, just to do it.
MAN: Thank you so much.
♪ ♪
SHANA (off screen): Come on, Rosie! You've got this!
NARRATOR: Gung-ho hippo Rosie faces a make-or-break moment
with new mom Tuma
and curious baby Greta
as bloat-elder Viviana looks on.
SHANA (off screen): Rosie, remember what we talked about.
Mind your manners!
Just keep it calm.
Greta's getting real close to Rose, just checking her out.
This is super calm.
Of course things might change
when Rosie gets nose to nose with any of them,
especially if she gets nose to nose with Greta,
to see Tuma's reaction.
NARRATOR: Baby Greta's curiosity nudges her on.
Mom Tuma keeps a sharp eye on things.
This is crunch time.
SHANA (off screen): Rosie's letting them kind of approach her,
she's not going to them,
which could come off as aggressive to them.
Her just keeping her cool and letting them approach her
is, uh, really, really good.
Hopefully, Tuma doesn't get out of the water too much more.
We want them to keep it calm and then-- then back up,
so then she can approach the water again.
Uh, we don't want them to keep forcing her up and out
and then her feel cornered and panic,
'cause then she might act aggressively in that panic mode.
NARRATOR: How Rosie communicates next will decide if it's happily ever after...
(snorts)
...or if everyone goes back a chapter.
SHANA (off screen): This might not go great.
♪ ♪
SHANA (off screen): I'm not sure how mom Tuma's gonna react.
If Tuma doesn't like it, she will interfere and say, "Back off."
NARRATOR: Rosie the hippo faces off with curious baby Greta
and Greta's mom, Tuma, again.
(snorts)
SHANA (off screen): Oh, stay calm.
Tuma just did a little snorting.
Tail swishing is just kind of like a warning,
like, they're getting a little mad.
♪ ♪
Oh, this is really, really good!
Her laying down is a very, very submissive thing.
It's kind of like, "Okay, I submit to you."
So, that's awesome.
NARRATOR: Rosie finally remembers exactly what to say and do.
♪ ♪
SHANA (off screen): So she's letting them completely encircle her,
and she's very calm about it.
So this is exactly what we wanted to see today.
Now throughout the next few days,
we'll just monitor this, keep an eye on them.
It looks like she's now been accepted as one of the bloat.
NARRATOR: But the next day...
JEN: Come on, Rosie. Come on, Ro-Ro!
NARRATOR: ...all is not well.
JEN: Good girl, come on!
NARRATOR: Rosie bears the marks of a hippo who's crossed a line.
JEN: There was just a little bit more learning that Rosie had to do.
She tried to overstep her boundaries a little bit,
and that caused a few of her little scratches.
It looks worse than it is.
Hippo skin is very, very thick.
And it's-- it's made to withstand fighting with another hippo,
or meeting another hippo, or introducing yourself to another hippo.
NARRATOR: Despite her scolding, Rosie is physically fine.
JEN: She understood, "Hey, I don't want to go up to somebody
and just open my mouth and show them how cool my-- my teeth are."
We're hoping that the next step in our intros might be the last step,
and Rosie will finally be able to just hang out in a big group with everybody
and have a happy, big bloat.
♪ ♪
RORY: Hi, Mara! I just gave you some browse. Go eat it!
NARRATOR: Back out on the savanna, keeper Rory's day gets even trickier.
RORY: So here we've got,
we've got trouble, this is what I call trouble.
NARRATOR: Mara's friends join her on the road,
and half the herd plays havoc.
RORY: We have got one, two, three, four, five giraffe
all standing in the road.
Um, so we're gonna do our best
to... work these guys out of the road.
Can you hand me some more of that browse, sir?
Come on, guys!
Come on.
♪ ♪
Come on.
♪ ♪
You can do it! You're good!
NARRATOR: The plan works. They get their treats.
In return, Rory clears the "giraffic jam" for now.
But to stay on top, he needs help.
♪ ♪
KARA: You'll need... that... and that.
NARRATOR: Behind the scenes,
the behavioral husbandry team comes to the rescue.
KARA: So we are going to be replacing these gray bins.
We're gonna make a more dynamic,
kind of enriching, um, feeder instead.
So they can use their long tongues to get in here,
um, rather than just putting their head in a bowl,
'cause they don't do that in the wild.
NARRATOR: Working harder to get their food
will slow the giraffe down,
and could mean less time for their traffic-stopping shenanigans.
KARA: If you feel like it's mixed well, then go for it.
-MAN: Ready. Ready. -WOMAN (off screen): Whoops.
KARA (off screen): So right now, they're just pouring the plastic.
So this is to make a shell.
If you want to draw on there where you think we should have holes.
-KARA: Their holes-- -MAN: It's for their tongues?
KARA: So their tongue can get in, yeah.
So once we cover it in the epoxy,
we paint it so it looks more natural.
Perfection doesn't really happen in the wild,
so we're not expecting it to happen here.
And if it was perfect, then your eye would be drawn to it
more so than if it's just natural looking.
NARRATOR: It looks great.
Whether it will stop a "giraffic jam"
remains to be seen.
RORY: Mara! Stay out of the ride path!
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Animal Kingdom is home to thousands of residents.
(roaring)
No doubt, life here is different than in the wild.
Many animals have longer lives under managed, human care.
In some cases, a lot longer.
And at the foot of the Tree of Life
sits a perfect example.
♪ ♪
KRIS: Today is super exciting.
Thierry, our oldest collared brown lemur, is going to be turning 35 years old,
which is a really, really big deal.
Their life expectancy in managed care is about 22 years old,
so he's far, far surpassed that.
The secret to his longevity is he's a happy lemur.
NARRATOR: This arboreal birthday boy is quite the sprightly senior.
A resident for over 20 years,
Thierry shares a habitat with recent arrival Antoine.
KRIS: We got Antoine a little over a year ago now.
They do hang out.
They'll sleep together a lot of the time.
♪ ♪
There are a couple of big things
that are conservation issues in Madagascar.
One of the largest ones is habitat loss.
Over 100 different species of lemurs just found in Madagascar,
they're finding new, you know, species and sub-species fairly frequently still.
And they range in size from the smallest, like the mouse lemurs,
all the way up to about three feet tall, which are the indri.
The Disney Conservation Fund actually helps fund projects in Madagascar
that help both the collared lemurs and other lemur species
that are found only there.
♪ ♪
All right, it's breakfast time.
There you go.
Come and get it, little old man.
As part of his daily enrichment, I put out a bunch of different feeders.
It changes every day.
So he's gonna come out, he'll hit every single one of 'em.
He'll pick out his favorites,
and then everything else will go on the ground.
♪ ♪
Oh! Well, that's a no.
♪ ♪
He knows what he likes, he just says, "Give me the good stuff."
No lettuce today, I guess.
♪ ♪
Nope, not that one.
We don't likes it, we don't eats it.
(laughing) So onto the ground it goes.
♪ ♪
Oh, now you've found something you like.
"These are good."
I'm told Thierry's actually gonna get a birthday cake later.
So I hope he doesn't just pick through it and throw everything out.
I hope he actually eats it.
♪ ♪
SHANA: So Rosie kinda got really put in her place.
Physically, Rosie is fine. She's in good shape.
Um, but we just need to think more
about how we're gotta proceed with the introductions.
To keep the river a positive place to be,
um, and to have her have more of those positive interactions
with those hippos,
we're just gonna have her out with Viviana and Ramona
for the time being.
Ramona just came out.
Um, Rosie probably sees her now.
NARRATOR: Patient Ramona continues to teach
How to Play Nice 101.
if Rosie will listen remains to be seen.
♪ ♪
SHANA (off screen): And, yeah, that's very normal, the very...
small, subtle jaw clash, um...
(grunts)
She's like, "Okay, I won't keep approaching you like that.
"Apparently, you don't like it, so I'm just gonna stay where I'm at
or go somewhere else."
And Ramona's just kinda holding her ground,
like, "This is where I want to be."
That's just how they're talking to each other.
Rosie, I really hope you learned your lesson.
NARRATOR: Gradual progress is still progress.
SHANA (off screen): Definitely respecting Ramona's boundaries.
Backing off a lot more than before,
where she would just keep approaching them,
and keep pestering.
NARRATOR: With her education coming along,
Rosie stays in the girls club for now.
SHANA: Good job, Rosie.
There you go.
Look at you hanging out with the girls!
That's what we want to see!
♪ ♪
EMILY ANN: I'm helping you with the birthday cake
for Thierry, the lemur.
NARRATOR: For Thierry's 35th birthday,
diet experts at the Animal Nutrition Center
whip up a little treat.
AMBER: 35 is a little old for a lemur, he's-- he's getting up there.
So we really have to make sure he has a special day.
So we're gonna start the cake,
we're gonna add a little bit of water to his browse biscuits,
so this is something that he normally gets.
NARRATOR: Ground corn, soybean meal, and vitamins
form the base of Thierry's cake.
AMBER: So we were thinking
we can mix the blackberry juice with a little bit of the rice cereal
-and make an icing for his cake. -EMILY: Okay.
Let's see if we can make it look like a frosting.
Okay, I'm gonna add this just to the top.
Okay, all right.
AMBER: And we have some fun little shapes
that we can put on here.
EMILY: So Jell-O is a nice treat.
This one is orange.
AMBER: It's a special occasion.
-I think it looks beautiful. -EMILY: It does look beautiful!
Yeah.
(laughing) Happy Birthday!
AMBER (off screen): I can't wait to go to his birthday party.
-KRIS: Hey, guys. -EMILY: We have a cake for Thierry.
-KRIS: Oh, my God, it's so cute! -WOMAN 1: Oh, my gosh.
-WOMAN 2: Oh, that turned out great. -KRIS: Thank you!
Thierry, are you ready for your birthday party?
I have Thierry's birthday cake.
He's like, "I'm not sure what this is,
but I do see some blueberries and I see some grapes."
NARRATOR: A cake fit for a lemur king.
KRIS: There we go.
NARRATOR: But will Thierry take a bite?
KRIS (off screen): Come get your cake, bud!
EMILY (off screen): It's for you!
♪ ♪
KRIS: Thierry, come on, buddy!
AMBER: All mine.
EMILY (off screen): Oh, we got a strawberry.
AMBER (off screen): Oh, there you go, good job.
EMILY (off screen): What you think?
♪ ♪
AMBER (off screen): He loves the icing.
EMILY (off screen): I think the icing is a big hit.
AMBER (off screen): It was the blackberries.
EMILY (off screen): Yeah, it was a good call on the blackberries, for sure.
NARRATOR: Blackberry frosting and fruit hit the spot;
the rest, not so much.
BOTH: ♪ Happy birthday, dear Thierry ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
EMILY (off screen): He looks pretty good for 35.
AMBER (off screen): Yeah, he's doing great.
(laughing)
NARRATOR: If lemurs could talk,
Thierry would say, "I had cake. Did you?"
KRIS (off screen): Oh, here comes Antoine to finish off his cake.
♪ ♪
Thierry, I hope you weren't saving that for later.
♪ ♪
Ah, you really take the cake, Antoine.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Back at the Seas...
ALLISON: Good boy.
Good job, bud.
Beautiful.
NARRATOR: The team has a new plan for Tolstoy's growths.
He returns to the veterinary treatment room,
this time with Dr. Natalie.
DR. NATALIE: So the notion today
is that we just need to get this cleaned up.
The difference is that we're going to start
with the photobiomodulation therapy right after,
hoping to prevent this fibrin accumulation.
Keeping it clean as possible.
The ouchy stuff is done.
And as soon as Shelby's done holding it for a few minutes,
then let's-- let's go ahead and start with the photobiomodulation therapy.
NARRATOR: Photobiomodulation is a treatment
that was purely science fiction when Tolstoy hatched out 100 years ago.
It's also known as cold laser therapy.
KAREN: So it's supposed to stimulate your cells.
And it's supposed to promote healthy cells to come out
and... uh, like heal.
ALLISON: Okay.
NARRATOR: In combination with topical steroids,
the cold laser works its magic.
KAREN: So some places use it for, like, post-operative care
or to promote that good blood flow to promote faster healing.
NARRATOR: Treatment over, it's time for Tolstoy to rise and shine.
KAREN: Make him wake up.
SHELBY: All right, reversal given.
KAREN: Wake up, papi.
(monitor beeping)
Open.
NARRATOR: Tolstoy shows no sign of stirring.
DR. NATALIE (off screen): He's not breathing right now on his own.
♪ ♪
(air whooshing)
He's showing some response,
it's just that, by now, I'm used to him being already awake.
NARRATOR: Dr. Natalie wants a second opinion from Dr. Ryan.
DR. NATALIE: Yeah, this is what's bothering me
is that it's not very typical.
He's not recovering like he typically does.
(sighs) By now, he usually has his eyes open.
(air whooshing)
He's not moving past this stage, and I don't like it.
♪ ♪
KAREN: Ah, you don't like it. It'll make you wake up.
NARRATOR: The vet team uses painless stimulation methods
to try to wake Tolstoy.
DR. NATALIE: How long off of reversal?
KAREN: 20 minutes.
DR. NATALIE: By now, he usually has his eyes open.
NARRATOR: But he fails to regain consciousness.
DR. NATALIE: So he should be waking up by now,
and I'm starting to get a little concerned.
NARRATOR: One simple strategy might help.
DR. NATALIE: What I found in the past with him
is that a little bit of that water and a little bit of depth
kinda makes him go, "Oh, I'm supposed to be awake now."
NARRATOR: Tolstoy needs to get to his native element urgently.
DR. NATALIE: And so do we have a time frame at all, do we know?
-DR. RYAN (off screen): Oh, minutes. -DR. NATALIE (off screen): Minutes, okay.
(indistinct conversation)
I hope this works.
♪ ♪
Go ahead and extubate him.
Why don't we go ahead--
Are you comfortable dropping in a few inches?
ALLISON: Okay, Kim.
Stop.
(gurgling)
Another breath.
DR. NATALIE: There we go! There's a nice breath.
Good boy.
He's totally awake now.
ALLISON: Yeah.
DR. NATALIE: What a relief.
♪ ♪
ALLISON: Welcome back, Tolstoy.
DR. NATALIE: He really responded well.
He did exactly what I wanted him to,
which was to start breathing well and to really start moving around.
And I'm hoping that tomorrow morning,
what I'll find is a normal Tolstoy with no concerns.
NARRATOR: After months of treatment,
Tolstoy's well enough to rejoin the main habitat.
ALLISON: He is back out there acting like his young, hundred self.
And I just feel like, you know,
he's got-- he's got that spark back in him.
So we're so excited to see this guy back.
NARRATOR: With the growths gone, his movie-star good looks return.
But Allison needs his appetite back too.
ALLISON: Good morning!
Welcome to the party.
I think Tolstoy is doing amazing.
He has far exceeded our expectations,
and I bet he'll live another 100 years.
♪ ♪
RORY: We got a couple giraffes standing in the ride path right now.
You're trouble, you know that?
Hi, sweet girl.
NARRATOR: Out on the savanna,
keeper Rory pins his hopes for fewer "giraffic jams"
on the new feeders.
RORY (off screen): So I'm gonna make sure all of this is secure
and safe for the giraffe.
And let's hang this up.
Good to go!
The holes in here are gonna help these giraffe,
they're gonna use their really, really long tongue.
And instead of just a regular bucket that they can stick their face in,
we're gonna make them work for it.
So, you know, on average, if we just had a normal bucket,
the giraffe would be here for a couple of minutes,
but if we make them work for it and we have these little holes
that they need to, you know, extricate the goodies,
uh, they might be here for a little bit longer.
All right, new feeder, we've got to keep these giraffe engaged,
we got to keep 'em happy,
we got to keep 'em out of the ride path.
You better work! Here we go! It's all riding on you!
♪ ♪
I've got this brand-new feeder for you full of goodies, come on over!
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: If Rory can get ride-stopping leader Mara
to use the feeder,
the others might follow suit.
RORY (off screen): Mara!
Mara!
Come here!
♪ ♪
That's it, use the feeder!
That's it, Mara, you can do it!
Use the feeder and stay out of the ride path!
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Mara's a convert.
The rest of the herd move in.
♪ ♪
And the ride path, crystal clear.
RORY: Total success!
Captioned by Point.360