♪ ♪
WOMAN: The fun part is seeing where they are and if they come running.
(honks horn)
Where is everybody?
Come on, pigs!
Good job, pigs.
If they come, they know they'll get treats.
(snorts)
(theme music playing)
NARRATOR: The sun shines at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park.
And at the Kilimanjaro Safaris, the hippos prepare for breakfast.
ERIN: You gotta wait.
NARRATOR: Tequila lives in a bloat of six hippos,
one of the largest in managed care.
JEN: Every day when the hippos come out,
we like to do a little produce toss to reward them for coming out here.
Today, in the summer spirit, we have watermelon.
It's also a good chance for us to see how the hippos are doing
with eating something that big and that solid.
Our focus today is actually gonna be a little bit more on Tequila
'cause she's had a few tooth issues and her mouth has looked a little sore.
So we want to see how she does with the watermelon.
Tequila is middle-aged now.
She's about 28 years old,
and that's also part of why we're keeping a closer eye on her teeth,
because she is starting to get a little bit older.
She is a very sassy hippo.
She's a little bit shorter than the rest of them,
but she certainly doesn't let that
affect her attitude at all.
Alright, Tequila, you ready?
Go for it.
There you go. Come get it, girl.
-Did she get it? -ERIN: Yeah, she got it.
It was a half one, so she grabbed it really easy.
JEN: Tequila, you want a whole one?
(Erin and Jen laugh)
JEN: Come on, Tequila.
That was Tequila right there that's trying to grab that whole one.
Seems like she can't just chop a whole watermelon
like she normally does.
ERIN: Yeah, I agree.
JEN: She's clearly not opening her jaw all the way.
Everybody else seems like they're eating the watermelon pretty well,
but she's just eating little scraps.
ERIN: This doesn't look right.
I think we need to get a look at her teeth.
She's not chewing the way she normally does.
JEN: Yeah, I think her tooth is bothering her.
We'll definitely get a look at her when she comes in.
RACHEL (off screen): So we noticed a little bit of activity
up on the hill yesterday.
NARRATOR: Backstage at Animal Kingdom,
a new guest has moved in.
RACHEL: I just came out here to check it out,
and it looks like we have a Gopher tortoise burrow
that has popped up overnight.
We're always really excited when we have native species
move into Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Gopher tortoises are probably my favorite animal,
and it's because they're so unassuming.
People really don't know about this little animal
that lives underground here in Florida and is responsible
for the wellbeing of so many other species and its ecosystem.
The Gopher tortoise is a threatened species
here in Florida and elsewhere throughout the range
of the southeastern United States.
And that's primarily due to habitat loss, habitat modification as roadways go in.
The tortoises favor the same habitats the developers do.
I think I'm just going to set this camera up
at the entrance of the burrow
so we can get a better idea of who our new friend is
that is occupying this burrow.
We know she's female, but I think Hank is a pretty good name for a tortoise.
Hank is actually a pretty gregarious tortoise.
She's out foraging.
Hank looks like a really healthy tortoise.
She looks like a healthy weight.
She's exhibiting all the normal behaviors we would expect a tortoise to do.
We're gonna see if we can just co-exist alongside this tortoise,
see if she can just remain here.
So we view that as a responsibility to make sure they're safe and happy here.
I'm excited to explore this burrow a little more,
go deeper and see what we find.
NARRATOR: At The Seas With Nemo & Friends at EPCOT,
deep down at the bottom of the crystal-clear waters
lives a slinky, three-foot character.
DR. JEN: Sigsbee is our green moray eel.
I've worked with a lot of eels in my career
and believe it or not, each one has
an individual personality, including Sigsbee.
We still grow attached to them even though they're fish.
They are very charismatic.
Usually, Sigsbee's a really active eel.
He loves to swim around his coral reef habitat,
especially when the divers go in.
He's really inquisitive.
He likes to swim over to them, say hi.
But lately he's been kind of sticking to himself,
hiding in his little cave and not coming out much.
He's been kind of tired, reduced appetite.
At a previous exam, we figured out that he was very anemic.
That means he had a really low number of red blood cells in his bloodstream.
He required a blood transfusion previously.
So today we are rechecking him to make sure
that that anemia is still resolved
and see if he's looking healthy.
NARRATOR: Green moray eels, like Sigsbee,
conceal themselves along the rocky shorelines
and in the coral reefs of the western Atlantic Ocean.
SHELBY: Disney works with the Coral Restoration Foundation
to save threatened species and threatened coral reefs
right here at home in the Florida Keys.
That's actually where Sigsbee comes to us from.
DR. JEN: We have to send our aquarists and divers
in to the system to try to catch him.
NARRATOR: But catching Sigsbee is easier said than done.
SHELBY: I'll have the big bag,
and then Dani will push him out of his hole
a little bit into the bag,
bring him right up here to the surface where we'll hand him off to Scott.
DANI: If he's in one of the pipes then we're just gonna lift the pipe,
put the bag on the end, lift it up all the way
so that he slides into the bag from the pipe,
and we'll come up and let you know if we need anything.
SHELBY: Sigsbee is a sassy eel.
He does tend to hide from us,
especially when he knows that we're coming.
(indistinct chatter)
DR. JEN: Right, so we got him in the anesthetic water now.
We'll just note the time that we started, he'll start getting sleepy.
CHARLENE (off screen): It's 09:14.
DR. JEN: We have to put him under anesthesia
because he has very sharp teeth,
so we want to make sure everyone stays safe.
CHARLENE: And Sigsbee gets to go for a ride to the treatment room.
(Dr. Jen chuckles)
DR. JEN (off screen): Eel transport coming through.
We make sure to pay really close attention
to things like his heart rate and his breathing
while he's under anesthesia to make sure that he stays safe.
SCOTT (off screen): Did you ever see the movie Alien
where the second set of jaws comes out of the alien?
The green moray does that too.
They do that, it helps them pull a fish right down into their stomach.
SHELBY (off screen): When he's not very asleep,
um, under anesthesia it can make it a little harder to ventilate
because you have to get past that second jaw
to, to ventilate well
or he at least has to have it relaxed and open.
So right now, he has it all relaxed,
so it's easy for me to get water flowing past it.
NARRATOR: Dr. Jen performs an ultrasound
for clues to Sigsbee's lethargy.
DR. JEN: And we can watch his heart beating,
if I can get it back on the screen.
He's a slippery little guy. There it is.
We're just going back to check the heart again because...
...I'd like to get his heart beating a little faster.
What I'm noticing right now is that Sigsbee's heart rate
has decreased a little bit,
which can be a concern when we have a fish under anesthesia.
NARRATOR: A sudden decrease in heart rate could slow oxygen to Sigsbee's brain
and complicate breathing.
DR. JEN: The contractility of the heart is slowing down,
so it's not pumping as well as it should.
SHELBY: He's getting fresh water directly right now.
DR. JEN: I'm very concerned about Sigsbee right now.
His heartbeat is pretty low,
much lower than it should be with an eel under anesthesia.
So what we're gonna do now is add non-anesthetic water
to the anesthesia so that'll dilute it out.
And so that we can watch that heart rate increase back up.
Yeah, the heart rate is getting faster,
which is what we wanted to see
when we adjust that anesthetic concentration.
He's so slippery.
SHELBY: Yeah, the shammies help.
DR. JEN: Thank you so much, that's perfect.
NARRATOR: With Sigsbee's heart rate stable,
Dr. Jen scopes his gills for signs of anemia.
DR. JEN: As far as the shape of the gills and the arch structure of the gills...
...that looks good.
The color is a little bit pale,
which is a little concerning
because, you know, he does have this history of anemia.
We like to see a nice dark red color in the gills of fish,
so what that is telling me is that
maybe we do have a recurrence of his anemia
that he had several months ago.
We've been dealing with this problem on and off,
and we felt like we had a good handle on it
and that he was moving in a positive direction.
There's obviously still something going on that we need to figure out.
-I just want to give him two injections. -SHELBY: Where?
DR. JEN: Uh, along the back.
NARRATOR: Medications should help Sigsbee's symptoms.
DR. JEN: Yes, this is iron, so this is gonna help him
to start making more red blood cells.
And then...
...this one is Epogen.
Epogen is a medication that helps to stimulate the production
of red blood cells in the bloodstream.
One next step we discussed for this guy,
which we may need to think about doing,
is putting him through the CT scanner,
because, you know, our ultrasound diagnostics
can only tell us so much, but CT really might be the ticket
to telling us what's really wrong with him.
I think that that might be a next best step for him
if you guys are okay with that?
SCOTT: I think so, yep.
DR. JEN: In order to perform this advanced diagnostic test,
we need to transport Sigsbee to Disney's Animal Kingdom
which is a few miles away from us here at EPCOT.
We can't do that today because we really don't want to keep him
under anesthesia much longer.
NARRATOR: For now, it's back to playing hide and seek.
DR. JEN: I think doing a CT is going to be really helpful
to try to really get to the bottom of what is going on with this eel,
because he's been sick for a while.
So we need to find answers.
We've been through a lot with him.
Hopefully, he will start feeling better soon.
ERIN: Tequila!
JEN: She's ready to go out.
ERIN: Alrighty, you ready?
NARRATOR: Tequila the hippo might have teeth issues.
JEN (off screen): She's already well on her way.
NARRATOR: So it's time for her keepers to play dentist.
ERIN (off screen): Hi!
Tequila.
Good girl.
ERIN: Hippos are dangerous animals,
so we do have to be really careful when we're messing with their teeth
and doing any dental care.
ERIN: Target, open.
ERIN AND JEN: There you go.
ERIN: Get all those extra bits out.
-JEN: Oh, that's better. -ERIN: That's a good one.
JEN: Good girl. Good girl.
ERIN: The summation of Tequila is small but mighty.
She's got an attitude, she'll tell you what she thinks
and she's not gonna hold it back.
She doesn't want something, she'll tell you.
So we have to train them to voluntarily allows us
to do a lot of this dental care,
JEN: How's that look?
ERIN: We monitor their teeth very closely.
So it really is pretty safe.
She's had a few teeth pulled already,
and she had a few spots that typically get packed pretty bad
that we have to keep a really close eye on.
So we're just looking right now
to see if we can get all the hay out of her mouth
so we can see better
what she actually has stuck in her teeth.
JEN: Can you get her to raise her head up?
ERIN: Yeah. Tequila, open.
-JEN: There we go. -ERIN: Good girl.
JEN: Yeah, I think we got most of the big stuff.
ERIN: Good girl! Good job.
Hay can be kind of sticky
and if it sits there too long, it can cause infection.
This is looking like it might be up in her gums
and messing with her teeth more than we thought initially.
ERIN: Tequila, target. Target.
(Erin and Jen laugh)
ERIN: So she might not be cooperating
because her teeth could be in pain at the moment
and the cold sensation of the water
could be causing her discomfort in her mouth.
Thank you.
Luckily, these guys are trained super well.
ERIN: Hold.
-JEN: You ready? -ERIN: Go ahead.
They know exactly what they're doing and they're very cooperative.
JEN: Hippos have the strongest bite of any land mammal.
There's always a risk, but we trust her.
ERIN: Good girl!
Let me get that one.
Do you want more?
Hold.
JEN: Good, she's got a little bit on the bottom there.
ERIN: Hold.
Looks like there is a chunk of hay back there.
JEN: Right, I'm gonna grab the Waterpik.
-ERIN: Okay. -JEN: Try and get that spot.
ERIN: We're gonna get it out of your mouth.
JEN: See if I can get it, ready?
ERIN: Tequila, open.
Hold.
Tequila, open.
Open.
She's dropping her head really fast.
Tequila, open.
-JEN: Rinsing. -ERIN: Hold.
No, she's closing it right away. You're probably sore, huh?
JEN: Makes me think there's something back there
that she doesn't want us to get.
ERIN: Yeah. Do you want to check and see,
you got anything out?
-JEN: Yeah, let me look and see. -ERIN: Open.
JEN: I think this is what came out.
It's not a lot, but it was really packed in there
and it's kind of pointy and sharp, so I'm sure it didn't feel good.
ERIN: Does not look like it would feel good, no.
It's a good thing you like the Waterpik.
Does it feel better? You feel better, Tequila?
JEN: There's a few more that are stuck,
they're just way up there.
I got out the big part that was sticking out at least.
Now we just need to teach her to floss.
-ERIN: Yeah. -(both laugh)
Worst-case scenario, she could have a tooth
that's cracked or eroding in some way.
Obviously, she's super sensitive in that area
so hopefully we can have the vet fix that for us.
RACHEL (off screen): Be great to see if we can find Hank inside.
NARRATOR: Backstage, conservation programs manager Rachel
prepares to look inside Hank the gopher tortoise's home.
RACHEL: Every gopher tortoise burrow is different,
and we don't know what we're gonna find.
NARRATOR: This isn't the first time Rachel has explored
a Gopher tortoise burrow on Disney property.
RACHEL: In all of the years that we've been studying
gopher tortoises here at Disney,
we have found so many different species in their burrows.
We have found all sorts of snakes, small mammals.
That's why we call them keystone species
'cause they provide these homes for hundreds of other species
that can live inside their burrow and make use of it.
NARRATOR: Today, the team takes an initial look
into the size and scope of the burrow.
And maybe they'll see Hank.
RACHEL (off screen): The tortoises dig these really deep holes
in part to help regulate their temperature
and to make sure they're safe from predators.
We're trying to maneuver around some of the turns
and twists of this burrow
and avoid piling up dirt on the camera.
Hank, where you hidin'?
Nope, nothing but dirt.
Looks like we're not gonna find her today.
Sometimes these burrows are 25, 30 feet long,
10 to 12 feet deep.
Since she happened to choose a spot here that's right on the side of a roadway,
we need to make sure that she's safe from any activity
that would be going on.
I'm just making sure any oncoming drivers abide
by our one rule here,
which is to drive with care to protect Hank
and all the other native wildlife that lives here.
There's Hank.
It looks like she came out to see us
rather than us having to go down and find her.
It looks like she is super happy with her surroundings.
It's been really nice that we've been able to coexist with her
just right here in Animal Kingdom.
(gibbons whooping)
DR. GEOFF: One of the cool things about coming out
before the park opens is that you have the space to yourself.
You have the opportunity to spend some time
with some animals that you've cared for,
just you and them.
I'll take one of these walks,
and my first stop is here at white-cheek gibbons
where I get to see Harper.
She's my favorite animal here at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
I'll come out first thing in the morning
just to see how she is with her mum, Melaka,
and her dad, AJ.
It kind of brings me joy, I suppose,
that I can look at those animals and feel like I really helped there.
Harper's mum Melaka was probably in labor about 12 hours.
We had noticed that Harper was trying to come out backwards.
I made the decision then to do a caesarean section.
(uplifting music playing)
We had Harper out within about a three-minute period.
She responded really well.
In essence, we saved her life.
Melaka was out here in this exhibit with Harper
the day after, swinging around.
NARRATOR: Now six years old, Harper's all grown up.
DR. GEOFF (off screen): Harper is fearless.
We have watched her grow.
Initially, she was hanging on mom,
but once she found her legs and arms
she was fearless.
Harper is a beautiful golden color
because she's reached maturity now.
As a youngster, they all come out a beautiful golden color
so that they can blend in with mom's fur.
Around a year old, they change into dad's color
with black fur and the white cheeks,
and they're like that until they mature.
(whooping)
I think for me, I have a special bond with Harper.
I kind of feel like her second dad.
It's been a lot of fun watching Harper grow up,
to just enjoy the fact that Harper's matured,
she'll go on soon to start her own family,
it's super cool.
(whooping)
NARRATOR: Sigsbee, the sickly green moray eel,
heads to the veterinary treatment room for his CT scan.
DR. JEN: Hey, buddy.
NARRATOR: Dr. Jen wants to check that the suspected anemia
hasn't caused bigger problems.
DR. JEN: We've been trying to figure out what is wrong with him.
He's been a bit of an eel mystery for us.
We're gonna consider his abnormal behavior a likely result of his anemia.
CT is definitely a great way to get the best look
at all his internal organs, so, uh, we'll see what,
what it tells us and go from there.
SHELBY: This is your new hammock, buddy.
Ready? Maybe drain.
WOMAN: Drain as much as you can.
DR. JEN: This is actually our first CT scan
on a green moray eel, so very exciting.
Having access to this amazing diagnostic equipment is huge
for being able to diagnose disease
in unique animals, like a green moray eel.
We had to do a bit of creative thinking.
We put Sigsbee in a clear acrylic box,
suspended in a specialized eel hammock.
WOMAN: See, look at that.
He's not too long.
DR. JEN: He's so handsome.
Pretty impressed with the eel hammock.
WOMAN (off screen): I love it.
They're really awesome.
SHELBY: I've been working with Sigsbee for, uh, about two and a half years.
Sigsbee always had a lot of personality.
He'd be out and about swimming all day.
He does seem to be improving, which is exciting,
and his appetite is starting to come back.
But he's also had a lot of supportive therapy
to get this far.
We'd love to see him be back to, to the eel he once was.
DR. NATALIE: So this either worked or it didn't.
MAN: Yeah.
DR. NATALIE: So right now, we're looking
at Sigsbee the eel's CT scan.
And I'm specifically looking at his kidneys right now.
One of the things we care about when we have anemia
is whether or not the kidneys function properly,
It's really hard to tell in fish.
Looking at the kidney itself...
...and everything looks fantastic.
You can actually see the blood vessels going into the kidney,
and it just looks really normal and healthy.
So I don't think that's the problem.
All the anatomy I'm looking at is normal and that makes me pretty happy.
DR. NATALIE: Can we take a break for a moment
and let's scope his gill right now before I do contrast.
NARRATOR: Dr. Natalie wants to know
if Sigsbee is responding to his anemia treatments.
MAN (off screen): Oh.
DR. NATALIE (off screen): A forest of gills.
MAN: That's so cool.
DR. NATALIE: They look pretty awesome to me.
DR. JEN: Last time we checked him,
they were a little bit pale, like pale pink.
So a significant improvement over these past several weeks
since we've seen him last, which is great.
-DR. JEN: (indistinct) ...excitement. -DR. NATALIE: I am satisfied.
DR. JEN: I'm like, oh my gosh, they're so red, this is amazing.
Oh, I love good news so early in the morning.
We didn't find anything of major concern on the CT scan,
which was great news.
With the treatments that we've been giving him
and the positive improvements we've been seeing,
we anticipate he's gonna make a full recovery.
This has been a super long road for him.
His anemia's been going on for a long time,
so it's great to see him feeling better.
SHELBY: Alright, buddy, let's go.
I'm glad you're feeling better.
Oh, you're home.
Feeling relieved to have him back in here.
We're just really hoping that he keeps on this track,
and we're excited to get him back to his old self.
In eel years, he's probably just a teenager,
so can't wait to see what the future brings for him.
NARRATOR: Over at the hippo barn...
DR. RYAN (off screen): We'll start out just trying
to get her into position.
If it looks like it's taking too long,
we might need to just hunker down where we're at,
get her intubated and get her safe before we can move on.
NARRATOR: Small but mighty Tequila
faces a visit from the dentist.
DR. RYAN: Tequila's keepers suspect she has a problem
with one of her teeth that's causing her some discomfort,
so we want to get a really close look
and see what's going on and if we can help her.
Tequila's a very large, strong animal,
weighs about the same as a small car.
Getting into her mouth can be a dangerous prospect,
so we need her at a proper plane of anesthesia
in order to safely get in there and see what's going on.
(dart gun fires)
(grunts)
-DR. RYAN: There we go. -WOMAN: There she goes.
DR. RYAN: Tequila's down, let's start the clock.
MAN: We're gonna need, need people on the rope.
DR. RYAN: I'm uncomfortable keeping a hippopotamus under anesthesia
for longer than about three hours,
so we have to make this procedure fit
into that timeframe to keep her safe.
As soon as Tequila's down on the ground,
the clock starts ticking, and we really need to move
and keep things rolling along.
WOMAN: She is all squished.
DR. RYAN: If Tequila lays on her limbs
too long under anesthesia without moving,
it can cause trauma.
So we use the ropes to, to reposition her legs
and then move around into different positions so that doesn't happen.
WOMAN: Giving her breath.
(air hisses)
DR. RYAN: A lot of times, they don't breathe very well
and you can get into trouble there,
so that's a reason why we're providing supplemental ventilation for her.
-Beautiful. -WOMAN: Nicely done.
DR. RYAN: Well done, guys.
DR. MIKE: Alright, that's looking good.
I'm here to look at Tequila who has a suspect bad tooth.
The good thing about hippos is their mouth is so large,
and you can open it up to literally about three feet,
so you got wonderful exposure to all the teeth.
Biggest problem is this cracked tooth.
It was quite evident that she has a fractured tooth
on her bottom left side.
DR. MIKE: Yeah, if we can move this forward,
-that'd be great. -MAN: Alright, guys.
(air hissing)
DR. MIKE: You could see that the side of the tooth was fractured off.
It was split down the center,
and there was feed material packed down
between the two big, large fragments.
So we're gonna see how tight it's in there.
NARRATOR: The only option is to take the tooth out.
(indistinct chatter)
DR. MIKE: Typically, when you're trying to extract a tooth
in some of these large animals and it's a large tooth,
in her case it's about two and a half inches deep
and about two and a half to three inches in length,
you've got to sit there and wiggle on that tooth.
It's a game of patience.
Anybody can get a tooth out if they want to be really aggressive,
but you don't want to do a lot of damage to the socket and the jawbone.
So it's taking your time, slowly breaking it down.
DR. RYAN: So far so good.
She seems to be doing really well under anesthesia,
from all the monitoring we've done.
She's holding steady, and everything's going well.
She's staying asleep, so happy at this point.
(tapping)
DR. MIKE: It's kind of like taking a glass out of concrete.
She wants to keep it, and I want to take it out.
We've been on the ground for going on three hours now.
NARRATOR: Only minutes remain
before Tequila's sedation wears off.
DR. MIKE: So we need, uh--
DR. RYAN: Right, give it about 15 minutes.
(indistinct chatter)
DR. MIKE: Oh, yeah, they're open.
MAN: Hoping we kind of just slide off those front teeth.
MAN: You mean this flap?
DR. MIKE: There's one piece.
-WOMAN: Oh yeah. -ALL: Yay!
(applause)
WOMAN: Nice.
DR. RYAN: It took a long time to get out,
and there's still a fragment in there
that's in there really, really good.
MAN: He's got a fragment still in there.
WOMAN: Oh, there's the other one, ooh.
Oh yeah.
MAN (off screen): Got it, there we go.
-WOMAN (off screen): Wow: -WOMAN: Yep, there it is.
There it is.
(air hissing)
DR. MIKE: So, we got those big fragments out
which allowed us to clean it out
and get the feed material out of that alveolus.
As long as she's not packing feed in there,
she should do fine.
-MAN: You ready, Charles? -CHARLES: Ready.
-MAN: You ready? -WOMAN: Yes, I'm ready.
NARRATOR: After a successful extraction
and more than three hours under,
time for Tequila to wake up.
DR. RYAN: Not going to have a lot of time to work.
WOMAN: Okay, alright.
MAN: Okay, one, two, three, start pulling.
Let, let the rope do the work.
DR. RYAN: Laying down for a long period of time
can be a little trying on them.
-MAN 1: Little bit more. -MAN 2: That's good.
-MAN 1: Right there -MAN 2: Good right there.
DR. RYAN: So, it's just like us if you sleep on your arm wrong
and you wake up, and it's asleep or it hurts for a little while,
the same thing can happen to them.
So, we're making efforts to reposition her
and move her round and stretch her out a little bit
to kind of combat that,
but she's still gonna have some soreness
and some, some tingly limbs probably when she gets up.
MAN: Six, eight inches, so her head can't get through.
WOMAN: Come on, move your tongue, mama.
-MAN: There it goes. -WOMAN: There it goes, alright.
MAN (off screen): Alright.
(raspy breath)
WOMAN (off screen): Big breath.
MAN (off screen): There we go.
There you go. Drop it. Good girl.
Whoa.
NARRATOR: Tequila is back.
DR. RYAN: I think Tequila did very well under anesthesia.
I'm very happy with the way the procedure went
and, uh, she woke up beautifully.
(birds chirping)
DR. JASON (off screen): Ready to do this nest check thing this morning?
-SHANNON: Yeah, buddy. -DR. JASON: Excellent.
NARRATOR: Over at EPCOT, meet some of their smallest...
...and noisiest guests.
Over 60 pairs of nesting purple martins
SHANNON: Doctor Jason and I are gonna go
and check each and every individual house
that we have.
A purple martin is the largest species of swallow
that is here in North America.
DR. JASON: Purple martins only spend about half
of their year here at Walt Disney World.
The other half of the year, they're in south America.
They're in Brazil.
They go from some of the most remote places on the planet
to one of the most magical places on the planet.
SHANNON: Back in 1998, we actually just kind of
put out a house for purple martins at our Flower and Garden Festival.
Didn't really expect birds to be in it.
We found out, you know what, birds are coming here, they love it.
We have over 200 houses at this point,
you know, 20 years later.
We have the ability to take care of all these wonderful birds
and these species as an important stopover breeding point
for them right before they head back to Brazil.
DR. JASON: I'm hoping we'll see some freshly hatched chicks.
SHANNON (off screen): Little, little babies.
You let me know what you got.
DR. JASON: In 'A,' we got nothing.
But what was in there last time?
SHANNON: Last time, there was three young
so maybe they fledged.
DR. JASON: Yeah, so you can tell it's definitely been used.
SHANNON: Oh yeah, sweet.
DR. JASON: Purple martins, they're kind of a strange bird,
because one of the only places they like to nest
is in human-provided bird houses.
SHANNON: They historically would kind of hang out by the Native Americans.
The Native Americans would put out these gourds to dry,
and the birds were like, that's a home, I'm gonna hang out there.
So they're almost completely dependent
on human care and human houses that they create for them.
DR. JASON: Alright, on to 'B.'
Let's see, alright, we got a little more heft to this one.
We got birds in here.
Oh, babies on board, check this out.
SHANNON: Yeah, look at that.
DR. JASON: Why does it matter so much
if this particular family of chicks makes it or not?
Well, purple martins are a species on the decline.
Every single one of these chicks matters.
In the last couple decades, we've lost 50 percent of our martins.
Everybody can make a conservation difference.
Everybody that has the right kind of yard, put up a purple martin house.
They lay about a thousand eggs every single year.
We're like a little purple martin factory here.
Alright, 'E.'
Check it out, it's egg time.
SHANNON: Egg time, how many eggs we got?
DR. JASON: Three eggs.
What did we have in 'M' last time?
SHANNON: 'M,' we had five eggs.
DR. JASON: Oh, we don't have five eggs anymore.
SHANNON: Oh, what do we have?
DR. JASON: We got brand new chicks.
SHANNON: Oh, look at the little babies.
DR. JASON: Alright, so I am gonna reach in,
I'm gonna grab the very largest chick.
We're able to touch these birds only once.
You can do that in a way that's not going
to negatively impact these guys.
Based on these aging charts, we can see exactly how big these guys are.
SHANNON: Kind of looks like five days old to me.
You know, migratory bird species have a really hard time
flying across and finding good stopover points
where they'll have, you know, safety, they'll have food.
So Disney really makes a huge difference in the way that we can make sure
that they have all the things that they need before they head on
to whatever's next in their journey.
Every year, we actually will band some of the adults and some of the babies
to see if they'll actually come back to us.
We even have one bird that we call Steve the martin.
He's been coming back for about eight years now,
and we see him flying down,
having his kids, and heading back to Brazil.
NARRATOR: Steve was here a week ago taking care of his chicks,
but there is no sign of him now.
DR. JASON: Steve the martin, he's one of the grand daddies of the colony.
I came out yesterday,
but I didn't see Steve coming back to visit the gourd.
The reason I'm a little concerned
is that we've seen a lot more crows attacking this year.
It's possible that Steve and his mate Sharon
may have succumbed to the crows.
If something has happened to Steve and his mate...
...who's gonna feed those chicks?
DR. JASON (off screen) Steve's been coming back eight years running.
So where is he? Why isn't he coming back?
If Steve's gonna come back anywhere at Walt Disney World
it's gonna be at this house, this gourd.
I'm afraid for what's gonna happen to these chicks.
The clock is ticking. Those chicks need feeding.
we need Steve and his mate Sharon to come back.
Steve the martin is tagged with a tracking device
so if he comes back,
I can catch him, we can get that device back,
and find out all the adventures he's been up to.
So, we're going to be setting a little trapdoor
over our target compartment,
held up by a little pin that's attached to a fishing line.
I'm taking this little pin here,
and I'm sliding it right in the little hole
in the middle of this faceplate,
and I'm resting the trapdoor on top of it.
And then when our target bird goes in,
pull the fishing pole, pop out the pin, drop the trapdoor
and we'll get our bird back, that's the plan.
Fingers crossed Steve comes back.
My line is now secured.
I am all set.
(clicking)
And so I am going to sit back
over in this chair right here.
We call this fishing for martins
because it's exactly like fishing
in that you don't know if you're gonna get a nibble
in the first five minutes or, like, a couple hours.
Oh.
This is definitely Steve's social mate.
She's sitting on top of the nest compartment right now.
Oh my gosh, Steve's here. Steve just landed.
Steve's in.
(line clicking)
(gasps) We got him!
Oh, this is so exciting.
He can get back to feeding those chicks now,
and I can see where he's been off to all of these days.
This is great.
We want to follow the day-to-day life of Steve the martin
as he is going all throughout the Walt Disney World Resort,
because that info helps us understand
not only what Steve and other martins here need
but what purple martins across their range need.
Oh, best morning ever.
Hey, buddy.
I am so glad to see you, Steve.
Oh.
And you are looking fabulous,
There's that tracking device.
I can get that tracking device back, which is exciting.
That means that we should have captured
everything that's gone on for this last week.
You're almost free, buddy.
There we go.
Alright, buddy, fly free.
Super excited you came back.
Alright, get back to feeding those chicks.
(sighs) That was awesome.
ERIN (off screen): Come here, Tequila.
NARRATOR: After Tequila's tooth extraction,
Erin and Jen want to see if her bite is back.
ERIN: See if she has any trouble.
(laughs) You get it?
-JEN: There she goes. -ERIN: There it is.
JEN: There you go, that looked pretty good.
ERIN: Yeah. She's eating normal again.
Chomping on her watermelon.
JEN: Yeah, that definitely looks better.
(crunching)
We were a little worried that she might be sore
from all the work but I think she's,
she's doing great right now.
Tooth problems are something that you're always aware of
because they have so many teeth,
and they eat a lot of different things.
ERIN: Very happy that she's eating
her watermelon completely normally,
eating the whole thing in one bite.
Captioned by Point.360