♪ ♪
DANI (on radio): Hi buddy.
-There's Beau. -SCUBA DIVER (on radio): That's Beau?
DANI: He's one of our newer Sand Tigers.
As you can tell, he's not shy with people.
What did the shark say
after he ate a Clownfish?
SCUBA DIVER: Ah... I don't know.
DANI: This tastes funny!
What do you get when you mix
a shark and a snowman?
SCUBA DIVER: A snow shark.
DANI: No, frostbite!
(diver laughs)
(theme song plays)
(crowd chatter)
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: On a sunny morning
-t Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park,
the meerkats come outside to catch some rays.
COURTNEY: They like to lay in the sun.
Some people call them solar-powered.
So, they sit like this with their little bellies up to the sky.
You'll see them kind of sitting in the sun, taking it in,
especially early in the morning on those cooler mornings,
or if it's been kind of rainy.
There's so much I love about working with the meerkats.
I try not to pick favorites. I love all the meerkats very much,
and they all are very special.
Hi, buddy. You are so cute!
I know, I love you!
I can't favor you on camera, that's just embarrassing.
(chuckles)
NARRATOR: These southern African desert dudes
love their creepy crawly snacks.
COURTNEY: So today, I'm feeding the meerkats superworms and mealworms,
and they definitely love those superworms. It's their favorite snack.
♪ ♪
I've been working with them for a really long time.
That means that I've been able to learn
all their individual quirks and personalities,
and so I can sort of tell them apart by what they're doing.
-(barking, sniffing) -Thomas,
Arlo, Springsteen,
Bentley,
Nirvana,
Newton.
(chattering)
At this moment in time, I would say that Newton
is probably our dominant animal, which is surprising to me,
because he's one of our youngest animals.
NARRATOR: Being the dominant male
matters in the meerkat mob.
COURTNEY: Your job is kind of determined in some ways
by your social ranking within the group.
So, in a typical group, there would be a dominant female
who selects a dominant male, and they breed,
and then the other members of the mob are responsible
for raising the offspring, finding food, taking sentry duty,
which means look out to keep everybody safe.
All of that kind of stuff falls on the other members of the group.
Bentley's in the back there, scanning the sky
and the surrounding area to make sure there are no threats
that are imminent that everybody needs to be aware of.
♪ ♪
Bentley is a really fun guy.
He is very chill, I would say.
He's really calm and easygoing for the most part.
(purring, chittering)
Uh-oh. So, that was an alarm call.
Looks like he might have seen something in the sky
that I cannot see.
They have a specific vocalization for sky predator versus land predator.
(chittering)
Something happened. We're all seeking shelter.
(zebra barking)
Oh, we're scared of the zebra?
♪ ♪
Those are our neighbors! You all know the zebra!
(laughs)
Okay, we're all underground. (laughs)
NARRATOR: When the coast is clear,
lower-ranking Bentley comes out with some attitude.
COURTNEY: Bentley is definitely not in charge
when it comes to our meerkat social rankings,
but sometimes he likes to try it out
and see how high he can get and test the waters.
There's something brewing potentially.
♪ ♪
(squawk)
NARRATOR: A quarter of a mile away,
the savanna's fastest felines begin their day.
JANENE: Ooh, here come the cheetah!
NARRATOR: Meet Murie...
Maathai...
and Fossey.
JANENE: We have three of our cheetah girls.
Worked with them for six and a half years now.
Oh, I like them all. Is that okay to say? (laughs)
I truly do. They all have their own little quirks.
I love the difference in their faces.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: These glamor girls don't have much on their schedule.
JANENE: They sleep most of the day.
Often, you will see them mostly just resting, usually in a shady spot.
NARRATOR: But their cousins in the wild have a different agenda.
JANENE: Out in the wild, food is not just presented to them.
They hunt mostly antelope. They're very, very fast,
but it's more of a sneak attack speed hunt.
♪ ♪
(growls)
Unfortunately, a lot of their habitat is being destroyed.
Cheetah do sometimes unfortunately go after domestic livestock.
NARRATOR: Under managed care, meals come on a predictable schedule,
so keepers try other ways to shake things up
and get these girls moving.
JANENE: Alright, here they come!
Ran right by-- Oh, did you just see it? What's out there?
I put the ball out in the habitat today
to try to entice the cheetah to come out and engage with it.
It's kind of a form of enrichment to try to get them to mimic
some of the natural behaviors they show us out in the wild.
I gave it my best shot, but sometimes they just kind of go,
"it's not moving, so why should I chase it?"
NARRATOR: Like a house cat chasing a toy,
cheetah want to stalk and chase
something that moves.
JANENE: A lot of our team are trying to think of
how can we develop something to help with their locomotion,
help kind of keep them moving.
(quiet growl)
We kind of brainstormed and reached out and contacted Walt Disney Imagineers
in the Imagineering Department to figure out how to do this.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Time to get crafty.
Behind the scenes, engineers and Imagineers
team up with behavioral husbandry
to transform the idea into reality.
KATHRYN: We have a motor that's going to be attached
to the ball here.
PATRICK: So, this is the brain for the cheetah ball.
NARRATOR: A toy that moves.
KATHRYN: At home with my cats, I throw stuff for them,
and they're like, "okay, I'm gonna run after it and chase it,"
but if I have something that's motorized and moving,
they're even more interested in it.
-MAN: 'Cause it can go in two different... -KATHRYN: Exactly.
The motor will rotate the weights inside of the cheetah ball.
As you're rotating the weights, the ball will keep moving.
Being a mechanical engineer,
the exciting part is when you get to see that end user
interacting and enjoying
the thing that you built.
PATRICK: Cheetah are obviously known for how fast they can run,
so this is a really cool opportunity
to encourage some of those natural behaviors.
The hope is with a motorized ball,
it'll allow for a much longer chase time.
♪ ♪
(elephants trumpeting)
♪ ♪
(zebra braying)
NARRATOR: On the other side of the park...
NICOLE: We just got a call on the radio
that one of our zebra has been horned
by our eland.
WOMAN: Hi, sweet Asha. What happened?
(squeaks)
-NICOLE: Just going to take a look. -WOMAN: Good girl.
NICOLE: Was the eland mean to you, sweet girl?
This looks pretty significant.
Asha is part of a mixed species exhibit
that they share with eland.
She's still learning to kind of navigate her surroundings,
and being a young animal,
she doesn't necessarily always pay attention
to where she is and what's going on around her.
♪ ♪
This is a pretty stressful time for Asha.
She's still pretty young, she's not even 2 yet,
and this is the first time that she's really been separated from her mom.
The wound looks bad enough that we are gonna need
the vet team to take a closer look at this.
(van rumbling, beeping)
NARRATOR: Doctors Ryan and Nati answer the call.
-(pop) -(braying)
DR. NATI: We need Asha under sedation so that we can fully evaluate this wound
and see how bad it is.
DR. RYAN: It looks pretty dry from here.
I mean, I didn't get a good look at it when I darted her.
♪ ♪
(quiet chatter)
-Let's go in. -DR. NATI: Okay.
(lock creaks)
NARRATOR: Asha's wound requires urgent cleaning.
DR. NATI: Horns do have bacteria, dirt, mud,
and things like that on them, and he introduced all of those organisms
into her body when he punctured her.
We are shaving the periphery of the wound
so that we can keep it clean
and reduce the risk of infection.
NARRATOR: Sterile saline flushes the wound of debris.
DR. NATI: It's pretty deep.
(machine hissing)
Hey, Ryan? I'm worried that we have
a perforating wound into her abdomen.
DR. RYAN: Yeah, that just transected that muscle belly, didn't it?
DR. NATI: So, if I go straight down,
there's a spot where I don't hit bottom.
DR. RYAN: Ooh! Yeah.
-DR. NATI: So. -DR. RYAN: Yike-a-rupus.
-(quiet chatter) -Man.
It's a heck of a wound.
♪ ♪
DR. NATI: There's a hole that's penetrating up into her abdomen.
So, we need to get her to the hospital for surgery
and make sure that we close that hole in her abdomen up
and ensure there's no damage to her internal organs.
So, she's gonna have a big day.
And here's our troublemaker right here.
Do you see any zebra hair on his horns?
-(door beeps) -(quiet chatter)
DR. RYAN: One, two, three!
Well, maybe it won't be that great.
Go slow.
MAN: You're gonna go all the way up against the window, Ryan.
-DR. NATI: Ready? -DR. RYAN: Ready? One, two, three.
-MAN: Right there's fine. Perfect. -DR. RYAN: How's that?
DR. NATI: Okay, nice.
The next step is gonna be some wound cleaning
-and then the scope to take a look. -(machine hissing)
♪ ♪
The horn introduced
bacteria and debris into her abdomen
that could create a horrible infection
that could make her really sick and be fatal for her.
-I'm about to stick the scope in. -MAN: Alright.
DR. NATI: There we go! Okay.
So, here's our wound.
And we have a big pocket up in this side,
but where I'm worried about
-DR. RYAN: Starting the ampicillin. -DR. NATI: is this hole.
-Can we get some saline? -WOMAN: Sure.
DR. NATI: I want you to pour it in the wound for me.
(machine hissing)
When I move, the fluid starts draining away.
-DR. RYAN: It does? -DR. NATI: Yeah,
Ryan, I mean, I didn't suction the wound,
and all the fluid's gone.
♪ ♪
DR. RYAN: So, what she's worried about, because the fluid's disappearing
as she flushes it into that wound,
it means that it has an outflow deep.
So, it's draining somewhere into the wound.
So, there's still investigation to be done to figure out
where that fluid's going and what needs to be done to seal it up.
♪ ♪
(machine hissing)
DR. NATI: It turns out innocent-looking elands
can do a lot of damage.
That eland horn penetrated four inches of muscle.
DR. RYAN: Alright, you want me to try to sneak underneath you,
-Nati, and have a look at the belly? -DR. NATI: Yes!
-See if you see any fluid in there. -DR. RYAN: I'm on it.
NARRATOR: The doctors fear the hole goes right into
Asha's stomach or another vital organ.
♪ ♪
DR. RYAN: Alright, Nati, there is no fluid that I can appreciate.
-DR. NATI: Okay. -DR. RYAN: So, that's good news.
DR. NATI: That's awesome news.
NARRATOR: There's no sign the puncture caused organ damage.
DR. NATI: Is Dr. Geoff out there?
NARRATOR: But Dr. Nati wants her head vet
-to make absolutely sure. -DR. NATI: Ryan ultrasounded her
and didn't see any free fluid in the belly.
DR. GEOFF: And then when you put your finger--
-Can you get your finger in there? -DR. NATI: Oh, yeah.
DR. GEOFF: Does it feel like peritoneal lining?
DR. NATI: You mean, like, around the margins of it?
-DR. GEOFF: Yeah, like if you do that... -DR. NATI: Oh yeah. Super slippery?
-DR. GEOFF: Yeah. Okay. -DR. NATI: Mm-hmm. So,
I'm just gonna close that.
I'm not gonna worry about checking in her abdomen further,
-and then close the layers on top of it. -(vacuum sucking)
It is a really good sign that we didn't have any evidence
of damage to her abdominal organs,
and that she didn't have fluid in there.
So, that ultrasound and the scoping
were really reassuring to me that we've addressed this
before bad things could happen to her.
NARRATOR: Dr. Nati sutures Asha's abdominal wall...
DR. NATI: It's a really good thing we got in here and checked this today.
NARRATOR: ...then stitches the torn muscle and skin back together.
DR. NATI: This was much more extensive than we thought it was
just from looking at the surface.
With that hole in her abdomen,
she has a really high risk of infection
setting in in her abdomen,
and she could have had
damage to her internal organs.
Fortunately, she doesn't.
Okay, so that big hole in the muscle is now closed.
DR. RYAN: She got all the stripes lined up anyway.
DR. NATI: I know, that's the goal.
We don't want her stripes to not match up.
By getting her on these IV antibiotics,
I hope we have her back on the path to healing
and recovery at this point.
♪ ♪
Come on.
WOMAN: Push it up, push it up. Come on. Come on, guys.
NARRATOR: As the sedation wears off...
♪ ♪
...the team works to get Asha upright and walking.
DR. NATI: She's starting to look a little more coordinated.
You guys are doing awesome guiding her.
(panting)
KATY: Good girl.
DR. RYAN: One more lap. We'll get through here.
DR. NATI: She's still crossing her legs over a little in the back.
-WOMAN: Better. -MAN: I'm gonna not help her at all
-except for steering. -WOMAN: You're doing so good.
♪ ♪
(panting)
MAN: Doing great.
NICOLE: I'm super excited that Asha has recovered
from this huge operation.
She's doing really well, and she is up and walking.
MAN: Stay on the coquina.
NICOLE: The next steps for Asha are going to be lots of stall rest,
so she's not gonna be able to go out on her savanna for a while,
while these stitches try to hold in place, and she starts to heal a little bit.
NARRATOR: The young zebra faces a lengthy recovery
before she can rejoin her family.
NICOLE: It's really important for Asha to be with her mom.
That's where she learns all of her social skills,
and she learns how to be a zebra.
DR. RYAN: She's probably got a good 10, 15 minutes
to walk that off, I would imagine.
DR. NATI: Yeah, it's up to her now.
We want to make sure that she doesn't have
any lingering effects, but I'm really hopeful
that in 10 to 14 days,
Asha can go back with her family.
♪ ♪
-(gate clicks) -(quiet chatter)
ANDY: Let's start here, I think, test it really quick.
NARRATOR: It's time to test the cheetah ball prototype.
Today's guinea pigs,
goats and sheep.
PATRICK: The benefit of being with the goats
before we get it with the cats
is that we can be in the habitat in real time
to troubleshoot anything that might be happening with the ball.
That wouldn't necessarily be possible with the cheetah.
KATHRYN: We just wanna confirm that all of our connections are good,
and that it's working before we put the top on and seal it in.
I'm pretty excited to see how they interact with it.
Hopefully, they'll be interested in it.
But, we'll have to see
because I have definitely bought things for my cat,
and then she has not been interested.
-MAN: Okay, we all move backwards. -(Kathryn laughs)
Oh! A little fast.
-(whirring) -(Kathryn laughs)
ANDY: Something's catching inside.
PATRICK: It's-- Oh, it's probably the wire.
(whirring)
-ANDY: There he goes. -PATRICK: There we go!
The weights aren't perfectly balanced.
-ANDY: We lost. -PATRICK: You lost it? Okay.
ANDY: Oh! Uh, no. More than that.
-The shaft came off. -KATHRYN: Oh.
ANDY: We got rolling, which is cool, but we noticed the motor came loose.
In that process, it unplugged itself, which is handy.
-(laughs) -Also, took off the radio again.
-PATRICK: Everything okay? -KATHRYN: Yeah,
-just tightening stuff back down. -ANDY: Yep.
-Forward. -PATRICK: Alright!
-ANDY: That's better! -KATHRYN: Alright.
NARRATOR: The goats finally get to play ball.
PATRICK: Here, goats, goats, goats, goats!
Alright, let's see.
♪ ♪
-(whirring) -KATHRYN: Oh, look at that.
ANDY: Oh, there we go.
PATRICK: Hey, Sofia!
Wanna try it? You wanna try it?
-I know. What is it? -(growls)
(bleats)
(laughter)
-Rose, what is it? -ANDY: Here we go, here we go.
(whirring)
PATRICK: Today, we finally got the ball rolling.
(laughter)
We definitely have a couple things we wanna work on.
NARRATOR: The big test awaits.
ANDY: I'm hoping that the cheetahs like it.
♪ ♪
(drizzling)
NARRATOR: Over at the meerkat habitat,
there's trouble in the ranks.
COURTNEY: Newton is currently, what I would say is,
our highest ranking meerkat in the social group.
He's really intense as a top meerkat.
He's always in the mix. He's checking on everybody,
reminding everybody, "I am in charge."
NARRATOR: But not everybody agrees.
COURTNEY: I would say at this current moment in time,
there is a little bit of social tension
between Newton and Bentley.
(chittering)
Meerkats change position in the group by challenging each other.
So, you'll see behaviors like hip-slamming,
chittering.
Things like that can be considered an aggressive behavior.
(quiet chittering)
Bentley is definitely not in charge,
but he is also a meerkat,
so he does still have those natural urges to see
how high of a ranking he can get in his social group.
-Hi, I hear you. -(lock, door squeaking)
What do you think?
NARRATOR: The tussling twosome need a little distraction.
Backstage, it's time for school.
COURTNEY: Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and cue.
-(rattling) -Just a little sound cue,
an indicator to the group that we're here,
we're ready to start training.
Basically, I'm asking them to put their feet up on this T.
They each have a specific T that they need to be on
in order to get a meatball.
So, this gives us a chance to take pictures, flush wounds,
-have vets get a good look at them. -(chittering)
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: But in class, not everyone's behaving.
(angry chittering)
COURTNEY: Bentley and Newton are hanging back, having a little conversation
about their status in the group.
And therefore, coming for one tiny bite of meat
is not worth it to them.
We can re-cue and see if we can get them to come.
My guess is no, but I'll give it a shot.
-(rattle shaking) -They may not come. (laughs)
(rattling)
♪ ♪
(angry chittering)
You guys want snacks?
NARRATOR: Finally, the rival meerkats,
-Newton and Bentley, show up for class. -COURTNEY: Wanna sit up here?
Good job!
♪ ♪
We're really excited that we've gotten our training program
-to this point. -(chittering)
We've been working really hard with the meerkat group
to get them to each stand on their own little T,
and they're doing really well for the most part.
This is something that we can use to empower them
to participate in their own care.
And that's really what training is all about
and what my job is all about here
is providing these animals control and choice
and the ability to sort of say
they have control in their medical care.
NARRATOR: Class dismissed.
Now, time for recess.
COURTNEY: I'm hoping they can maintain some social cohesion
and peaceful times within the group,
but I know that they're meerkats, and that's what meerkats do.
So, I anticipate another tussle tomorrow
or in two weeks at some point.
It's natural for them to sort of figure it out.
(chittering)
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: At The Seas with Nemo & Friends,
one species of fish
fascinates new fans every day.
If you can find them.
DANI: Frogfish are camouflage animals,
so sometimes guests have to play "find the frogfish."
GIRL: I think he should blend in with that one.
♪ ♪
Hey!
He looks like a rock.
DANI: One of the reasons they're called frogfish
is because of the way that their arms are bent, they kinda look like a frog.
And they'll just kind of move around onto the corals and hold on.
NARRATOR: In the wild, these guys hang out in coral reefs.
DANI: Coral reefs are extremely important to frogfish.
They need it to survive.
A lot of people think that they're plants,
and they don't realize how important they are. They actually are animals.
We like to do everything we can to help corals out in the wild.
Some of our aquarists go down and help grow
and transplant corals
in a line and tree nursery
down in the Bahamas.
NARRATOR: In this special environment,
the frogfish hide in their very own coral castle.
♪ ♪
DANI: We have two frogfish. One's named Pumpkin, and the other one's named Spice.
Pumpkin hasn't been feeling very well.
He hasn't been changing color like he normally does
to match his background,
so we have moved him into an off-show area.
NARRATOR: When feeling well,
warty frogfish easily chomp on prey
as big as they are.
DANI: They are ambush predators.
They have an illicium with an esca at the end,
so it's a fancy fishing rod
with a lure at the end,
and they will move that around to entice their prey
to come close, and when the prey is close, they will jump out and grab them.
NARRATOR: Usually, Pumpkin loves to eat crustaceans and small fish,
but his appetite is off.
DANI: He was still eating on his own,
but when he would go for the food,
you would see that there's a slight movement in his jaw.
So, we're gonna be treating him for that.
♪ ♪
We're gonna do everything we can
to try and make Pumpkin healthy and happy again.
NARRATOR: His jaw is tiny and delicate,
but Dr. Natalie plans to help this little guy eat like he used to.
DR. NATALIE: Maybe we can just bring him up here so I can examine and...
-DANI: Yeah. -(dripping)
♪ ♪
DR. NATALIE: We have to recreate this fish's environment,
so we need to deliver oxygen in the same way
that Pumpkin would get it from the water.
So, she's delivering anesthetized water
over his gills.
NARRATOR: Pumpkin slips into sleep.
DR. NATALIE: People are genuinely surprised that we anesthetize fish.
We want to treat even the smallest of animals.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Frogfish can hold their breath long enough for a quick scan.
-DANI: Swimming. -NURSE: His little wiggly butt!
-Oh my gosh. DANI: Swimming in his dreams.
DR. NATALIE: Frogfish actually eat large things,
and so they gulp. They're pounce predators.
And it's possible that an injury happened
by having too much of a bump on something.
Thank you. Hey hey, cutie pie.
NARRATOR: The radiograph reveals Pumpkin's jaw
has a major fracture.
DR. NATALIE: That bone is completely displaced.
My intent is to just stabilize right in here.
-DANI: To have it more uniform? -DR. NATALIE: Mm-hmm.
The surgery is gonna be challenging
just because I really don't wanna do anything
that would break that jaw.
Fish jaws don't heal well.
Pumpkin really needs that jaw to work again.
If he can't eat, he can't survive.
This one's gonna be hard.
♪ ♪
DR. NATALIE: I need to be careful not to break that other part.
It's gonna be tough because Pumpkin is a frogfish.
-He's very small. -NURSE: Oh, you can see it here.
NARRATOR: Dr. Natalie prepares for a procedure
usually performed on a much different species.
DR. NATALIE: I'm going to be exposing the bone,
I'm gonna scrape the bone a little bit.
♪ ♪
And I'm gonna put these really cool crystals in,
which they use in humans for their dental implants,
that are gonna help stimulate growth
in order to get that to solidify.
NARRATOR: Dr. Natalie packs the bone graft crystals
onto Pumpkin's jaw,
just a few millimeters thick.
DR. NATALIE: I think one of the things I love most about my job
is that I get to be very creative
and try to solve problems in sometimes tiny little fish
in order to help them get better.
NARRATOR: But, his badly broken jaw
still needs support.
DR. NATALIE: Can I have a...
-an 18-gauge needle, please? Sterile. -NURSE: Mm-hmm.
♪ ♪
DR. NATALIE: I'm gonna place the needle in between both pieces of bone,
and it's actually gonna create a stabilizing force,
and that's gonna allow everything to heal nicely.
So, I have to be super careful.
He's small, so...
♪ ♪
So, this is ultimately the bar that we put in
using a syringe needle.
Right now, what I'm hoping for is all those crystals,
those bone graft crystals, that will create a callus,
and that will seal it together,
so that it's not wobbling.
DANI: Oh, buddy.
NARRATOR: And as he starts to wake up,
he needs something or someone to hold on to.
DANI: Hold onto the side of my hand?
-NURSE: You want his plant? -DANI: Yeah.
He's breathing well, he's holding onto his plants.
Okay, are we good to go? Okay.
NARRATOR: Time for the recovery room.
DANI: You're home, buddy.
NARRATOR: Tucked in for some R and R.
DANI: There you go.
For the next few days, we're really gonna watch Pumpkin closely.
(water flowing)
Normally, he eats every time we offer him food.
So, if he doesn't eat this week,
then we would have a higher level of concern.
But, we will be giving him pain medication in his food,
but he has to eat it.
If Pumpkin is doing well and continues to recover,
we will remove the needle
that's holding his jaw in place this week.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: While Asha the zebra recovers,
the team investigates exactly how she got harmed.
NICOLE: On the savanna, I saw the eland go after Asha
and make contact, and after that,
I saw this wound on her flank.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Disney Imagineer Kyle checks on a hidden feature
of the savanna that both zebras and eland need.
KYLE: This is an area where the eland love to kind of go up inside.
Right back there, there's like an animal tucked up in those bushes up there.
It's really important to think about the way
that those species interact.
In a case like the zebra,
zebras typically hang out on the savanna.
We have to be careful not to overdo the open areas,
and we have to create these kind of pockets,
these areas that the eland can go and not be seen.
A place where they can go
and just get away from everything when needed.
(bus rumbling)
We're always kind of evolving
the design of the space
to accommodate the needs of the animals that live there.
We wanna make sure they all feel safe.
(birds chirping)
It's kind of cool because the eland hid in there for a while,
and now they're out, kind of looking and grazing.
NARRATOR: The zebras' natural preference
is not to get near the eland.
It seems young Asha just momentarily forgot her place.
NICOLE: I don't think that Asha really noticed how close she was to the eland,
and the eland got her with his horn in her flank.
She wasn't paying attention to how close she was
and got in his bubble.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: The big day comes for the cheetahs...
ANDY: Powering on the ball!
NARRATOR: ...and the team's quest to stimulate their senses.
PATRICK: I'm really excited to see how they interact with it.
I think that any interaction from them is gonna be a win for us.
Alright. I think we're good.
♪ ♪
-ANDY: Here she goes. -PATRICK: Oh, there she is.
KATHRYN: Kitties!
PATRICK: We got a customer right away. Wow.
ANDY: Okay, but she ignored it.
-That's good, that's good. -(laughing)
PATRICK: If they patrol past the ball anytime now,
-we're good to move it. -ANDY: Okay.
♪ ♪
PATRICK: Alright, I'd say this is a good time.
Now!
-Oh! Oh, she looked. -ANDY: She looked.
-PATRICK: Yeah! -ANDY: She is definitely interested.
(whirring)
Oh, look, here comes the other one!
-Oh, my god. Yes! That's cool! -(overlapping celebrations)
-PATRICK: They're playing! -ANDY: That's cool!
PATRICK: You could see they lose interest really quickly
-when it's not moving. -ANDY: Mm-hmm.
If she's like a house cat, she's just gonna knock it right in the moat.
-(laughter) -PATRICK: Well...
Oh!
♪ ♪
ANDY: Got one taker. That's so cool.
You gonna make it jump? Do a little wiggle again?
(whirring)
PATRICK: So, what we're trying to do now is hold their interest for longer
and hopefully prolong that hunting behavior
that we wanna see our cheetah ordinarily perform
like they would in the wild.
-That's cool. -(laughs)
♪ ♪
ANDY: Fossey is very curious about it.
(whirring)
So far, this is better than expectation, at least in my book.
-KATHRYN: Yeah. -ANDY: Which makes it so much more fun
because we had trials. Like, this was not easy to get to this point.
PATRICK: She's hiding, like stalking behavior.
Does she usually do that with the ball or no?
-ANDY: No. -PATRICK: Oh!
ANDY: That's something I've never seen them do with a ball before.
♪ ♪
Today, the ball moved on command and stopped on command,
but it struggled in terms of some of its movements.
Now, we wanna see if we can overcome some of those challenges.
This is just the beginning. We're learning from this.
It'd be great if we could get them running around
because we really want this to be the best experience we can for our animals.
♪ ♪
(crowd chatter)
DANI: Alright, Pumpkin!
I know you're feeling better today.
NARRATOR: It's been two weeks
since Pumpkin the frogfish's major surgery.
DANI: So, let's first see if we can find Pumpkin.
♪ ♪
So, he is a camouflage fish.
See if you can find him in there.
Now, they are supposed to blend in.
And so, you can see he's right there.
NARRATOR: He's right...
Where?
There's a fish in there?
♪ ♪
DANI: Yesterday, we actually removed the stabilizer bar
from his mouth because he's been doing really well,
and he has healed very nicely.
You can see right there on his mouth.
And we changed his habitat because he's been doing so well.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Back in his element,
Pumpkin carves out some time for his favorite activity.
DANI: When he wasn't feeling that great,
he wasn't camouflaging so well into his environment,
and you can see that now he actually is camouflaging really great.
So, you can see he's orange with a little white mottling.
So, he is imitating the coral pieces that are growing right here,
the orange and yellow ones.
So, that is a great sign that he is feeling so much better
that he is doing exactly what he's supposed to do be doing,
so that he can do his thing with his lure
and capture some prey without them knowing he's there.
NARRATOR: Once fully recovered, Pumpkin will head back to his coral home
where his buddy Spice hangs out
until they can be together again.
GIRL: I love Spice.
DANI: I'm so happy that Pumpkin is doing well,
and hopefully he continues to recover.
♪ ♪
(drumming)
NARRATOR: At the meerkat mob's headquarters,
underdog Bentley nurses wounds he received
for stepping out of the pecking order.
COURTNEY: Bentley has injuries on his neck area
as well as both of his front arms.
Those injuries are probably from Newton.
Our goal today with Bentley and these treats
is to give us a chance to see how he's moving
on his front legs, and if he's using those for digging
and scratching on these treats.
That sort of indicates to us that he might be feeling a little better.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: The finest meerkat meals here
always have one tasty ingredient.
COURTNEY: They're cute. I know that's weird,
but I think the bugs are cute. (laughs)
I have not tried any of the mealworms that I feed the meerkats,
but they really, really enjoy them.
They also really like the superworms.
I think because they're a little thicker and juicier.
So, I think it's kind of the crunchy and satisfying...
texture that the meerkats seem to really like.
Alright, so here we have fresh out of the freezer
some bug-sicles for our meerkats to enjoy this afternoon.
Wow. A work of art.
♪ ♪
Of course whatever your brother has looks like the best one,
so they aren't always the best at sharing.
NARRATOR: Courtney's meticulous meal plan could still backfire.
COURTNEY: Bentley and Newton both really love bug-sicles.
There is a chance if Bentley tries to take Newton's bug-sicle,
it could result in a little bit of conflict.
♪ ♪
I try to provide at least the opportunity
for everyone to have their own and share at a distance.
(chittering)
It kind of can prevent some of the aggression
or tussling between them
and just kinda helps them maintain a nice, calm social environment.
♪ ♪
The meerkat social hierarchy that I'm seeing today
is a lot more stable. Really happy to see everyone looks like
they're more settled in their places.
(chittering)
Bentley, he eventually did start submitting,
which means he's recognizing, "hey, okay, Newton.
We get it. You're in charge. I'll back down."
Which is something we like to see
because it means that our group can remain socially intact,
and we don't have to worry too much about any more major injuries.
NARRATOR: The mealworms work their social bonding magic,
and Bentley's leg looks better.
COURTNEY: So, I'm really happy with the way Bentley looks today.
He was using his legs normally
and looked really good,
so his case is officially resolved.
(overlapping chatter)
♪ ♪
MORGAN: We have a flock of 50 individuals out here.
Right now, it's kind of midday,
so they're kind of starting to get hungry.
They are birds, they're very flighty, they can get a little nervous.
So, for me, when I do go onto the island,
-(birds chirping) -I try to be as slow as possible.
Working with these guys, it's really just learning that patience.
Come on, friends!
I just start tossing their favorite food, krill,
out into the area.
Come on, you got it. Good boy!
Good job.
I just sit, and I just stay,
and I just wait,
with all the patience in the world,
and then eventually, one will just walk right past you
like you weren't even there, and you just have that bit of joy, going,
"oh! I'm almost one of them.
Maybe they didn't notice. Maybe they just thought I was pink. Fantastic."
-Alright, guys. Y'all are fine. -(chirping)
Love you.
♪ ♪
DR. NATI: Asha!
-KATY: Hey, pretty girl. -DR. NATI: Hi, Asha.
NARRATOR: After several weeks in recovery from an eland horning,
Asha awaits an important appointment with Dr. Nati.
DR. NATI: I'm looking to make sure all the tissues
have healed together normally,
that there's no sign of infection,
and I'm really hopeful that Asha can go back with her family today.
Asha, you're so cute. Can I feed you a carrot?
It's healed so nicely.
I wish you would let me come get a close look.
KATY: Come here, Ash.
♪ ♪
Good girl.
-DR. NATI: How is she so cute? -KATY: I don't know.
-DR. NATI: She's just so cute. -KATY: She really is.
DR. NATI: All of the skin has healed together,
even in the center of the wound
where we had some delayed healing.
The skin has healed back beautifully.
It didn't scar nearly as much as I expected it to,
and I was able to get those stripes lined back up.
She even has hair starting to grow back over the area,
so you won't be able to tell
that this happened to her at all. It's fantastic.
♪ ♪
KATY: Good job. You're doing so good.
DR. NATI: You can go on to live a long, happy life now.
Don't be quite so adventuresome next time.
KATY: Asha is just such an important animal to me,
so that whole time was just...
it was very nerve-racking for me,
and she's looking great.
We got the all-clear.
She can go back with her mom, Heidi, today.
-JESSIE: Come on, Asha! -(door rattling)
Look! It's a whole big world out there!
It's gonna be a good day.
♪ ♪
Asha is probably missing Heidi a lot,
especially because the visual of her mom is comforting.
-(grumbling) -If I were in her place, in her hooves,
I would say I'm missing my mom, too. I'm missing my friends.
♪ ♪
(braying)
DR. NATI: I think Asha is back to normal.
She's a young zebra. They're very mischievous,
so she's back to just, you know, going out and having fun
and causing trouble. So, she's looking great.
Looks like she's feeling great.
Captioned by Point.360