♪ ♪
WOMAN: Right now, with lack of information,
so I'm not telling him to do anything, right?
He's trying to figure out how to get more treats.
He's attacking the cameraman's shoe.
It's working for him, right?
I mean, he's doing a great job,
and he's pretty cute while he's doing it.
He's like, "I like these orange laces."
Go ahead, Logan.
Oh, are you outta here? Come back. Come here!
(distant laughter)
He's done.
He's got to fix his makeup really quick.
(squawks)
(theme music playing)
NARRATOR: At the Harambe Wildlife Reserve,
it's breakfast time for the African elephants.
ADRIANA: So, who do we have coming up?
This is Miss Nadirah right here.
Nadirah's 16 years old.
And after her, Luna. They're sisters.
Luna is very fast, very high energy.
She gets very excitable, and she's very, very smart.
Their mom is Donna, and she's not out today.
Coming up is Vasha and Kianga, which are mother and daughter.
Vasha is in her mid-to-late 30s,
and Kianga is 17 years old.
(grumbling)
Elephants are very social animals.
They actually live in matriarchal societies.
When the females are born, they stay with their moms
and sisters and aunts and grandmas forever.
So, currently, we do not have a matriarch.
No one has taken that role just yet.
The two moms, Vasha and Donna,
they just happen to like their own space.
However, Kianga, Nadirah, and Luna, they get along great.
They all formed a very special bond.
So, although they're not all biologically sisters,
they are soul sisters, especially Kianga and Luna.
They seem to have a very interesting relationship.
You see them together a lot,
and sometimes they're sharing food
and they're playing together,
and sometimes Luna, being younger,
will probably pester Kianga a little too much.
(trumpets)
They're like kids that weigh
anywhere between 6,000 to 10,000 pounds,
so there's gonna be a little bit of drama
between these girls from time to time.
(trumpets)
Although Luna's very social, she's also pretty independent.
NARRATOR: As the morning heats up,
Luna wants some alone time.
ADRIANA: Luna is by herself.
She's got the right idea, eating breakfast in the shade.
NARRATOR: But Kianga wants her BFF.
ADRIANA: Kianga is like, "Let me, let me go see
what she's doing and what she's eating.
Maybe she's got something that I haven't found yet."
And Vasha is like, "Okay, but I don't want to be alone.
I'm gonna go come follow you guys and hang out
so we can all eat together."
A little later today when it starts to get hotter,
you can pretty much guarantee the ladies are gonna go
straight to the pool, and they're gonna have
a nice little pool party, and it's gonna be very relaxed.
NARRATOR: But later on, as the sun gets higher,
Luna goes backstage with her mom,
leaving Kianga without her best buddy.
(trumpeting)
ADRIANA: Kianga's definitely a little worked up.
(trumpeting)
NARRATOR: Kianga's pool party for one
gets a lot of attention.
(trumpets)
MICHELLE: She's acting like a teenager,
throwing a little bit of a hissy fit.
KEEPER: It's a cute hissy fit.
MICHELLE: Right?
KEEPER: She's outta here.
(trumpets)
(whistles)
(grunting)
NARRATOR: At Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park,
romance is in the air
and new life is always on the way.
Backstage at the Avian Research Center,
away from the bustle of the park,
crested couas, Amy and James, are trying to start a family.
MEGAN: I'm just placing some bugs into the felt toy,
and I'm gonna get 'em all in here.
And then we'll put this one right over here.
They are inseparable.
They're very sweet to each other,
they feed each other,
and they don't like other birds sneaking in
and trying to get in their little love area.
I want them to come off of their nest
because the behaviors that I'm seeing indicate
that there's an egg, so I really want to check it out.
NARRATOR: In their native Madagascar,
the coua's habitat is threatened,
so Amy and James are part of a special breeding program
that aims to keep a healthy population in human care.
MEGAN: They totally look like bodybuilders,
just pumping up,
and they love to sunbathe their backs.
NARRATOR: They're not showing off.
These sun worshippers use solar power
to regulate their body temperature.
MEGAN: My favorite thing about them is just
the coloration of their eyes.
That is actually their skin, it's not their feathers,
and it's just like if you're going out
for a night on the town and you put on your eye shadow.
It's just an adornment on them.
(whistling)
NARRATOR: Finally, Megan gets a chance to see
if the magic happened.
MEGAN: It's always that moment of
"Is there something in there?"
(whistles)
Yay, there's an egg!
They will break under certain conditions,
if they get tossed around in the nest,
the adults sit too hard on them, they fall out.
I'm going to remove the egg from the nest for safekeeping
in one of our incubators.
NARRATOR: If all goes to plan,
in 12 days, there will be a new baby coua in the world.
MEGAN: I'm really hoping we can get some babies from them.
NARRATOR: The fragile crested coua egg
is protected by a special incubator,
controlling the temperature and humidity.
GLORIELI: The first thing we're going to do is take the weight.
Five.
9.85.
NARRATOR: Surrogate mom Glorieli
keeps a close eye on its development.
This chick is almost ready to hatch.
GLORIELI: I'm going to turn the lights off so we actually
can get a visual of the embryo in the egg.
I'm so excited.
They will actually start pecking at the shell,
very softly at first.
But they keep pecking at the same area,
and then you will see the hole.
And, surprise, there is an internal pip right there.
NARRATOR: This weakened area, known as the pip, will be
the first to crack when the baby hatches.
GLORIELI: Okay.
So that's good news.
We are getting really close to hatch now.
So, within the next 12 hours,
it will probably peck at the shell
and start opening it from the inside to come out.
It's very exciting.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: At The Seas with Nemo & Friends at Epcot
live over 90 aquatic species, including these gentle giants,
West Indian manatees, Lou and Lil Joe.
DR. JEN: I love manatees so much.
I always would say that if I could choose one species,
I would totally be a manatee veterinarian
and just work on manatees all day long.
Their little faces, you just want to squish them.
Cute is just the best word to describe a manatee.
NARRATOR: While Lou and Lil Joe cause a splash,
backstage,
Doctor Jen attends a rescued wild manatee.
DR. JEN: We have three young females down here
that are undergoing rehab here at Disney.
That feisty little lady over there, her name is Jolo.
Like Yolo but with a J.
So, she's very spicy.
We like her a lot.
Jolo was rescued near Titusville, Florida,
by one of our conservation partners.
They transported her here to Disney
so that we could provide her with more long-term care.
She's really thin, and she has these respiratory signs
that are concerning me.
What the trainers have expressed is that occasionally
they'll hear kind of a little bit
of a congested breathing pattern
and they may see some mucus on the water surface
when they're watching her swim.
NARRATOR: As an air-breathing mammal,
Jolo can be examined out of water.
DR. JEN: This area is really great for rehab manatees.
We can drain the pool really quickly
to access them for their medical exams
and keep a really close eye on them when we feed them
to make sure they're eating well.
Would you mind just hosing her off a little bit,
just around the face?
NARRATOR: Like all manatees,
Jolo only breathes through her nose,
so Doctor Jen takes a close look.
DR. JEN: Jolo, your face, sweet girl.
Just see some nasal discharge, so we're gonna sample that.
She has been a little extra mucus-y.
(loud breath)
KEEPER: Do you hear that breath?
DR. JEN: Yeah, it's a little mucus-y, huh?
Her breathing sounds really congested.
It's kind of these exaggerated breaths.
They sound kind of wet.
(snorts)
Oh, wow.
Yeah, that's definitely concerning.
We need to figure out what's going on.
DR. JEN: That come out of her nose?
KEEPER: Yes.
DR. JEN: She did sneeze on us.
But thankfully that she did.
We were able to see some of the mucus
from deeper in the respiratory tract,
the yellowish stuff,
which could be a concern.
Scoop it up there, Charlene.
KEEPER: Are you going for a second one?
DR. JEN: We're just gonna get this stuff
that's on the surface.
There we go.
Did you get a decent amount in there?
KEEPER: We did.
DR. JEN: My biggest worry is a pneumonia.
It makes it really hard for them to breathe,
which means they can't get as much oxygen
to the rest of their body that they need.
So, it's concerning for her long term.
NARRATOR: When rescued, Jolo weighed less than 600 pounds,
almost 300 pounds short of her healthy weight.
DR. JEN: There is a major crisis in the wild right now,
and this is being caused by runoff
from urban coastal development killing off the sea grasses,
which is a big problem for manatees
because they don't have anything to eat.
What's happening is we're seeing
a lot of these young animals essentially starving.
The ultimate goal is to get Jolo
back out to the wild where she belongs,
but first we need to get her healthy and put weight on her.
I'm a little concerned about her.
NARRATOR: Backstage, late at night,
while crews ready the park for guests...
(cracking)
There's another important opening taking place.
GLORIELI: All right, let's see
if my little coua hatched.
(gasps)
Hey, there! Hi!
Oh, we are so active!
Oh, my goodness.
You're ready to eat, aren't ya?
So hungry.
You look so good.
Most people would say, "That thing is absolutely hideous."
They have no feathers.
Their skin is really wrinkly.
But they're cute.
NARRATOR: After all, every mom thinks their baby is beautiful.
GLORIELI: They have a lot of personality.
They don't open their eyes right away but, you know,
they move around quite a bit
for such a bird that naked and cannot see.
Hey, Christine.
I got the chick that just hatch overnight.
So, hatch weight is 8.52.
CHRISTINE: Great.
GLORIELI: And it's very hungry.
CHRISTINE: Aw! We'll get him fed.
Oh, he's so cute.
He looks really good.
GLORIELI: Yeah, it does, yeah.
Good weight.
CHRISTINE: So, right now, we're gonna put him down here,
and we're gonna get some food into him.
He eats chopped up mice,
so we'll just tap his bill, and if he wants his food,
he'll open his mouth for us.
He's got these little dots in his mouth,
and that's where his parents aim to put that food right in there.
NARRATOR: And they keep Christine on target, too.
Hand-feeding the chick gives him the best chance
of surviving his perilous first two weeks.
CHRISTINE: It's a lot of work.
We start out feeding them every two hours.
We're basically the mama bird all the time.
NARRATOR: The little bird needs one more thing
from his surrogate parents.
CHRISTINE: So, I want to name him after Kevin
in the Disney movie Up.
The crested coua just reminds me of Kevin
because of the coloration of their feathers
when they're adults.
NARRATOR: For now, little Kevin just wants a nap.
CHRISTINE: And let him rest
until we feed him again in about two hours.
(drumming)
♪ ♪
(trumpets)
ERIN: Hi!
All right.
What happened outside?
What got you so riled up out there?
NARRATOR: After her tantrum outside,
a calmer Kianga comes inside for a little pampering.
DANNY: Hello, you. Are you ready?
ERIN: Good for a hose?
DANNY: You're good.
Good girl.
ERIN: We are gonna hose her off,
get all the dirt off, and take a look at her.
DANNY: Kianga, stretch.
Good girl.
ERIN: She's gonna get a scrub bath today,
so she's gonna have a little Kianga spa treatment.
DANNY: Kianga, you're, oh, good girl.
(trumpets)
Very nice.
So, Erin, I hear something happened
out in the yard with Kianga today.
ERIN: It did.
Kianga appeared to be very upset.
There was a lot of running around, trumpeting,
throwing herself in the pool.
DANNY: Really?
ERIN: I think we have a good idea what was going on.
Kianga has been spending a lot of time with Luna
over the past couple years,
and they seem to have developed a close relationship.
So, earlier today, it was Luna's turn to come off the yard first,
and Kianga seemed to not be on board with that idea.
(bellows)
DANNY: All right, other side.
ERIN: It was really nothing that we were concerned about.
We just watched her, made sure she calmed down.
Elephants, I feel, are just drama in general,
one way or another.
They're so smart. They have a lot of emotions.
DANNY: Not you. You don't have any, do you? No.
ERIN: She has lots of emotions.
NARRATOR: And, right now, the emotion
Kianga shows is, "Hmmm."
DANNY: Oh, good girl.
We are loving this, yeah.
(gurgles)
It's a gurgle.
It's when you're really happy, you're having a great time.
ERIN: She also does it when she's begging
because she knows everybody thinks it cute.
DANNY: Yeah. 'Cause it is cute.
Kianga, foot.
Good girl.
ERIN: Are you all calmed down now?
Nice and cool?
DANNY: Ready to go out and have a magical day.
ERIN: Yeah, she's ready. Good girl.
NARRATOR: Back at The Seas, Jolo, the rescued manatee,
shows signs of a dangerous infection.
DR. JEN: On her exam last week, you probably remember hearing
her kind of doing this really congested breathing.
We could hear it almost from a distance.
And we saw a lot of mucus coming out of her nose.
So I'm gonna be doing an ultrasound of her lungs
to make sure there's no fluid in there or anything abnormal.
And then we're going to be taking a look into her nose
and her upper airway with our endoscope.
NARRATOR: Doctor Jen wants to check for pneumonia,
a potentially fatal condition.
DR. JEN: All right, let's go.
NARRATOR: But scanning a manatee isn't simple.
DR. JEN: So, we need a lot of people to restrain this manatee.
She is strong.
And, also, since we're gonna be putting her in a stretcher
and lifting her out onto our deck,
we need a few extra set of hands for that.
NARRATOR: With the help of a sling and a forklift...
KEEPER: Are you ready to go up?
DR. JEN: And this is why we need so many people.
NARRATOR: Jolo takes to the air.
DR. JEN: Just more like centered on the foam.
KEEPER: A regular bag for, like, this kind of stuff.
NARRATOR: And after a little sedation...
DR. JEN: Good job, Jolo.
NARRATOR: Jolo is ready for her close-up.
DR. JEN: Ultrasound's a really great imaging modality
for the respiratory tract,
so we can look at Jolo's lungs,
and we can see if she has fluid in there,
if she has any significant signs
of an infection, like an abscess.
(loud breath)
Oh, nice big breath, Jolo.
Good job.
I'm a little perplexed I don't see signs of pneumonia,
so the next thing I'm gonna do
is pass an endoscope into her nostrils
and see if I can figure out why she's having trouble breathing.
There's a breath.
All right, I'm gonna go in with this,
and then we'll try to get visualization here.
Nice breath.
Oh, it's so gross in there.
Oh, my goodness.
KEEPER: It's moving.
DR. JEN: Oh, my gosh.
KEEPER: Oh!
DR. JEN: That's not something you see every day.
Wow.
What we're seeing is a ton of parasites everywhere.
They are crawling up and down her nasal passages.
We're also seeing a lot of parasites
inside a bunch of abscesses
all up and down the mucosa of her nostril.
It's pretty crazy.
(snorts)
Oh, wow, more parasites coming out.
All right.
This type of parasite infection
is pretty common in wild manatees.
The parasites live in snails as an intermediate host,
and the snails live on the sea grass.
And as wild manatees are foraging,
they ingest the snail.
(snorts)
Almost done, Jolo.
When manatees are really thin like Jolo was when she stranded,
these parasites take over,
and they can cause pretty severe infections.
Had we not rescued Jolo, it's highly likely
that this infection just would have gotten worse.
She would have developed pneumonia
and probably could have died from it.
We're gonna give her an antibiotic injection,
so she may give you a little, you know, little,
little activity.
Today, we are administering a parasite medicine to Jolo.
We're also giving her an antibiotic,
and that's gonna help to reduce the bacterial infection
that's in her nostrils.
Oh, this parasite's still on my leg.
KEEPER: Well, you can have it.
DR. JEN: Uh...
This is probably in my top five or ten of grossest things
I've seen in my career, yeah.
We have parasites on the floor.
We have parasites on Jolo's face.
We have parasites on my pants.
I got parasites on my scrub top.
Parasites everywhere.
(snorts)
DOMINIQUE: I don't go to the gym very often.
It's a real workout.
Gotta come and shift the girls in,
so every single day, we're doing this trek.
NARRATOR: In the Land of Africa,
five-year-old cheetah triplets Maathai, Murie, and Fossey
wait for keeper Dominique to serve breakfast.
DOMINIQUE: Okay, I see some kitties.
(shaking noisemaker)
This is their auditory cue response,
pretty much like their breakfast bell.
Maathai. Hi, baby. You're my girl.
Maathai, in my opinion, is definitely our funniest cat.
She's kind of a sweetheart.
She does this thing where she'll hiss and spit at you
and then you feed her, and she's like,
"Oh, I never did that, that wasn't me, I'm very nice."
We don't play favorites,
but she's definitely got a special place in my heart.
Ready?
You got your training?
Yeah.
You the best girl.
Down.
(snarls)
(clicks)
I talk to the cats a lot.
It does help them to get used to you.
I wish they could talk back.
It would make our job so much easier.
If there was something going on and they were like,
"My stomach's not feeling well today."
All done. You're finished.
Nice job, babe.
Now, we will see the status of the other two.
(growls)
Nice job, Murie. Come on, Foss!
NARRATOR: Murie and Fossey come in for their eats.
DOMINIQUE: Okay, you have a lot here that you dropped,
so are you gonna eat it?
No?
NARRATOR: With full bellies, it's time to start the day.
DOMINIQUE: Hi.
Good morning.
These are my girls. I love them so much.
They're so cute. Look at them.
We got Maathai right here, taking a nice break.
I'm trying to learn their behaviors so that sometimes,
if they're having an off day or an off week,
we're able to tell those things.
NARRATOR: Recently Maathai has shown some worrying behavior.
DOMINIQUE: So, she's had this gastritis for a while,
and sometimes she does have some flare-ups.
She has been doing a lot of regurg.
Sometimes it's like a small amount,
and sometimes it's a big amount.
Lately, she's regurged pretty much her whole meal, plus some,
for like a couple days in a row, so that was pretty concerning.
One of those things that we are trying to do
with Maathai and her stomach is give her some antacids.
My fingers are always crossed,
and I'm always hoping for the best
that she will be a little bit better.
KEEPER: Almost lost it, yeah.
Legs are locked.
Got a little bump here.
NARRATOR: At the veterinary treatment room,
Maathai arrives for a check of her stomach.
RAIN: If you want to go on the back side
of the table there, Dominique.
DR. BETSY: And on Rain's count.
RAIN: All right, you ready? One, two, three.
All right, I'm gonna trade places.
DR. BETSY: This is a wellness check for her,
but also a recheck of her stomach.
RAIN: We have seen intermittent regurgitation episodes.
DR. BETSY: How often do you see that?
RAIN: She actually had an episode about a week ago
where she did that and expelled her breakfast quite forcefully.
DR. BETSY: All right, let's scope her.
NARRATOR: An endoscope down Maathai's GI tract
will tell the team if the antacid is helping.
DOMINIQUE: I'm feeling a little anxious.
I want everything to go smoothly.
I'm just really hoping that her stomach
and her gastritis is doing better.
DR. BETSY: So, I'm not getting a good visualization
of the stomach.
We're in a lot of fluid.
We need to get suction.
(suction begins)
Thank you. Got it.
I'm not liking this area on the stomach wall right there.
Well, this is not what I wanted to see today at all.
DR. BETSY: This is a serious medical issue.
There's like islands of normal tissue here,
but then, you know, all of these little indents
are all abnormal.
And so she has really severe disease.
Oftentimes, this is caused by helicobacter,
which is a type of bacteria that lives in the stomach.
NARRATOR: The bacteria irritate Maathai's stomach lining,
causing inflammation, bleeding, and even ulcers.
DR. BETSY: Her gastritis seems to be much worse
than it was at her last check.
Unfortunately, her stomach is quite ulcerated in many areas.
RAIN: As a keeper, we work really hard to make sure
that our animals have the best days that they can.
And when you see something like that,
it kind of deflates you a little bit.
DOMINIQUE: I love her so much
that taking all of the emotion out of it is kind of impossible.
These are, you know, my babies.
DR. BETSY: Okay, we're done with the scope.
Thank you, Jen.
KEEPER: She's so pretty.
DR. BETSY: This is unfortunately a really classic thing
that we see in cheetah.
So, it'll be, you know,
an antacid, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic
combination that will help decrease all this inflammation.
It is a really difficult condition to cure it completely,
so we manage it with the treatments and medications,
and then we monitor it periodically.
So, she'll have another wellness exam in about a year.
Are you ready to take her home?
RAIN: Yep.
All right, stable for transport? All right.
Girl, grip those long cheetah legs.
NARRATOR: Maathai returns home
to wake up in familiar surroundings.
RAIN: Somebody needs to be on door one
'cause if I need an emergency exit,
I'm going that way.
DR. BETSY: Okay, her reversals are in.
(gagging)
All right, I'm clear.
I'm just watching Maathai's breathing to make sure
that she is recovering okay.
Come on, Maathai.
(kissing sounds)
Good girl. Good girl.
There she is. Good morning.
Hello.
RAIN: Oh, hey, little girl.
DR. BETSY: She starts to look for something that's familiar,
something that's reassuring.
RAIN: You did such a good job today.
That's a good girl. There you go, yeah.
And for Maathai to make that eye contact with her
and to see her looking at you and going, "Hey, I know you."
Being that reassurance for her is absolutely priceless.
Yeah, we're gonna just give you some peace and quiet.
You can get a nice rest, okay?
Yeah, you get some rest.
CHRISTINE: Kevin, our little crested coua chick,
is now 20 days old.
NARRATOR: Kevin thrives on his hand-fed meals,
now down to just three a day.
CHRISTINE: He's ready to graduate into the next step
of our hand-rearing process.
He's starting to spend more time out of his nest,
perching and things like that, so I'll go ahead and get him,
and we'll take him over to meet some of our other chicks.
All right, buddy, let's head over.
Ah! Look at your friends!
(hissing)
They recognize him by just his coloration.
(hissing)
What are you guys doing?
(hissing)
So their vocalizations, I think they're trying to,
you know, they'll encourage him to come out
and come and hang out with them.
Are you gonna go with them?
You want to go?
(hissing)
Oh, there you are!
Go say hello.
I would say he's looking pretty good.
NARRATOR: His new friends are six days older
and should help him with his next life skill,
feeding himself.
CHRISTINE: Once he gets in here with these guys,
it shouldn't take him very long.
He will want to follow them,
kind of like a younger child with an older child.
Hey, you're going to the food.
Let me go over there with you as well.
NARRATOR: But sometimes,
these chicks aren't so eager to grow up.
MEGAN: What I'm doing right now is I am just monitoring Kevin
'cause they do like to fake us out and pretend
that they don't know how to eat on their own, but they do.
They just want Mama to feed them.
(hissing)
NARRATOR: To move to his outdoor habitat,
Kevin must master eating from the bowl.
Keeper Megan has a plan.
MEGAN: Hey, Kevin.
Come on. I know.
So, this is all part of having Kevin learn how to eat.
I'm not feeding him.
I'm just moving the food just to gain his attention.
Awesome.
There's a good baby.
NARRATOR: Kevin makes his first pecks towards independence.
MEGAN: Hey, bud, want some more?
You've had enough? Okay.
That's okay, we'll come back later.
NARRATOR: Behind the scenes at The Seas,
rescued manatee Jolo
gets a revisit from Doctor Jen.
DR. JEN: So, last time, it was pretty bad.
She had live parasites crawling around.
They were crawling out of her nose.
She had a lot of mucus.
It was pretty gross.
So, today we're gonna stick a scope into her nose
and see if they're improving.
NARRATOR: Doctor Nati comes to help and because
she can never turn down a look at a parasite.
PRODUCER: Dr. Nati, why are you so into parasites?
(Doctor Jen laughs)
DR. NATI: They're just, I don't know, they're fascinating.
People think of parasites as basic animals,
but they are so highly complex,
and they have such complex life cycles
and the ways that they live in their hosts.
And I have to say I, I really love the gross and the gory.
NARRATOR: While the gross and gory can be fascinating,
if the infection doesn't respond to medication,
Jolo's release could be at risk.
DR. JEN: Everyone keep your fingers crossed...
Thank you.
For good news.
The moment of truth.
Nice timing.
DR. JEN: That was a breath.
Wow.
Oh, my gosh, you guys, look at this!
Look at that!
KEEPER: This is just a week's time?
DR. JEN: A normal manatee nose! KEEPER: This is fantastic!
DR. JEN: Oh, my gosh, this is amazing.
All the inflammation's gone. It's like nothing.
DR. NATI: Wow, looking at that, you would not know
anything was ever wrong.
DR. JEN: Doesn't even look like the same manatee.
DR. NATI: Mm-hmm.
DR. JEN: Well, this looks a million times better
than last time I passed the scope.
DR. NATI: I would have loved
seeing those parasites firsthand,
but it's a win for the manatee,
so I'm okay with a little bit of disappointment for myself.
(snorts)
DR. JEN: We need to put a little bit more weight on her
before she gets released back into the wild,
and then she should be good to go.
I think Jolo here got pretty lucky.
KAREN: This is one of my favorite things to do,
just watching the, the clouds and the mist.
After you let the animals out,
they often will just run across the savanna.
Oh, and look, we have a couple eland
that have now joined us on the savanna.
There he is, Mr. Handsome.
Ben has his own fan club,
and when he's not out here on the savanna,
people ask, "Where's Ben?"
He's just impressive.
He's just laid-back.
Animals usually move out of his way.
He's definitely an animal that I hold dear to my heart
because I was around when he was born.
Oh, there he goes again.
Good job, Ben. You get that bush.
Get those grasses.
So, they do that, you know,
it's adornment to look big and attractive to the ladies.
We'll often just laugh and say,
"Yeah, you go, you tear up that bush."
And, you know, he'll just rub his head in the ground,
and he'll pick it up and have it on his head,
or he'll just toss it around.
Sometimes it'll just be something little,
and then sometimes he'll just dig his whole forehead, like,
down into the ground.
Got to impress the ladies, man. Get a nice hat now.
He's just, he's beautiful-looking.
RAIN: All right, cheetah time!
Woo-hoo-hoo!
Good morning, ladies. How are you this morning?
Okay, yeah, a little grooming has to happen here.
Make sure everybody's faces are clean.
NARRATOR: It's been 12 weeks
since Maathai started her stomach treatment.
RAIN: She's got a medicine
that really is helping her stomach to heal.
And then she's got another medication
that's going to help treat any extra bacteria.
The treatment tool that we're using temporarily
just during this little flare-up.
I see you over there.
(shaking noisemaker)
NARRATOR: Today is a chance to see
if Maathai's recovery is on track.
RAIN: When she's not feeling well,
she doesn't train very much.
She really doesn't get excited about things.
She's not as interactive.
And so today is really gonna be kind of the big test for her,
to showcase whether or not she's back to 100%.
We're so excited!
You feel like doing some training?
Come on in.
Atta girl. Look at that.
What do you think?
NARRATOR: The challenge; Voluntary injections.
RAIN: I'm gonna give her a treat here
and then kind of poke her where she would get an injection.
All right, sit.
(clicks)
Very nice. Thank you.
Are you ready again? Touch.
(hiss)
I know, I know. Oh, poking, poking, poking.
Good girl!
When you weren't feeling so good,
you didn't want to do it.
NARRATOR: Mock injection done, Rain asks Maathai to get
in position for a fake ultrasound.
RAIN: All the way down.
Really?
Well, sitting is close, but it's not down.
(clicks)
Thank you. Good girl.
That's a good girl. There you go.
All right, that's all we needed to do.
You're all done!
You are 100% sparkly, shiny Maathai.
Look at that.
I can tell, yeah, you're feeling good.
You're eating well.
You're bright-eyed. You're ready to go.
Thai! She's back!
Really fun to be able to see her engage right away,
and she stayed focused, and she's wanting to work,
and she's learning new things.
And so that is just wonderful to see.
I'm really happy with how she looks.
That's great.
CHRISTINE: So, this little guy over here
looks like he's taken a little bit of a bath
in his water bowl.
This is Kevin.
NARRATOR: After 30 days of meticulous care,
crested coua Kevin is all grown up,
and he's no longer an only child.
CHRISTINE: Kelvin is his brother.
This little crested coua chick
hatched right after Kevin did.
NARRATOR: Now that Kevin's mastered feeding himself,
the brothers are ready for their time in the sun.
CHRISTINE: We're seeing a lot of perching,
they're going back and forth, so we really think
that they are ready for their next step outdoors,
so we're super excited.
They are ready to go.
All right, so here we go.
This is gonna be very exciting for them, hopefully.
Oh!
Kelvin went ahead and just flew right out.
Kevin, on the other hand,
he's not really sure what's happening.
Here he is.
So, what he's doing right now is he's found a sun spot,
so it might take him a few minutes
to head over to the perch
because he is trying to get some sun.
(laughs)
Hi, buddy.
And there he goes.
Just the fact that he's, um, already going up to the perch
and trying to sun, we couldn't ask for anything better.
Bye, Kevin, we'll see you later.
NARRATOR: Back at The Seas...
DR. NATI: We put some girth on her.
NARRATOR: After months of rehabilitation...
KEEPER: Go, go, go, go!
NARRATOR: Jolo's going home.
DR. NATI: She's super strong. I love seeing that.
She all settled in for the ride?
She looks like she found a comfy spot.
This is the grand finale for Jolo.
She has been through so much,
and she's done so well eating
and gaining weight and recovering from her infection,
and so today she gets the big reward
of going back out into the wild waterways.
NARRATOR: Jolo's ready to be back where she belongs
at the state park.
KEEPER: Everybody in your assigned places.
KEEPER 2: Are you ready?
KEEPER: We're ready.
KEEPER 2: Lifting.
DR. NATI: Jolo is such a trouper.
She's been through a lot,
and she just keeps moving forward,
one flipper in front of the other.
She looks nice and calm, Conrad.
CONRAD: She does, I know.
DR. NATI: She's doing really well.
Nice breath.
Smell the water close by?
NARRATOR: Jolo will keep in touch with a GPS tag
that'll easily break free if snagged.
DR. NATI: Jolo's gonna be providing
important information for us with the satellite tracker.
We'll learn about the success of her return,
and that will help us learn and make sure that we're doing
all we can to make sure that they thrive
once they go back in the water.
Doctor Jen made me promise to give you
a little hug and a kiss before you go.
Look at those pretty, clean nostrils.
No worms in there anymore.
KEEPER: Everybody ready?
All right, one, two, three.
DR. NATI: Here's the big moment.
KEEPER: All right, guys, stretcher down.
DR. NATI: All right, Jolo, it's time to go.
(applause)
There she goes.
Aw!
Oh!
Oh, look at her.
We will miss her, but for us, the exciting thing is knowing
that she's back where she belongs.
This is a really good day for Jolo.
NARRATOR: And this girl wastes no time making friends.
DR. NATI: It's amazing to see her join
other manatees so quickly.
She's gonna be just fine.
Are you having fun?
She looks so happy.
Today was a magical day.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.