Magic of Disney's Animal Kingdom (2020–…): Season 2, Episode 2 - Sea You Later, Turtles! - full transcript
Elephants date, a pony gets a dream job, and a gorilla battles ill health.
(laughter)
(knocking)
WOMAN: Wakey-wakey.
WOMAN 2: Oh look there's a nose.
WOMAN: I see a nose.
Hi. There's some
tasty snacks here.
WOMAN 2: There we go.
WOMAN: Oh, there she is.
Hey sweet girl.
She loves avocado and we
actually mix it with banana.
She's excited.
WOMAN 2: Yeah.
WOMAN: Favorite, favorite.
Enjoy that snack.
(laughter).
That's perfect.
(theme music playing).
(trumpeting)
NARRATOR: Every
day is magical at
Disney's Animal
Kingdom theme park.
But for Mac, the
African bull elephant,
today is once in a lifetime.
HALEY: So today is
Mac's 40th birthday.
So we are getting together a
little birthday party for him,
we have a birthday cake made
by our animal nutrition center.
JENN: I like his,
his favorite, his icing, yeah.
STEPHANIE: Oh yeah,
sweet potato icing.
MAN: Good boy Mac, come on.
NARRATOR: No time to waste,
Mac loves a party.
STEPHANIE: The theme
is Saint Patrick's Day,
what are you planning on
using the carrots for Jenn?
JENN: I'm gonna make little
gold inside of his pot of gold.
So use the watermelon for that.
STEPHANIE: Oh very cool, okay.
JENN: Yeah.
MAN: Good boy.
NARRATOR: Another favorite,
frozen fruit treats.
JENNY: So I'm going to be
making these ice treats here
and trying to coordinate
with the rainbow that
we're doing with
the elephant team.
We're going to do
sweet potatoes
and
carrots in one layer
for orange, apples
in the other for red,
blueberries for blue, I'll
be doing celery for green,
and then one of Mac's
favorites is bananas.
MAN: All right Mac, go on.
Good boy.
JENN: It's gonna be delicious.
STEPHANIE: Oh yeah.
JENNY: Nailed it.
STEPHANIE: Are yours ready?
JENNY: Ready.
JENN: Yeah, ready.
STEPHANIE: Let's go.
NARRATOR: Saint Patrick himself
would approve of this spread.
Mostly.
HALEY: Come on Mac.
It's your big
birthday celebration.
Oh, there he is.
Oh, I'm so excited.
Here he comes.
(trumpeting)
STEPHANIE: Mac has a
really big personality,
he's just really
fun to work with.
As he's getting older you
can see that he is aging.
HALEY: He's a
distinguished older gentleman.
STEPHANIE: He definitely still
has what it takes to keep up
with our younger elephants.
Keep going.
Look at all this other stuff.
There's so much more.
Oh...
HALEY: Oh-uh, yeah, there we go.
Oh happy birthday.
STEPHANIE: Oh. Look
there's watermelon.
JENN: You deserve
that pot of gold.
STEPHANIE: He says, "Let me
just knock these carrots off,
I don't need those."
HALEY: We don't
need the healthy bit.
JENN: Not necessary.
STEPHANIE: Oh good boy.
Mm.
ALL: Watermelon.
STEPHANIE: The watermelon.
I like when he eats it
and he closes his eyes.
JENN: Yes.
STEPHANIE: 'Cause it's so good.
HALEY: What a great
birthday celebration.
STEPHANIE: Ooh,
that's a big piece.
Oh. He ate it.
(bellows)
Uh-oh, brain freeze.
(laughter).
(overlapping chatter).
NARRATOR: Mac has two
young daughters at the park.
(trumpets)
11 year old Luna, and
five year old Stella.
But the team hopes
that changes soon.
LIZ: We are seeing
more testosterone with him,
we've been tracking his
levels through his blood and,
and in his behavior as well so
we're seeing it on the charts,
but we're also
seeing it behaviorally.
(trumpets)
NARRATOR: This change
in behavior is called, "Must."
(bellows)
LIZ: Some of the
signs of must for elephants
is urine dribbling.
(bellows)
They start secreting
from their heads,
those glands
right near their ears.
He's got a little
bit of an attitude,
he's a little crabby.
NARRATOR: In the wild male
elephants in must square off
with other males
to attract females.
(trumpeting)
(bellows)
LIZ: From someone
outside the barn they go,
"Oh that seems terrible," for
us we're actually really excited
that he's got a little
bit of an attitude now.
NARRATOR: At the right
time to the right female,
a musty Mac is quite the catch.
KENT: All right Nadirah, down.
Good girl. Good.
NARRATOR: And the team
hopes 16 year old Nadirah
could be the one.
KENT: Give me your foot.
That's a good kid.
Good foot.
LIZ: Yeah.
KENT: Ready?
LIZ: Ready.
KENT: All right, Nadirah, ear.
Back up. Steady.
Nadirah, ear. Good, steady.
LIZ: Today we're gonna do a
blood draw from Nadirah's ear,
we're gonna use that blood
draw to see if she's cycling.
But it's not painful, it's
just a little butterfly needle
and the ear is the
thinnest part of their skin,
so most of the time
they don't even feel it,
they don't even
realize it's happening.
And then right
afterwards they get a big treat.
All done.
NARRATOR: Using the blood draw,
Liz performs a quick test to
determine if
Nadirah's ovulating.
LIZ: It only takes a few drops.
And then 15 minutes.
Very, very faint but I see it.
If you see anything it
means that it's positive.
That means that she
might get pregnant.
ADRIANA: Steady. Good girl.
Nadirah's on her way.
LIZ: She's gonna spend some
time with Mac this morning.
NARRATOR: Science says it's
the perfect time for a meeting
with Mac but now it's
up to the two of them
to make the magic happen.
LIZ: It's exciting.
Hopefully it happens.
KENT: Good girl
Nadirah, Mac's waiting.
Don't eat GoPros.
NARRATOR: At Gorilla Falls,
while Gino the silverback
grapples with family life...
(growls)
Just across the hill
Animal Kingdom's
bachelor group takes it easy.
COURTNEY: There are four
gorillas in our bachelor troupe.
This is Kejana right here.
He's the biggest male in
our troupe and he's our leader.
Gus is all the way
back that direction.
This is Zawadi,
Spike's half-brother.
Oh here comes Spike,
he's the one that's coming up
the hill over here.
Spike and Zawadi
they're very close.
They spend a lot of
time very close together.
NARRATOR: Male gorillas
who don't have families form
all-male squads like this one.
COURTNEY: These bachelor
troupes are necessary and it
actually happens in the
natural environment as well.
These guys have lived
here most of their lives,
they've been here
since the park opened.
Their relationships
are just as important
as
the family relationships.
NARRATOR: Despite
living separately,
the two groups are
on friendly terms.
COURTNEY: They can
see over
in to the
family habitat really well.
Spike is actually one of
our gorillas that spends
a lot of time
orienting to the family.
He'll actually sit and
make googly eyes at Lilly.
NARRATOR: But
sometimes Spike struggles
to make it to his lookout.
COURTNEY: A couple of years ago,
Spike came down with an illness.
He basically lost the
ability to move his back legs.
He was essentially paralyzed.
NARRATOR: Spike was
infected with rat lungworm,
a parasite
transferred through snails.
DR. NATALIE: Sometimes
you have no symptoms at all,
but sometimes it affects
the brain and the spinal cord,
and you can be paralyzed.
Just like what
happened with Spike.
COURTNEY: Because of our
amazing veterinary staff here,
we were able to treat him.
NARRATOR: With the help of
physical therapy specialists
the team designed a program to
help him regain his mobility.
COURTNEY: Spike in the middle.
Come this way.
To see him go
from being an animal in such
a compromised condition to
recovering from his illness,
being able to walk again,
reuniting with the group,
it's been such a
wonderful experience.
He's an amazing animal but he
still has lasting effects from
what happened back then, so,
he has some good days
and some bad days.
PILAR: All right, we're
ready for Spike and Zawadi.
DR. NATALIE: So every
month or so I go down
and visit with Spike,
because we wanna make sure that
his quality of
life is really great.
KEEPER: Spike and
Zawadi are in the yard.
DR. NATALIE: There's Spike.
NARRATOR: Worryingly,
keepers notice a decline
in Spike's mobility.
PILAR: See how
he's dragging that foot?
DR. NATALIE: Do you see how he's
bearing weight on his right leg
and that left leg is leaning in?
That's worse than it was.
That looks not very good.
PILAR: The more he's
using it he tires out.
And then that's when
it starts to drag more.
DR. NATALIE: He's
a bit animal...
PILAR: Mm-hmm.
DR. NATALIE: It's a lot
when your,
both of your
legs aren't feeling great.
PILAR: Right.
DR. NATALIE: I am
really worried,
his knees aren't working the way
they should and I'm
very concerned
what's happening there.
NARRATOR: Spike needs to
be sedated for an examination
as soon as possible.
DR. NATALIE: In the immediate
sense we'll start him on some
anti-inflammatories
to get him better...
WOMAN: Mm-hmm.
DR. NATALIE: More immediate.
WOMAN: Yeah.
DR. NATALIE: And
then I'll go from there.
NARRATOR: About 100 miles
southeast of the park sits
Disney's Vero Beach Resort.
And as night falls, some
extra special guests are due.
RACHEL: We always have to
remember to look behind us too
'cause they could be coming
up just behind us as we walk.
NARRATOR: Conservation
Programs Manager, Rachel,
waits on the
beach to welcome them.
RACHEL: So we're out here on the
beach this evening to look for
loggerhead sea turtles so
that we can study them and
perform health
assessments on them.
We could see three
different species this evening,
the loggerhead
which we're looking for,
also green sea turtles
and leatherback sea turtles.
We estimate that only
one in 1,000 sea turtles
survive to adulthood.
Which is why every single egg
and every single
hatchling matters a lot.
NARRATOR: Every year, mama
turtles make thousands of nests
along this stretch of coastline.
The team uses night vision
to avoid disturbing them.
RACHEL: We're hoping to
see either turtles emerging
directly from the surf,
or a turtle that's already
began her nesting process.
So I see something
moving up in the bushes.
WOMAN: Down there?
RACHEL: Yeah.
I think she's
like up in the dune.
Yeah she's up there.
Awesome. It's a green turtle.
They're notorious for
going up in the vegetation and
making a huge mess.
There she comes.
We're staying back
at the water's edge and
watching her from a distance
because we are only out here
to study loggerhead
sea turtles tonight.
They'll lay a new
nest every two weeks or so
for the entirety of
the nesting season.
This sometimes
results in six, seven,
800 eggs per nesting female.
It's amazing to see.
NARRATOR: As dawn breaks,
Rachel heads out to see if
any other
turtle mamas have laid.
RACHEL: It's reading
the sand for clues.
We call it turtle CSI.
There's one.
'Cause we found a
new loggerhead nest,
we can see these lovely
tracks coming up from the ocean,
ascending up the beach and then
we see this lovely
big fluffy pile of sand,
and that's our indicator
that this is a nest.
NARRATOR: Every two to three
years female loggerheads journey
thousands of miles to nest in
the same area they hatched from.
RACHEL: When the nesting
female came up here last night
she dug out an
egg chamber that looks like
sort of an
upside down light bulb
and she did that entirely
with her rear flippers.
After that point she went
in to the camouflaging phase,
she meticulously covered the
nest back up to make sure that
she protected this
nest from predator.
NARRATOR: Eggs laid, the
mama loggerhead leaves and
doesn't come back.
Rachel steps in to
monitor and protect the nest.
RACHEL: I'm digging to
verify the clutch location.
We only dig until we find
the top egg in the clutch.
I can feel the top
of the clutch here.
We don't pull any eggs out, we
don't disturb the nest at all.
DANIELLE: Did
you find it already?
RACHEL: I found it yup,
I got it on the first hole.
DANIELLE: Woo-hoo!
RACHEL: So I'm just putting some
protective flagging tape around
this nest to make
sure that everyone
knows where not to step.
Danielle's packing in
the sand really tight to
make sure to leave it
exactly as we found it.
These nests are temperature
dependent in terms of
what sex the hatchlings becomes.
The warmer eggs will turn
in to female hatchlings and
cooler eggs will become males.
We at Disney like to
affectionately call that,
"Hot Chicks, Cool Dudes,"
to remember it.
She tries to find that
sweet spot in the sand where
the upper half of the
nest is slightly warmer than
the lower half of the nest.
NARRATOR: In around two months
the little hatchlings will make
their way to the sea.
RACHEL: Loggerheads are
rapidly declining elsewhere
throughout their range.
So we're really happy
to be able to see them
thriving here in Florida.
It's just due to all the
conservation efforts of so
many decades, so many people.
NARRATOR: Over at
the elephant barn,
at Disney's Animal Kingdom,
the team hopes
romance is in the air.
LIZ: So Mac's already
stationed in the bull yard,
he's been hanging out
there for the last hour or so.
Look, here comes Nadirah.
And we'll see what happens.
So this is their
initial greeting.
(bellows)
This is great behavior, like
Nadirah's comfortable enough and
she's confident
enough to go up to him,
she wants him to interact
with her which is great.
And then her turning.
So her walking away might
seem like she's not interested,
but that's just kind
of how this process goes.
And if he were to stop at
any moment you'll probably see
her stop as well so
that he can catch up.
And now she's coming back just
to kinda see what he's doing.
There is a little bit of
flirting I guess you could say.
Like sparring
between the two of them.
It's a lot of sniffing.
NARRATOR: But will
Mac make his move?
LIZ: Oh, here he comes.
Maybe?
She's moving.
She'll stop,
hopefully sometime soon.
NARRATOR: Elephant
romance can't be rushed.
LIZ: So this is probably
gonna go off and on all day,
this is always like
the frustrating part.
(trumpets)
LIZ: So they're
both being very polite,
they're both being very gentle.
NARRATOR: Mac
moves at his own pace.
LIZ: We'll keep them together
for most of the day still and
we'll probably give
them more opportunities
throughout the week.
NARRATOR: But Nadirah
wants to move things along.
LIZ: That's definitely something
that we are looking for,
we want her to stand for him.
(gasps)
There he goes.
(trumpets)
NARRATOR: A
perfect elephant meeting.
LIZ: Yeah I'm excited, hopefully
get a little baby Nadirah.
NARRATOR: Over at
Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort
and Camp Ground,
the stables at
Tri-Circle-D-Ranch are home to
a fairy tale star in training.
STEPHANIE: You
excited for your big day?
NARRATOR: Say hello to Lilly.
STEPHANIE: Lilly's training
to be a Cinderella pony for
our Disney's
Fairy Tale Weddings.
NARRATOR: People
from around the world choose
Walt Disney World Resort
to host their weddings,
and at some, Cinderella's
ponies transport couples
to their happily ever afters.
STEPHANIE: It does
take a lot of work
to become a Cinderella pony.
To be a part of someone's
special day is truly magical.
Are you ready?
She says, "Just
eating breakfast."
She's in no hurry.
She says, "You
guys move on my time."
(laughs).
NARRATOR: Today, little
Lilly needs a big breakfast.
STEPHANIE: It's a
special day for Lilly because
she's heading to
Disney's Wedding Pavilion
to practice for a
fairy tale wedding.
Are you ready for your big day?
NARRATOR: If the
training goes well,
Lilly will be in line
for her first real wedding.
STEPHANIE: But what
we're gonna do is make sure
all of the spots are off.
That's very important
that she's looking her best.
Get your hair outta your eyes.
Hi Elsa, good morning.
So this is Elsa, this
is Lilly's friend that
is gonna support her.
(bellows)
Elsa says, "Hello."
Yeah, that's a good girl.
This is actually the first
time that Lilly's gonna put
on the wedding harness.
The key is to make
sure that everything we do,
she's like, "Oh scratch me," um,
is comfortable for her.
And when she goes out there
we want her to feel her best.
All right, Lilly let's go.
NARRATOR: Beyond the Ranch,
Walt Disney World Resort
brims with activity.
STEPHANIE: The first step for
Lilly's training is for Lilly to
be confident out there because
she's gonna encounter a lot,
they see lots of
children, strollers, balloons,
we wanna make sure
that she enjoys all of it.
(cheering)
NARRATOR: In today's session,
Lilly will see one of the park's
most famous features
for the first time.
The monorail.
STEPHANIE: It makes a lot of
noise and it's higher than them
so we wanna make sure that
they're not afraid of anything.
We don't want her to be scared,
we want her to come over here
and be really
relaxed doing her job.
(rumbling)
Are you ready to go?
Elsa, are you ready
to show her the ropes?
WOMAN: There it is.
STEPHANIE: Now
pretty girl, all right, step.
(rumbling)
Step. Good girl.
WOMAN: Oh.
STEPHANIE: Oh,
that's such a good girl!
(laughter)
WOMAN: Good job!
STEPHANIE: So she's
licking her lips, um,
that's showing she's relaxed,
she's not tense anywhere, that's
exactly what we're looking for.
NARRATOR: Training
session one is a win.
Time to rest before
the next challenge.
WOMAN: Are you ready?
STEPHANIE: All right, off we go.
WOMAN: All right.
NARRATOR: Over at the
veterinary treatment room
the team welcomes
a special guest.
Bachelor gorilla
Spike's decreased mobility has
Doctor Natalie worried
about his quality of life.
DR. NATALIE: Today we're gonna
do a CT scan of both his knees.
WOMAN: One, two, three.
DR. NATALIE: 'Cause we have
our veterinary technicians,
we've got three veterinarians,
we've got all of
the husbandry staff so
there's gonna be
a lot of folks here today.
DR. NATI: He
weighs 175 kilograms,
thankfully we have
our hydraulic table.
WOMAN: (inaudible).
DR. NATI: Yes.
I'm liking what
I'm seeing on the ECG.
Okay.
WOMAN: Good boy.
DR. NATI: Awesome.
(overlapping chatter)
WOMAN: Stop. Stop.
NARRATOR: Keeper, Courtney, has
worked closely with Spike since
his parasite infection.
COURTNEY: He's one of
my favorite gorillas.
We've seen him have some
pretty dramatic ups and downs.
We don't always know what's
gonna happen so it's always
a little bit scary each time he has one of
those downward slumps, we,
we don't know if
he's gonna come out of it as
well as he did the last time.
WOMAN: He's
staying nice and cozy.
WOMAN: ECG hooked up,
and he's got a nice
steady rhythm there.
NARRATOR: The CT scan uses
a series of x-rays to create
a 3D map of Spike's skeleton.
DR. NATALIE: Looking through
these images that we took of
Spike's knee I'm not
seeing anything obvious.
I can make some things out but
nothing that would be causing
the degree of
discomfort that he gets.
WOMAN: A big man.
DR. NATALIE: Have to admit,
I'm a little disappointed.
NARRATOR: The team
needs to know how compromised
Spike's mobility is.
DR. NATALIE: We've got our
occupational therapist here and
she's gonna be able to
actually touch his knee which
she's not been able to
do for a very long time.
SUSAN: So right now we're
really just looking a lot of
his passive range of motion,
seeing how everything moves,
we're gonna look a lot at
symmetry to see if one side is
doing the same thing
as the other side.
NARRATOR: The therapists find
something deeply troubling.
MARZENA: Look at
the muscle tone here and
then nothing, right there.
The musculature
on his right side
is very, very thick
and very, very strong,
when you compare that to what
we see on his left side you feel
just soft tissue that really
isn't able to be used the way
that he is intended to use them.
NARRATOR: Spike's
condition is deteriorating.
DR. NATALIE: This
concerns me a lot.
COURTNEY: It's hard to see.
We wanna make sure
that he's not in any pain.
'Cause he moves okay.
But we just wanna make
sure that he's not hurting.
STEPHANIE: Get
you all harnessed up.
NARRATOR: Back
over at the Ranch,
three year old Lilly has a
much bigger challenge ahead.
STEPHANIE: All right Lilly,
you can do this.
She's gonna be pulling the wagon
with three other ponies here at
Fort Wilderness Camp Ground.
This is the next big step for
Lilly to be a Cinderella pony.
Nice and slow Bun.
DEANNA: Good girl, step.
STEPHANIE: Good boy, easy. Slow.
NARRATOR: Lilly's pulling
a training wagon today.
Cinderella's out
and about in her coach.
STEPHANIE: Oh, I'm
glad I noticed that.
DEANNA: So we are hooking up
Sherlock and Elsa to start with
and then we'll hook up
Wilbur and Lilly together.
Take you over to Elsa here.
There you go Lilly.
So being in the lead helps
Lilly be able to move around.
She actually is very
confident by herself.
NARRATOR: But walking as a team
is a whole nother ball game.
DEANNA: She said
she's ready to go.
Yeah.
STEPHANIE: Ready? Team step.
DEANNA: Lilly, step.
STEPHANIE: Good girl Lilly.
DEANNA: Good girl. Step.
Good girl.
Good girl. Good girl.
Good girl!
STEPHANIE: We're gonna go
to the right, let her out.
DEANNA: Okay.
STEPHANIE: There you go.
DEANNA: Kind of an easy way to read the
horses' body language here,
one of the first things
you can look at is their ears,
with Lilly you can see her
ears are kind of doing different
things every few seconds.
She's just trying to
figure out what's happening,
and where she needs to be,
where the other ponies are.
STEPHANIE: She's getting
her tongue over Deanna.
DEANNA: Okay.
STEPHANIE: A little bit of it.
DEANNA: Easy.
STEPHANIE: Easy.
DEANNA: Oh, whoa.
STEPHANIE: Whoa.
All right, let's stop for just
a second Deanna, let me fix her.
DEANNA: Okay.
STEPHANIE: Whoa. Whoa.
Good girl.
DEANNA: Good girl.
I want her to stay straight,
and not walk sideways or
be looking around too much.
NARRATOR: After an
adjustment to her harness,
Lilly is ready to try again.
DEANNA: Team step.
STEPHANIE: Easy.
Easy. Good girl.
DEANNA: Good girl.
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
DEANNA: There we go Lily.
NARRATOR: The only way
to pass this challenge,
is together.
DEANNA: So I need to make sure I
have all four of the ponies even
with each other, so I'm
pulling on my left line here,
on Wilbur and Lilly,
to get them to turn.
There we go Lilly.
Good girl Lilly.
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
DEANNA: Good girl.
STEPHANIE: Good girl. Easy.
DEANNA: Lilly is doing amazing,
she is going through
the turn beautifully,
she is taking
charge and really showing
that she's going to
be an amazing lead pony.
NARRATOR: And Lilly's first
wedding is already booked.
STEPHANIE: I can't wait
to see her first wedding,
she was born to be
a Cinderella pony.
DEANNA: Good girl Lilly.
STEPHANIE: Good girl,
that was so good!
DEANNA: She says, "I
kinda like this stuff."
STEPHANIE: Next
to the wedding, huh?
CAITLIN: Oh this
is gonna be exciting.
NARRATOR: 100 miles
away at Vero Beach
conservation representative
Caitlin checks on
loggerhead turtle nests
that have just hatched.
CAITLIN: Three mornings ago we
noticed in this particular nest
there was this little divot of
sand here and dozens and dozens
of little teeny tiny turtle tracks
coming down out of the sand.
We give them three days
to make it out on their own,
let nature take its course,
and then after that time that's
when we're gonna dig in
and do the science work.
We're excited to see what we
find and my hope it's to find
a lot of empty egg shells.
But I'd be lying if I said
I wasn't a little bit excited
every time I find a hatchling who needed a
little help in the nest.
I'm gonna dig down through.
See what we find here.
First handful.
Oh, check it out, we got a
whole nice egg right there.
That's awesome.
This is probably
an unfertilized egg,
and that happens,
turtles plan for this.
Lay as many as you can
and hopefully the majority of
those eggs are gonna hatch
out and make it to the sea.
I'm loving the color and
texture of all the empty shells
we're putting out.
It's nice, healthy white
papery shells are a great sign
that these eggs had a really
easy time on the beach and
developed really well.
NARRATOR: To find out
how successful the nest is,
Caitlin counts up the contents.
CAITLIN: We have
79 empty egg shells,
that means 79 sea turtles
hatched out of this nest here,
which is a really,
really great number,
only five that didn't, uh,
make it or develop,
and that is one heck of
a success rate, that's really,
really great for this nest
and for sea turtles in general.
NARRATOR: Caitlin has
several nests to check.
CAITLIN: You can see
just how many came out,
these tracks all lead
straight to the water
which is a great sign.
Oh, something's moving.
CAITLIN: No way! Hi buddy!
Check it out! Amazing.
This is a loggerhead
hatchling and he is ready to go.
Looks like he was just
sitting at the top of the nest
but we'll give him a little bit
of a helping hand right now.
We'll let him go, I
don't wanna delay him.
NARRATOR: This little one
has a huge swim ahead that will
take more than 24 hours.
CAITLIN: Literally
like a marathon,
off the coast of Florida
there's a big patch of algae
that they can hide in,
there's food in there for them.
I know it looks rough right now,
but it's a good way to get
his strength up
before he has to swim.
It's the first time
he's used those muscles.
So hard to watch as he like
just keeps getting beat back.
It'll take a couple
tries but he'll get out.
Oh, it always feels so
incredible to be able to give
a hatchling a helping
hand and if it's a female
we're gonna see her
come back in 30 years.
See you later little guy.
Good luck.
DEANNA: Good morning Lilly.
NARRATOR: Dawn at the stables.
DEANNA: All right Lilly,
we have a surprise for you.
It's your big day.
Ready for your surprise Lilly?
STEPHANIE: Lilly,
look, it's your mom!
She's gonna go with you today.
DEANNA: Make sure that...
NARRATOR: Finally,
it's a wedding day.
And the ponies need pampering.
DEANNA: Now we put a bunch of soap all
over them and we scrub them down,
make sure to scrub
their manes and their tails,
their faces, and
even their hooves.
Lilly, you're all clean, it's
time for you to get dressed
and ready to go.
All right.
STEPHANIE: Come on mom.
NARRATOR: The team
gets ready backstage at
Disney's Grand
Floridian Resort and Spa,
and today only
Cinderella's coach will do.
STEPHANIE: Lilly
you're gonna be great today,
your mom's behind you
and Deanna's driving,
you're gonna be awesome today.
DEANNA: Team step.
STEPHANIE: Good girl Lilly.
Good girl Lilly. Good girl.
NARRATOR: Disney's wedding
pavilion is half a mile away.
(bellows)
STEPHANIE: Good job Lilly.
Slow down Deanna, you got the monorail
coming in the bay right now.
DEANNA: Okay.
(rumbling)
STEPHANIE: That's a good girl.
DEANNA: Good girl!
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
DEANNA: Good.
STEPHANIE: Good job Lilly.
This is exactly what we've
been preparing for with Lilly.
She looks like she's been
doing this her whole life.
DEANNA: Walk up.
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
DEANNA: Stop. Stop.
Team step.
Good girl, stop, easy.
And whoa.
All right, now we're just gonna
wait for our bride to come out.
STEPHANIE: She did so good,
she's so relaxed, she says,
"Everyone gets scratches."
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Scratches
are nice any time.
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
NARRATOR: But Lilly's waited
her whole life for this moment.
KATHLEEN: Oh my, God.
It's incredible!
I feel like Cinderella.
So magical.
DEANNA: Your
Prince Charming awaits.
STEPHANIE: Good girl Lilly.
Good girl Lilly.
I am beyond excited.
We knew her destiny from
the beginning and to see it all
come together has
just been truly magical.
NARRATOR: Lilly
finally gets her wish.
As for the fairy tale bride...
KATHLEEN: I've finally
found my Prince Charming.
TATE: Guess what I found?
KATHLEEN: Hmm?
(laughs).
(bellows)
HALEY: Good girl, Nadirah!
Oh good girl.
ERIN: So we are having
a very busy day today,
we have a
reproductive specialist here.
NARRATOR: It's been
three months since Mac and
Nadirah's first mating meet-up.
ERIN: So we do have blood results that
indicate she is pregnant.
I'm really happy, it's something
that the team we've been working
towards it for a very long time.
And what we are hoping
today is being able to conduct
the ultrasound and to
have more confirmation.
NARRATOR: Ultrasounds can only
image a foot beyond the probe.
DR. WENDY: So going
through their thick skin is
quite difficult so what
we do is we go rectally.
All right, I'm
going in with the probe.
WOMAN: Okay.
DR. WENDY: In. Steady.
Nadirah. Steady.
DR. RYAN: She's all the way in.
NARRATOR: Doctor Wendy
aims for Nadirah's uterus.
DR. BETSY: Good girl.
DR. WENDY: I'm a few inches off.
DR. BETSY: Okay.
DR. WENDY: So close.
So I'm wondering if, um...
DR. BETSY: Do you want...
DR. WENDY: Doctor Ryan
wants to try to stick his hand
'cause he has longer arms.
DR. RYAN: I'll give it a try.
I'm gonna get messy.
Let's hope I
don't strike out, huh?
DR. RYAN: I think I have some
extra breeches in my office.
DR. WENDY: Try to come back towards
her feet, you know what I mean?
Oh, there we go. Hold on.
That is tip of the
uterus right there.
DR. RYAN: Mm-hmm.
DR. WENDY: Mm-hmm.
There's a lot of
vasculature there.
Looks suspicious of
a pregnant elephant.
NARRATOR: Doctor Wendy sees
extra blood flow in the area,
a positive sign.
But even with
Doctor Ryan's long arms,
the key shot lies out of view.
DR. RYAN: It appears that
part of the uterus that we need
to image has already fallen
over the brim of the pelvis so
we can't access it with
the angles and the depth that
we can, we can access in there.
(trumpets)
ERIN: Even though we weren't
able to see an actual photo of
the elephant baby there were
still signs on the ultrasound
that indicates she is pregnant,
so I still feel
really good about it.
The gestation for an
elephant is 22 months,
so it is almost two years.
We have several opportunities
to try to get another one.
NARRATOR: Back at Vero Beach,
early morning crowds gather for
a race with a difference.
RACHEL (over speaker):
Welcome to the 15th annual
Tour de Turtle!
(cheering)
RACHEL: The sea turtle conservancy created
the Tour de Turtles program,
helping to release turtles
every single year here at
Disney's Vero Beach Resort.
So here we have two female
loggerhead sea turtles that
successfully deposited their
nests on the beach last night.
And right now we're here
applying satellite transmitters
to the top of their shell.
Our two sea turtles are swimming
alongside 19 other sea turtles
that are participating in
the Tour de Turtles this year.
From locations all
throughout the Caribbean.
NARRATOR: The trackers
allow biologists to monitor
sea turtles away from
their nesting beaches.
RACHEL: These transmitters
don't harm the turtle at all and
they fall off naturally
after a couple of years.
They're gonna help us learn
really valuable information
about the foraging pathways
of several sea turtle species,
their migrations, how and when
and why they use these different habitats,
so that we can be
sure to best protect them in
the areas that matter most.
RACHEL (over speaker): All right, it's the
moment we've all been waiting for.
Five, four, three, two, one.
(cheering).
NARRATOR: The mamas
will swim hundreds or even
thousands of miles to
reach their foraging grounds.
RACHEL (over speaker):
And they are off,
not to return for probably
two more years to this nesting
beach to come and lay more eggs.
NARRATOR: As the turtles
begin their long migration,
the work at Disney goes on.
RACHEL: We've seen our
green turtle population numbers
go up across the
state of Florida,
and our loggerhead sea turtle
population is remaining stable.
My biggest hope is that
this trend will be mirrored
in populations across
the rest of the world.
That's why we're
all in this role and
we're committed
for the long haul.
NARRATOR: Walt Disney's
dream was to create living,
breathing parks
for guests to enjoy.
Here, thousands of cast
members nurture that dream and
help it to flourish.
Through happy times and sad.
DR. NATALIE: We had to
make the hard decision of
euthanizing Spike.
Despite the fact that
it was devastating for us,
it was something
that we needed to do.
He was getting worse
and we needed to make
the right decision for him.
These are some of
the hardest days.
For me, being able to meet
these gorillas, meet Spike...
RACHEL: Yeah.
DR. NATALIE: And to
work with you guys,
I've been able to spend
so much time with them and
I've learnt so much more
and we've had hard times...
RACHEL: Yeah.
DR. NATALIE: And you guys have
been able to get them through
the hard times and keep them
as a cohesive friendly group.
And to me that's been remarkable
and a highlight of my career to
be able to do that.
RACHEL: Thank you.
So I'm gonna give these guys a
call and we'll watch the boys
come out and you can kinda get a
feel for how they're doing now.
Hey, are you guys
ready to ship boys out?
WOMAN (over radio):
They're coming out now.
DR. NATALIE: Here we go.
RACHEL: Oh there's Gus.
Yes, our old man.
NARRATOR: The bachelor gorillas
are still coming to terms with
the loss of Spike.
RACHEL: So see
normally Kejana would run...
Hey, bud.
He's looking back,
he's making sure Gus is there.
He's definitely adjusting.
DR. NATALIE: How's
Zawadi been doing?
RACHEL: Zawadi used to always
pace himself according to Spike
so Spike was often
very slow because of his...
DR. NATALIE: Yeah.
RACHEL: Disability, and you
can see he's coming right out,
he's moving out further
because he doesn't have
to do that anymore.
You know, they were
together for 25 years.
And so it's a complete change.
It's really interesting
because gorillas actually do
seem to grieve
almost like people.
It's, it's been really
hard for the gorillas.
And it's been really hard
for the caregivers as well.
I want them to understand how
proud we are of them for all
the efforts they gave for
Spike and how much better
they really did make his life.
I think that is the one thing to
be said about being a keeper and
being a vet is that this is,
this is kind of what we signed
up for is we know this is gonna
happen and we make things work
and we move forward, even
when the bad things happen,
and I think that's,
that's what makes us so strong.
We'll, we'll all get
through it because that's
what we can do for Spike.
DR. NATALIE: Let
me give you a hug.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.
(knocking)
WOMAN: Wakey-wakey.
WOMAN 2: Oh look there's a nose.
WOMAN: I see a nose.
Hi. There's some
tasty snacks here.
WOMAN 2: There we go.
WOMAN: Oh, there she is.
Hey sweet girl.
She loves avocado and we
actually mix it with banana.
She's excited.
WOMAN 2: Yeah.
WOMAN: Favorite, favorite.
Enjoy that snack.
(laughter).
That's perfect.
(theme music playing).
(trumpeting)
NARRATOR: Every
day is magical at
Disney's Animal
Kingdom theme park.
But for Mac, the
African bull elephant,
today is once in a lifetime.
HALEY: So today is
Mac's 40th birthday.
So we are getting together a
little birthday party for him,
we have a birthday cake made
by our animal nutrition center.
JENN: I like his,
his favorite, his icing, yeah.
STEPHANIE: Oh yeah,
sweet potato icing.
MAN: Good boy Mac, come on.
NARRATOR: No time to waste,
Mac loves a party.
STEPHANIE: The theme
is Saint Patrick's Day,
what are you planning on
using the carrots for Jenn?
JENN: I'm gonna make little
gold inside of his pot of gold.
So use the watermelon for that.
STEPHANIE: Oh very cool, okay.
JENN: Yeah.
MAN: Good boy.
NARRATOR: Another favorite,
frozen fruit treats.
JENNY: So I'm going to be
making these ice treats here
and trying to coordinate
with the rainbow that
we're doing with
the elephant team.
We're going to do
sweet potatoes
and
carrots in one layer
for orange, apples
in the other for red,
blueberries for blue, I'll
be doing celery for green,
and then one of Mac's
favorites is bananas.
MAN: All right Mac, go on.
Good boy.
JENN: It's gonna be delicious.
STEPHANIE: Oh yeah.
JENNY: Nailed it.
STEPHANIE: Are yours ready?
JENNY: Ready.
JENN: Yeah, ready.
STEPHANIE: Let's go.
NARRATOR: Saint Patrick himself
would approve of this spread.
Mostly.
HALEY: Come on Mac.
It's your big
birthday celebration.
Oh, there he is.
Oh, I'm so excited.
Here he comes.
(trumpeting)
STEPHANIE: Mac has a
really big personality,
he's just really
fun to work with.
As he's getting older you
can see that he is aging.
HALEY: He's a
distinguished older gentleman.
STEPHANIE: He definitely still
has what it takes to keep up
with our younger elephants.
Keep going.
Look at all this other stuff.
There's so much more.
Oh...
HALEY: Oh-uh, yeah, there we go.
Oh happy birthday.
STEPHANIE: Oh. Look
there's watermelon.
JENN: You deserve
that pot of gold.
STEPHANIE: He says, "Let me
just knock these carrots off,
I don't need those."
HALEY: We don't
need the healthy bit.
JENN: Not necessary.
STEPHANIE: Oh good boy.
Mm.
ALL: Watermelon.
STEPHANIE: The watermelon.
I like when he eats it
and he closes his eyes.
JENN: Yes.
STEPHANIE: 'Cause it's so good.
HALEY: What a great
birthday celebration.
STEPHANIE: Ooh,
that's a big piece.
Oh. He ate it.
(bellows)
Uh-oh, brain freeze.
(laughter).
(overlapping chatter).
NARRATOR: Mac has two
young daughters at the park.
(trumpets)
11 year old Luna, and
five year old Stella.
But the team hopes
that changes soon.
LIZ: We are seeing
more testosterone with him,
we've been tracking his
levels through his blood and,
and in his behavior as well so
we're seeing it on the charts,
but we're also
seeing it behaviorally.
(trumpets)
NARRATOR: This change
in behavior is called, "Must."
(bellows)
LIZ: Some of the
signs of must for elephants
is urine dribbling.
(bellows)
They start secreting
from their heads,
those glands
right near their ears.
He's got a little
bit of an attitude,
he's a little crabby.
NARRATOR: In the wild male
elephants in must square off
with other males
to attract females.
(trumpeting)
(bellows)
LIZ: From someone
outside the barn they go,
"Oh that seems terrible," for
us we're actually really excited
that he's got a little
bit of an attitude now.
NARRATOR: At the right
time to the right female,
a musty Mac is quite the catch.
KENT: All right Nadirah, down.
Good girl. Good.
NARRATOR: And the team
hopes 16 year old Nadirah
could be the one.
KENT: Give me your foot.
That's a good kid.
Good foot.
LIZ: Yeah.
KENT: Ready?
LIZ: Ready.
KENT: All right, Nadirah, ear.
Back up. Steady.
Nadirah, ear. Good, steady.
LIZ: Today we're gonna do a
blood draw from Nadirah's ear,
we're gonna use that blood
draw to see if she's cycling.
But it's not painful, it's
just a little butterfly needle
and the ear is the
thinnest part of their skin,
so most of the time
they don't even feel it,
they don't even
realize it's happening.
And then right
afterwards they get a big treat.
All done.
NARRATOR: Using the blood draw,
Liz performs a quick test to
determine if
Nadirah's ovulating.
LIZ: It only takes a few drops.
And then 15 minutes.
Very, very faint but I see it.
If you see anything it
means that it's positive.
That means that she
might get pregnant.
ADRIANA: Steady. Good girl.
Nadirah's on her way.
LIZ: She's gonna spend some
time with Mac this morning.
NARRATOR: Science says it's
the perfect time for a meeting
with Mac but now it's
up to the two of them
to make the magic happen.
LIZ: It's exciting.
Hopefully it happens.
KENT: Good girl
Nadirah, Mac's waiting.
Don't eat GoPros.
NARRATOR: At Gorilla Falls,
while Gino the silverback
grapples with family life...
(growls)
Just across the hill
Animal Kingdom's
bachelor group takes it easy.
COURTNEY: There are four
gorillas in our bachelor troupe.
This is Kejana right here.
He's the biggest male in
our troupe and he's our leader.
Gus is all the way
back that direction.
This is Zawadi,
Spike's half-brother.
Oh here comes Spike,
he's the one that's coming up
the hill over here.
Spike and Zawadi
they're very close.
They spend a lot of
time very close together.
NARRATOR: Male gorillas
who don't have families form
all-male squads like this one.
COURTNEY: These bachelor
troupes are necessary and it
actually happens in the
natural environment as well.
These guys have lived
here most of their lives,
they've been here
since the park opened.
Their relationships
are just as important
as
the family relationships.
NARRATOR: Despite
living separately,
the two groups are
on friendly terms.
COURTNEY: They can
see over
in to the
family habitat really well.
Spike is actually one of
our gorillas that spends
a lot of time
orienting to the family.
He'll actually sit and
make googly eyes at Lilly.
NARRATOR: But
sometimes Spike struggles
to make it to his lookout.
COURTNEY: A couple of years ago,
Spike came down with an illness.
He basically lost the
ability to move his back legs.
He was essentially paralyzed.
NARRATOR: Spike was
infected with rat lungworm,
a parasite
transferred through snails.
DR. NATALIE: Sometimes
you have no symptoms at all,
but sometimes it affects
the brain and the spinal cord,
and you can be paralyzed.
Just like what
happened with Spike.
COURTNEY: Because of our
amazing veterinary staff here,
we were able to treat him.
NARRATOR: With the help of
physical therapy specialists
the team designed a program to
help him regain his mobility.
COURTNEY: Spike in the middle.
Come this way.
To see him go
from being an animal in such
a compromised condition to
recovering from his illness,
being able to walk again,
reuniting with the group,
it's been such a
wonderful experience.
He's an amazing animal but he
still has lasting effects from
what happened back then, so,
he has some good days
and some bad days.
PILAR: All right, we're
ready for Spike and Zawadi.
DR. NATALIE: So every
month or so I go down
and visit with Spike,
because we wanna make sure that
his quality of
life is really great.
KEEPER: Spike and
Zawadi are in the yard.
DR. NATALIE: There's Spike.
NARRATOR: Worryingly,
keepers notice a decline
in Spike's mobility.
PILAR: See how
he's dragging that foot?
DR. NATALIE: Do you see how he's
bearing weight on his right leg
and that left leg is leaning in?
That's worse than it was.
That looks not very good.
PILAR: The more he's
using it he tires out.
And then that's when
it starts to drag more.
DR. NATALIE: He's
a bit animal...
PILAR: Mm-hmm.
DR. NATALIE: It's a lot
when your,
both of your
legs aren't feeling great.
PILAR: Right.
DR. NATALIE: I am
really worried,
his knees aren't working the way
they should and I'm
very concerned
what's happening there.
NARRATOR: Spike needs to
be sedated for an examination
as soon as possible.
DR. NATALIE: In the immediate
sense we'll start him on some
anti-inflammatories
to get him better...
WOMAN: Mm-hmm.
DR. NATALIE: More immediate.
WOMAN: Yeah.
DR. NATALIE: And
then I'll go from there.
NARRATOR: About 100 miles
southeast of the park sits
Disney's Vero Beach Resort.
And as night falls, some
extra special guests are due.
RACHEL: We always have to
remember to look behind us too
'cause they could be coming
up just behind us as we walk.
NARRATOR: Conservation
Programs Manager, Rachel,
waits on the
beach to welcome them.
RACHEL: So we're out here on the
beach this evening to look for
loggerhead sea turtles so
that we can study them and
perform health
assessments on them.
We could see three
different species this evening,
the loggerhead
which we're looking for,
also green sea turtles
and leatherback sea turtles.
We estimate that only
one in 1,000 sea turtles
survive to adulthood.
Which is why every single egg
and every single
hatchling matters a lot.
NARRATOR: Every year, mama
turtles make thousands of nests
along this stretch of coastline.
The team uses night vision
to avoid disturbing them.
RACHEL: We're hoping to
see either turtles emerging
directly from the surf,
or a turtle that's already
began her nesting process.
So I see something
moving up in the bushes.
WOMAN: Down there?
RACHEL: Yeah.
I think she's
like up in the dune.
Yeah she's up there.
Awesome. It's a green turtle.
They're notorious for
going up in the vegetation and
making a huge mess.
There she comes.
We're staying back
at the water's edge and
watching her from a distance
because we are only out here
to study loggerhead
sea turtles tonight.
They'll lay a new
nest every two weeks or so
for the entirety of
the nesting season.
This sometimes
results in six, seven,
800 eggs per nesting female.
It's amazing to see.
NARRATOR: As dawn breaks,
Rachel heads out to see if
any other
turtle mamas have laid.
RACHEL: It's reading
the sand for clues.
We call it turtle CSI.
There's one.
'Cause we found a
new loggerhead nest,
we can see these lovely
tracks coming up from the ocean,
ascending up the beach and then
we see this lovely
big fluffy pile of sand,
and that's our indicator
that this is a nest.
NARRATOR: Every two to three
years female loggerheads journey
thousands of miles to nest in
the same area they hatched from.
RACHEL: When the nesting
female came up here last night
she dug out an
egg chamber that looks like
sort of an
upside down light bulb
and she did that entirely
with her rear flippers.
After that point she went
in to the camouflaging phase,
she meticulously covered the
nest back up to make sure that
she protected this
nest from predator.
NARRATOR: Eggs laid, the
mama loggerhead leaves and
doesn't come back.
Rachel steps in to
monitor and protect the nest.
RACHEL: I'm digging to
verify the clutch location.
We only dig until we find
the top egg in the clutch.
I can feel the top
of the clutch here.
We don't pull any eggs out, we
don't disturb the nest at all.
DANIELLE: Did
you find it already?
RACHEL: I found it yup,
I got it on the first hole.
DANIELLE: Woo-hoo!
RACHEL: So I'm just putting some
protective flagging tape around
this nest to make
sure that everyone
knows where not to step.
Danielle's packing in
the sand really tight to
make sure to leave it
exactly as we found it.
These nests are temperature
dependent in terms of
what sex the hatchlings becomes.
The warmer eggs will turn
in to female hatchlings and
cooler eggs will become males.
We at Disney like to
affectionately call that,
"Hot Chicks, Cool Dudes,"
to remember it.
She tries to find that
sweet spot in the sand where
the upper half of the
nest is slightly warmer than
the lower half of the nest.
NARRATOR: In around two months
the little hatchlings will make
their way to the sea.
RACHEL: Loggerheads are
rapidly declining elsewhere
throughout their range.
So we're really happy
to be able to see them
thriving here in Florida.
It's just due to all the
conservation efforts of so
many decades, so many people.
NARRATOR: Over at
the elephant barn,
at Disney's Animal Kingdom,
the team hopes
romance is in the air.
LIZ: So Mac's already
stationed in the bull yard,
he's been hanging out
there for the last hour or so.
Look, here comes Nadirah.
And we'll see what happens.
So this is their
initial greeting.
(bellows)
This is great behavior, like
Nadirah's comfortable enough and
she's confident
enough to go up to him,
she wants him to interact
with her which is great.
And then her turning.
So her walking away might
seem like she's not interested,
but that's just kind
of how this process goes.
And if he were to stop at
any moment you'll probably see
her stop as well so
that he can catch up.
And now she's coming back just
to kinda see what he's doing.
There is a little bit of
flirting I guess you could say.
Like sparring
between the two of them.
It's a lot of sniffing.
NARRATOR: But will
Mac make his move?
LIZ: Oh, here he comes.
Maybe?
She's moving.
She'll stop,
hopefully sometime soon.
NARRATOR: Elephant
romance can't be rushed.
LIZ: So this is probably
gonna go off and on all day,
this is always like
the frustrating part.
(trumpets)
LIZ: So they're
both being very polite,
they're both being very gentle.
NARRATOR: Mac
moves at his own pace.
LIZ: We'll keep them together
for most of the day still and
we'll probably give
them more opportunities
throughout the week.
NARRATOR: But Nadirah
wants to move things along.
LIZ: That's definitely something
that we are looking for,
we want her to stand for him.
(gasps)
There he goes.
(trumpets)
NARRATOR: A
perfect elephant meeting.
LIZ: Yeah I'm excited, hopefully
get a little baby Nadirah.
NARRATOR: Over at
Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort
and Camp Ground,
the stables at
Tri-Circle-D-Ranch are home to
a fairy tale star in training.
STEPHANIE: You
excited for your big day?
NARRATOR: Say hello to Lilly.
STEPHANIE: Lilly's training
to be a Cinderella pony for
our Disney's
Fairy Tale Weddings.
NARRATOR: People
from around the world choose
Walt Disney World Resort
to host their weddings,
and at some, Cinderella's
ponies transport couples
to their happily ever afters.
STEPHANIE: It does
take a lot of work
to become a Cinderella pony.
To be a part of someone's
special day is truly magical.
Are you ready?
She says, "Just
eating breakfast."
She's in no hurry.
She says, "You
guys move on my time."
(laughs).
NARRATOR: Today, little
Lilly needs a big breakfast.
STEPHANIE: It's a
special day for Lilly because
she's heading to
Disney's Wedding Pavilion
to practice for a
fairy tale wedding.
Are you ready for your big day?
NARRATOR: If the
training goes well,
Lilly will be in line
for her first real wedding.
STEPHANIE: But what
we're gonna do is make sure
all of the spots are off.
That's very important
that she's looking her best.
Get your hair outta your eyes.
Hi Elsa, good morning.
So this is Elsa, this
is Lilly's friend that
is gonna support her.
(bellows)
Elsa says, "Hello."
Yeah, that's a good girl.
This is actually the first
time that Lilly's gonna put
on the wedding harness.
The key is to make
sure that everything we do,
she's like, "Oh scratch me," um,
is comfortable for her.
And when she goes out there
we want her to feel her best.
All right, Lilly let's go.
NARRATOR: Beyond the Ranch,
Walt Disney World Resort
brims with activity.
STEPHANIE: The first step for
Lilly's training is for Lilly to
be confident out there because
she's gonna encounter a lot,
they see lots of
children, strollers, balloons,
we wanna make sure
that she enjoys all of it.
(cheering)
NARRATOR: In today's session,
Lilly will see one of the park's
most famous features
for the first time.
The monorail.
STEPHANIE: It makes a lot of
noise and it's higher than them
so we wanna make sure that
they're not afraid of anything.
We don't want her to be scared,
we want her to come over here
and be really
relaxed doing her job.
(rumbling)
Are you ready to go?
Elsa, are you ready
to show her the ropes?
WOMAN: There it is.
STEPHANIE: Now
pretty girl, all right, step.
(rumbling)
Step. Good girl.
WOMAN: Oh.
STEPHANIE: Oh,
that's such a good girl!
(laughter)
WOMAN: Good job!
STEPHANIE: So she's
licking her lips, um,
that's showing she's relaxed,
she's not tense anywhere, that's
exactly what we're looking for.
NARRATOR: Training
session one is a win.
Time to rest before
the next challenge.
WOMAN: Are you ready?
STEPHANIE: All right, off we go.
WOMAN: All right.
NARRATOR: Over at the
veterinary treatment room
the team welcomes
a special guest.
Bachelor gorilla
Spike's decreased mobility has
Doctor Natalie worried
about his quality of life.
DR. NATALIE: Today we're gonna
do a CT scan of both his knees.
WOMAN: One, two, three.
DR. NATALIE: 'Cause we have
our veterinary technicians,
we've got three veterinarians,
we've got all of
the husbandry staff so
there's gonna be
a lot of folks here today.
DR. NATI: He
weighs 175 kilograms,
thankfully we have
our hydraulic table.
WOMAN: (inaudible).
DR. NATI: Yes.
I'm liking what
I'm seeing on the ECG.
Okay.
WOMAN: Good boy.
DR. NATI: Awesome.
(overlapping chatter)
WOMAN: Stop. Stop.
NARRATOR: Keeper, Courtney, has
worked closely with Spike since
his parasite infection.
COURTNEY: He's one of
my favorite gorillas.
We've seen him have some
pretty dramatic ups and downs.
We don't always know what's
gonna happen so it's always
a little bit scary each time he has one of
those downward slumps, we,
we don't know if
he's gonna come out of it as
well as he did the last time.
WOMAN: He's
staying nice and cozy.
WOMAN: ECG hooked up,
and he's got a nice
steady rhythm there.
NARRATOR: The CT scan uses
a series of x-rays to create
a 3D map of Spike's skeleton.
DR. NATALIE: Looking through
these images that we took of
Spike's knee I'm not
seeing anything obvious.
I can make some things out but
nothing that would be causing
the degree of
discomfort that he gets.
WOMAN: A big man.
DR. NATALIE: Have to admit,
I'm a little disappointed.
NARRATOR: The team
needs to know how compromised
Spike's mobility is.
DR. NATALIE: We've got our
occupational therapist here and
she's gonna be able to
actually touch his knee which
she's not been able to
do for a very long time.
SUSAN: So right now we're
really just looking a lot of
his passive range of motion,
seeing how everything moves,
we're gonna look a lot at
symmetry to see if one side is
doing the same thing
as the other side.
NARRATOR: The therapists find
something deeply troubling.
MARZENA: Look at
the muscle tone here and
then nothing, right there.
The musculature
on his right side
is very, very thick
and very, very strong,
when you compare that to what
we see on his left side you feel
just soft tissue that really
isn't able to be used the way
that he is intended to use them.
NARRATOR: Spike's
condition is deteriorating.
DR. NATALIE: This
concerns me a lot.
COURTNEY: It's hard to see.
We wanna make sure
that he's not in any pain.
'Cause he moves okay.
But we just wanna make
sure that he's not hurting.
STEPHANIE: Get
you all harnessed up.
NARRATOR: Back
over at the Ranch,
three year old Lilly has a
much bigger challenge ahead.
STEPHANIE: All right Lilly,
you can do this.
She's gonna be pulling the wagon
with three other ponies here at
Fort Wilderness Camp Ground.
This is the next big step for
Lilly to be a Cinderella pony.
Nice and slow Bun.
DEANNA: Good girl, step.
STEPHANIE: Good boy, easy. Slow.
NARRATOR: Lilly's pulling
a training wagon today.
Cinderella's out
and about in her coach.
STEPHANIE: Oh, I'm
glad I noticed that.
DEANNA: So we are hooking up
Sherlock and Elsa to start with
and then we'll hook up
Wilbur and Lilly together.
Take you over to Elsa here.
There you go Lilly.
So being in the lead helps
Lilly be able to move around.
She actually is very
confident by herself.
NARRATOR: But walking as a team
is a whole nother ball game.
DEANNA: She said
she's ready to go.
Yeah.
STEPHANIE: Ready? Team step.
DEANNA: Lilly, step.
STEPHANIE: Good girl Lilly.
DEANNA: Good girl. Step.
Good girl.
Good girl. Good girl.
Good girl!
STEPHANIE: We're gonna go
to the right, let her out.
DEANNA: Okay.
STEPHANIE: There you go.
DEANNA: Kind of an easy way to read the
horses' body language here,
one of the first things
you can look at is their ears,
with Lilly you can see her
ears are kind of doing different
things every few seconds.
She's just trying to
figure out what's happening,
and where she needs to be,
where the other ponies are.
STEPHANIE: She's getting
her tongue over Deanna.
DEANNA: Okay.
STEPHANIE: A little bit of it.
DEANNA: Easy.
STEPHANIE: Easy.
DEANNA: Oh, whoa.
STEPHANIE: Whoa.
All right, let's stop for just
a second Deanna, let me fix her.
DEANNA: Okay.
STEPHANIE: Whoa. Whoa.
Good girl.
DEANNA: Good girl.
I want her to stay straight,
and not walk sideways or
be looking around too much.
NARRATOR: After an
adjustment to her harness,
Lilly is ready to try again.
DEANNA: Team step.
STEPHANIE: Easy.
Easy. Good girl.
DEANNA: Good girl.
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
DEANNA: There we go Lily.
NARRATOR: The only way
to pass this challenge,
is together.
DEANNA: So I need to make sure I
have all four of the ponies even
with each other, so I'm
pulling on my left line here,
on Wilbur and Lilly,
to get them to turn.
There we go Lilly.
Good girl Lilly.
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
DEANNA: Good girl.
STEPHANIE: Good girl. Easy.
DEANNA: Lilly is doing amazing,
she is going through
the turn beautifully,
she is taking
charge and really showing
that she's going to
be an amazing lead pony.
NARRATOR: And Lilly's first
wedding is already booked.
STEPHANIE: I can't wait
to see her first wedding,
she was born to be
a Cinderella pony.
DEANNA: Good girl Lilly.
STEPHANIE: Good girl,
that was so good!
DEANNA: She says, "I
kinda like this stuff."
STEPHANIE: Next
to the wedding, huh?
CAITLIN: Oh this
is gonna be exciting.
NARRATOR: 100 miles
away at Vero Beach
conservation representative
Caitlin checks on
loggerhead turtle nests
that have just hatched.
CAITLIN: Three mornings ago we
noticed in this particular nest
there was this little divot of
sand here and dozens and dozens
of little teeny tiny turtle tracks
coming down out of the sand.
We give them three days
to make it out on their own,
let nature take its course,
and then after that time that's
when we're gonna dig in
and do the science work.
We're excited to see what we
find and my hope it's to find
a lot of empty egg shells.
But I'd be lying if I said
I wasn't a little bit excited
every time I find a hatchling who needed a
little help in the nest.
I'm gonna dig down through.
See what we find here.
First handful.
Oh, check it out, we got a
whole nice egg right there.
That's awesome.
This is probably
an unfertilized egg,
and that happens,
turtles plan for this.
Lay as many as you can
and hopefully the majority of
those eggs are gonna hatch
out and make it to the sea.
I'm loving the color and
texture of all the empty shells
we're putting out.
It's nice, healthy white
papery shells are a great sign
that these eggs had a really
easy time on the beach and
developed really well.
NARRATOR: To find out
how successful the nest is,
Caitlin counts up the contents.
CAITLIN: We have
79 empty egg shells,
that means 79 sea turtles
hatched out of this nest here,
which is a really,
really great number,
only five that didn't, uh,
make it or develop,
and that is one heck of
a success rate, that's really,
really great for this nest
and for sea turtles in general.
NARRATOR: Caitlin has
several nests to check.
CAITLIN: You can see
just how many came out,
these tracks all lead
straight to the water
which is a great sign.
Oh, something's moving.
CAITLIN: No way! Hi buddy!
Check it out! Amazing.
This is a loggerhead
hatchling and he is ready to go.
Looks like he was just
sitting at the top of the nest
but we'll give him a little bit
of a helping hand right now.
We'll let him go, I
don't wanna delay him.
NARRATOR: This little one
has a huge swim ahead that will
take more than 24 hours.
CAITLIN: Literally
like a marathon,
off the coast of Florida
there's a big patch of algae
that they can hide in,
there's food in there for them.
I know it looks rough right now,
but it's a good way to get
his strength up
before he has to swim.
It's the first time
he's used those muscles.
So hard to watch as he like
just keeps getting beat back.
It'll take a couple
tries but he'll get out.
Oh, it always feels so
incredible to be able to give
a hatchling a helping
hand and if it's a female
we're gonna see her
come back in 30 years.
See you later little guy.
Good luck.
DEANNA: Good morning Lilly.
NARRATOR: Dawn at the stables.
DEANNA: All right Lilly,
we have a surprise for you.
It's your big day.
Ready for your surprise Lilly?
STEPHANIE: Lilly,
look, it's your mom!
She's gonna go with you today.
DEANNA: Make sure that...
NARRATOR: Finally,
it's a wedding day.
And the ponies need pampering.
DEANNA: Now we put a bunch of soap all
over them and we scrub them down,
make sure to scrub
their manes and their tails,
their faces, and
even their hooves.
Lilly, you're all clean, it's
time for you to get dressed
and ready to go.
All right.
STEPHANIE: Come on mom.
NARRATOR: The team
gets ready backstage at
Disney's Grand
Floridian Resort and Spa,
and today only
Cinderella's coach will do.
STEPHANIE: Lilly
you're gonna be great today,
your mom's behind you
and Deanna's driving,
you're gonna be awesome today.
DEANNA: Team step.
STEPHANIE: Good girl Lilly.
Good girl Lilly. Good girl.
NARRATOR: Disney's wedding
pavilion is half a mile away.
(bellows)
STEPHANIE: Good job Lilly.
Slow down Deanna, you got the monorail
coming in the bay right now.
DEANNA: Okay.
(rumbling)
STEPHANIE: That's a good girl.
DEANNA: Good girl!
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
DEANNA: Good.
STEPHANIE: Good job Lilly.
This is exactly what we've
been preparing for with Lilly.
She looks like she's been
doing this her whole life.
DEANNA: Walk up.
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
DEANNA: Stop. Stop.
Team step.
Good girl, stop, easy.
And whoa.
All right, now we're just gonna
wait for our bride to come out.
STEPHANIE: She did so good,
she's so relaxed, she says,
"Everyone gets scratches."
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Scratches
are nice any time.
STEPHANIE: Good girl.
NARRATOR: But Lilly's waited
her whole life for this moment.
KATHLEEN: Oh my, God.
It's incredible!
I feel like Cinderella.
So magical.
DEANNA: Your
Prince Charming awaits.
STEPHANIE: Good girl Lilly.
Good girl Lilly.
I am beyond excited.
We knew her destiny from
the beginning and to see it all
come together has
just been truly magical.
NARRATOR: Lilly
finally gets her wish.
As for the fairy tale bride...
KATHLEEN: I've finally
found my Prince Charming.
TATE: Guess what I found?
KATHLEEN: Hmm?
(laughs).
(bellows)
HALEY: Good girl, Nadirah!
Oh good girl.
ERIN: So we are having
a very busy day today,
we have a
reproductive specialist here.
NARRATOR: It's been
three months since Mac and
Nadirah's first mating meet-up.
ERIN: So we do have blood results that
indicate she is pregnant.
I'm really happy, it's something
that the team we've been working
towards it for a very long time.
And what we are hoping
today is being able to conduct
the ultrasound and to
have more confirmation.
NARRATOR: Ultrasounds can only
image a foot beyond the probe.
DR. WENDY: So going
through their thick skin is
quite difficult so what
we do is we go rectally.
All right, I'm
going in with the probe.
WOMAN: Okay.
DR. WENDY: In. Steady.
Nadirah. Steady.
DR. RYAN: She's all the way in.
NARRATOR: Doctor Wendy
aims for Nadirah's uterus.
DR. BETSY: Good girl.
DR. WENDY: I'm a few inches off.
DR. BETSY: Okay.
DR. WENDY: So close.
So I'm wondering if, um...
DR. BETSY: Do you want...
DR. WENDY: Doctor Ryan
wants to try to stick his hand
'cause he has longer arms.
DR. RYAN: I'll give it a try.
I'm gonna get messy.
Let's hope I
don't strike out, huh?
DR. RYAN: I think I have some
extra breeches in my office.
DR. WENDY: Try to come back towards
her feet, you know what I mean?
Oh, there we go. Hold on.
That is tip of the
uterus right there.
DR. RYAN: Mm-hmm.
DR. WENDY: Mm-hmm.
There's a lot of
vasculature there.
Looks suspicious of
a pregnant elephant.
NARRATOR: Doctor Wendy sees
extra blood flow in the area,
a positive sign.
But even with
Doctor Ryan's long arms,
the key shot lies out of view.
DR. RYAN: It appears that
part of the uterus that we need
to image has already fallen
over the brim of the pelvis so
we can't access it with
the angles and the depth that
we can, we can access in there.
(trumpets)
ERIN: Even though we weren't
able to see an actual photo of
the elephant baby there were
still signs on the ultrasound
that indicates she is pregnant,
so I still feel
really good about it.
The gestation for an
elephant is 22 months,
so it is almost two years.
We have several opportunities
to try to get another one.
NARRATOR: Back at Vero Beach,
early morning crowds gather for
a race with a difference.
RACHEL (over speaker):
Welcome to the 15th annual
Tour de Turtle!
(cheering)
RACHEL: The sea turtle conservancy created
the Tour de Turtles program,
helping to release turtles
every single year here at
Disney's Vero Beach Resort.
So here we have two female
loggerhead sea turtles that
successfully deposited their
nests on the beach last night.
And right now we're here
applying satellite transmitters
to the top of their shell.
Our two sea turtles are swimming
alongside 19 other sea turtles
that are participating in
the Tour de Turtles this year.
From locations all
throughout the Caribbean.
NARRATOR: The trackers
allow biologists to monitor
sea turtles away from
their nesting beaches.
RACHEL: These transmitters
don't harm the turtle at all and
they fall off naturally
after a couple of years.
They're gonna help us learn
really valuable information
about the foraging pathways
of several sea turtle species,
their migrations, how and when
and why they use these different habitats,
so that we can be
sure to best protect them in
the areas that matter most.
RACHEL (over speaker): All right, it's the
moment we've all been waiting for.
Five, four, three, two, one.
(cheering).
NARRATOR: The mamas
will swim hundreds or even
thousands of miles to
reach their foraging grounds.
RACHEL (over speaker):
And they are off,
not to return for probably
two more years to this nesting
beach to come and lay more eggs.
NARRATOR: As the turtles
begin their long migration,
the work at Disney goes on.
RACHEL: We've seen our
green turtle population numbers
go up across the
state of Florida,
and our loggerhead sea turtle
population is remaining stable.
My biggest hope is that
this trend will be mirrored
in populations across
the rest of the world.
That's why we're
all in this role and
we're committed
for the long haul.
NARRATOR: Walt Disney's
dream was to create living,
breathing parks
for guests to enjoy.
Here, thousands of cast
members nurture that dream and
help it to flourish.
Through happy times and sad.
DR. NATALIE: We had to
make the hard decision of
euthanizing Spike.
Despite the fact that
it was devastating for us,
it was something
that we needed to do.
He was getting worse
and we needed to make
the right decision for him.
These are some of
the hardest days.
For me, being able to meet
these gorillas, meet Spike...
RACHEL: Yeah.
DR. NATALIE: And to
work with you guys,
I've been able to spend
so much time with them and
I've learnt so much more
and we've had hard times...
RACHEL: Yeah.
DR. NATALIE: And you guys have
been able to get them through
the hard times and keep them
as a cohesive friendly group.
And to me that's been remarkable
and a highlight of my career to
be able to do that.
RACHEL: Thank you.
So I'm gonna give these guys a
call and we'll watch the boys
come out and you can kinda get a
feel for how they're doing now.
Hey, are you guys
ready to ship boys out?
WOMAN (over radio):
They're coming out now.
DR. NATALIE: Here we go.
RACHEL: Oh there's Gus.
Yes, our old man.
NARRATOR: The bachelor gorillas
are still coming to terms with
the loss of Spike.
RACHEL: So see
normally Kejana would run...
Hey, bud.
He's looking back,
he's making sure Gus is there.
He's definitely adjusting.
DR. NATALIE: How's
Zawadi been doing?
RACHEL: Zawadi used to always
pace himself according to Spike
so Spike was often
very slow because of his...
DR. NATALIE: Yeah.
RACHEL: Disability, and you
can see he's coming right out,
he's moving out further
because he doesn't have
to do that anymore.
You know, they were
together for 25 years.
And so it's a complete change.
It's really interesting
because gorillas actually do
seem to grieve
almost like people.
It's, it's been really
hard for the gorillas.
And it's been really hard
for the caregivers as well.
I want them to understand how
proud we are of them for all
the efforts they gave for
Spike and how much better
they really did make his life.
I think that is the one thing to
be said about being a keeper and
being a vet is that this is,
this is kind of what we signed
up for is we know this is gonna
happen and we make things work
and we move forward, even
when the bad things happen,
and I think that's,
that's what makes us so strong.
We'll, we'll all get
through it because that's
what we can do for Spike.
DR. NATALIE: Let
me give you a hug.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.