Magic of Disney's Animal Kingdom (2020–…): Season 2, Episode 5 - Gorilla Divemaster - full transcript

♪ ♪

WOMAN: Oh man.

When you get a dive

that you can just

kind of relax

and watch your
animals' behaviors.

I'll have people ask me like

Oh, fish don't have
personalities, do they?

Oh they totally,

all of them have personalities.

Sometimes I try to
join the school of fish.



But I don't think they'll
let me in their clique.

I don't think I'm cool enough.

(laughs).

(theme music playing).

(squawking)

JEN: We usually get here
pretty early in the morning,

it's dark out.

Badru's sleeping right now.

NARRATOR: Outside, the team
prepares a special start to

21 year old Badru's day.

JEN: One of his
favorite things is fresh dirt.

He's very excited about it.

It's pretty cute.

Horticulture added a
bunch of clay for us,



but we're gonna mix it up, make
it almost like a thick oatmeal.

They will be able to
roll around and have fun in

their nice little play bath.

It needs to be the
right consistency,

'cause I want him to be
able to sink it a little bit.

I love to do
extra stuff for Badru.

Totally makes it worth it when
that alarm goes off at 3:00 am.

♪ ♪

KORI: Good morning. Hi Badru.

Did you have a good night sleep?

(laughs).

JEN: Badru is the best rhino.

He loves people,
he is so expressive.

KORI: You ready for the day?

JEN: As keepers, we use enrichment to help
him do more active things.

If you watch Badru when he goes
out on his wallow, it's great.

(bellows)

NARRATOR: Rhino spa time.

JEN: Look at him go.

Oh, he's seen the bath.

And he's heading
straight for it.

This is exactly what
he would do in the wild.

So, it may just look like Badru's playing
in the mud right now,

which he is, but it's also
extremely important for his care

and for his overall health.

All rhinos need the mud bath
to help protect their skin from

sunburn or parasites.

It makes me so happy
to see Badru having fun.

And as keepers, we're always
trying to find ways to make

their habitat the
best possibly it can be.

NARRATOR: Behind the scenes,

the Disney science team
prepares a special device.

ANDREW: Badru is getting his
very own activity tracker today.

The activity
tracker is an anklet,

which is basically just a
belt that has a pouch on it,

which contains a health
tracker and a GPS unit.

The activity tracker here is very similar
to any type of activity watch

you might wear to track
your exercises or your steps,

which just measures
whether he's running, walking,

if he's wallowing in the mud.

It also has a GPS unit
which will tell us exactly

where Badru is, in his habitat.

So we're trying to
see how he's behaving,

which spaces he's using.

We'll use that information to
improve the way we manage him.

KORI: Black rhinos in the
wild are critically endangered.

Their populations are
dwindling due to poaching.

The more we know about Badru
and black rhinos in general,

the better for their survival.

ANDREW: This is
really just the first step.

We're hoping that rhinos all
across the country will wear

these activity trackers and we're gonna
be able to see the differences,

how rhinos behave,
how active they are across

a variety of
different institutions.

And we'll be able to improve
rhino care across the country.

BRANDY: Hi Badru.
Come on over here, buddy.

Hi.

You ready to get
some tasty treats, huh?

KORI: We have been building
up to this, I'm really excited.

It's been weeks of work,
working with him to make sure

he's comfortable
with what we're doing.

We're gonna get him in a stall,
do a little bit of training,

make sure that he's
comfortable with us.

BRANDY: Badru. Good boy.

KORI: And then as soon
as we know that he's good,

we'll go in, put the tracker
on and then we'll send him out

to the yard.

BRANDY: So I have
my eye target here,

which is just a stick
with a plastic lid on it.

I'm gonna hold it up to his
eye and that tells him which

direction I want
him to turn his body.

Good job, Badru.

So now I'm gonna ask him to hold
very still and then you guys are

good to step up to the rhino.

KORI: Okay Badru,
gonna put this on your foot.

BRANDY: So his eye
is very wide right now,

so you can see the
whites of his eyes,

which is not something
you can see a lot of.

He's a little uncomfortable
with the current situation.

KORI: I'm gonna back away.
BRANDY: Okay.

We're just gonna give
Badru a little break right now.

He's very nervous
what you're doing.

KORI: Rhinos just get wide eyed
when they're a little nervous.

It could be
Badru is just worried,

and that just is where
we step in as keepers to

make sure he's safe, we're safe.

NARRATOR: For Badru to help other rhinos
with this pioneering study,

his keepers need
to wait until he's ready.

BRANDY: We take time to build a
trusting relationship with Badru

and it's very important
to maintain that trust.

KORI: He's a little jumpy now,
so we're gonna take a step back.

NARRATOR: On the
Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail

lives a very special resident.

COURTNEY: This is our
family troop of gorillas,

they're a big group, all
of our kids were born here.

So we have Lilly,
she's our oldest, she's 12.

There she is.

Lilly is probably my favorite.

She loves to
interact with the keepers,

she and I have a
really good relationship.

She's very smart, really funny,

grabs up all the toys
and takes them for herself.

She's so cute.

And then we've
got our two youngest,

Grace has just really
started climbing the trees.

She's climbing the tree to
get that smear board there.

And she gets super,
super high up into the trees.

And then Ada, she
was born last year.

Lilly, she's taken on more
of a big sister type of role,

she does a little
bit more protecting,

a little bit more teaching.

Interesting to watch her develop
those maternal care behaviors.

Such a sweet gorilla.

You gonna lay down
back there, Lilly?

You not feeling
well this morning?

NARRATOR: But an ongoing
health issue causes concern.

COURTNEY: You're okay.

We know them very, very well,

so I can, at a glance,

know whether Lilly
is feeling well or not.

She'll kinda hunch over,
holding her stomach,

kinda crouched down.

Ever since she was young,
she's had some stomach issues.

I, so many different times to find what it
is that's making her sick.

It's sad to watch
her be that sick and

not be able to do anything.

She looks like she
might vomit again.

Oh poor thing, you're okay.

NATALIE: I've known Lilly
since the day she was born.

She's the same
age as my daughter.

We've been doing a lot of research
to find a way to make Lilly feel better.

And so we did a CT scan and
the CT scan showed that she has

gas bubbles inside of her intestinal wall
as well as outside of her bladder.

NARRATOR: Doctor Natalie and the
team refuse to give up on Lilly.

NATALIE: In humans, one way
to treat this is to do surgery,

but they've been
moving away from that and

they're are starting
to use hyperbaric oxygen.

But, this is a very
unique thing to do,

we've never really known of anyone who's
tried this in a gorilla.

So it feels like the stakes
are higher and that makes it

just a little bit more scary.

COURTNEY: Come here Lilly,
will you come up for us?

NATALIE: Lilly's
gonna be inside of this

hyperbaric oxygen
chamber with pure oxygen.

It's gonna ago
into her bloodstream,

push those bubbles out
and we're really hoping that

this treatment is the solution.

COURTNEY: It's really hard
for us as keepers to see her

like that, just to know that
there's nothing that we can do.

NARRATOR: This treatment could be Lilly's
only chance of improving.

COURTNEY: Honestly, she's one
of my favorites, I love her.

I just really hope that we can find a way
to make her feel better.

♪ ♪

KELLY: It's a big number,
we're very excited about it.

NARRATOR: A big day
dawns on Discovery Island,

for some of its
most beloved residents.

KELLY: We have a birthday party going for
our Galapagos tortoises,

they turn ten years old today.

The Galapagos tortoises
are my absolute favorites,

don't tell Bruce the Catfish.

NARRATOR: To help her
buddies celebrate double digits,

keeper Kelly
prepares a birthday cake,

tortoise style.

KELLY: From our
animal nutrition center,

we've got a big block of
what we call herbivore gel,

basically got all their
vitamins and minerals in there,

in a nice kind of
a cake-like form.

The sweet potato and
the strawberries on top are

just an added bonus.

I think it's gonna be
really big hit with them.

NARRATOR: Here
come the birthday boys.

(crickets chirping)

KELLY: Nothing happens
fast with a tortoise.

Come on everybody.

We have six juvenile
Galapagos tortoises,

their names are Phantom,
Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummy,

Creature and Wolfman.

(lightning strikes)

NARRATOR: It's a
reptilian monster mash.

KELLY: They all have
this Halloween-type theme.

Come on, Mummy.

They're going to
live 100 plus years.

They definitely have a
little bit more momentum than

some of the older tortoises.

Creature was the first one.

(laughs).

Come on, you're
gonna miss the strawberry.

Come on, ridiculous.

Do you wanna try
to get, Wolfman, off?

Being that they're babies,

they don't really
care about personal space,

they don't really care
where they're supposed to be.

Wolfman being sideways
on top of Frankenstein

doesn't surprise me at all.

NARRATOR: Bon Appetit, Wolfman.

KELLY: A lot of people don't
think reptiles have personality,

but they definitely do.

Creature has sweet
potato all over herself.

WOMAN: You guys
are gonna need a bath.

KELLY: Oh totally.

What are you doing, Dracs?
You want another strawberry?

You didn't really get in there.

On the islands of the Galapagos,
the plant life that's there,

anything that's really bright,

that's what
attracts the tortoises in.

Hibiscus flowers.

Mimicking that here,
we do the strawberries,

we've got the sweet potato.

Pretty much any
color that they see,

they're gonna go after.

NARRATOR: But Phantom eyes
something even more appealing.

KELLY: Come
on Phantom, this way.

Phantom, where are you going?

You're going the wrong way.

Go that way.

NARRATOR: His favorite keeper.

KELLY: Okay.

He just wants scratches.

You want birthday scratches?

NARRATOR: Dracula also
wants a bite of the action.

KELLY: See, now he's
gonna stand up for you.

I want pettings too.

Galapagos tortoises do something
called a finch response.

Dracula's standing up
and standing very still,

in the wild, there's a
specific kind of bird that

will dance in front of
them and illicit this response.

NARRATOR: On his
native Galapagos,

Dracula would stand tall so the
finches can clean off parasites

and bugs that may annoy him.

KELLY: For them to have not
experienced that in the wild,

but to know how to
do it from their hatch,

is pretty cool.

We can celebrate their tenth birthday and
then 100 years from now,

watch back when they were
so little and so mischievous.

It's a lotta fun to get to play
with the Galapagos tortoises.

(overlapping chatter)

NATALIE: Remember,
keep everything quiet,

slow and gentle.

NARRATOR: Backstage
at Gorilla Falls...

NATALIE: When
Lilly's feeling badly,

it really makes
your heart break,

because you can just tell
how uncomfortable she is.

So you've got these big
gas bubbles that are trapped,

they're right
next to the bladder.

If these bubbles get bigger,
it will get worse.

She's just gonna
be in constant pain.

And we're really hoping that
this treatment is the solution.

NARRATOR: Lilly gets ready
to travel the 90 minute long

car ride off site.

NATALIE: Today's adventures are
gonna be a little bit different.

NARRATOR: Her ground-breaking
treatment will take place at

an equine center, a
facility with a chamber

big enough to cater to gorillas.

NATALIE: Normally when we're
working on gorillas we have

them fully anesthetized.

We can't have her
asleep in the chamber,

so we're gonna have
to get her there awake,

have her calm and pretty much
still during this procedure.

NARRATOR: So keepers must
first separate Lilly from

her close-knit family.

COURTNEY: First thing
that's gotta go correctly,

we actually have
to split Gino off.

Close the yellow hydraulic.

And then Azizi and
Cory and then Kashada.

Okay, locks are good.

NATALIE: You've got
this social animal,

to take her out, it
just makes it hard.

We're just gonna sedate her
a little bit to try to get her

into her crate and keep her calm
and happy the rest of the day.

NARRATOR: The
sedative acts quickly.

NATALIE: Breathing nicely.

WOMAN: One, two, three.

NATALIE: Soon as you guys are situated,
I'll give her the reversal.

I was really fretting
about this part of it.

Reversal's going in.

Okay.

Once she's awake and sitting,
then we can get going.

WOMAN: Sitting up.

Doctor Natalie,
she is sitting up.

NATALIE: She's sitting up.

(laughs).

That's amazing. Sweet girl.

Let's go.

(laughs).

WOMAN: Watch your feet.
WOMAN 2: Okay.

NARRATOR: Safely in the truck,
Lilly travels over 90 miles to

the Equine Performance
Innovative Center in Ocala.

COURTNEY: Doing a
great job, she really is.

NATALIE: That's our girl.

This is a very unusual step.

I don't know of
anybody who's done

this treatment in a gorilla.

It just makes you a little bit more
concerned about the outcome.

We may be the first to try this.

Putting Lilly into this chamber,

you're increasing
the atmospheric pressure,

so it's as though we were to put
a scuba diving outfit on her and

sending her down into the ocean.

She's going to 60 feet.

NARRATOR: Slowly, the air pressure around
Lilly will increase,

hopefully compressing her body

and removing the gas
bubbles in her abdomen.

NATALIE: What we're hoping is the gas
bubbles get really small,

so they actually then go into
her bloodstream and eventually,

she'll breathe it out.

That will alleviate any of
the discomfort she's getting.

But when we close it, we're not
gonna have any access to her.

Worst fear is if she's going
to get upset and start shaking,

so we've got all
these mattresses,

so that even if she does that,
she can't tip herself over.

KELLY: Okay, one, two, three.

Here we go.

ALBERTO: Now we're gonna 30
to 45 minutes, depending on her.

NATALIE: Okay.
COURTNEY: Thank you.

NARRATOR: Lilly's air increases
to three times normal pressure.

ALBERTO: So basically
what she's doing right now,

is she's diving in
the ocean, going down and

then she's feeling the pressure.

COURTNEY: Didn't
expect to be so nervous.

I'm hopeful that
this is gonna work,

she'll get to be
reunited with her family and

everything will be great.

NATALIE: The whole morning
has been just nerve wracking,

each step of the way.

NATALIE: Ooh. It's exciting.

This disease is very uncommon,

if we can treat this without
having to do anything invasive,

that's gonna be
ground-breaking for us.

ALBERTO: It's like she was
in bottom of the ocean and

now she slowly coming up.

NARRATOR: It's time for
Lilly's air pressure to

return to normal.

ALBERTO: Opening, ready?

COURTNEY: Hi Lilly.

NATALIE: She's
got the last seeds.

How are you?

She's like, I don't know
what you guys are doing.

That was crazy, wasn't it?

It was crazy.
She's perfectly calm.

COURTNEY: Oh my gosh.
NATALIE: Really amazing.

COURTNEY: You're
such a good girl.

(sighs).

COURTNEY: You
did such a good job.

NATALIE: Oh boy.

(sighs).

WOMAN: Now she's decompressing.

NATALIE: Now I'm
decompressing, absolutely.

(laughs).

Are you ready to go back home?

(laughs).

Yeah, now we can head back.

Now we just hope it worked.

COURTNEY: Hey sweetie.
Ready to go home?

I think she's gonna go back and
tell her family a lotta stories.

WOMAN: You're okay sweetie.

It's okay.

NARRATOR: As Lilly
starts her long journey,

back home, her family
waits for her return.

COURTNEY: They're such a
tight-knit family group,

that it's always hard
to remove one of them.

Even if it's
just for a few hours.

They recognize that
that animal is missing.

WOMAN: One, two, three.

NATALIE: Good girl.
COURTNEY: Nice job.

That's a good girl.
You did so good today, Lilly.

You happy to be home?

NARRATOR: After
six hours of separation,

Lilly prepares to
reunite with her family.

COURTNEY: They're ready for you.
They missed you.

WOMAN: We're gonna
open everything up,

so we'll go ahead and open hers.

Good girl.

Yeah, you ready? You ready?

They're coming. She's coming.

Aww.

(grunting)

NATALIE: She
looks pretty amazing.

She didn't miss a beat today.

COURTNEY: There's Lilly.

It's always fun to
reunite them after a procedure.

Oh hi, Gino.
What's going on?

Lilly, did you
tell them what you saw?

She's telling 'em all about it.

(laughs).

COURTNEY: We're all
just really hoping that

it's gonna be the
thing that's gonna help her.

NATALIE: The keepers are really gonna know
what's going on with Lilly.

They really know her behavior,
so if the treatment works

she's gonna be feeling great.

But, we are gonna eventually
do a CT on her to see if

the bubbles are actually gone.

NARRATOR: In 11 weeks, Lilly
will have her follow up scan

with Doctor Natalie.

Until then, her team
closely monitors her health.

NATALIE: This kind of an endeavor takes an
incredibly talented and

dedicated team of professionals.

Being here at
Disney's Animal Kingdom makes

things like that possible.

KORI: We tried to put the
activity tracker on Badru,

but he wasn't
quite ready for it.

NARRATOR: Backstage
at the rhino barn...

BRANDY: Come on
over here, Badru.

We gave Badru a little break,
Badru's more relaxed now and

he looks like he's
in a better place.

COURTNEY: So Badru, right.

NARRATOR: The team hopes Badru
is ready to wear his tracker and

help other rhinos.

BRANDY: Good job.
Let's try that again.

KORI: If you're ready,
I'll step up.

BRANDY: I'm ready.
KORI: Coming up, Badru.

Just gonna work my way down.

I'm here Badru, gonna
put this on your foot.

Reaching in.

BRANDY: Okay.
KORI: Ready?

Gonna reach around.

BRANDY: Okay.
KORI: About to secure.

Okay, looks good.

BRANDY: Good boy.
ANDREW: It's on?

KORI: Yeah, excellent.

ANDREW: Nice.
KORI: Yay, Badru.

And he's showing it off.
The epitome of fashion.

So this is great, this is
exactly what we wanted to see.

Badru is just
walking down the corridor,

he's then heading right out to exhibit
with this activity tracker and

we get to see how
he reacts to that.

ANDREW: The anklet's
fitting him perfectly.

And we're really hopeful
that we can get a really

good understanding of
his 24 hour activity.

So we're kind of
breaking new ground here.

A lot of what we're doing
with this research is possible

because of the relationships,

the trust that the animal
caretakers have with Badru.

KORI: The goal for Badru is
to wear this activity tracker

five days in a row.

Today is definitely a test to see if Badru
can keep the tracker on.

♪ ♪

ZAK: The solar array that
we have here is phenomenal,

it generates enough power to power two of
our four theme parks.

It's a massive area of land.

Disney takes environmentality

really seriously, we
wanna be as green as possible,

even better than just
making green renewable energy.

We wanna provide habitat for wildlife
that's here around our properties.

And one of the best
ways that we can do that,

is plant plants that will
support our native pollinators.

When we think
about conversation,

we often times think of
big charismatic animals

that are far, far away.

But the vast majority of animals on the
entire planet are insects.

They really make up the backbone
of biodiversity and pollinators

in particular are responsible
for helping plants reproduce.

I see these insects and I
wanna chase them down and

learn more about them.

(laughter).

ZAK: Get, ah!

Oh my God, there's another one.

Oh! I got it!

Every time you find one,

it's a new discovery
and it's a new adventure.

That front vein of the
wing is really strong,

it's like a flagpole to a flag.

So if you just gently pinch it,
it doesn't hurt 'em at all and

you can really
easily transport them.

Well let's put him down here
and see if the wants to forage

or maybe he'll just fly away.

The Monarch butterflies
they taste with their feet,

that way they can just land
on it and they know whether

it's something
they wanna eat or not.

Whoa! Gorgeous.

Oh, come on.

WOMAN: Did you get it?
ZAK: No.

For Disney conservation, we
wanna know that we're really

having an impact and that we
have the data to back that up.

(screams)

Where'd it go?

We've documented over
70 species of butterflies that

make use of this space.

Get him! Get him!

What you got?

WOMAN: I got fritillary.
ZAK: Oh nice.

One of my favorite things
about Gulf fritillaries,

is if you look
at the bottom side,

it's super reflective, it looks
like a bunch of solar panel.

This way, they can flash to
each other for communication.

WOMAN: Be free.
ZAK: Aww.

(laughter).

WOMAN: Beautiful.

ZAK: The world is full of
this life and oftentimes,

we're just so busy, we
don't realize that it's there.

All we have to do, is
take a moment to look and

it's right there, for us to see.

MARY ANN: We are
on Sunset Savannah,

I dare say the best Savannah here at
Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.

(moos)

NARRATOR: Grazing animals,

rare birds and
countless tiny bugs

call this pasture home.

Together, they create
a flourishing ecosystem.

MARY ANN: I love this, because
I get to be out and about,

hanging with
the animals, outside.

Looks like our boys are
in a loose little group,

our roan antelope
so we'll pass by them.

Roan antelope are cool, because
they don't take any guff.

They are a fight species, so
usually they're stand off-ish.

This is Charlie.

He has a special
place in my heart,

'cause my Grandpa Rook,
his first name was Charlie.

Love my grandpa.

Charlie is great, he does like
to approach and he's curious.

And the fact that he wants
to interact with us is awesome.

NARRATOR: Charlie's care team
notices he's not himself lately.

MARY ANN: We started to
weigh him weekly and he is

consistently falling below the
line of our other two males.

Our largest one is
around 200 kilograms and

Charlie is around 158 kilograms.

Highly concerning to us.

We are starting to see his ribs,

we're starting to
see hip points on him,

we wanna have a healthy
layer of some fat and

muscle in these areas.

When you're giving them
a smorgasbord of food and

you're watching an
animal lose weight,

something is wrong.

He does not look correct.

His coat is also
looking dull too.

I sincerely and desperately
hope that he's gonna be okay,

because their
health is, is our concern.

This is not just
a job, so as a keeper,

and you can't figure
it out, it's a failure.

They can't speak for themselves,
we have to speak for them.

DEIDRE: Hey Charlie-boy,
how you doing?

Don't be mad at me.

Sorry.

All right.

We're doing a diagnostic
exam today to evaluate causes

for his weight loss.

What exactly could be causing
him to have a great appetite but

not be able to
maintain his body condition?

I can put the...

We don't take
anesthesia lightly,

it doesn't go without risk.

We wanna be as efficient as
we can and do our procedure

as quickly as possible.

So we're looking in
his eyes, in his ears.

BETSY: His eyes are open.

DEIDRE: There isn't
any things of concern.

BETSY: He looks good.

I'm feeling along all of his teeth and
how they wear together,

if he has any points
or ridges that can be a problem

for the ruminants
to grind their food.

The teeth surface can
be an indication of why

he's not keeping weight on.

Nothing bad,
it's pretty typical.

NARRATOR: Charlie's
teeth look good,

but the rest of his
mouth still needs checking.

DIANNA: His gum color
is pretty important,

it can tell you how well
he's circulating peripherally.

He looks a little pale
to me, he could be anemic,

that would make sense.

DEIDRE: Are you guys
okay if we pull this leg out?

Okay.

(overlapping chatter)

DEIDRE: Go ahead and
take a blood sample,

just to see how
he is oxygenating.

Certainly anemia, which is
a low red blood cell count,

could be contributing to
the clinical concerns that

we're seeing today.

BETSY: We just put in a IV catheter and
collected a blood sample,

it's very thin, kind of waterier
than I would like to see.

So, I can tell even before we
run the test that he is anemic

from looking at the sample.

His anemia is probably
caused by parasites,

it's severe parasite infections
that can cause weight loss,

muscle wasting,
really severe disease.

We know that we have parasites
in the pastures where he lives.

NARRATOR: Florida's
subtropical climate makes

dealing with
parasites a fact of life.

DEIDRE: We have
such lush savannas,

that that's a perfect environment
for our parasites to grow.

The particular parasite that
can affect species like Charlie,

is a worm called haemonchus.

NARRATOR: Keepers give animals
plenty of blood free browse to

reduce grazing from the ground.

And use natural pest control methods to
kill parasites in manure.

And if one of
them does become sick,

treatment is targeted.

DEIDRE: We have the technology
to be able to test these

parasites to see what drugs
that they're sensitive to,

so that we can be very strategic
about what drugs we use.

Once we give his de-wormer,
we'll be ready to wake him up.

BETSY: Okay, I'm gonna poke him.

Any reaction to that?

During the procedure, I treated
him with an anti-parasitic drug,

we should see a drop
in that parasite number.

Okay, Levamisole's
in and then the iron,

I'm gonna give in a
couple of different sites,

'cause it's a big volume.

So I'm treating Charlie
today with an iron injection

and so the iron will help
boost his ability to regenerate

those red blood cells.

Okay, iron's in.

Treatments are in.

DEIDRE: Thank you.

We've treated him
today for those parasites,

we'll be following up to see
what that parasite load looks

like and by then, we should
have a clear plan of where

we're going with his care.

BETSY: Reversals are in.

NARRATOR: Charlie makes
his first move to recovery.

And can now return
home to Sunset Savannah.

DEIDRE: That was
a great reversal.

BETSY: Yeah.

NATALIE: We're at half
an hour after injection.

So far, so good.

NARRATOR: Lilly the gorilla arrives at the
veterinary treatment room

for a scan to
check her recovery,

11 weeks after her procedure.

NATALIE: Right, one, two, three.

Not that I can win-win.

(laughs).

Oh boy.

We're hoping we might
not have to do this again.

Watch her like a hawk.

RACHEL: The CT is so important
because it's gonna be the thing

that tells us whether
or not we still have

those bubbles in her gut.

It's tense and it's exciting,

all at the same time, because
none of this stuff has ever been

done on a gorilla before.

NATALIE: This is the
time that I get nervous.

NARRATOR: It's time
to find out the results

of Lilly's
ground-breaking treatment.

NATALIE: I have both
of them side by side.

So on the right is the old one
and on the left is the new one.

You can see...

RACHEL: This is the old one?

NATALIE: Yeah
this is the old one,

so you see that, where
it's no part of the intestine.

So there were these two bubbles
that we've seen for a while now.

Here, this is today.

And then as we scroll through...

Nothing.

RACHEL: Nothing
as in we think...

NATALIE: No bubbles, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

To me, that is awesome.

RACHEL: Oh, man!
NATALIE: That's pretty cool.

RACHEL: That's really cool.

NATALIE: It's nice to
have a win; diagnose, treat,

get better, it's
what we live for, right?

NARRATOR: Back to full health,

Lilly heads back
out with her family.

NATALIE: Back here
we've seen her gain weight,

coat is looking so much better,
she's feeling better.

To me, that is awesome.

We know that hyperbaric
oxygen treatment is possible.

This tool can be used for
so many disease processes.

And this can certainly be applied to a
lot of different gorillas.

COURTNEY: She is running around,

she's playing with
her brothers more.

She's got this attitude about her that
she did not have before.

She has become so sassy.

NARRATOR: After
Charlie's parasite treatment,

he receives a visit from
his loving keeper, Mary Ann.

MARY ANN: Charlie
is looking way better,

we're getting
some weight on him,

we've found some foods
that he really, really enjoys.

He's got that thicker body,

so the fact that he's gaining
weight and feels strong enough,

he's testing the
other males out here.

And they're doing sparring,
so this is how they learn.

And his body condition, we
just weighed him the other day,

he was 198 kilograms.

That is spot on.

NARRATOR: But it's not just about
checking how Charlie looks.

MARY ANN: I see a fecal,
is this Charlie?

I think we got a poop!

We got a poop!

We're gonna be collecting
a fecal on him to see if

we can check on parasite load.

Ah, now there night be several
piles of fecal matter out here.

But, if it's warm to
the touch, that's fresh.

I don't wanna brag, but
not everybody gets to do this.

This is looking good.

Charlie, you are
especially saucy today.

I might have to hold my nose.

I think our vet tech Pia's
gonna be super happy to break

this apart and look for stuff.

Charlie, thank you!

PIA: This is so exciting...

(gasps)

It even says Charlie on it.

Today, I'm gonna be
looking at Charlie's fecal,

our little roan friend.

I'm gonna be seeing if
there are any parasites.

We're doing a special
test called a McMasters,

which is actually gonna tell
us exactly how many eggs are

per gram in the, in the feces.

There's a certain threshold of numbers
that we're okay with per gram.

So, right now, I'm
putting it on the microscope.

An hour ago, this was in the
animal and now we're looking and

we kinda almost get a real
time look of what is going on.

See if we can see
any parasite eggs.

Oh, there we go.

There's one, right here
is our little parasite,

it's a little egg right there.

Currently, I'm only
seeing one, which is good.

We do see a low level
of these parasites.

So the medication has worked,
Charlie's parasite level is now

safe and no longer
causing him any problems.

MARY ANN: So the fact that he's
feeling better, I'm thrilled.

It's made my day.

Parasite load is
much lower than it was,

it's in the area that the
vets are comfortable with.

We can definitely
see an improvement on

his body condition, he's
hanging out with the group,

he's looking awesome out here.

We don't leave the job at work,
the job comes home with us,

he come home with me.

That's how it is
in animal keeping.

It's just great to see that
everyone working together for

the welfare of that animal.

KORI: I'm curious to see how
many steps Badru takes in a day.

ANDREW: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Badru receives a visit
from the Disney science team,

to see if he's taken the
first step to better rhino care

across the country.

ANDREW: If we went in the wallow,
would he follow us?

BRANDY: He probably would, yes.

Is he going for the wallow?

ANDREW: No.
BRANDY: Not yet.

ANDREW: Looking for more food.

BRANDY: He wore his activity
tracker for the first time for

five days, which is
a big deal for him.

ANDREW: Badru wore
the tracker, no problem.

He didn't show any signs
of discomfort, very comfortable.

We are super happy, this is
exactly what we expected and

we're really excited
to see what data we get.

This part has
definitely been a success,

now it's time to take it
off and take a closer look.

BRANDY: So he deserves
this whole bowl of treats.

KORI: Right, you ready Brandy?
BRANDY: I'm ready.

And Badru's ready too.

KORI: Let's see
what it looks like.

All right, taking it off now.

There you go, Badru.

BRANDY: You did it buddy.

KORI: It looks good
underneath the skin.

And around.

ANDREW: Thanks Kori.

It's a little soggy
and a little muddy,

but the devices
appear to be okay.

We'll plug into the
laptop and see what we get.

BRANDY: We're really happy
that Badru did everything that

we wanted him to do.

We're looking forward to
finding out all the data that

we collected from him.

ANDREW: This is a huge moment,
this is super exciting.

Let's see how the devices did.

So now that we've extracted the
data off of the accelerometer,

we can see kind of a general
picture of Badru's activity.

So here, he was
actually really active,

we can see these high peaks,

he might've been
trotting or running.

He relaxed a little bit here,
so probably just standing and

we can actually
see when he lies down.

That's really cool that we were able to
pick up that information.

BRANDY: All this information
that we're recording is just

more good information to have,
so that we can take better care

of these rhinos
on a daily basis.

ANDREW: So look, here's the session for
Badru and we can open that up and look,

we can see a whole
bunch of data points there.

So that'll give us an idea of how he's
using his habitat space.

To I kinda see what Badru
prefers in his habitat and

potentially use that information
to make modifications that make

it the best possible space
for him to spend his time.

KORI: This study just kinda
brings it together as a whole

and helps us understand
how black rhinos are,

what their natural habits are,
what they like to do so that we

can make sure that they thrive
and continue to be here with us

for future generations.

BRANDY: You're an
ambassador for your species.

You're the best rhino.
You're the best rhino.

Yes you are.

Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.