00:00 Hovering, scouting, and soon perhaps life-saving.
00:07 This is Xena.
00:09 Zoo Emergency Nutrition by Air.
00:11 It's a custom designed drone attachment that could soon be used in fires, floods or droughts.
00:16 The idea is that you can get out there quickly, strap it to a drone, fill it with all kinds
00:20 of different food items that might be suitable for all the different animals in that particular
00:24 patch of bush, and fly out and disperse food across quite a wide area at fairly short notice,
00:29 quite cheaply too.
00:31 It's an extension of Zoos Victoria's drone arsenal which is used to survey habitats,
00:35 3D map landscapes and track animals.
00:38 And an example of the innovations that Zoos Victoria spends more than $250,000 a year
00:43 to develop.
00:44 But not all innovations are up high.
00:46 Some are closer to the heart, like the Mini Pulse Oximeter.
00:49 This technology is very innovative and really important to what we do because historically
00:55 we wouldn't be able to count the heart rate of certain species.
00:59 Young animals have really fast heart rates.
01:01 Stethoscopes can be too large for accurate readings of some Australian animals.
01:05 That includes the critically endangered Mountain Pygmy Possum, which was only rediscovered
01:10 in the 60s, making every single one precious.
01:13 They are about 40 grams, they can get up to 60, 70 grams and they hibernate under the
01:18 snow.
01:19 Other animals on the endangered list in Australia include this elusive bird.
01:23 The Planswanderer is in terms of evolutionary distinctness not like any other bird on the
01:29 planet.
01:30 It's on its own family tree.
01:32 Standing just 12 to 15 centimetres tall, there are as few as 250 left in the wild.
01:37 We can't always see them, but if you're in the right place at the right time you can
01:41 hear them.
01:42 So for the past five years, song meters developed with Museums Victoria have been set up to
01:47 listen for the bird's call with great success.
01:50 You can put them into a much broader area across the landscape, you can have a whole
01:55 array of these recorders and the birds are showing up in places that we may not have
02:01 assessed as best quality habitat.
02:04 Song meters are being placed in Western Victoria and it's hoped Xena will be ready, but not
02:08 needed any time soon.
02:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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