Taronga- Whos Who in the Zoo - Season 6 Episode 03- Seal Survey
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00:00babies or animals but what if they're baby animals
00:06it was only born this morning on this all new season welcome back to the ever-changing world
00:16of taronga where you'll witness things you never thought possible you can actually hear her breathe
00:25and meet new faces oh hi buddy you'll never forget so good it's time to discover oh my god exactly
00:36who's who in this zoo
00:40on this episode taronga seal team launches we're gonna have a drone team fly over and count them
00:50hitting the skies the thermal camera on the drone actually shows the temperature of the animal
00:55and the sea they really blend in with the rocks in pursuit of their target there's one just there
01:01project pinata we've got some large balls relax relax it's not what you think we are going to
01:10pop some kangaroo mints in each of these balls can you let the lions out now please
01:16and what's got two legs hungry buddy two hands bleak to miles wheeler and is a truly rare species
01:25all righty let's go did you guess luke keeping is a bit of a side hustle for me
01:31beneath the tranquil waters of taronga seal cove something fishy is going on something very fishy
01:53so this is basically food prep 101 at taronga's marine department here at taronga we've got 16 seals
02:06so these are each of our first seals diets for the day the variety of fish that we have obviously
02:13specific to that particular seal abel over here and bondi
02:21got feed some seals
02:25and up above some seriously hungry seals are patiently waiting including one of taronga's favorites
02:41that's bondi he's one of our rescued new zealand or long-nosed fur seals so these guys are a native
02:48species to australia go specifically these guys are found here in the on the east coast
02:55one day yeah he was found on bondi beach so obviously that's where he got his name
03:02and when we found him he had a very severe injury down his left hand side
03:06these are the remnants of the scar all the way from down there back up to here the wound was
03:13consistent with a large shark it was touch and go for quite a while with bondi but the main thing is
03:19he obviously survived bondi was just a three-month-old pup when he was rescued
03:27bondi but the extent of his injuries prevented him from ever being returned to the wild
03:34it's over 10 years ago now that bondi came to us and since being here he has become a dad for a few times
03:43bondi is doing his bit for a fur seal population that was once heading towards extinction
03:54back in the early 1900s these guys were actually hunted but they have banned seal hunting and
04:01as numbers continue to increase we're more likely to see these guys breeding in the sydney
04:09in the sydney area so obviously we're going to have more interactions with people
04:14these guys although cute and cuddly and usually quite relaxed will inflict injury into people especially
04:22went back into a corner to better understand these interactions taronga is keeping a very close eye
04:30on the seal populations in sydney and beyond it's a really big important focus of ours to try and make
04:36sure these guys are in and around our environment for for not only now but obviously a long time to come
04:42so armed with bondi's seal of approval taronga's sending out one of their team
04:54on a statewide high-tech seal counting excursion
05:03the animals are the stars of taronga's two zoos
05:07but they can't shine without the massive team of volunteers
05:19and today's mission project pinata
05:25i'll give you a bit of a demonstration liz a 15-year volunteer veteran and youth at the zoo volunteers
05:34renee and camilla are perfecting the art of paper mache
05:40smooth it out the more layers the better because it'll take them a lot longer time to
05:47destroy it if you only do one or two they'll just flick it and it'll be gone
05:53sure they might not be wrangling a rhinoceros but perfect pinata preparation can be just as hairy
06:01these are for the lions it's their birthday soon and taronga's pride of lions can scarcely contain
06:11their excitement we have a beautiful family of seven lions here at taronga zoo atto is the dad
06:19maya the mum so she's our oldest lion then atto and maya had five beautiful cubs they've actually
06:28just turned three years of age when we first opened this enclosure the lions absolutely loved it and
06:36it took them quite a few months to really get used to all the little nooks and crannies the different
06:40terrain that we have but over time they come out and it's the it's the same enclosure so it's our job
06:46then to make sure that we're providing something new and different to them every single day to keep
06:52it interesting so today we're going to give them pinatas these are fantastic this is going to be
06:59a really exciting day particularly for the younger ones so we've got some large balls we've got a
07:04watermelon because of course lions have watermelons in the wild we've got ibis as well good old australian
07:11native uh not those ones these ones also affectionately known as the bin chicken okay so now we are going
07:23to pop some kangaroo mints in each of these balls they've got lovely holes at the top already made for
07:30us so we're going to pop some food in there and that'll just add to the lion's joy this morning not
07:36only do they get to play with these rip them apart but then they're going to find some food inside them
07:41i think i'm going to use about that size that way it's a nice nice amount for a lion and maybe just
07:48should we just do one per ball yeah i'll do and any leftover roux mints we can hide it around the
07:54exhibit pulling the balls apart ripping them open and then finding some food inside that all mimics that
08:00kind of hunting stalking chasing prey behavior and which is so important for our lions that means
08:07doesn't stand a chance we've got two more to do well that's if those lions make it through liz's
08:14paper mache packaging first it's such an important part of our jobs just as important as the all the
08:22cleaning and feeding that we're doing is providing our animals with things that they would do exactly
08:27like they would do in the wild over at the new amphibian and reptile conservation center
08:38there are more than 40 scaly and slithery species to care for
08:44hungry buddy and with all those bellies to fill feeding time is always a performance
09:02so this is our food prep room this is where we make all of our food for our animals so chopping salad
09:07and um collecting bugs crickets and wood roaches are on the menu it's not a bad office we get to
09:15play with all these amazing species and learn new things about them each time we come to work which is
09:20a real buzz i've been a casual reptile keeper here at taronga for nearly three years now as a reptile
09:29keeper my job is to look after different parts of the reptile collection look after all the animals that
09:35we've got off display these are our breeding pair of red bar dragons this is a male here with all of
09:42his bright blues and yellows and oranges and this is a female here the the you know duller gray brown
09:50and these guys have actually just finished their breeding season so the last couple of months there's
09:54been a lot of head bobbing and dancing around from him trying to get her attention and it paid off we
10:00got a little clutch of eggs out of him the other week which is really exciting
10:08yeah so this is five-year-old luke's dream job if you told him he'd be standing here
10:14being a reptile keeper for a living he'd be pretty stoked
10:17a new day luke to miles wheeler
10:26go ahead luke herald's the start of a new shift for luke hey miles just leaving the hospital now to
10:31come down and check out the get-go and while the uniform's the same today's job couldn't be more
10:37different we've got some time we'll do the basilisk as well i'm pretty lucky i get to wear two hats here at
10:45taronga keeping is you know a bit of a side hustle for me i've graduated uni a couple of years ago and
10:51now i'm working as a vet as well which is you know an even a bigger dream all righty let's go
10:59we're just here to do a bit of a recheck on a rough nob-tailed gecko who's got some skin issues
11:05hey hello and luke good how are you doing yeah i'm good thank you very much
11:09now while taronga is known for caring for so many rare species i love this room this time
11:17the rare species is luke taronga's only keeper cum vet so there's our little one that's been having
11:25a slight issue as you can see underneath yeah so it's a decent abrasion she's got there so this is
11:32our female knob-tailed gecko she's got a bit of an abrasion and ulceration on her on her belly i think
11:37we're dealing with a bit of a local infection there definitely hollow her in the belly like
11:42last time i saw her she was sitting quite deep we'll definitely stick with the flammazine yep but
11:48i might throw pain relief in the mix as well one of my favorite animals to work with they're just full
11:54of personality i think we're on the mend the amazing thing about working at taronga is the fact that
12:03it's such a big diverse collection and right on cue keeper uh uh vet luke is about to be faced
12:14with a much bigger challenge got a few lesions around his neck it looks like some sort of
12:20strangulation or crushing injury yeah definitely very critical still to come louise to georgia can you let
12:29the lions out now please a wild birthday surprise this is going to be a really exciting day and the
12:37mystery injury i'm not convinced we've still got a heartbeat threatening an aussie icon's life
12:46wildlife conservation is one of taronga's highest priorities and today's mission has taronga's
12:54animal behavior expert traveling to the sparkling waters of sydney's northern beaches
13:04we're here at baron joey to do a survey of the fur seals
13:09this is the first time we've ever surveyed the entire population of fur seals in new south wales
13:15for the last few years now there's been a growing haul out of seals
13:19here at baron joey a haul out is where you get seals coming and resting and while it's great to
13:25have them here they can be hauling out on places like boats or on people's front lawns and so there's
13:31potential for them to come into conflict with boat strike and entanglement in fishing gear
13:36hey jamie good see ya great yeah let's go
13:39it's great weather for it taronga has teamed up with the department of environment to learn more
13:50about seal and human interactions so now we need to know how many seals there are and where they're
13:56coming out along the coast so that we can manage those interactions this high-tech seal team are
14:03testing a new piece of kit designed to zero in on these hard to spot creatures
14:11we're going to have a drone team fly over and count them
14:17and then another team including myself are going to count the seals using binoculars
14:21so that we can compare the results that we're seeing from the drone and from the boat
14:26if the results match the drone will get the green light for future surveys
14:33but before they can count them they're gonna need to find them
14:38we're up here at hitwater which is about an hour north of the sydney cbd and it's it's around here
14:45on barren joey headland that the seals haul out isn't it you find them here at the western end of the
14:50headland and the reason for that is that they get protected from the predominant southeast swell
14:56and they're also protected from the wind it's a fantastic spot for them million dollar views
15:03these million dollar views come with a multi-million dollar price tag
15:08so do you reckon we actually start from this end or and work our way around or
15:12it's where sydney's elite come to relax and supposedly so do the seals yeah we've got two main
15:19focal areas with this uh shark crop you might as well go in and have a look and
15:28they're really cryptic aren't they they really blend in with the rocks well it did say supposedly
15:34they can also get in under the ledges sometimes yeah the brown of the first hill it's a bit hard to tell
15:40here we go there's one just there
15:47and from the pacific ocean to taronga's great southern ocean habitat
15:54hey buddy keeper ben is paying a visit to one of australia's iconic ocean birds
16:04pelicans are found in most areas of australia especially along the coastline
16:10pelicans were never my favorite birds back before i started keeping
16:14but the first animals i ever really worked close with was these two boys
16:18hello my and the more i got to work with them the more i got to see their incredible personalities
16:24good boy um yeah so in the morning when i'm coming in when you do see that wing flapping behavior
16:30that's a anticipation behavior
16:33oh buddy you look hungry that's them just getting really excited that they're about to eat
16:37hello handsome and who wouldn't be excited about a fresh seafood feast this morning we're just
16:46working on some tactile behaviors being able to check his entire body condition especially around
16:50his chest where his keel is so we can make sure that he's not going underweight
16:57come here buddy touch what we're really working towards with these guys is those cooperative care
17:02behaviors good boy touch good at the start they didn't trust me as much and i got to build through
17:10that rapport with them hey football having that trust and having that rapport with their trainer
17:16it removes stress from their environment good boy and an environment free of stress touch means
17:22these pelicans can live a very long good and fish-filled life both our two boys were born in human
17:31care in another facility and relocated to us about 16 years ago now but here at taronga being on the
17:37harbor we do get quite a lot of rescues coming into our wildlife hospital especially pelicans and seabirds
17:41in general taronga is sydney's largest catchment for seabird rehabilitation we do quite often get them
17:48coming in after being hit by a bow or caught in awkward positions and across at the wildlife hospital
17:54just trying to hear the heart that's exactly what has happened i'm a bit concerned he might have a neck
18:02injury with his vet hat firmly on today luke is treating an injured pelican brought in by a concerned
18:10member of the public he's had an accident fairly recently he was struggling to stand before there's a
18:18bit of swelling here and he's got this lesion here too this is a pelican that's found stuck between a
18:24few wharves so he's got a few lesions around his beak and the base of his neck there and given the
18:31lesions we're seeing around his face and neck it looks like some sort of either you know strangulation
18:36or crushing injury yeah definitely very critical i'm just going to induce his anaesthetic now
18:42the wing itself feels okay the true extent of the pelican's injuries aren't obvious i don't think
18:54his pressure is very good and luke is concerned the bird might now be in shock which can cause
19:01dangerously low blood pressure just trying to hear the heart yeah it's hard to hear anything yeah
19:22i'm not convinced we've still got a heartbeat
19:23in taronga's african savannah plans are underway for a very big very proud pride party
19:39you know that's about all i can take three oh look at you legend all right so we have pinatas
19:47today for our lion family now how are we going to get through the door i've got fingers i've got
19:51fingers we got this the lions are going to get very excited the moment they see us walk past them
19:56with these toys hey guys what you guys have got yep those lions look pretty excited they're literally
20:05beside themselves all right then we have to work out where we're going to put them all the lions love
20:14this they love these activities they just have to be spaced apart enough so that all the lions can
20:18separate yeah once we've put them out we're going to see running playful behaviors that's for mr atto
20:26our daddy lion he generally doesn't partake in enrichment he just usually goes and sits and
20:32watches out for his family we're going to see if we can stand the ibis up with every one of these
20:38pinatas stuffed full of juicy meat oh awesome love it this ibis is now technically a sitting duck
20:48we want to try and make this a little bit interesting for them
20:55our cubs are three years of age
21:00and while they look like they're fully grown they still are young at heart so enrichment activities
21:05like this really get them excited and they're the ones that i expect are going to oh is that going to
21:12stay that they're the ones that i expect are going to get the most benefit out of what we're doing
21:18today well certainly more than these paper mache birds oh there we go mr ibis is up the tree all right
21:25i think are we ready to go
21:34can you let the lions out now please
21:38off the northernmost tip of sydney
21:41taronga's animal behavior expert ben is on a seal counting mission they can also get in under the
21:48ledges sometimes it's the first step of a massive project to count the australian fur seal population
21:56across the entire state this time of year we're just about reaching the time the big males start
22:01heading south to the breeding colonies problem is so far he hasn't found any they're really cryptic
22:08aren't they they really blend in with the rocks
22:10here we go there's one just there oh and another there's several you can smell them as well you know
22:21they're here but yeah yeah a bit whiffy so yeah we've got probably two slightly older individuals and
22:30one or two slightly younger ones while the seals natural camouflage does make them hard to spot among
22:38the rocks ben's seal team have come prepared armed with the very latest in surveillance technology
22:48need to do a little bit of setup on the drone
22:52i'm a drone pilot my job is to use this drone here which is a thermal drone
22:58and what we can do is put it in vantage points that you can't see from the ground or on a boat
23:02if the thermal technology works it will be a game changer making it much easier to keep track of
23:14australian fur seal populations along the coast there's a couple of cool tricks to help us find seals
23:21it can synchronize a color image with thermal image we can zoom in where a seal's camping out
23:32we're able to look and find seals that might be in the nooks and crannies around the rocks
23:40i've found another seal here on the rocks and it's just hanging out having a snooze
23:46and the thermal camera on the drone actually shows the temperature of the animal it's currently 21 degrees
23:52and once we've confirmed an identification of the seal we can drop a pin on the drone just like this
24:02and the team in the boat can confirm if they have sighted the same seal or not
24:08so there's five there while the boat team are making their own count these two are definitely new
24:14zealand i haven't seen the face of the other one they spot a problem three fishermen are heading
24:21straight towards the seals the seals are here the seals are here you know i don't want to disturb
24:29them because we won't get our drone shots if they jump in the water
24:32they can sense him guys you're going to disturb them just go that way
24:52actaronga's wildlife hospital so just going to induce his anesthetic now vets luke and naomi are
24:59examining a critically injured wild pelican that's just been rushed in it was found stuck between a
25:06few wolves before they can treat the bird's injuries they need to assess its heart rate just trying to
25:14hear the heart yeah but there's a problem the anatomy's not our friend today they've got a bunch of air
25:23sacks that sit under the skin above the the bone and muscle and they're basically giant floaties
25:30that keep an otherwise giant heavy-bodied bird afloat when it's sitting on the water
25:36those giant floaties are making it difficult for luke to find the bird's heartbeat
25:43it can be a bit tricky to hear
25:44i'll be happier once i get a decent trace the pelican's heart rate will help luke determine
25:53whether the bird is in shock and just how injured it might be we can always try a doppler on the wing
26:00yeah actually that'd be a good idea
26:04there's a vein here and this is a doppler machine so basically we'll turn the heartbeat into a noise that
26:11we can track his heartbeat with that's so difficult yeah i can't hear anything yeah i'm not convinced
26:22we've still got a heartbeat might have just been a bit too compromised yeah luke tries to locate a heartbeat
26:34one last time
26:39getting 200. finally some good news okay yeah i'm getting a
26:45a steady 200 now the ocean bird's heartbeat is consistent and back in the normal range we'll take
26:52an extra at least of that neck so now the team can get on with the job and fully investigate the pelican's
27:00injuries i'm a bit suspicious we might find um a dislocation or fracture there we'll see what we
27:07can find on x-ray just to see what's going on in this region transferring to the gassy circuit while
27:13an x-ray will give luke a much clearer picture of the pelican's long neck he'll first need to sedate it
27:20more deeply with an anesthetic gas normally we'd like to advance these tubes a fair way down there
27:26but right at his glottis here there's a bit of a membrane that pelicans have it's going to stop
27:31us going too much further the membrane stops water from passing down the pelican's throat
27:38but now it's stopping the anesthetic tube oh it's already slipped out again yeah they'll need a plan b
27:45on the barren joey peninsula on sydney's northern beaches guys the seals are here some wayward
27:59fishermen are getting too close to a herd of resting fur seals the seals are here you're going to disturb
28:07them if they jump in the water we won't get our drone shots
28:18and for taronga's ben and his partner agencies who are trying to count this seal population
28:25it's going to make a difficult job even more difficult
28:29down here there's no seals the fishermen sit on that flat rock just up there there must be a path
28:38sort of back on that flat rock
28:40so you're better off being here otherwise you're going to disturb them
28:45there's a track over that way apparently it's pretty pretty steep be careful
28:50come down this way but just go that way
29:00he's found a track yeah
29:04as the fishermen move away the skittish seals can finally relax one two three four five six seven
29:14and so can ben and the team and that goes nine
29:19yeah they've been quite active at the moment which is there's one in the water i've been looking
29:28it's important to keep your distance away from seals as the population is recovering one of the
29:35biggest pressures particularly around places like sydney is people loving seals to death and getting too
29:41close so when there is a seal hauled out it's really important to to keep your distance and 40 meters is
29:47is a good distance to stay away and also if you're walking your dog and there's a seal on the beach
29:53you want to keep your dog on a lead and keep it away from them as well their time on land is really
29:58important time for them to rest
30:0310 11. there's two further down as well off-counted 16. we'll have to see whether the drone picks up stuff
30:14we're not saying fur seals are experts at camouflage on land and in the water
30:23oh there's one in the water is it but the drone's thermal camera is giving ben and the team
30:29an unfair advantage and so if we zoom in here we can actually see a seal that's currently in the
30:34water and so we can click on the map there and it tells me the temperature of the seal
30:42it stands out quite obviously in the thermal imagery the seals are so well insulated from the cooler water
30:49their body temperature makes it near impossible to hide from this eye in the sky drone technology's
30:56really become quite a valuable tool for scientists the beauty of having eyes in the sky is that we're
31:02able to map quite a larger area in locations where it's not feasible to bring a boat in enabling us to
31:09more accurately count the populations of seals in new south wales while the drone continues to locate
31:16even more seals ben moves on to phase two while we're here counting the seals we've also had a great
31:24opportunity to check out their general health and potential injuries and see whether there's any
31:30that might need some more attention and if they do find any injured fur seals are definitely adults
31:37this survey mission might just become a rescue mission oh look at this one on the top of the rock
31:43he's got an old bite or something like that on the shores of sydney harbour
31:51taronga's african savannah is teeming with bird life
31:57no not those ones these ones
32:07louise to georgia stuffed full of minced meat the paper mache is in
32:12position and the lion pride are primed can you let the lions out now please
32:22let the enrichment games begin
32:27here they come
32:28so they're all running out exactly as i hope that they would excited running straight for the balls
32:42that we've put around
32:48what i love about maya the mum even though she's 12 years of age now she's running she's playing
32:54actually i thought one of the cubs might jump up there but she's showing them how to do it how to
33:01reach out how to grab those things out the tree and that's another behavior that we want to encourage
33:08because it's like mimics that catching prey in the wild and then them having to you know open the hide
33:14of the prey to be able to get to the meat putting out enrichment like this it really taps into a lot of
33:21those wild instincts that they retain they don't ever lose and they're showing us that right now
33:30and with their look-alike paper cousins getting all the attention
33:33let's say these guys are winning too lezuko he's one of our young males and he's just spotted that ibis
33:44that's up the tree
33:48so what i'm expecting now is that they've expended lots of energy and they'll most likely do what all
33:55cats do and they'll go and sleep the rest of the day away
33:58in the wild they would do the same thing they would hunt they would feed
34:05and then they would rest and that's exactly what our lion family are all starting to do now
34:11so this has been a really really successful day and as you can see the lions have had an incredible
34:17amount of fun so actually there is an ibis still sitting there so they haven't even noticed it
34:23but i guarantee by the end of today it'll definitely be gone but for now this particular bin chicken
34:30lives to fight another day at taronga's wildlife hospital a very sick wild pelican has been brought
34:39in to treatment room one i'm a bit suspicious we might find a dislocation or fracture there
34:45and luke a part-time taronga keeper and vet is investigating its injuries it's definitely
34:52a unique approach to be both a keeper and a vet right at his glottis here there's a bit of a
35:00membrane that pelicans have it's going to stop us going too much further the bird's anatomy is
35:05preventing luke from passing a tube down its throat so they can administer an anesthetic gas oh it's
35:11already slipped out again next door is a new pelican mask you want to do that instead that might be the
35:18guy wow that's awesome yeah right exotic medicine 101 while it does look a little exotic this homemade
35:31mask is perfect for this long-billed native bird it's a nice big take breath there yeah and get him on
35:40his side yeah sure great help his air sucks turning the pelican on its side helps keep the bird's airway clear
35:50making it easier to inhale the anesthetic turn the house lights off
35:58x-ray
35:58you can see a bit of what looks like possibly bruising on the x-ray
36:11this kind of increased whiteness here it's just an indication there's more fluid in the side so
36:15it's pretty consistent with bruising bruising has shown up on the pelican's neck muscles close to the skin
36:23and that bruising we're talking about
36:29given that he was found not really being able to use his hind end i'm pretty suspicious we do have a
36:34spinal cord lesion a spinal cord injury can be difficult to assess on the x-ray
36:41do you want to come down slightly but the bruising and the bird's difficulty walking
36:48suggests the delicate cord has also been damaged the thing about prognosis with spinal
36:55lesions is that in a bird this size the nursing care will be quite difficult particularly given his
37:01anatomy we're not going to be able to immobilize our neck and keep it safe say like a cat or a dog
37:07luke decrease in play luke radios vet creason for a second opinion
37:18not seen a lot of displacement of the spine but i don't think that rules out a spinal cord injury
37:22yeah we've definitely still got that you know soft tissue swelling yeah
37:30what we say with any spinal injury it can take a few weeks to months to years to sort of come right
37:38and unfortunately with this guy the kindest thing to do would be
37:44it's going to be euthanasia unfortunately sorry about that yeah
37:50the pelican's injuries are too severe for it to make a recovery
37:55yeah it's not an easy call to make it's not something we take lightly
38:06but um we're really lucky in veterinary medicine that we have euthanasia as an option
38:11it's you know essentially an anesthetic overdose so he will just drop into a really deep sleep
38:16and eventually his heart will stop and you know it's a very humane and peaceful process
38:25it doesn't get easier but i think i think we'd all feel worse if we didn't have it as an option
38:31it's in his best interest if we put in this lead rather than let them suffer
38:47next the results are in i wouldn't have been surprised today if we'd only found half a dozen
38:55to maybe 10 seals and it's not what anyone expected
39:00on sydney's beautiful coastline taronga and its partners have begun the state's largest ever fur seal
39:11survey
39:13counting and assessing the health of this seal population
39:17the ocean from the air the seal is a lot hotter than the water around it and from the sea
39:24we can see them over here resting in the water where they lay on their side and they stick their
39:29flipper up and they sometimes grab onto their their rear flipper as well and that's really important
39:34for them because they swim incredibly long distances thousands of kilometers at a time without
39:39going back to land for a rest and so they they need to be able to rest on the surface of the ocean
39:45it also lets them regulate their temperature their body temperature as well by sticking their flipper
39:50up they can get a nice breeze across that and they can bask in the sun so they're really really
39:56well adapted to being at sea for almost all of their life oh and look at this one on the top of the
40:04rock it's like a bite or something like that this is a little youngster just here too
40:10so one year old yeah a little juvenile on the main roll yeah i think there's three of probably this
40:21year's pups really on the on the rock yeah like the one right up on the very top yeah that's this
40:26year's part okay they all look like they're in great condition their coats look really nice
40:33really good body condition they're all looking fairly plump which is nice to see there was one
40:40animal that had a small old cookie cutter shark bite on it that had healed up nicely
40:46but all the seals are in tip-top condition they've obviously been foraging quite well over the winter
40:54the size and health of this particular seal herd has surprised even this salty skipper six years ago
41:01there were none here we've got two more animals up here yeah actually three more
41:09and with the new addition of the drones ben and the team have really sealed the deal we collected
41:16lots of great information so we'll be rolling out this drone technology at multiple seal colonies
41:22so that we're able to get more of a spread of information of how many seals are visiting different
41:28locations that'll help us really understand what pressures they might be under and what their
41:33populations are like at the moment
41:40and as we move to other locations the drones will really provide a lot of value enabling us to
41:45more accurately count the populations of seals in new south wales
41:52now it's time to process some of the images that we've captured and try and confirm some of the
41:56accounts that the team on the boat were able to capture
42:03honestly i wouldn't have been surprised today if we'd only found half a dozen to maybe 10 seals
42:12we actually counted 27 seals 27 seals accounted for and just a few thousand to go but that's a survey
42:22for another day yes that was a good day great day yeah we count a lot of seals
42:34this survey today is the first of many to come with seals returning to the coastline in new south
42:39wales we're going to be seeing them on our beaches all the time so the best advice for people
42:45is if you do see them keep your distance stay that 40 meters away from them if you're walking your dog
42:50keep your dog on a leash but if you do see an injured or an entangled seal call through to the
42:55authorities and people like national parks and the zoo will be able to go and assist that seal and
43:01hopefully rehabilitate it and get it back out into the wild more than what i was expecting to see
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