Episode 4 Nature's Miracle Babies

All around the world, an extraordinary group of people

are on a mission to save some of our most critically endangered animals.

We're going to meet those people. And the animals they love.

Good, be fierce. That's what you need to be.

I'm Martin Hughes-Games, and I trained as a zoologist.

I've spent the last 30 years making wildlife films.

You've eaten my microphone again!

And over that time, I've seen with my own eyes

the challenges facing our natural world.

I'm going to take you on a journey around the world, to discover the courage, the commitment,

the sheer blood, sweat and tears that it takes to drag a species

back from the edge of extinction, to create nature's miracle babies.

I'll be meeting five very different animals,

each facing a struggle for survival, and all in need of human help.

There's an Australian marsupial who has to be protected from a lethal predator.

11 little ibis who need to learn a traditional migration route.

And a baby parrot so precious, it has to be hand-reared.

Wow!

And a sifaka who's struggling to make it through the first week of his life.

Sometimes, drastic measures are needed to save a species,

and we'll meet the remarkable people, determined to do whatever it takes.

We start in a country with a unique wildlife - Australia.

Some of its precious species are on the verge of being lost forever.

Well, it's 3:15am,

and I'm on my way to a wildlife park

and we're going to witness something extraordinary.

It's something that could only really happen here in Australia.

In the next few hours, we're going to try to fly a tiny baby wallaby

1,000 kilometres across southern Australia.

Why? How?

Let's find out.

I'm out in the bush outside the city of Canberra to meet vet David Shultz.

He's in charge of an ambitious breeding programme,

aimed at saving an iconic Australian marsupial.

She's in this den over here.

-That's her, OK.

-And if you just...

Oh, hello, she's tiny, she's a lot smaller than I thought!

-Yeah, six kilos.

-Six kilos, I didn't realise she was so little.

This is a brush-tailed wallaby?

It's a brush-tailed rock wallaby. Yes.

And these are frighteningly rare in the wild right now?

Yes, frighteningly rare.

We know about 20 animals, but it was down to six that we knew of.

Six! Right.

Sometimes known as the Australian mountain goat,

they're incredibly sure-footed.

Their babies, or joeys,

stay in and around mum's pouch until they're six months old,

and only when they leave her altogether will mum give birth again.

So phase one is actually to get the little tiny, tiny little joey out of her pouch, into the incubator.

Out of her pouch. Yup.

-So this is a very important girl.

-Very important girl.

'But hang on, what's all this about?

'We're taking a perfectly healthy joey away from a perfectly healthy mum.

'There's a good reason.

'They're doing this because of a quirk in wallaby reproduction.'

A day after they've given birth, they get mated again,

and that young that results from that, actually is stored at the top of the reproductive tract

and the moment, either we take the pouch young out, or it grows up

and jumps out naturally, it activates. And in a month, another birth occurs.

So it's like a kind of production line, it's a chain that keeps going round and round,

and that's unique to marsupials.

Only marsupials can do that.

I'm about to open up the pouch and then put my thumb

and forefinger onto the teat.

Wow.

There we go.

It's so small. Look at that tiny baby.

-Looks like a little embryo, David.

-It is, it's the...

It's almost like a little... Look at the tininess of it. Wow.

But the critical thing is that once you've taken this one out

she can produce another baby in a month's time.

OK.

See how it's just not coming out? I'll just ease the teat out.

-Look at that.

-OK.

Put...female. Great. Oh, excellent.

Excellent.

Is that good news?

You need a female because you can breed from her.

We've got more males than females.

If we keep taking the pouch young out,

hopefully she will keep producing.

So what are they going to do with this little baby?

Well, 600 miles away a different and more common species of wallaby

is ready and waiting to become her surrogate mum.

Now there is a down side to this - that the surrogate's pouch young

has to be about the same size and age, therefore, as the donor's,

but we have to euthanase that one to make way for the brush tail.

So in other words, the more common species is making way

-for the critically endangered one.

-OK.

It's always sad to put a healthy animal to sleep

but these are the hard choices you have to make

when you're trying to save a seriously endangered animal.

How are we going to get through security at the airport...

It's just occurred to me... carrying this?

They know about us.

-HE LAUGHS

-OK.

We've got around six hours to get this joey to its new mother.

But if we get delayed the baby could die.

So how did these wallabies become so rare in the first place?

Well, it's down to a creature only too familiar

to chicken lovers like me -

the fox.

150 years ago British settlers brought it over,

and since then these highly efficient predators have survived

by eating Australia's small mammals.

So, because of a European import,

here we are at Canberra Airport with six hours to get a baby wallaby

all the way to Adelaide and hopefully a brand-new life

with a brand-new mum.

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

What is that?

That's a very tiny, one-month-old, brush tailed rock wallaby.

It doesn't have a lot of hair on it at the moment, a bit like me actually.

-It's tiny.

-SHE LAUGHS

You're cooling it down. Well, welcome aboard to our special passenger.

-IN-FLIGHT ANNOUNCEMENT:

-Ladies and gentlemen,

we'd just like to inform you that today we are carrying

an extremely special passenger - a four-week-old rare wallaby.

The clock is ticking, ahead is an hour's flight and,

as it's both the baby's and my first time, I'm... Well, I'm worried.

Is she OK, do you think?

We'll have a look.

-Is that OK to have a little look?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah sure.

I can't get over how tiny she is.

David, is there time pressure? Do we have...

-I guess we can't take too long.

-No, no, no, but we like to get them

-in four to six hours if we can.

-Just to be sure.

-Yeah.

At the moment everything's fine. We can have our breakfast in peace.

What now? Stage two. Off to the zoo?

As fast as we can.

Fast as we can. Brilliant.

Adelaide Zoo should be just 15 minutes away,

but it's rush hour.

How long has it been now, David?

Three-and-a-half, getting on to... Yeah, three-and-a-half hours.

Three-and-a-half hours, still good.

Yep. Yep, I would think so, but you can have a look if you like.

We haven't had a look for half an hour, three quarters of an hour.

What should her temperature be?

-26. If it drops down to 25 that's fine.

-It's 24.6.

-That's fine.

-That's still OK?

-Fine, yep.

Mind you, David, rush hour, we didn't factor that in.

No, we didn't.

With such an audacious plan there are bound to be hairy moments,

and when you're dedicated to saving a species, you've got to take risks.

Come on! Got a joey here, You want one of those lights

you can just stick on the roof. Woo, woo, woo!

Half a world away in Southern Germany

a group of young scientists have an equally risky

and highly ambitious plan to bring a species back from extinction.

The Northern Bald Ibis, a large and spectacular bird,

has been extinct in Europe for more than 400 years.

But Markus Unsold is determined to turn back the clock

and bring these stunning birds back home.

Markus has hand reared this group of 11 birds

since they hatched out a few months ago and they think of him

as their mum. And, for his part, well, they're his babies.

I met my first bald ibis 15 years ago.

They are very curious birds and they are all personalities,

each bird is different.

They look funny and...

I like them, I really like them.

Markus knows the way to his babies' hearts.

This is the food for the birds, it's a mixture of beef heart,

chicken, rat, mealworms, crickets and some other stuff.

Mmm, yummy!

The young birds clearly adore Markus.

He's very hungry, yeah.

We have the privilege to stay in contact with the birds

for the whole day, and it's a very nice job.

This is Goya, she's the youngest one, but very aggressive.

If she wants food she fights with every bird

and I think she's the beautifullest one.

I had a favourite bird, it was Goya, but now I like them all.

Markus' project has one massive extra problem -

these ibis are migratory birds,

and somehow the team must not only keep all 11 young birds alive

but also teach them to migrate,

1,400 kilometres right across Europe, from Germany to Tuscany.

They've come up with a mad but very clever plan.

Their foster mum, Markus, is going to lead them across Europe

in a microlite.

I'm excited if the birds will follow

and I'm very nervous.

The boys have mapped out a route all the way to Tuscany,

in a series of shortish hops.

The first is just six kilometres, but right now, no-one knows

if the birds will understand what they've got to do

and follow Markus.

I'm quite nervous if it works.

Johannes, part of the ground crew, monitors things from below.

Whatever way you look at it, this is a high-risk

and hugely optimistic plan.

But, after just a few minutes, the birds panic.

Doesn't look that good.

Much as they love Markus, they give in to their nerves,

and they disappear.

It's a disaster.

He's called now

and he asked us to return to the camp

to look if the birds return there.

Birdies, come, come!

Birdies, come, come!

After an anxious wait, all 11 young Ibis return

to the familiarity of their camp.

The worst thing that can happen is that the migration just doesn't happen.

If Markus can't get the birds to follow them,

then the whole project will fall flat on its face.

He'll have to come up with a new plan fast.

Luckily, in Australia, our plan is back on track.

The traffic's cleared and the baby wallaby is coping well.

We've arrived at Adelaide Zoo.

Here we are.

-Here we are!

-Here we go, action stations.

-Don't drop the kid.

-I won't drop it!

-Hi, you're...

-Jen.

Jen! Hi, Jen.

Martin. Sorry.

Pleased to meet you.

Little girl, which is good, yes?

It's fantastic.

This is it - the last phase,

so let's hope everything's all right

and this is where this little one goes into the surrogate, we hope.

Let's go.

It's been four and a half hours since this tiny Joey left her real mum.

The challenge now is to get her to latch onto her foster mum's teat.

It's the last crucial hurdle.

So she's just going to get used to this new pouch.

So to get used to the new pouch, the first thing we do

is tip her in...

..and the pouch young is just in contact with one layer of mum.

And you're doing that cos you don't want to heat it up too quickly?

Don't want to heat it up quickly, just want to bring it to the boil slowly.

Is it still a little nerve-wracking, this bit?

Yeah, because you never quite know

how well the beasty's going to grab hold of it.

OK, Jen, look at that suckling, right.

So now we just wait and see if that's worked.

But what I did like was, the moment

the lips felt the teat,

he started to suck.

That's great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So if we listen quietly and hear a fart, we'll know we're in the money.

GIGGLING

What yours?

No, no, no.

I would have to say that's a fairly contented pouch young.

So David, as far as we know - success.

It's been great,

but what's the ultimate objective of the whole project for you?

Well, the first thing is that we have to keep the captive population stable.

We have to make sure there is enough numbers.

Once we've done that, out into the wild they go.

And is that a realistic possibility?

-Yeah.

-It really is?

There's no point in keeping 'em in captivity.

We've actually put 16 out,

and last April we had our first birth.

Fantastic. So it's started. That final process has started.

-It has started.

-Brilliant.

David's efforts have hugely accelerated the rate

these rare and endangered wallabies reproduce.

Instead of there being seven months between births,

there's now around two months.

And there are already 16 of these "fostered" rock wallabies

hopping around in the wild,

thanks to this ingenious technique

and hopefully, many more to come.

In Bavaria, the team trying to teach the young Ibis

to migrate across Europe are facing disaster.

Markus has abandoned trying to fly the first leg.

He's going to drive them there instead.

They are very frightened now.

Not very happy

to bring the birds in boxes to the next place.

I hope that we don't have to do it tomorrow again.

Markus is a bit down but who can blame him?

If his birds don't learn the route from the air,

the whole mission to reintroduce them to Europe will fail.

I feel very sad because the migration's started

but I'm not sure that we will end it like we planned it.

They'll try again in the morning

and Markus hopes that without their familiar camp,

the birds will be more inclined to follow him.

It's going to be a sleepless night.

But next morning the weather is perfect.

It's looking good for another attempt.

Ahead is hopefully a seven-kilometre flight to the next overnight stop at a dairy farm.

Everyone's really nervous.

You know what they say?

Every journey starts with a single step

so will Markus' 11 little ibis make the leap of faith and follow him?

There's only one way to find out.

Super.

Today is a very good day.

The birds followed the ultralite from the first moment.

It's a good feeling today.

Now the first time they seem to follow in an appropriate way.

Super!

They started with us and they landed with us,

so as it should be, but it was just about seven kilometre.

Markus is optimistic again!

LAUGHTER

I'm very happy that they have their first real flight.

I'm a little bit tired because I didn't sleep very well

but now...it's OK!

At last the team know the birds will follow the microlite,

but this was a short seven kilometre hop -

it's 1,400 kilometres to Tuscany.

If all 11 of these young birds make it through the 40-day journey,

it will be an incredible achievement,

and we'll be following their progress to see if they make it.

It's an audacious idea to even consider trying

to bring a migratory species back from extinction.

Markus, I salute you!

In Queensland, this same spirit

is helping to save another of Australia's threatened marsupials.

Called a bilby, it's small, only active at night,

and is a bit like a cross between a rabbit, and a mouse and a wallaby.

For the last 22 years, a maverick Aussie biologist

has devoted his life to saving the bilby.

Peter McCrae is a bit of a character

and he lives the simple life in outback Queensland.

I love a place like this that oozes space.

Yeah, it's almost a spiritual sort of a place,

a place that brings me more back to being me.

This place is also perfect bilby habitat -

full of plants, insects,

and soft earth for digging burrows.

Bilbies used to be widespread.

Now they're all but extinct in Queensland.

Their population has crashed, and the reason?

Predators, introduced predators.

Foxes and cats primarily are the big ones, the big nasties.

Adopting the nocturnal habitats of his beloved bilbies,

Peter patrols the reserve,

making sure no predators have found their way in,

and checking for signs that the bilbies are doing OK.

There! Back! Back to your right a bit.

It's just great, so good to see.

The bilby reserve is a dream come true for Peter.

Eight years ago he joined forces with another bilby enthusiast, Frank Manthey.

Together, they raised the money needed to create the sanctuary.

This is it.

This is the dream of two people

wanting to save a very long term Australian, a very beautiful animal.

It's a very large, very expensive,

predator-proof fence.

We in Australia have introduced the European red fox,

and it loved Australia so much that it spread throughout it very quickly.

People who've got a cat and won't look after it -

we've now got a 23 million feral cat population throughout Australia,

destroying our wildlife at the rate of knots.

These two are known affectionately as the Bilby Brothers.

While Peter concentrates on the science,

Frank goes round the country talking about the plight of the bilby,

and raising money.

He's even persuaded Australians

to switch from buying chocolate Easter bunnies,

to buying chocolate Easter bilbies.

The bilbies being released into this safe and perfect habitat

have been raised in Dreamworld Theme Park.

Tina Niblock is one of the team dedicated to breeding bilbies.

This is Luke. He's our latest addition.

He's only just come out of the pouch this week.

Pretty cute, aren't you?

Yes, you are.

He's just going to have a little nap.

That's so cute! You're very cute, Luke.

We've got a couple in here.

Two young, healthy females, Summer and Wyara,

have been selected for release into the Bilby Sanctuary.

They're in their peak physical condition.

They're being soft released as well,

so we're giving them all the chances that they can get,

so hopefully that's successful for them out in the wild.

Summer and Wyara definitely do have personalities of their own.

Out of all our young that we've bred here,

they're probably the feistiest,

and they're the ones that will give you a bit of a nip.

But that's probably perfect for being released to the wild.

We'll be following their journey to their new home with Peter McRae

out in the wilds of the Australian bush.

Back in Europe, the 11 young ibis are reaching the end

of their incredible 1,400 kilometre journey from Bavaria to Italy.

They've survived their 40-day migration,

and are finally flying across the Tuscan countryside.

Super idea, perfect.

Although it's the first time these ibis have made the journey,

the team have already taken a different group on this same route

and they should be living wild somewhere,

close around here,

and the hope is that one day the two groups will meet up to breed,

and maybe even migrate together.

From Germany, across Austria,

and Slovenia and now Italy,

negotiating mountains and cities,

Markus and the team hope it's been as memorable journey for the ibis

as it has been for them.

Because they need to remember it -

the next time these birds fly this route, they'll be on their own.

Now they arrive with the birds.

It's a nice feeling, yeah.

Now, on a wing and a prayer,

it's time to bring the birds safely in to land.

All the birds are here yes, yes.

We did it!

Yeah, the migration finished.

When I think back on six weeks ago now,

we didn't expect even to come.

Hey, Markus!

And then, out of nowhere,

last year's ibis have appeared.

Maybe they heard Markus and came to greet him and the new arrivals.

It's more than the team could ever have hoped for.

The work of the foster parents has finished.

Now these birds are integrated in the wild group.

The young ibis will spend a couple of years growing up here in Tuscany

before they attempt to migrate back to Bavaria.

For now, everyone can celebrate the end of a truly incredible journey.

I will miss them, but I am glad that they are here now

and that the migration is over for this year.

Super. It's too long and it's too hard. I'm getting older.

Markus and the team have brought a beautiful, charismatic,

migratory bird back to Europe -

something I would never have believed possible.

It is an astonishing achievement.

So, with the Northern Bald Ibis back in Europe,

and the Rock Wallabies returning to the Australian bush,

it seems that the more impossible the task appears,

the more determined people are to save them.

Right in the money.

Coming up, we'll see how this spirit gets two bilbies back to the wild,

and drives a team trying to save the life of a very sick little lemur.

But first, a story that proves

you should never give up on a species,

no matter how endangered.

What do you think hatched out of this egg?

Have a close look. Maybe a chicken? It's a bit small.

Turtle? No. Well, in fact, it was a bird, an incredibly rare bird,

so rare that sadly they're extinct in the wild.

It's a Spix's Macaw, and the team here

in Loro Parque in Tenerife

have very high hopes for the little chick that came out of this egg.

We're on the Island of Tenerife, where the Loro Parque foundation

is a key player in a worldwide breeding programme

for the Spix's Macaw.

This new arrival is a huge source of excitement.

It's only the fifth Spix's Macaw to hatch here since 2004.

Its surrogate mum, dad and wet-nurse

is curator of birds, Matthias Reinschmidt,

a man completely obsessed with parrots.

To make absolutely sure it survives Matthias will hand rear it.

-My fifth baby.

-Your fifth baby?

Yes, I'm really proud to...number five.

The Brazilian Spix's Macaw

was hunted to extinction in the wild for the pet trade,

so now there are just a handful of birds living in captivity

and it's those captive birds which offer the only hope of getting them back to the wild,

where they belong.

I met up with Matthias to find out just how that might happen,

the level of security here is a big surprise.

It's like a fortress! Not taking any chances here, Matthias.

No, we have some important birds we have to care for them.

These birds are now so rare they're priceless...

and a prime target for thieves.

The Spix's Macaw is completely extinct, now, in the wild,

-there are none at all?

-There are none in Brazil,

the last one disappeared in the year 2000.

-Quite recently...

-11 years ago.

So, how many are there now that you know about in captivity?

-In our breeding programme we have 73 birds.

-That's IT?!

That's in what we have in the breeding programme,

but perhaps there are some birds in private hands which we don't know.

So, what do you hope to happen in the future?

Can you continue to build up the numbers in captivity,

is that the plan?

Yes, that's really the plan,

to build up to have a higher number of Spix's Macaw

and then we start to, we want to start to release them,

to bring them back into the wild, in the nature.

Matthias, they're quite noisy aren't they? Do they recognise you?

I believe they recognise me

because I hand reared them from the first day on

and they know me and if I come they always shouting

and saying, "Hello, Pappy!" HE LAUGHS

Matthias is actually a serial father,

he's hand reared several hundred parrots

and a peep inside the nursery shows just how many babies round here think he's the daddy!

No father likes to admit to having favourites,

but this rather demanding Spix's Macaw

is taking nearly all of Matthias' love and attention...

but then it is one of the rarest birds on the planet.

This is a special mixture for young parrots.

We have all the minerals, vitamins

and all that you need to grow up as a parrot.

When he started to grow on the first day

we have feed until ten times a day, nearly every two hours.

Matthias has put his life on hold to raise this hugely important chick -

if he gets it right

it'll become a vital member of the breeding programme.

Matthias will face a particularly tough challenge

in the next few weeks.

I'll be watching to see how he copes with this needy little bundle.

The problems facing macaws in the wild

weren't addressed until it was too late and they became extinct,

but in Australia one of their cutest marsupials, the bilby,

has been saved from extinction just in the nick of time.

Ready to go out into the wild, aren't you, honey?

At Dreamland Theme Park,

keeper Tina Niblock is preparing Wyara and Summer

for their long trip to freedom.

It's approximately a 12 hour drive inland,

so straight into the bushland.

Tina's travelling with fellow bilby keeper Al Mucci.

It's a very early start.

-Morning, Al.

-Hey, morning. How are the girls this morning?

Yeah, good, wide awake...for now.

Excited about the long drive?

-Yeah, they've got a long trip ahead.

-They do.

It's 1,000 kilometres from Brisbane to Currawinya Park

and the Bilby Reserve.

Before they leave town they have to pick up a VIP,

a man who made this whole project possible.

One of the legendary Bilby Brothers, Frank Manthey.

-I'm all ready, how about our girls?

-Yeah they're definitely ready.

Frank's devoted eight years of his life to the bilby.

It's very close to his heart.

It is just such a wonderful animal and that's what's hooked me in.

When I first saw my one in the wild I just thought,

"Wow, we really need a decent kick in the pants

"if we were to lose something as beautiful as this."

It was a personal tragedy that changed Frank from office worker

into passionate bilby conservationist.

In 1996 I lost my wife of nearly 40 years and the bilby was my rescue.

It gave me a goal.

It gave me something that I could feel useful doing.

It's getting late, so Frank is planning ahead.

It'll be too late to release the bilbies tonight,

so the bilbies are going to really live it up

and stay at the hotel with us tonight.

They're going to share a room with Al and myself

and I happen to snore a bit and they scratch a fair bit

and so Al's in for a fairly interesting night tonight!

After a long drive, a warm welcome awaits them at the Outback Hotel.

All right, we made it, we made it!

-One more day to go, we meet Peter McRae!

-FRANK LAUGHS

-Hey, have you got a bilby?

-I've got a couple of bilbies.

Oh, isn't that lovely!

Yes, they've had a big day.

-Oh, much more well behaved than ours!

-Well, is it a bilby, eh?

More well behaved than ours, yeah. I don't know how you go.

Tina's keen to get the two bilbies settled into their accommodation,

but bilbies are nocturnal, so they're just waking up!

Hey, do you want some water?

Just putting some food out for the bilbies

cos I'm sure they are pretty hungry.

Room service.

They're going to have a great night, stretch their legs, keep Frank up,

or he might keep them up all night with his snoring!

Lots of new smells,

lots of new places to run around and have a great time.

It wouldn't matter if I never got any sleep,

it's knowing the satisfaction that what you started out to achieve...

..really is working...

and for me tonight to know that she's going to be free forever

is a pretty magic feeling.

Isn't it?

I hope Frank is able to get at least SOME sleep,

he and the bilbies have an exciting day ahead of them tomorrow.

Frank's hoping to see these little marsupials get their very first taste of freedom.

What's all this nonsense?

Half a world away, at Loro Parque on the Island of Tenerife,

getting back to the wild would be the ultimate dream

for the incredibly rare Spix's Macaw chick.

It's still demanding the undivided attention of Matthias,

its surrogate mum.

Spix's Macaws are extinct in the wild

and this baby brings the total number known to exist in captivity

to just 73.

So it's no wonder Matthias has been working so hard to raise this little bird.

It's two months old now and as demanding as ever!

Yes, I have to feel like a father

because from day one on we feed him every day.

I feed him between eight o'clock in the morning

until seven o'clock in the evening here,

but then in the night I also have to feed him, so he's always with me.

We are really proud of him.

Matthias' macaw still hasn't been given a name

and that's not because he can't think of one,

but because he doesn't know what sex it is.

He always refers to the baby as, "He,"

but as Matthias desperately wants a boy,

this is, perhaps, just wishful thinking.

So, Matthias, why do you SPECIFICALLY need a boy?

Because in the breeding programme we have more females

and especially here, we bred since 2004 five Spix's Macaws,

but four of them are females

and now we hope that the number five is a male.

Matthias faces a special problem here,

parrots and macaws pair for life so they can't swap the males around

and there's a lot of single ladies round here looking for Mr Right.

If his baby turns out to be a boy Matthias will be a happy man,

but unfortunately, you can't tell what sex the babies are just by looking at them.

Matthias has called in one of the zoo's vets

to take a feather sample

and when this is analysed he'll have his answer.

I suggest to take them here, because here are the freshly ones.

Yep, OK.

-Fix him a little bit, because...

-Fix him and use the leg.

-That's it.

-'It didn't even flinch.'

-It's like a hair.

If he is a female we name him Jara

and if he is a male we will name him Jaro.

So it depends Jara or Jaro!

You go to the laboratory and tell us as soon as you have the result.

Please, that we have a male.

If it's a male, we drink champagne, if it's a female, we drink water!

So will there be the sound of a popping cork,

or just a dripping tap?

It's going to be an anxious wait.

Looking after rare and endangered animals

is an emotionally demanding job,

especially when you run into difficulties.

In the United States of America,

the Duke Lemur Center breeds some very rare lemurs.

North Carolina is home to a thriving family of 25 sifakas.

And the reason they're here is to act as an insurance population

in case the endangered wild sifakas in Madagascar ever become extinct.

Antonia is one of the lemur mums and if you look carefully,

you can just see the face of her tiny new baby Rupert peeping out.

Antonia was born here and is part the world's most successful

breeding group of captive sifakas.

OK, he's way more alert today.

Vet Cathy Williams looks after the lemurs.

She has her work cut out with the babies.

In the wild, newborns like Rupert would only have a 50/50 chance

of survival. The odds are much better than that here,

but little Rupert is really starting to worry Cathy.

He was not bright eyed, he didn't look up at all.

OK, let me just get a look at his mouth.

Oh, good boy yeah.

Baby sifaks, they have a very high mortality rate,

so we try and improve on that as much as we can in captivity,

but if they don't nurse well they can actually get quite ill

very quickly and die before we have very much time to intervene.

They don't show that they're sick until they're very, very sick.

So we weigh the animals frequently.

Rupert's been poorly since he was born,

he's barely put on any weight, so they're keeping a close eye on him.

Looking at the baby, making sure that he's strong,

that he's vigorous.

I want to get a bit of blood...

Cathy suspects Rupert's got an infection,

so she's doing a blood test to find out.

And if we can get our in-house chemistry... OK, fabulous.

It's not hard to get blood on an adult sifaka - it's a little bit of a challenge on a baby.

Poor Antonia, Rupert's mum -

she looks just as worried about her baby as Cathy.

His ordeal over, Rupert gets a much-needed cuddle.

Hard to hold these guys and not love them. I have to say.

He's obviously keen to go back to mum and snuggle into some fur.

I don't really think that's where we need you, darling.

It's going to be an anxious wait for the results of the test,

and Cathy can only hope she's able to save this precious little baby.

In Australia the waiting is over, as bilbies Wyara and Summer

are just hours away from going back to the wild.

So, how did they get on sharing a room with Frank?

Maybe we should ask Frank that question.

They kept me awake all night.

I think I should keep them awake today,

but I just love them so much, I couldn't do it.

In you go. Oh, my goodness.

It's time to complete the bilbies' journey to freedom,

with a short drive to the reserve.

A huge fence indicates journey's end.

It's a very special fence.

It's fully predator proof and once we go through those gates,

the little bilbies that we're going to put inside there

will be in bilby heaven.

Right-oh, fellas, here we are, the bilby motel.

-How the hell are you?

-Good!

-You been behaving yourself?

Peter McRae has been waiting since dawn.

-Long drive, but we made it.

-How are you?

-Good, how are you?

-I'm good.

-Good to see you again.

Each new release is a momentous occasion for the team.

They travelled all right?

They sure did. They slept the whole way.

Excellent.

Conserving their energies.

Little squiz...

Hello!

One's asleep.

That's the one that kept me awake all night!

So we'll follow you, Pete.

This is the soft release pen.

The bilbies start life in the wild in a small enclosure

where they have food and water. When they're ready to go it alone,

they simply dig their way out into the main reserve.

It's called a soft release,

and it offers the best possible chance of survival.

They look excited, Pete.

They do, don't they? Their ears are right up.

Yeah, they're going to be busy.

Pete, how about you have Summer...

Oh, look - she's a bit scared. Your beautiful handiwork on her tail.

-I'll take Wyara.

-This is Summer.

-You right?

-Mm-hm.

-First dreamworld. Girls.

Oooh, smell that, things to eat already!

APPLAUSE

Whoo-hoo!

They're beautiful.

-Well done, team.

-Thank you.

What a wonderful sight. Proudest man on earth.

And the soppiest.

All right - come on, everybody - celebration drink.

This doesn't happen every day.

Personally, I think they deserve more than a drink.

The ingenuity and determination of some special people like Peter

and Frank is all that stands between many of our most threatened species and extinction.

Back in Tenerife,

Matthias Reinschmidt is another one of those special people.

He's determined to reverse

the Spix's Macaw's extinction in the wild.

After several days waiting, the results of the sex test are back.

Remember, Matthias desperately needs a boy,

as these birds mate for life

and he's got lots of single females looking for a partner.

Well, that baby Spix's Macaw turned out to be a...girl.

Which was not really what the team were hoping for,

but remember there are only 73 of these Spix's Macaws left on Earth.

-MACAW CAWS

-Hello!

So she's an incredibly valuable addition

to the slowly-growing captive flock.

But now the job is to try and wean her off her dependence

on her human carers and get her back into thinking, "I'm a Spix's Macaw".

Hello. Would you like that? Would you?

Until more boys come along, this young,

possibly slightly spoilt macaw will join one of Matthias' all-girl groups

but she'll have to learn her place in the pecking order.

Matthias has named his little girl Jara, and despite

the disappointment, he loves her just as much as always.

But it looks like his habit of calling her a 'he' may take a while to break...

So, now he is hungry, yeah. Baby.

What Jara needs is a friend to take her under her wing,

and Matthias knows just the girl for the job.

Come, come, come, oh, she is, she's really fit.

Ah! Really quick.

Come. I have her, good.

Very good.

OK, and...good.

Yeah, very good, come on.

So he is now today 69 days old

and that's exactly the time

when he leave normally the nest and that's the reason why

we move him today from the brooder in the cage.

It's time for Jara to start her macaw training.

Let's hope she doesn't get in too much of a flap,

after all this is a bird who's never seen another Spix's's macaw

or even sat on a perch before.

Huh? Look, this is a Spix's Macaw.

This is your new teacher now.

Now, it's the first time in your life that you have direct contact

to someone from your family.

I will sit her on the same level.

I close the...

The first lesson is to teach Jara the rules of parrot politics.

It's now the third chick

which is coming in her cage to be socialised from her.

It seems that spoilt little Jara is getting too familiar,

time to put her in her place.

Ooh!

She's unhurt, but she's learnt a valuable first lesson

about her place in the pecking order.

And as soon as she is eating alone,

we can move both in the big flying cage

to let the young one also fly and to train this,

but the two birds will be together for the next months, half year minimum.

She is teacher and she has to do her job.

Matthias' role as mum is over.

But will Jara be able to overcome her identity crisis

and do what should come naturally?

Find out in a moment.

Back in the US at the Duke Lemur Centre,

Rupert's blood tests are back from the laboratory,

at last vet Cathy has some answers.

His lab work came back and the white blood cell count's quite high,

the neutrophil count is quite high, and those two pieces of information

go along with either pretty marked infection or severe inflammation.

Since his white blood cell count is so high...

he is going to get started on this tasty little concoction I have here.

OK, sweetheart, it's not momma,

but it's exactly what you need right now.

Yum. How's that? So he's quite sprightly today.

Well, I'm hoping that with this course of antibiotics

that he'll be able to maintain weight gain on his own,

that as we watch the weight and what happens on a day-to-day basis

that he'll continue to gain.

He should be gaining about five grams per day.

-OK, so let's put him back on mom and we'll see him again tomorrow.

-OK.

Every day we're going to be pals.

Rupert gets to stay with mum while he fights his infection,

and at his age being with her is the best possible place for him.

But there comes a time in every young animal's life

when they have to break away from mum.

'I'm back in Tenerife to find out if Jara,

'the incredibly rare Spix's Macaw,

'has managed to become independent

'of her surrogate human mum Matthias.'

So, Matthias, this is Jara, we've been introduced obviously.

What an honour.

How is she doing?

She is perfect, she is now about nine months old

and she hatched perfectly and we raised her up

without any problems and now you see it's a perfect bird.

She looks fantastic, so what will the future hold for her now?

What will she do next?

So we will keep her here, sure, some years, four or five years.

In these years we have to find a male for her to pair her up

to make a new... Oop!

-She is hungry, huh? You want something?

-Look at that!

So you will find a male from somewhere else in the world

-and hopefully pair them together.

-Exactly.

You can see here three females and if we will get a new male,

we bring this male in this cage and he can select the females.

-Oh, right, lucky him.

-It's always the best method to make new pairs,

not to select the birds, to let them select, then it's really love.

So, she will become a very important part

of the Spix's Macaw breeding programme now

and you will hope... What sort of numbers do you have to get to

before you can even consider maybe returning them to the wild?

So, every single bird in the programme is really important.

This is number 73 now and we hope to get 100 or more birds.

The most important thing is to breed as much as possible

and if we reach more or less the 100,

we can think about the releasing project.

Right, that's not many,

but you would really start to think about back to the wild

with a hundred Spix's Macaws.

So you're getting there and she is a crucial part of that process.

You're absolutely gorgeous.

So, Matthias, what is your dream for these macaws?

So, my dream is to release them, to bring them back to Brazil,

to give this wonderful species back to the nature

for the further generations.

My son, I have a two-year-old son,

and I'd like to have the possibility to show him this wonderful species,

not only in captivity, also in the nature.

And we as humans destroyed the species in the nature

-and we have to bring them back.

-Fantastic, I think you might.

I hope so.

Oh, sorry. You're gorgeous, and also quite greedy...which is good.

'The highly-organized and well-funded project here at Loro Parque

'gives hope for the future for these birds.'

And it's hope that's been keeping the team looking after Rupert,

the Sifaka, going over the last two weeks, so how is he?

Oh! Hi, big boy.

Wow, what a difference, and I didn't...

I thought he was reasonably spunky last time, OK.

Hey, big boy, how much do you weigh now?

Do you want to hold onto this little creature?

Oh, my gosh, he just looks bigger, doesn't he?

He really just looks like he's so much bigger than last time.

That's fabulous.

He is spunky, he's alert, he's...

..doing... He just looks wonderful, he just looks wonderful.

With mum looking after him, and a whole team of humans

firmly on his side, Rupert is going from strength to strength.

In the wild he would never have survived,

but here the future looks bright.

Rupert will probably never make it back to the wild himself,

but the hope is his descendants will

and then all the hard work of the Duke Lemur Centre

will have been worth it.

As we wake up to the crisis facing our wildlife,

the work of teams like these around the world

offers hope for the future.

Getting animals back to the wild has to be the ultimate ambition.

And in these tough times

that sometimes seems nothing more than a distant dream,

yet the success of these breeding programmes proves we must...

Never give up. Never lose hope.

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