Episode 1 Nature's Miracle Orphans

The first few months of a baby animal's life are the most crucial.

So, if they lose their mothers, they're going to need help.

We are going to be meeting the wild orphans who are getting

a second chance.

And the dedicated people who devote their lives to saving them.

They need the love and the attention because they don't have parents,

their parents are taken away from them.

In this series, we'll be witnessing the incredible

stories of animal orphans from two very different locations.

I am in Australia where

I'll be meeting Danny,

the baby koala in need of round-the-clock care.

There is a real art to it, isn't there?

And I haven't mastered it.

'And Neil, a baby wallaby,

'struggling to stand on his own two feet.'

It's genuinely exciting, isn't it?

And wildlife cameraman Max Hug Williams steps

out from behind the lens to bring us

the stories of orphaned wildlife from the rainforests of Costa Rica.

He'll be meeting Newbie the charismatic baby three-toed sloth.

This is definitely the first time

I've offered a bunch of flowers to a sloth.

And seeing if she can win her battle with pneumonia.

So, we've just got to all keep our fingers crossed that this

new medication works.

Saving these wild orphans can be tough.

-There'll be ups...

-Good boy!

..And downs.

We'll follow their stories through the most critical,

make-or-break months, on their long journeys back to the wild.

I've come to Australia,

physically isolated from the rest of the world for

35 million years.

The animals here are found nowhere else on Earth

and the care they need is as unique as they are.

I'm on my way south to Cape Otway to meet up with a very special orphan.

Here at a local conservation centre, staff and volunteers are dedicated

to rescuing koalas and getting these iconic animals back to the wild.

They currently have two 19-month-old females, Tilly and Puddles,

living in a large outdoor enclosure.

Both are thriving and just months away from release.

But I'm here to see the youngest and most vulnerable orphan.

Danny, the koala, should be inseparable from his mother.

Instead, he lives inside the centre with carer, Simone.

Her mission is to build up Danny's weight and strength,

so he can join the other koalas outside.

So, we've got him in here in his little makeshift laundry bundle.

That's the little man in question.

He's so lush!

-Do you want to try and feed him?

-Yes, I really do!

So, if you just support him in the nook of your arm, so he feels safe.

That's ridiculously lovely. Hello, buddy!

Danny was found on the side of the road, weak and underweight.

The man who actually found him saw him on the road

and Danny just came running up and crawled up his leg immediately.

So, he was obviously waiting for someone to rescue him!

Although he's known as a koala bear, he's a marsupial and they need very

long-term care. So, Danny is going to be looked after until a year old.

Baby marsupials are known as joeys.

They spend the first six months or

so of their lives developing within their mother's pouch.

This is unique to marsupials and gives the mother

and infant an incredibly deep bond.

'A joey's need for close contact is so strong that Simone has had

'to give Danny a teddy to help avoid stress.'

They have this instinct to cling on to things and having that surrogate

koala mother there means he's more comfortable and is relaxed and

we are able to leave him throughout

the day with the teddy to hold on to.

'In his mother's pouch, Danny would have continuous access to her milk,

'so Simone feeds him every two hours, around the clock.'

What do I need to do?

So, if you just hold the teat and offer it to him,

leaning his head back.

-So, leaning his head back...

-Yeah.

-..And then just offer a little bit of this.

-Yeah.

Not in the nose, Danny, sorry!

Just aim for the teat in the mouth.

'This marsupial milk substitute is specially formulated to be

'high in fat but lactose-free.'

-Oh, squeeze, OK.

-That's perfect.

'Just like the real thing.'

-Ooh!

-Oh, yeah, that all right, we can just give him a clean.

He's a very messy eater, so we're used to washing him.

-You're pretty used to that?

-Yeah.

'But feeding Danny is not straightforward.

'Marsupial mouths are very delicate, so the teats on the bottles

'have to be made of very soft rubber and the milk has to be lapped.'

-That's all good!

-There is a real art to it and I haven't mastered it!

Not the most successful feeding session

but that's partly because Danny is nocturnal.

Koalas spend up to 20 hours a day snoozing and digesting

their food and are most active in the middle of the night.

'I've stayed over to see if Danny is a different character

'when the lights go out.'

He's coming outside.

When he's awake he makes shuffling noises in the basket.

He's planned his grand escape! Hey, little man, let go, let go!

Oh, he's very wakeful, isn't he?

'If Danny's going to be strong enough to join the bigger females outside,

'he has to build enough strength in his muscles to climb trees safely.

'Simone's solution... energetic nightly games of chase with his teddy.

'In the wild, his mother would tip him out of the pouch...

Danny, Danny, oi, oi, oi...

'..And encourage him to climb and explore the trees.'

Do you want a game!

'Exercise over, he finally gets his prize possession back.'

And he relaxes pretty quickly.

'Now he's nice and relaxed, it's time for another feed.'

Look how alert he is!

'Simone has been doing this regime of feeding and exercise

'24 hours a day for the last six weeks!'

I bet you feel more forgiving in the morning, don't you?

In the night-time it's no mercy!

Frustration levels get very high during the night.

Then you wake up and see him in the morning

and see his face and it's all forgiven!

'If Simone can keep up this demanding schedule,

'Danny should be on target for the next big step on his journey

'back to the wild, joining the other two koalas outside.'

It will be a happy day when he goes out into the enclosure then, won't it?

Yeah, I mean obviously it's a huge moment in his development

but also it's a huge moment for us getting our nights back.

'But moving outside will be tough.

'No more night feeds, no more teddy and no more Simone.

'He needs to be resilient enough, both physically and mentally,

'to cope. It's going to be a huge challenge.'

This same resilience is needed by orphaned animals on the other

side of the world.

Costa Rica forms part of the land bridge

connecting North and South America. It's a biodiversity hot spot with

lush jungles and abundant wildlife.

But despite strict protection,

Costa Rica still has its fair share of orphaned wildlife.

Max Hug Williams is following their stories.

Costa Rica is a haven for wildlife with some of the most incredible

species on the planet.

But, like anywhere where animals are living

so close to humans, there are always going to be problems.

'Roads bisect its vast forests...but wildlife

'and cars are not good neighbours.

'As a wildlife cameraman I've occasionally witnessed

'the heartbreak of youngsters losing their mothers.

'I want to find out what happens to the lucky few who get rescued.

'Here on Costa Rica's Pacific coast,

'KSTR provides a sanctuary for orphaned wildlife.

'Wildlife manager Sam's main responsibility is

'caring for the centre's numerous baby sloths.'

Brushing my teeth, I have sloths on me,

washing my face, I have sloths on me.

I have literally changed clothes with sloths on me.

You name it, I've probably done it with a sloth on me.

'Sam's small apartment has been taken over by these enigmatic

'characters who demand round-the-clock care.'

Just dropping in on Sam's place to see what life's like living

with six sloths.

-Hey, Sam.

-Hi.

-It's complete carnage in here!

It's like the morning after a big sloth party.

It's a disaster...and I wish I could say that this was rare,

but this is pretty much a daily occurrence.

They climb the curtains, they climb the chairs.

They love their climbing apparatus

but there's nothing that will stop them from exploring.

So, it even went a little too far last night.

Do you want to see where they are?

-What's happened?

-Come here.

-All right.

-What?

-Yeah!

They're asleep in the bottom of your La-Z-Boy.

-Yeah!

-It's ridiculous!

'This is Pelota and Kermie, the nocturnal two-toed sloths.

'Both lost their mothers and are living with Sam

'till they are old enough to go back to the wild.

'Every night they spend their time foraging for food,

'and wrecking Sam's flat, until the day shift takes over.

'That's when Minnie and Newbie the three-toed sloths wake up,

'and need Sam's undivided attention.'

-I can't get them out.

-You can't get them out?

No, there's literally no way to pull them out,

they have to come out on their own.

You've got to make sure you don't give her any more food in there,

-cos she's pretty big already!

-I know!

If she ate a lot in there, she definitely wouldn't come out.

I think the only reason she fit in is cos she recently went to the loo.

'But of all her sloths, five-month-old Newbie

'is the one causing the most worry for Sam.

'Newbie has been battling with pneumonia since she was rescued.

'Sam thinks it was triggered by the stress of losing her mother.

'Not wanting to tempt fate by giving her a proper name,

'Sam simply calls her Newbie

'and the two have formed a very strong bond.'

Any baby needs someone to take care of them when they're younger.

Certain species need more than others.

Humans need a lot of maternal investment and sloths are similar.

So, for an orphan that we receive, they need a surrogate mother.

For Newbie, at the moment, she is with me pretty much all the time.

In the wild Newbie would have clung on to her mother

until about nine months old, feeding on her milk

and learning what to eat. Now that job falls to Sam.

I'm going to give her some hibiscus flowers now.

This is one her favourite natural snacks,

I usually get her to drink her milk first.

It's kind of like eating your vegetables before you get desert.

And then give her some flowers.

She loves them.

Like many herbivores, sloths have

enzymes in their saliva that help break down plant matter.

They basically dissolve in her mouth like chocolate.

Even for the experts like Sam,

raising sloths is notoriously difficult.

There is a very good chance that she won't make it

and that's why we're doing everything we can to increase her

chances of surviving to adulthood and one day going back to the wild.

'Sam's fears come from painful experience,

'and in Newbie's case, several courses of antibiotics

'have so far failed to cure the infection.'

Nothing here is simple.

When an animal comes in completely vulnerable, only a few days old,

and often with some disease or illness, it's literally

a battle to fight to keep them alive.

And it's only once you get them

through those hard first few weeks that you can even start

the long, long journey of teaching them how to be wild again

and giving them any hope of getting back out in these forests.

'Despite her ongoing treatment, Sam thinks Newbie might just be

'well enough to begin learning some basic skills.

'She's building her a baby climbing frame.

Even though she's not 100% out of the woods,

it's time for me and for her to start thinking about

getting ready to be in the wild,

so she needs to start practising climbing.

For Newbie this is a new and vital test.

Wow, she didn't waste any time!

She likes it!

She actually likes it. I mean she's a sloth,

so it's not like she's going to zoom from one side to the other

really quickly but she's definitely on it, she doesn't want to get off.

People think that sloths are just really slow and really lazy

and sleep all the time but what they don't realise is

their body isn't made up of the type of muscle structure that would allow

them to move quickly.

That's not what they need to do, they're more about

moving deliberately.

I can't help but be a little proud of her, she's been through

so much and she's still a little bit sick but she's not giving up.

She's very interested in learning, she loves exploring and I think that

those characteristics show that she wants to live,

that she wants to go back to the wild.

It's real progress and the next step will be to see

if she can cope with a real tree.

If Newbie makes it to release as an adult wild sloth she will have

to contend with all the dangers that got her here in the first place.

Like so many sloths in Costa Rica, Newbie's mother came

to the ground to cross a road and that's when Newbie was orphaned.

Roads and human developments are a major issue

for wildlife the world over and 9,000 miles away,

Ellie is about to meet another tiny casualty.

In Australia, tens of thousands of animals are killed on the road

every single year but astonishingly, because they are protected

by their mother's pouch, many of the joeys still survive.

25 years ago, Stella Reid gave up her career as an air stewardess

to rescue some of these vulnerable joeys.

Right now she has 20 living with her.

Sharing my life with animals and living so close to them, for me,

is probably the closest thing to being in heaven.

Most of Stella's orphans are kangaroos and wallabies and belong

to the family known as macropodiae, which is Latin for "long foot".

The main thing that separates the two is size -

wallabies tend to be smaller.

But what unites them is that as orphans they need specialist care.

'Stella has devoted half her life to perfecting

'the techniques for raising them.'

Stella is so dedicated to rearing kangaroos

and wallabies that's she had her whole housed adapted

so she can do it. This is actually her bedroom, as you can see,

and it's called "the baby nursery" because the teeny tiny ones will

go in there, so that if they get distressed in the night and need to

hear a heartbeat she can pick them up and put them on her chest.

If we carry on out here, this floor is made out of recycled tyres,

so that it doesn't hurt their feet when they bounce

and they don't skid like they would on tiles.

This is the inside nursery... Hello, Stella. Just over there

we've got a wallaby on a throne over there.

These windows have been placed deliberately high up so that if they

hop around they don't potentially jump through them

and injure themselves.

This is Harry, hello, mate. He's a kangaroo

and not a wallaby, making himself at home.

So, through to the main part

of the house, and the last room is the outside nursery.

If we come on in,

it's a bit like a sixth form common room.

They're all slightly older and in their pouches,

just hanging out, making the most of things, all these different pouches.

Let's see if Harry will go into a pouch!

Harry, are you going to go into a nice snugly pouch?

Here you go, mate, do you want to go in there?

Oh, look at this...he's a big boy!

This instinct for going into the pouch is so strong,

he just climbs straight in there...tumbling around.

I'll show you how it works...

They go into those pouch and then into one of these pouches

on the wall just like this. There you go, Harry, look.

There he is, snug!

The amazing thing about this room is there's also this

specially designed "roo door",

so that they can get in and out if they want to, any time.

Ooh, I can barely squeeze through!

Slightly undignified...I'm out!

So, they've got pretty much everything they need right here.

But although Stella is inundated with roos and wallabies,

none of them take up as much of her time as young wallaby, Neil.

He's an orphan from a car accident where his mum was killed

and Neil's been with us one week.

Neil is just 1½ months old. In the wild

he would be around nine months before he left his mother's pouch.

He doesn't have a second coat,

he's just got the light top coat that

he has while he's in his mum's pouch.

We do call them little velvets.

I'm covering his eyes a little bit,

in Mum's pouch, it's darker than here.

He's getting a bit used to it,

so it's not too stressful.

In the first three days here,

he cried out at night-time for his mum.

It's heartbreaking to listen to him call out for his mum.

What we do then is pick him up and put him

in the bed with me so he can felt my heartbeat.

The moment I picked him up and cuddled him...

..and held him next to my heart the crying stopped.

Because they develop for so long in her pouch, the beating

of their mother's heart is deeply comforting for baby marsupials.

Research shows that maternal nurture physically changes brain chemistry

and alters the way a youngster's body responds to stress.

Without this closeness and reassurance orphans have been known to die of anxiety.

But with new animals arriving all the time, Stella can't always

be there for Neil, and he urgently needs a companion

the same size and age who he can hang out with.

But for now, Stella is filling the role of both companion

and foster mother and she thinks he might be ready to hit

the biggest developmental milestone in his life so far.

Leaving the pouch

and standing on his own two feet for the first time ever.

It is a copy of what Mum does in the wild.

They tip the baby out for a split second

and then they let them hop back in again.

Get your balance...there you go.

So, he's using his little hands for balance.

Once fully grown, Neil will be able to hop at a top speed

of 30mph.

For now, just staying upright is tricky.

Oh, wow, it's beautiful. He did really, really well!

I think his little mind would have been saying, "What's going on?"

And the next time when I let him out it'll be a few seconds longer

and the time after that, a few seconds longer.

Within a week, he'll be out of the pouch

for about 30 seconds, at the most.

He might have taken his first few steps

but he's still very weak and vulnerable.

What's Mummy doing?

The need to find him a companion is growing increasingly urgent.

He's too small and fragile to join the older wallabies,

but he simply won't develop and thrive if he stays on his own.

Stella's long-term goal is for him

to establish a territory among the wild population of wallabies.

Over the years, she's helped return over 1,000 orphans

back to the wild.

But Neil's release is a long way off.

Like all our orphans,

the journey back to the wild has to be taken one step at a time.

Staying in Australia, Danny the koala is about to take

another step on his journey,

graduating to the outdoor enclosure.

Until now he's spent his time indoors, being fed,

exercised and pampered.

Lizzie, the rescue centre manager is on hand to oversee events.

She needs to be sure Danny is ready

for this big step towards independence.

And if he weighs in at a kilo or more,

then he will get the green light.

Simone is hoping all her hard work has paid off!

He's over a kilo!

Good job, little man, well done, that's fabulous!

The plan is to take Danny outside for short training sessions,

gradually building his confidence over a few weeks

until he is able to let go of his teddy and move out completely.

It's pretty nerve-racking bringing him

out here for the first time.

Koalas do have a very innate

sense of what they should be doing but you still always worry.

There you go!

Good boy, that's it!

What a brave baby!

This is the first tree Danny has ever encountered!

He was so young when he was rescued,

he had only ever been in his mum's pouch.

Good boy!

He's not sure what to do!

Koalas have sharp claws designed for gripping bark.

Do you want to climb up to the leaves? Come on!

Which Danny is putting to the test.

SHE LAUGHS

Good muscles, Danny!

OK, getting a bit upset now.

You just need a warm pouch.

It's a great first step but he's got a lot more work to do.

Well done!

Over the next few weeks,

Danny is put on a boot camp regime of feeding and

climbing on branches in preparation for his future life outdoors.

Slowly his confidence begins to build.

Hey, Danny!

But learning to climb trees requires complete concentration.

Oh, Danny! He's OK, he's OK, he's learning.

He has to learn!

Luckily, Danny is superbly adapted to a life in the trees.

We're going up!

Apart from those sharp claws,

he also has a bony plate in his lower back

which acts like a built in chair for resting in the fork of trees.

By week three, he's started to look and behave like a wild koala.

Danny has advanced a lot since the last time we took him outside.

He's climbing and eating and generally

more comfortable in the enclosure.

After a month in training the team decide he's ready to make

the move outside full-time.

So tonight will be his last night indoors with Simone.

Tomorrow he'll be introduced to the two older female koalas.

But letting go of the security of his teddy

and the closeness of Simone will be tough.

# Oh, Danny Boy... #

Everyone is hoping that one of the two older koalas will take

young Danny into her care.

On the other side of the world in Costa Rica, another little

orphan has a lot to cope with.

Newbie, the three-toed sloth, has been battling with

pneumonia for over eight weeks.

But every day she is getting stronger,

and Sam is hopeful that she may be beating this bacterial

infection in her lungs at last, but Sam isn't taking any chances.

Every morning and evening, Newbie is given a cocktail of medicines,

delivered to her in a mist with pure oxygen.

She tolerates it really well. Part of me wonders whether it feels

good, especially the bronchodilator because it helps her to breathe.

But Sam believes that there's more to treating Newbie than just medicine.

As anthropomorphic as it sounds, they really need what we call love.

With baby animals, and especially sloths, they need a lot of attention,

a lot of reassurance, they need to feel safe, I think that

because stress has such an effect on their body, without that

comfort and safety they just don't thrive and their body shuts down.

Sam believes that without this close care,

no amount of antibiotic would save her.

I'm hopeful. She's responding well to treatment,

it's just a case of nipping this pneumonia in the bud

so that way we don't have to worry it will come creeping up and silently kill her one day.

I just don't want to name her yet. Once she gets through this

and we're confident she's doing well then we'll reassess the naming

situation, and hopefully pick something more dignified than "Newbie".

If Newbie is ever to go back to the wild,

her preparation for release has to continue.

'So Sam is keen to keep building her confidence in climbing,

'and thinks she's ready for a real tree.'

-Good day!

-Yup.

Newbie, first tree!

I'm just going to try and get her close to the tree.

This is basically the beginning of her getting back to the wild

-something more natural.

-Being a sloth again.

-Exactly.

So this is very typical - she has one hand on the new spot and one hand on the mom.

She's not going to leave me totally at first.

'Like Danny the koala, Newbie is a little hesitant at first

'but soon she's off at her own pace.'

It certainly looks like she's ready to explore.

You've got to be patient, lots of baby steps,

lots of milestones to reach.

You definitely have to be patient with sloths.

Everything happens at a little bit slower speed.

'Despite their reputation for laziness,

'sloths only sleep for around nine hours a day.

'Their slow movements are a way of conserving energy,

'a neat survival strategy, allowing them to eat

'nutrient-poor leaves that won't sustain other animals.

'Sloths have the slowest digestion of any mammal. It can take them

'two weeks to process a single meal.

'Their entire lifestyle is all about expending as little energy as possible.'

Look at that, she's climbing, feeding...

You're obviously a pretty good sloth mum.

I think she's doing really well, I'm very proud of her.

'This has been a big step for Newbie, but at just five months old,

'it's not long before she needs the reassurance of her surrogate mother.'

I think she might be coming to me now.

-On the move, had enough.

-Mm-hm.

-That was a pretty good effort for day one.

They're not adapted to moving on the ground, are they?

A sitting duck for any predator.

I know, that's why it's so sad.

That's why her mom was attacked by a dog, because

as soon as they come to the ground she has no defences against a dog.

'Sloths have a top speed of just 30cm-per-minute,

'which means that when they do come to the ground,

'they are completely vulnerable.

'For Newbie, Sam represents safety and security, as well as her only

'chance of beating her illness and getting back to the wild.

'There is still a long road ahead for both of them.

'And one that will inevitably be travelled at a very leisurely pace.'

It's a different story here in Australia.

Macropods, like kangaroos, can cover seven metres in a single hop.

'But every journey starts with the first steps.

'And for Neil, the orphaned wallaby, they are very tentative ones.'

A little bundle in there!

Oh, wow!

'With Stella's careful attention to his diet,

'he is growing and gaining in strength, and she is getting to know

'the intimate workings of his digestive system.'

Little Neil was under 800g when he came in.

He's on three bottles a day at the moment, he goes to the toilet

very well, he's got solid droppings, but they fart, and they can clear

a room, and quite often people will all look at each other,

it is so bad.

Accusingly! Accusingly.

It can't be the sweet one!

He's actually the sweet one.

He's actually a wallaby.

His true name is black wallaby or swamp wallaby.

But his original name was stinky wallaby, and the aborigines rarely

ate them because they smelt, they farted, which saved their lives.

That's a really good...

If you fart, it can save your life - it's a good evolutionary mechanism.

'But if Neil is to survive, he needs to learn to hop.'

Put your hands under his chest here, that's it.

A balance rather than a lift.

Hold just his tail...that's it. Well done.

Oh, so wobbly! Oh, look!

Just bring his pouch back in front.

Get it ready, just in case.

You hold his hands now and you can just balance him there,

and let him get his balance. Beautiful.

It's genuinely exciting, that sense that he's taken these initial steps,

it's so meaningful.

Wow, there's a hop! That's fantastic! So sweet.

-Back to the pouch.

-That's it.

What an adventure!

Now you're a wallaby mum.

I feel proud, proud of those steps.

'But there is something even more important for Neil than

'developing his walking skills - he needs a companion.'

In the wallaby world, his mum's with him 24 hours a day,

seven days a week, but I have to do other things, I have to look after other animals and go outside,

and although I do carry him with me, he can't be with me 24 hours,

whereas a little friend can be.

So we need to find a little friend for Neil, then.

Yes, we do. But they come in all the time, because the cars are getting faster

and the little creatures are crossing the roads.

So we're getting more and more than we've ever had before.

For sensitive baby marsupials like Neil, finding a suitable

companion could make the difference between life or death.

Fortunately, Stella has a plan.

Until an orphan the same age

and size is brought to Stella, she's going to see

if Neil is strong enough to try hanging out with a small

band of older wallabies nicknamed the Three Amigos.

Like Neil, all three of them lost their mothers in car accidents.

This is Paddy. He's curious but quiet.

Mitchell is quite small but he likes to bounce around,

and he jumps on everybody and makes everybody hide in their pouch.

Max just likes to be adventurous and he hides under the furniture.

Three great little characters.

The only problem is that they are a whole month older than Neil.

But if he's strong enough to hold his own,

he may just be able to join the gang.

But they are just that little bit bigger and bouncier than Neil.

He simply isn't mobile enough to join the fun,

and could accidentally get hurt.

Maybe the pouch is the safest place after all.

For Neil and Stella, it's going to be a waiting game,

till the right wallaby comes along.

Here in Costa Rica, there's an altogether different waiting game going on.

Newbie, the orphaned three-toed sloth, is under close observation.

Sloths only go to the toilet once or twice a week, so sloth carer, Sam,

has to try and predict it and get her to the right place at the right time.

She feels like a beach ball, so she better be ready. After she goes all this shrinks back in.

Sloths can lose around 30% of their body weight in one poop

and pee, so that's a lot, I wish humans could do that sometimes.

Wild sloths spend all of their time in the tops of trees,

only coming to the ground every few days when nature calls.

And, despite living with Sam, Newbie is following the same pattern.

Can you imagine not going to the bathroom for four whole days?

So basically they can store a lot, for a long period of time.

It's really important to know how their biology works

because if we didn't know sloths are only supposed to poop and pee every

four days, or every week, then we'd worry, like, "What's wrong with them?! They're not going today!"

So, now we're going to stick her at

the base of the tree, this is her pooping tree.

We have to be very quiet because she gets distracted easily.

No-one knows why sloths stick to the same latrine spot,

but one theory is that they could be fertilising their favourite tree.

(It's just a waiting game.

(See how she's looking at me?

(She's like, "Why did you leave me on this tree? Come and get me.

(This could be good. But you have to look for the flick of the tail.

(If it goes like this, then she's going!

(But I'm not sure yet.)

If you know that they really need to go, but they just don't feel comfortable enough to go,

then it can be kind of stressful, cos you're like, "Please poop!"

This is a bad sign.

She might not be quite ready.

I think we might have to try later, she's not ready.

I give up, you win.

All Sam can do is bring Newbie back later for another try.

It's a guessing game, and the ball is firmly in Newbie's court.

Three hours later, and Sam and Newbie are ready to try again.

Her climbing right now is not exactly a good sign.

She may still not be ready, even though she's like a beach ball.

Newbie's stomach has four separate chambers, storing leafy food

at different stages of digestion, a system unique to sloths.

And part of the reason why the whole process requires a great deal of patience.

It's a bit like potty training a toddler - it's all in the timing.

I really wanted her to go!

Two hours later and the heavens have opened.

Sam is hoping that Newbie's bowels will follow suit.

I'll try putting my hand on her a bit and see

if it makes her feel a bit more secure.

Oh, it's happening it's happening! See the tail, that flip?

I'm happy!

And Sam's not the only one.

It must be such a relief to pee after four days. I think

I would close my eyes too!

Understandably, post-poo is the only time Sam is able to get

an accurate measure of how much Newbie weighs.

And establish how fit and healthy she is.

Nice! 1,000, even.

So in two weeks she's gained about 75 grams,

so that's really good. I'm very happy that she's doing well today.

We have to take it one day at a time.

It's a promising sign, but there's a still a long way to

go before Sam might feel confident enough to give Newbie a proper name.

In Southern Australia, at Cape Otway's Koala Rescue Centre,

confidence is exactly what Danny needs.

It's his first day out in the enclosure full-time.

This is a huge milestone. From now on there will be no more teddy

and no more nights in the comfort and security of the indoors.

Would you like to go up there, would that be fun?

At six months old, a wild koala would be riding around with his mum

outside of her pouch full-time, so Danny should be physically

ready for his new challenge.

He's climbing really beautifully, he's really agile and strong

and really comfortable about navigating his way through

the branches. He's really good. I'm very pleased with that.

But living without his human carers is about more than just climbing.

Danny's buddies in the enclosure are Puddles and Tilly.

These two rescued females have been here a year

and are the equivalent of young teenagers.

If one of them takes a shine to Danny, then he'll have a

companion to make him feel safe and secure.

Within minutes, Danny starts trying to get close to Tilly.

Just like Danny, she was found on the side of the road underweight and dehydrated.

But adult koalas are largely solitary in the wild

and Tilly is not interested.

But Danny isn't giving up just yet.

He goes in to get some attention.

But Tilly makes her feelings clear.

Danny decides to try his luck with Puddles.

She has been through a lot in her young life,

from being found without her mother by the road, to battling

an infection that meant she lost most of her ears and several claws.

Now fit and well, she seems to have a more laid-back approach to life.

The early signs are promising.

But Puddles is still so young herself,

Danny will have to hope that he can quietly win her over.

Over at Stella's place, Neil the wallaby needs

a companion just as badly.

Since his unsuccessful introduction to the Three Amigos

he's been on his own.

But word has got out.

There's another very young wallaby who is in as much need of a companion as Neil.

Hello, Stella, I've got a little friend for you here.

-Is it a little boy or girl?

-A little boy, his mum was hit by a car.

Aw, he's gorgeous, what do you call him?

I think Jasper, I think that's what the person who found him

-would have named...

-Jasper, it is. Hi, Jasper.

-Welcome! Thanks very much.

-All right.

-Thanks.

-Bye!

-Come in, Harry. Come in!

Jasper has just come in and we have to weigh him

to check on the weight, to compare him with Neil to see if he is a good size.

Jasper has to be just the right weight for the match to work.

Neil weighs a kilo, so Jasper has to weigh a kilo, too.

And he's one kilo, he's the perfect weight for Neil. When they hop

into the same pouch they won't smother each other, and the chance

of survival is much, much greater for both of them, so that's perfect.

He's a little bit anxious because everything's new to him.

He's actually doing very well for such a brand-new little baby.

Look at that! There's somebody here to meet you.

The gentleness of the two little creatures that have never

met before is quite special.

Oh, there you go.

It's not long before the pair are confirming their bond.

Very sweet.

Watching them, when you see things like that, it's why you do

what you do, why you become a wildlife carer.

Having spent a bit of time with Stella, it has genuinely surprised me

the amount of work that goes into raising these animals.

It really gives you a sense of just how incredible the mothering in the wild really is.

'And it also shows how incredible the urge is to find a substitute

'to fill the void left when they lose that crucial relationship.

'For Danny the koala, persuading Puddles to give him that

'close contact was critical to making his new life outside successful.'

Luckily his persistence has paid off,

and she's taken him under her wing.

The two of them snuggle up together day and night, and she even

lets him ride around on her back, just like his real mother would.

It's a great result for Danny.

Having this close contact with another koala will give his

chances of making it back to the wild a huge boost.

Both he and wallaby, Neil, have benefitted from dedicated

and experienced carers and the company of their own species.

Their futures are looking bright.

'Unfortunately it's a very different story in Costa Rica.

'Newbie's pneumonia has returned with a vengeance.'

Hey, Sam, how's she doing?

She sounds bad and she doesn't feel good.

She struggles to breathe.

I can see her chest move in and out.

What's next for Newbie, how do you get to the bottom of this problem?

We've started her on a different medication for the second

round of the disease,

and if that doesn't work, it's pretty serious.

That's why I'm so concerned,

because even though she's still hanging in there,

if we can't cure her she'll never make it back to the wild,

she probably won't even survive. It's tough.

I just want her to get better.

I don't think I've ever seen Newbie looking quite so sorry for herself,

and it's tough, because just as everyone was thinking she was getting better,

Sam was even think about giving her a proper name for the first time...

And now she's back on medication and the pneumonia is worse than ever.

We've all got to just keep our fingers crossed that this new

medication starts to work, and hopefully shakes off this pneumonia for good.

'It's a waiting game once more for Sam and her orphaned sloth.

'But she has made it this far, so there has to be hope that Newbie will pull through.'

Next time, Al the ant eater has to be taught how to do what should come naturally.

I'm afraid there's no termites in there, fella.

Stacey, an orphaned wombat, hits a potentially devastating

problem on her journey back to the wild.

As you can hear in my voice,

it is hard not to be attached to these guys.

And Newbie continues her brave battle with pneumonia.