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CITY ZOO - EPISODE 7 Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre TIMECODE PICTURE SCRIPT Title: Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre 10:00:00:00 Cityscapes of Pretoria 10:00:35:03 WS One-eared black rhino at fence 10:01:07:18 WS Cable Car 10:01:23:14 Coming Up… City Zoo is an oasis in the middle of Pretoria, South Africa’s capital. It houses over 3000 animals from around the world. Each one doing their part to help educate the daily visitors to the zoo. In return the zoo crew play their part by breeding and rehabilitating the animals. Join us as we meet some of the zoo’s residents and follow the zoo crew’s efforts to keep the animals healthy and happy. Come take a walk on the wild side in Pretoria’s City Zoo where lions and tigers live side-byside and where conservation is a way of life. This time on City Zoo we explore the zoo’s breeding facility, the Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre. We meet Johannes and see why he has such a special relationship with the animals he cares for. As night falls, we explore the conservancy on a game drive and Mike makes a tragic discovery, a dead zebra foal. We see how the centre manages disease. The roan are treated for tick related illness and 5 buffalo are tested for Bovine Tuberculosis, after a rhino on a neighbouring camp is diagnosed. And finally the team get to the bottom of a problem with one of the plant families, the Naboom. 10:02:16:08 Title Sequence 10:02:50:20 Chimp on post Wide 10:03:15:23 Veterinary Hospital Exterior 10:03:25:14 Aerial view from Cable Car 10:03:38:12 Mokapane The Pretoria National Zoo is home to over 10000 animals and is protecting and breeding many endangered and threatened species. The zoo is a well equipped with a veterinary Hospital on the premises as well s a scientific research facility and DNA bank. Committed to conservation, City Zoo breeds many rare species that may otherwise be extinct in the wild. And most of the breeding happens here, at the CITY ZOO - EPISODE 7 Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre landscape 10:03:44:23 Mokapane landscape 10:03:59:20 10:04:08:07 10:04:20:01 Pan L-R form food to Johannes chopping 10:04:37:04 Johannes Kubhayi, Animal Attendant, Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre 10:04:57:21 Johannes exits door wide 10:05:07:05 Gibbons playing wide 10:05:21:03 Gibbons swinging wide 10:05:30:21 Johannes CU 10:05:50:10 Gibbons sitting in tree and eating 10:06:00:16 Tourist photographing lemurs 10:06:11:06 Lemur on pole inside enclosure 10:06:25:20 Johannes hand feeding the lemur through the fence 10:06:47:02 Johannes clean feeding plinth 10:06:54:19 Johannes carrying bowl Med Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre. Mokopane is situated 250 kilometres North of Pretoria in a sub-tropical sweet bushveld area. At 1600 hectares it is the size of small game reserve and its open to visitors. The animals bred here are diverse and include Roan, Black Rhino, Cheetahs and Gibbons. Today we will meet the Mokopane team and see what it takes to breed animals successfully. Johannes plans, selects and prepares the food for a number of different animals. He started out as cleaner at the zoo, but through his dedication he has worked his way up. Working with animals has been life changing for Johannes. So, this is my dream. Before I was not think I can work with the animal, but if I see the animal I was just thinking if I can take that animals today I can eat nicely. Now I can see animals she is beautiful and animal is the best things that you can look after. Different animals are fed at different times and on different days, so Johannes is always busy. He’s off to feed the gibbons. Gibbon island is fence free. The only thing that stops the gibbons from escaping is small mote of water , which Johannes has to cross. The gibbons dislike water intensely. These playful apes are Johannes’s favourites and feeding them is highlight in his day. Ja I just want to say Thanks God. But if she was not god I can’t find this job to work with the animals. I don’t know what to say, I just want to say animal, that is my top favourite. While the Gibbons enjoy their meal Johannes is off to feed another playful animal. Lemurs are endemic to the forests of Madagascar and are highly endangered. The lemurs here are fed on diet of fruit. There’s always a scramble around the food bowl at meal times and one of the lemurs is not competing well. But this lemur will not go hungry thanks to Johannes, who hand feeds him to make sure he gets his fair share. These Macaws need to be fed a special diet, but Johannes has ensured that they get everything they need. Johannes’s gentle nature puts the animals at ease and he has no problems entering the enclosures. CITY ZOO - EPISODE 7 Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre 10:07:05:07 2 servals in their enclosure 10:07:19:14 CU Lions at fence 10:07:31:06 Meat in strongroom 10:07:45:09 Water pipe 10:07:53:06 WS Black rhino at fenceline 10:08:11:19 Wild dogs running wide 10:08:24:07 Wild Dogs 3 shot 10:08:31:19 Wild dog CU 10:08:45:21 Cheetah in the tree 10:09:06:05 Cheetah eating 10:09:29:20 Cheetah walking out of shot 10:10:00:01 Bright light 10:10:51:02 The servals are agile predators and are usually a little jumpy, but in Johannes’s company they are completely relaxed. When it comes to dealing with the larger carnivores, things are little different. Even though the lions clearly recognise Johannes he never enters their enclosure. Instead lunch is served in a secure part of the enclosure. And while the lions feast Johannes is free to clean and maintain without the threat of a lion attack. Once mealtime is over and Johannes is safely out of their enclosure the gate is opened. This young black rhino is kept separately from the others to protect him from the dominant bull. He’s one of Johannes’s favourites as he was born with only one ear. Even though the wild dogs are highly specialised hunters, Johannes is able to enter their enclosure. They are highly intelligent and tolerate his presence. Many reserves will not take on Wild Dog packs as they systematically take out prey populations. In their natural habitat wild dogs are persecuted by farmers. The African Wild dog is critically endangered and the captive populations are the only hope for conservation. Another highly endangered predator kept at Mokopane is the cheetah. Captive cheetah populations are s also essential to curb the threat of extinction. Only 1500 wild roaming cheetahs are left in South Africa and the numbers continue to fall. The Carnivores are one of the biggest attractions for tourists who come to visit Mokopane. The centre aims to offer visitors education and recreation on all levels. One of the best ways visitors can enjoy first hand encounters with animals is on game drives. At Mokopane there are herds of free ranging animals including impala and zebra. But some of the best sights are to be seen are at night. Night drives are exciting experiences where visitors see the animals in a natural and free environment. There are many nocturnal and diurnal animals active at this time. The animals may be harder to spot at night, but catching a glimpse of the more secretive night dwellers is truly rewarding. Porcupines are rarely spotted in the daylight and there is o better time for spotting owls than in the dark. CITY ZOO - EPISODE 7 Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre 10:11:22:02 10:11:33:21 Zebra and dead foal in the dark 10:12:01:14 Landscape 10:12:25:06 Mark and Johannes pick up dead foal 10:12:48:11 CU hands in yellow rubber gloves 10:13:21:03 Burchell’s Zebra herd wide 10:13:36:03 Roan antelope 2 shot 10:13:51:07 Mark CU This is also a chance for the centre’s management team to check up on the game. And on this night drive the team discover a tragedy as Mark Howitt, the centre’s manager recounts. Mark: Last night out on a game drive, we came across a group of Burchell’s zebra, where there was a young zebra foal, lying on its side. We initially thought it was sleeping but due to the noise of the vehicle and the mother staying in the vicinity the foal didn’t wake up or stand up. So we then approached and found that the foal was actually dead and had died earlier on in the early hour of the evening. Mark: We then returned the following morning to collect the animals. In the process of collecting the animals we have a look at the ground area to see if there was any signs of trouble, fighting any kind of signs that would indicate a possible cause of death, we found nothing we took a number of photographs as well. Mark: We then loaded the animal and took it to our facility where we then did a field postmortem on it. Collecting samples of different body tissues and then recording the size, shape and appearance and any abnormalities that we might see visually with the eye. Mark: In the process of the post mortem we found that he subsequently possible died of a heart attack. There was a large amount of fluid with inside the heart cavity. We also found when we were removing the skin that the front leg going up to the middle of the chest there was a large abscess and we found that the animal had actually possibly had some kind of infection through the abscess that it had and caused secondary problems with the lung, which then resulted in it dying. At Mokopane every life is valuable and the team ensure that every death is investigated. The centre’s main aim is to breed rare and endangered species. Roan antelope are a rare species in South Africa. But breeding animals is never straightforward process as Mark explains. Mark: The game breeding centre came on board here in 1991, where they introduced the first roan onto the property. Since then we’ve built up the numbers and to an extent where we’ve managed to relocate some roan to our other facility at Lichtenburg and then we’ve also managed to swap out various roan antelope to CITY ZOO - EPISODE 7 Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre 10:14:49:02 Roan in field wide 10:15:03:20 Roan walking wide 10:15:13:11 Fence line 10:15:50:06 Roan feeding 10:16:19:16 Oxpeckers sitting on buffalos back 10:16:35:12 10:16:58:14 10:17:27:10 ensure the genetic integrity of our population as we’ve been going. At the present moment we’ve got seventeen roan on the property, from a population of about five roan that we originally received in the 1991 side. Now we’re looking at swapping out animals to with private landowners to improve the genetic integrity of the population and to see how we can increase the foundation for roan antelope throughout the country. The success of this breeding programme does not only relay on the genetic integrity of the stock. The team need to ensure that the animals are disease free. Recently the roan at Mokopane have been affected by a disease called the Thileria, which is spread by ticks. So the management team have introduced a tick off applicator. The animals walk across the device and step on pressure plate. This then sends a jet of the product onto the animal. The product kills the ticks and in the end the roan remain healthy. Mark: The tick off applicator is ox pecker friendly, it doesn’t contain organophosphates, which results in the death of oxpeckers. So in being conservation conscious and friendly to other species, we then also make sure that we use the correct products, in our management of our wildlife population. There’s been an outbreak of Bovine Tubercolosis in another part of the camp. A black rhino has been diagnosed and Adrian and the zoo crew have been called in to test the neighbouring group of buffalo. Adrian: All five buffalo we’re to get blood samples form them and also do inter-dermal TB tests on them. Try and see if they are carriers in infected with bovine TB. They’re all five have been in one enclosure here, so we’re going to immobilise all five one after the other. This is a serious threat as TB is highly infectious and if the animals test positive they may have to be destroyed. Adrian: And then get the blood samples and then we inject the tuberculin under the skin, measure the skin thickness and then shave the area, inject tuberculin underneath the skin and then we’ll see from the blood tests we’ll see if there are any positives if anything looks suspicious. Then possibly in three days time we will need immobilize them again to measure the thickness of the skin. Because if they are CITY ZOO - EPISODE 7 Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre 10:18:49:24 CU Adrian writing on tube sticker 10:18:57:02 Buffalo CU 10:19:09:14 Giraffe CU 10:19:26:16 Mark CU 10:20:10:00 Naboom within the other vegetation 10:20:31:08 Rentia Malan, Conservationist, Tshwane University of Technology 10:21:24:07 positive there will be difference in the thickness of the skin, it will become thicker. And you measure it with a calliper. So what we try and determine is whether these buffalo are either source of an infection that the rhino had, the rhino that was right next door in the enclosure next door, or whether they were also exposed to the same infection from wherever the infection came from or if they were exposed secondarily to the rhino, so if they picked it up from the rhino. When Adrian has all he needs to samples are sent away for testing When the results are returned the news is good. All five buffalo are disease free and none will be put down. Part of the managing the centre is taking a full spectrum approach, this means understanding how the plants and animals interact within the eco-system. So when a species of plant started to die off in the reserve Mark called in specialist help. Mark: here at Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre, it is also part of the zoo and instead of just focussing on the wildlife and wild animals that occur is that we look at the plant communities and one of the plant communities that we are focussing on and that one of the projects we have initiated recently is the Euphorbia Ingensis standing here behind me. The Naboom as it commonly known is very well known to produces a white latex which is very poisonous. The euphorbia only occur on the Northern Slopes and on the foothills of the mountain range within the centre’s grounds. Over the years the trees have been dying off and City Zoo started looking for a Naboom expert to helps get to the bottom of the problem. Rentia Malan a leading botanist was called in. Rentia: During 2006 we had done a strip census of the euphorbia plant community. To determine what the population, the health of the population. And 26 percent of the whole population that was in that strip was already dead and 70 percent was more than 50 percent affected by what seems like some kind of disease that is causing the euphorbia’s to die. So after the statistics of this became available. Then it was clearly seen that there was a problem with the euphorbia plant community. Rentia: One of the things that I looked at was the population age structure. That was divided CITY ZOO - EPISODE 7 Mokopane Biodiversity and Conservation Centre 10:22:34:03 10:23:18:16 into adult plants, juvenile plants and then seedlings. There was only one juvenile plant. The rest of them were all adult plants no seedling. Now there can be two possible reason for that, one being baboons, because we’ve noticed that in the dry season they eat the seeds and the flowers in large quantities. Then it is also known that black rhino eat euphorbia and there was an article published that research was done that the black rhino ate considerable amount of euphorbia to such as extent that they didn’t drink water in the winter months, they ate euphorbia for their water needs. Mark: Out of this whole process we’ve discovered that there’s five different funguses that are infecting the euphorbia’s and is associated with euphorbia it is natural process. We’ve got no idea. We’ve also discovered a new fungus as well that was also in this identification process, which was previously only known to occur within proteas population gin the Western Cape. And we’ve also now come close to identifying 26 different insect species that are associated with and utilising the euphorbia species. Previously the euphorbia was considered a common species with no threat to it, but now within few years we’ve discovered it as a population that could be under severe threat. As we’ve discovered today, there’s more than meets the eye at City Zoo.