A new home for Asia's largest bird park | The Great Migration | Full Episode

[Music] the residents of Jurong bird park have been enchanting visitors for nearly 50 years oh you brought reinforcements is it every day the keepers have to do the illness but things are about to change yes the scariest part a brand new home has been built for them in Monday and the big moving date is looming large on the horizon idea I waited for this moment my insanely long time keepers are preparing some of the most endangered birds on earth for the move of a lifetime miss Leckie befriends select active while engineers try to build a new park that many consider to be impossible it means crazy not people to say it's just going at its time find out what goes on behind the scenes a strong bird park prepares for its great migration to Monday with the big move inching closer each day in Jerome can we do it the keepers are ensuring that future residents of the new park are happy and thriving we're trying to encourage them to be by making a small foundation for the nests it's breeding season and the keepers are hoping their not-so-subtle redecorating get the birds in the mood [Music] 10 out of 10 with totally lame looks like their matchmaking efforts have worked at the vet hospital the team received a new batch of king penguin eggs so I'm talking penguin eggs at 44 days of incubation and this is when we'll check whether they are fertile or not their shells are so thick that the only way to see if there's a chick is with an x-ray excited super excited [Laughter] difficult to breed in captivity the team have had only one successful king penguin hatching in the last 10 years the beloved maru so the future of Juran's penguin colony could be riding on this x-ray hey there's a chick verily this is dumb dick and you can see the scowl I hate this run off finger and this point B beep is the beep if everything goes well we'll be expecting this guy to come on at the end of this one I mean after Maru is another long way that chick so I'm very happy of course [Music] you grow as many bird keepers tend to talk to the birds like they were a bird you can hear it [Music] see what I mean [Music] no one as the part prepares to move there's one person who is responsible for the entire bird collection oh you brought reinforcements is it neat dr. Lewis nervous Tuesday is definitely a favourite day for me every Tuesday when I get to come to the birth but I make it a point to walk the grounds I know this particular bird because I know him since he was hatching he's usually pretty responsive mikus and most kids want a car or a action figure I wanted budgie so I think that pretty much says everything after almost 50 years in Durham the bird park is going to move to its new home in Monday but its mission stays the same I think zoos in this day and age are still very very important we have a huge responsibility as conservation hubs and as centers for conservation education Jurong bird park has such a strong heritage as far as being at the forefront of bird conservation so the natural option was to just relocate Jurong bird park to man died in a new form it's part of a massive rejuvenation project with all of Singapore's wildlife parks in one area monday will become Singapore's wildlife paradise meet Alex I'm the project manager for but I work very closely with everybody from the different teams and ensure that whatever that you see here goes on Alex and her team are building one of the most cutting-edge bird parks in the world known operation not Roger the new park is designed to be completely immersive visitors will walk among free flying birds in eight massive Avery's each themed on a different habitat creating a new experience for birds and bird lovers at the end of it right it's a massive beautiful Avery where the sisters are able to enter and every salt disappears around them because really who stares at the Avery net when you have beautiful birds to look at and to be able to truly immerse themselves as a habitat that we have designed for so it is very challenging to get something like this because it almost hasn't been done around the wall at all as Alexander team wrestled the new park in to shape the Monde I designed him are putting their final touches on the new penguin enclosure the vision of this new bird park is trying to provide a better animal care and better education for our visitors as well this is quite challenging teaming because it's integrated life support system inside the water management water quality is the priority like any centimeter of kube water us to go to the filter but the teaming should cover just what we need no more endure it's a challenging balance between theming and life support system and it's beautiful my voice is so completely changing [Music] as the Monday team work on the new penguin enclosure one of its future residents is due to enter the world but the Cubans have spotted a serious problem we have a king penguin egg when we did an x-ray this morning we suspect that the chick assessing malposition if the chick is not positioned correctly inside the egg it can't hang out on its own in the wild this chick would die before it even hatched so enormous circumstance yes she will Peck oh ho a row at this part it would just push his head up and just pops out from the show in situation or a small position right the hit is pretty much stuck so we actually has to do something called the assists patching to help the chick out of it's shell the team gently peel off each layer with us a little wing it's always a miracle to see this from your and egg white to this cute little thing over here I guess it's gone how it makes this job worthwhile hello yeah you need to get out there so this is a she the toughest Popoff was this etching patience so you do not rush into it cuz unless she's on actually not ready to hatch but you also need to know when and how to make the call to actually intervene at various point of the process given the importance of this hatching dr. Lewis has come to check on the chair he's worried that the check has been in the egg longer than it should which creates a whole new set of problems with our king penguin chicks tuck inside its shell vent reinforcements are brought in dr. Ellen has come to the chicks rescue she decides the safest option is to remove the chick from its shell started to poop inside his own shell so I know buddy we're gonna try to knock it out and so she said his normal functions like in a container instead of Jenny's show so you're obsessed coming out of the belly button but because of the way the cheeks been lined he's also baby sleeping full libraries all the delicate yolk sac looks like a placenta containing all the nutrients the chick needs to grow strong inside the a damaging the yolk sac now could prove fatal for the chick the question is just very large by I said the Venice starting on some antibodies the movie inside my brain that on it here is the he absorbs disengagement yourself to increase its chances of survival they decide to let the chick rest and absorb as much of the yolk sac as it can [Music] after the chick has soaked up enough of the yolk it is gently removed from its shell umbilicus is off there was no signs of infection there is no bleeding which is good what that means though is we need to start feeding the chick poison so that he gets enough nutrition to go Jerrod prepares the chicks first meal feeding welcome that's it [Music] so you can see is first is a bit unsteady we can't really control much of his motor movements just like a big jelly bean okay now think I'll let you speak with the bird population growing steadily at Jurong bird park Alex and her team are out on a sidewalk to check on the new parks progress there are very few dedicated boat parts in the whole the but part being a unique project is unique it is true a sense of the world because there's no standard for us to follow that's the stress point but that also drives one of the team where we got one time to get it correct and to do it really well hello Africa will be the first Avery that we start installation this is also our most challenging Avery because the number of tree protection zones that's also the larger the topography is very very so the working space is very tight it's true that it is going to be a bit challenging for the installation of the columns the Avery structures and the cable intertwined amongst the trees the structural elements for the new Park aviaries are the columns cables and mesh weighing as much as 35 tons the columns will form the basic structure of the aviary once the columns are installed the cables connect each column and support the final element the massive Avery mesh across the island over a hundred of monday's mega columns are being put together ranging from 12 to 30 meters high every column has to be customized in order to fit the special terrain the columns will be the first significant installations at the new site something that is keeping project managers sareth up at night this is a more complicated than other construction projects because 30 meter column is almost eight story building height the difficult part on it is that the cables are all being made in Germany all the match are also made in Switzerland the cables and the metal made to high tolerances this one has to be done in the same way or else this is out of sync precision is key for this giant puzzle [Music] so much equally yeah but okay we are very happy that dolled inspection went well let's go let's go arriving two and a half hours before the official 8 a.m. start of the day tongue is the silent superhero who works under the cloak of darkness that's a kookaburra over the years Jurong bird park has been very successful breeding Hondo's his job charge is Max is Henry when you arrive is a baby it's a baby the baby today is a special day for tongue in his Birds [Music] for the first time at the park they are going to pair two of their Rhino hornbills with breeding season in full swing our female horn bill has been getting googly eyes from a male in an enclosure close to his despite their previous success pairing these hornbills is not always a straightforward affair donate it to the bird park a few years ago this female hornbill can't fly because of a previous injury to help her feel comfortable the keepers are making adjustments to her mating aviary the ground is softened the perch is lowered and thickened and the nest boxes moved to a height she can easily reach she is ready to be introduced to what could be her soulmate for many animals it's very important to have a compatible pair so it's not just putting male and female together and then everything will happen no it's about them actually liking each other now I'm going to release her straight to the Avery self male Rhino hornbills can be easily recognized by their bloodshot red eyes while the females have white eyes you can see that the male is actually starting to notice she is actually inside here ad Honda's are monogamous mating for life but the mating rituals can often get aggressive with her condition Tong is concerned that it could go very wrong [Music] this the scariest part among all the hobbyists Yugi is the great pirate Rhino they have the most issue of herring a bite force of rye noise various joints quite capable looking a neck board the male seems more aggressive than Tong would like so he stays close ready to rescue the female if needed he's trying to decide to defeat me finally after a delicate Duns booth hornbills approached the feeding station the female is doing a right thing she is trying to offer foot to the male is actually a very good sign that she's trying to accept it accepting food is a sign of trust between hornbills but Tong is hoping for an even stronger sign of affection the male love grapes he love grapes if he really offered his grapes is a very very good indication [Music] [Music] it is very good sharing food is a ritual that cements their bond and Trust it's nice to see them together and you know that you have a permanent pair they will not break up for no reason they will be always be together that's a very very nice thing it's the happy ending that Tong had hoped for and now they can dream of raising a family together at the new hark he looks happy I have a boyfriend [Music] back at the breeding and research center our chick Whisperer Sharad is nursing a precious new arrival back in 2017 Jurong bird park was part of a team that saved the endangered santa cruz ground ups from the brink of extinction threatened by local volcanic eruptions and poaching more than half of the world's known population of santa cruz ground ups were moved to Singapore they now have a healthy colony at the power [Music] the successful hatching of a chick is a victory for the entire species he's hopefully going to be one of many is so fragile and we will always have that kind of stress we expect to have more chicks not necessarily being hand-raised by us but just in general everyone there is pride enjoy I hope we can probably get their numbers up so we can reintroduce them back to where they come from [Music] we've been focusing very heavily on conservation of Southeast Asian species especially of critically endangered Southeast Asian species so when we started looking to the collection plan for the new park we had a very very clear goal nobody bothered nobody but that we wanted to have a collection of birds that was very much representative of all the threatened species and all the conservation breeding programs that we can be far off as part of a species recovery project two critically endangered Philippine Eagles will be on loan to Jurong bird park this breeding program protects the species should something happen to the Eagles in their home country a monumental moment it's the first time that a breeding pair will be moved out of the Philippines because we have the same climate we are relatively close by and we have the expertise of caring for birds it made perfect sense for us to be the ones we are super excited and very very proud to be the ones receiving them the park is buzzing with excitement in anticipation of the VIP arrival [Music] so we prepared everything in the jungle pack exhibit we made it completely customized for the Eagles according to the requirement of the Philippine Eagle foundation it's exciting exchange there are very dangerous birds we need to walk all protects its contact with them handling a 5 kilogram bird of prey is no easy task after a quick checkup and blood roll the Eagles are ready to be released and they make sure everyone knows it [Music] he's okay yeah okay perfect big jump it's amazing I will never forget that it went very very small please now we release the birds into the trapping area and they are settling well so there won't be in the exhibit for a couple of days after a successful release into the smaller feeding cages the Eagles will remain there for a few days to acclimatize to their new inclusions it's three days after they arrive and we found out that they were eating well they were not stressed so they were settling very well we didn't want to keep them isolated from each other for too long so it was decided that today we open the cage first up is the male eagle with a big crowd watching a nice is not sure how he will react so he expressed this aggressive behavior so there's opening the wing this is the moment of truth [Music] after three days of acclimatizing to their new environment in Singapore the Philippine Eagles are about to be released into their enclosures [Music] when I saw him that he had a very smooth flight next to the perch I was feeling immediately relieved he is just looking comfortable and starting to clean his feathers it makes me very very happy just like okay everything is going very well now it's time for the female so she is very protective of her food right now so she's not so interested to go out but for now I would say let's enjoy the fact that they are doing well with the successful release it's time to do the Eagle dance for now the two Eagles are separated by a gate but at the new park their customized Avery will nurture even stronger bonding and hopefully some chicks it's been a hot few months in Singapore [Music] keep our wits together and Jerome's big birds need some attention let's do it without the rain to keep the birds cool Mathias is lending a hand well I hope you've attend to their plan but into my of the EMU [Music] at Monday alex is also feeling the heat with the column installation scheduled for next week she discovers that the foundation work is nowhere near ready so today's - being nine o'clock we start this progress meeting I always like to joke right that the P in the project manager right the PVD stands for problem or sometimes it's just pain right because problems and pain comes together okay anything to of it should possibly have anticipated technician uh she passed away almost nothing should not return attention we do not pursue this goal thing you gotta study oh my goodness my goodness my goodness for the Eva V construction everything that is underground needed to be built first around the Avery boundary we are driving a whole wall of sheep house the wall or she was imagine it to be like a moat to prevent pests from burrowing under and getting into the Avery the challenge of the column is that there's a prescribed sequence by right these paths have to be installed prior to the columns now the biggest concern we have for district is about the simple thing the columns that humming next week and shippers are not yet done we are estimating about 7,000 meter and you're supposed to be done or at whether we have or only one-third of it finish sixteen was supposed to be the columns coming which is less than a week from now actually there's more that can be done there now right I think the columns were planned to be installed six days from now today's the 10th of July all of us had in fact been gearing up for that day but I think we underestimated the complexity of the substructure works that needed to be done before the columns can arrive so we have kind of run out of time for that it is very stressful as the gravity of the delayed sheet pile sets in for Alex in Durham dr. Lewis also has problems to tackle sorry and I think one of the biggest changes in the new park will be the fact that the habitats are so much larger and that they are themed so close to the natural habitat of the birds an african-themed aviary asian-themed a breeze south american Averys and also because there's going to be a lot of species inside you'll be able to see them interact as if they would be in the lounge and now what we're doing is trying to move the animals into areas where they will be together with the birds that they will eventually be together in in the new park so the next couple of months are going to be spent trying to somehow make sure that Jurong can accommodate a collection which is ready for a different park with a different layout dr. Lewis's precision planning will help minimize the stress for its residents during the big move especially for the babies amongst them now if you exalt our king penguin chick finally has a name meat person and here's to new baby cousins today all three chicks are graduating from Gerard's care and moving to their new home in the penguin nursery penguin keepers Hafeez Bin and Auntie are excited to be the chicks new adoptive parents if you disagree about one week ago it was like this small so this precise okay now after one week pain feel like it might be a female because it's also very quiet in comparison to the rest she's actually the smallest among the tree [Music] you can get very tiring sometimes but then to see them rules as we very must be on weight fast but Huff eases job is not always fun etc Eddie you remembered your ally will she do let me go is we're gonna do with you huh what are we gonna do with you during a routine health check dr. Alan discovers that crib one of the African penguin chicks isn't breathing well Hafeez rushes down to be by his side so this little guy has a respiratory know he's either got a respiratory infection or he's got something that's similar to a snot so as well as his antifungal and antibiotic and medications we're also going to nebulize him so this is a very common treatments used for humans with us much a nebulizer turns liquid medicine into a mist to help Griffin Hale it's straight into his lungs it's like angry his breathing is I had a summer as a kid I still do so yeah I look anyway buddy oh no I know what you feel like I'm sorry I'm trying to make it better dr. Ellen suspects Griff is allergic to something in his environment so they move him back to the breeding and research center to keep a closer watch on him the keepers here definitely have a very strong bond where the birds that they care for the keepers here are so dedicated and they do every single possible thing to make sure that the birds that we have have the best possible quality of life [Music] at the breeding and research center CRIF is being looked after by dr. Gabrielle and Marcus [Music] okay baby at this young age he should be gaining weight everyday so we have started to blend fish for him so that he gets the nutrients that he needs to also get stronger and better his immune system is not as strong as some of the other adults so you can't fight off the infection as well baby [Music] definitely will continue on medications for now looking better than before everyone is hoping that the worst is over for Chris I would say her breathing is just slightly better he still needs more time to get better he's a fighter so he hasn't given up yet so we shouldn't either [Music] [Music] the next morning there's bad news overnight Chris succumbed to his infection [Music] I mean he was on he was on the right meds is on there are treatment it's just like just not gonna win against some things there are just some cases you don't win which we all Heights but that's the sad unit [Music] when we raise them since they were young they had this special bond is see the bird hatch you see her grow up from size of bomb Oh Mason I wish it could be longer but you know today the sixteen on July 16 until I was supposed to be the day that the first column from the Averys arise due to the incomplete foundation work the installation of the columns has been delayed Alex is on site to resolve the issue of the sheet piles with Patrick this supposed to be finished before the columns right now the decision to be made is if you could focus Colleen Collins first to save the columns and it varies later both of us we have to base with a lower productivity book of the manual workers going through this that creates additional resources requirement as well as additional cost yeah however you wait for the capping beam in the cheap house the capping beans are going to take one three months for one even fastest we've excavated you want to push the colors by form and everything so I don't think it's what we're all to get the project back on track they work out a way to get the sheet piles ready so the columns can be delivered without further delay after agreeing on a solution the columns are prepped for transportation with the big move to Monday looming large for keepers enduro an Isis meeting with the head keepers to discuss their receiving plans no easy task with almost 4,000 residents of all sizes temperaments and diets so we have last time we talked about a kind of a plan to move all the birds jungle jewels all the African birds will go to long enough and South American birds will go to right around do you see anything that would be a problem The Hunger species minutes they really need a monitor very closely yeah they have to be careful not all the residents get along the African pied hornbill for instance are troublemakers we definitely need to send out this predator of small birds before we are actually moving the small birds inside it's likely we're friends the menacing hornbill needs to move in with the rest of her African neighbors and Tonk draws the short straw of catching her his strategy is simple place food in the cage wait for the bear to enter and then close the cage sounds like a plan [Music] the hornbill cautiously approaches the cage but she doesn't take the bait outsmarted by the hornbill poor Tom must wait it out [Music] finally her stomach gets the better of her yes Isaac okay comparing to the move into Monday yowza know who puts this current small project that we have of the movement of butts from Avery to Avery is actually a good practice for us to prepare ourself to like what are we doing with when we actually moved to Monday so this is our lorry lot and historically it's a place where people come and get very close to lorries but we have quite a few African species that you would like to mix in preparation for the new part it's very important for us to make sure that whatever combinations we have in the new part actually worked for the rigs because that's our biggest priority so far so good and all the starlings all the African hornbills are mixing they're all together and they're also starting to interact with people as well Hey hello no eating the camera pieces [Music] after a difficult few weeks of the construction site the columns are finally on their way the columns are massive so for safety reasons they can only travel in the dead of night with a police escort in tow Alex the fearless project manager is here for the big moment I think I waited for this moment for insanely a long time it's I almost forgot all the pain that I've gone through just to get to this point my team so ask me again when the last columns are in there were really the excuse of joy tomorrow the real work begins [Music] today is the big day the first few columns are going up but nothing is ever as easy as it seems for every structure that's a pioneer and one of its kind never be done before it literally needs idealistic enough and crazy not people to see I think we can do it it's just going get it done during the installation we worry about the orientation is correct or not alignment is correct or not so that all the members we can fit properly different location is the different challenge because every time we move the crane the environment and the ground conditions differently the entire project has been building up to this moment the columns need to fit exactly right throughout the whole process within pushing this issue of very tight tolerance a very tight accuracy is what's quite important is that they lift it up when I put it down they're able to pick the pin down the bottom keeping our fingers crossed nothing happens while if this one carat weight is a really very big headache from the past one year we are waiting for this very good happy we got geometry exactly between the tolerance and also designer also accepted the tolerance surveyor just gave us a go in it now we are all done all those like the exact position why it should be a job well done Alex and her team can breathe easy for now but this is only the beginning at the spot 20 months ago right there was like a whole set of obstacles and hurdles in front of us right there we needed to jump through there were many times where it felt like we were never going to get there because it was very very challenging and I think there were many happy moments but in my better moments I try to remember that it took the whole team of us together to finally get where we are today [Music] [Music] today is also a big day for Percy now young adults Percy and his cousins are ready to believe reduced to the famous penguin colony too young to swim they will be placed in a Corral until they have shed their gray downy feathers supported we're waiting for this moment almost commenting at this point of time the chief still young to swim so we don't want them to touch the water teamwork make the dream work after being sheltered for many months Wow your fan he's finally meeting the whole king penguin family curious by Nature the adult king penguins have come to see what all the fuss is about [Music] I think this is fine here joining in on the fun the other two chicks are moved to the enclosure very very to see them grow every day to see them three healthy king penguin chicks are something to celebrate for any bird Park and as their new home takes shape these chicks will have an important role to play in building an even bigger penguin colony [Applause] [Music] Jurong bird park has been extremely successful as far as birthmarks go and passing down a certain message and showing people how amazing birds are and I'm pretty sure that anyone will be doing this times 10 we want people to come in to the new pod to have a really good time we want them to want to come back to visit this time a time again but we also want them to understand that birds need help just like any other species and that we can help them as preparations for the big move continuing Jurong bird park remains open for business it's lovable residents continuing to enchant and enlighten their families the next chapter of this story will see the dramatic final stages of the new park takes shape and the valiant efforts of our keepers as they attempt to migrate nearly 4,000 birds to their shiny new home almost there [Music]

Channel: CNA Insider

Views: 682,863

Rating: 4.8834081 out of 5

Keywords: cna, cna insider, cna insider documentaries, cna documentaries, jurong bird park, singapore, singapore parks, singapore attractions, singapore bird park

Id: WmkZRqvM1Mk

Length: 48min 22sec (2902 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/QzSG]

Probably wrong flair but CNA Documentaries like these are fun to watch!

Edit: Got a warning from reddit for vote manipulation because someone in my house up voted... Lol

[u/skunkpuppy]

Thanks for this!

[u/lostenso]

Thanks for this! I worked briefly at JBP for a month, but realized I was not good enough for the job :/ I still miss the birds

[u/DrCalFun]

Really looking forward to its opening.