Most people think of zoos as a place to just see Lions, Pandas, or Orangutans for an afternoon. But they are also places of innovation and developing new ways to save endangered Australian wildlife. At zoos in Victoria this includes, song meters, mini-pulse monitors, and an aerial food delivery service.
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00:00 Hovering, scouting, and soon perhaps life-saving.
00:07 This is Xena.
00:09 Zoo Emergency Nutrition by Air.
00:11 It's a custom designed drone attachment that could soon be used in fires, floods or droughts.
00:16 The idea is that you can get out there quickly, strap it to a drone, fill it with all kinds
00:20 of different food items that might be suitable for all the different animals in that particular
00:24 patch of bush, and fly out and disperse food across quite a wide area at fairly short notice,
00:29 quite cheaply too.
00:31 It's an extension of Zoos Victoria's drone arsenal which is used to survey habitats,
00:35 3D map landscapes and track animals.
00:38 And an example of the innovations that Zoos Victoria spends more than $250,000 a year
00:43 to develop.
00:44 But not all innovations are up high.
00:46 Some are closer to the heart, like the Mini Pulse Oximeter.
00:49 This technology is very innovative and really important to what we do because historically
00:55 we wouldn't be able to count the heart rate of certain species.
00:59 Young animals have really fast heart rates.
01:01 Stethoscopes can be too large for accurate readings of some Australian animals.
01:05 That includes the critically endangered Mountain Pygmy Possum, which was only rediscovered
01:10 in the 60s, making every single one precious.
01:13 They are about 40 grams, they can get up to 60, 70 grams and they hibernate under the
01:18 snow.
01:19 Other animals on the endangered list in Australia include this elusive bird.
01:23 The Planswanderer is in terms of evolutionary distinctness not like any other bird on the
01:29 planet.
01:30 It's on its own family tree.
01:32 Standing just 12 to 15 centimetres tall, there are as few as 250 left in the wild.
01:37 We can't always see them, but if you're in the right place at the right time you can
01:41 hear them.
01:42 So for the past five years, song meters developed with Museums Victoria have been set up to
01:47 listen for the bird's call with great success.
01:50 You can put them into a much broader area across the landscape, you can have a whole
01:55 array of these recorders and the birds are showing up in places that we may not have
02:01 assessed as best quality habitat.
02:04 Song meters are being placed in Western Victoria and it's hoped Xena will be ready, but not
02:08 needed any time soon.
02:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]