Wild Heroes

The Zoo prepares to move New Zealand's very last elephant, Asian elephant, Burma, she'll be moving to an Australian wildlife park where she can be part of an elephant herd. The Zoo vets fight to save a native kiwi bird injured by a dog attack, and the Zoo team help to support one of the rarest frogs on the planet only found on a remote Island in New Zealand.

Auckland Zoo cares for a surprise native, a tropical snake that arrived on an Auckland beach. A kiwi bird, the victim of a dog attack fights to survive at the vet hospital and the Zoo team head to a remote island to support a critically endangered species and the world's only flightless parrot species, the kākāpō.

New Zealand's last elephant, Asian elephant Burma is on the move to an Australian wildlife park. The Auckland Zoo vet team fight to save a giant petrel bird and travel to Tasmania to support the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program.

A sick little penguin or kororā is brought to the vet hospital with a mystery illness, the Zoo team travels to a volcanic mountain range to support a rare gecko species and Auckland Zoo prepares for a southern white rhino birth.

A green sea turtle, injured by human means is brought to the hospital, where the vet team fights to save its life. Auckland Zoo's swamp forest habitat is thriving and the Zoo team travels to Rangitoto Island to survey the island's lizard populations post pest eradication on the island.

A sick kekeno or New Zealand fur seal pup is brought to the vet hospital, Sumatran tiger cub Cahya is thriving, and Auckland Zoo supports a hatch-and-release conservation emergency in a bid to save New Zealand's rarest endemic shore bird species, the tara iti. With less than 40 birds in existence, every egg and every animal counts.

Auckland Zoo travels to Dunedin's Wildlife Hospital to support the world's rarest penguin species, the endemic hoiho penguins. An American alligator is brought to the vet hospital, and the Zoo team are in the rugged Southern Alps on a wildlife conservation emergency to save awakōpaka skinks.

Auckland Zoo supports an endemic bird species, the Brown Teal or Pāteke duck with a breed and release programme, the vets deliver vital dental care to southern white rhino, Zambezi. And the Zoo team travels to the far north for a very special sea turtle release as part of the Team Turtle partnership with Auckland Zoo, DOC and Sealife Kelly Tarlton's and supported by local iwi and hapu.

Qia the Cheetah receives exploratory treatment at Auckland Zoo's world class animal hospital when the keepers notice a number of lumps under her fur, the medical team perform microsurgery on an injured skink, and the keepers travel to Tauranga to support native Little Penguins in the wild.

An injured Salvin's Albatross is brought to Auckland Zoo's wildlife hospital for treatment. After supporting a conservation rescue some eight years earlier, when it was thought an entire skink species was under threat of being wiped out by a huge weather event, and after a successful care and breed programme, the Zoo team travels to the rugged West Coast of the South Island.