Welcome to Animal Wonders. I'm Jessi and I have a little adventure to share with you.
For several years we had a wonderful breeding pair of brush-tailed bettongs. That's a critically
endangered marsupial native to Australia. Quigley and Babette were their names, and
they were awesome.
While we had them, we were placing their joeys in other educational facilities where they
educate and they also go on into breeding programs where they make babies of their own
and all the future would be happy and bright, yay! And we were so grateful to be part of
this amazing conservation effort.
We first started having thoughts about our situation about four months ago when our fourth
joey Dundee, we started having trouble finding him a home. After five homes fell through,
I mean FIVE homes fell through, we decided to put brakes on it and just keep them temporarily.
So then Babette got a fifth joey in her pouch, Sydney, and we looked for homes for her as
well, and she wasn't ready to go yet.
So Augusto and I sat down and we talked and we thought and we discussed things, and we
decided that it was best to send our breeding pair on to a facility that could devote 100%
of their time, or an employee's time to making that conservation effort work. Even though
we 100% support breeding in captivity for endangered species, that's not Animal Wonders'
mission. Our mission is to rescue animals, so we felt it was... it was the right decision
for Animal Wonders and for the bettongs and for the species as a whole.
So we started making some phone calls and we called, contacted the facility where we
got Quigley from originally and we asked them if they had room to take him and Babette back,
and they said yes. They were very interested because they had just lost their colony in
a tragic thing that happened, and so they had the open enclosure, the open space and
they were really excited to be able to start again.
And then we got a phone call from one of the potential homes for Dundee that had fallen
through, saying that they had another contact for a facility that had a young female named
April, and she was looking for a mate, a male. And so we contacted them, wonderful facility.
I couldn't think of a better place for Dundee to go to. It's open to the public, it's free,
open to the public, kind of like a mini zoo and they do conservation breeding programs
and education. It's just a perfect fit. So everything was set.
So now it's time to figure out how to get these bettongs to their new homes. We contacted
the airport, Delta, and we said, okay we have to ship these guys off to these locations,
and we set up the date and time. So, the flight was set to leave at 6:10 am. We have to get
there two hours before, but they don't open until 4:30. So we got there 4:30 am, but to
get there at 4:30 am means we have to leave the house at 3:30 am, which means we have
to start getting them packed up at 3:00 am.
And that's where I'm going to leave you, 3:00 am in the morning. Let's go on an adventure.
[Intro]
It is 3:00 am, actually it's 3:18 am, and we're getting ready to bring the bettongs
to the airport. We have decided to ship them off to other facilities, and it's kind of
sad, but it's also kind of a good thing. It's a really good thing. Quigley and Babette are
going together and the little joey, whatever it is in the pouch, are all going to the same
facility and hopefully they're going to transition well and continue to have little joeys. And
our seven month old male Dundee is also going to another facility, and I'm so excited about
that one, because he's going to go meet up with a girlfriend there and it's a really,
really nice facility and hopefully they make little, friendly little babies too.
So we're going to pack 'em all up and, uh, ship 'em off. Give them the best shot in life,
as and individual and for the species as a whole. So I have two crates here. Um, this
one's gonna be for Dundee and it's got his blanket that he's been using for the last
couple days so his scent is gonna be there and I also have some shredded paper for him
to bundle up in. He had food and then I'm not gonna put water in there... they're gonna
sleep all day, because they're nocturnal. But I do have some juicy fruits in there in
case they get thirsty.
And Quigley and Babette have this in here, a little bit bigger, and a divider in there
so that they can get away from each other if they want to. Also a bunch of shredded
paper and one of their old blankets that they've been using for the last week, so their scent
will be in there as well, hopefully make it a smooth transition for them. That's what
we've got going for them right now. I'm gonna go get them and, um, get them into the crates.
Hey there bud. Hi handsome. I know, I know.
So the last couple days, Dundee has gotten really, um... mature and excitable and he
was living with his little sister Sydney... and that wasn't working out anymore. He got
too mature. He matured. He was trying to reproduce with her. So we had to move him out and we
put him in temporary holding in our hallway, and this is what he's done to it. He thought
the plant was awesome digging and I just let him do it because what's the harm in a little
dirt? So I'm going to go grab him right now. He's hiding out over here because I turned
the light on.
Alright Dundee. Ready to go? You're gonna get a girlfriend. He's been one of our best
joeys so far. It's kind of hard to see him go. You're gonna be an awesome ambassador
where you go.
Watch your tail.
So Babette came to us, and she really did not like to be touched at all. She came to
us when she was about two years old, and we've never worked with handling her; we just kind
of let her be. And that's fine. The way that I'm going to handle her is I'm going to put
gloves on because they have very, very sharp teeth and very powerful back legs with intense
claws, so she could injure me pretty bad. I'm going to... pick her up by the base of
her tail and try and get her hands near her feet to support her feet on me and then quickly
transfer her into the crate. That's the plan. We'll see. And I have to also be really careful
cause she does have a joey in the pouch.
Hi. Hi. Hi.
[Babette squeals]
So you can see that Babette was not handled when she was younger, and you can see it's
pretty stressful for her to be handled by a human. So... Quigley on the other hand,
he's much calmer and he was hand-raised, so that's the reason that we pull the joeys from
being finished off by their mothers and we hand-raise them for the last week that they
would drink milk. Less stressful.
Alright guys. It's also nighttime, so it's when these guys are most awake and most active
and putting them in a smaller, you know, cozy area, they're gonna be a little upset at first.
But during the flight, they're gonna fall asleep since they're nocturnal, and hopefully
they'll have a nice, just drowsy, flight.
All right! We're ready to goooo!
So the reason that we're doing it so early is 1) We have to be there two hours before
the flight is set to depart, and also we want to avoid the heat of the day. These guys are
going to Nevada and Texas, and it's getting really hot there. I mean, it's the beginning
of summer; it's getting really hot there during the afternoons. So... Quigley and Babette
are scheduled to arrive at 11:30 in the morning in Nevada, and Dundee is going to get there
just after noon, so we'll avoid the heat of the day, which is really important when you're
shipping animals. You wanna avoid that.
I know. I'm so distracted. I'm tired.
We made it!
We did it. That was harder than I thought it was gonna be.
Female voice: Why do you think?
Jessi: Uh, I think it's just because I've had an emotional connection with them... I
mean, these are not my pets, but I kind of consider them friends. I raised Dundee, and
it's saying goodbye to a friend, and it's hard. But I know they're gonna go to a good
place... I don't know, it's just... I'm not very practiced at saying goodbye to animals.
I take them and rescue them; it's... I'm not used to it. No. Okay, I'm gonna start crying.
Okay. Whew.
It's a new adventure for them, a new adventure for us. Life is full of different experiences.
Definitely miss 'em. But it was quite an experience, getting to be part of this.