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  • - Staring contest!

  • - Three! Two! One!

  • - And, go!

  • - [All] We're the Irwins! And this is Australia Zoo.

  • - [Robert] Our dad Steve built this zoo

  • to protect our world wildlife.

  • Today, we strive to carry on his mission.

  • - [Bindi] So come with us. This is Wild Times.

  • - I am so excited to introduce you

  • to one of my best friends. Meet Jenny.

  • So Jenny here is our Burmese python.

  • Have a look at her!

  • Burmese pythons are usually dark brown,

  • and they kind of look like mottled earth.

  • But Jenny here is white, as you can tell.

  • - She's actually completely leucistic.

  • So what's really interesting, is

  • she turned this completely pale white.

  • No pigment whatsoever.

  • But now, the weirdest thing has happened.

  • She's actually starting to get some of that pigment back.

  • - As you can see, they can grow to be absolutely giant.

  • These guys are completely non-venomous.

  • What they do, is when they catch a small animal to eat,

  • they actually constrict.

  • And that means, when they grab the little food item,

  • they'll give it one giant hug

  • to kind of squeeze all the air out of it.

  • And then they'll be able to eat it.

  • But these guys are non-venomous.

  • - A lot of people can be quite afraid of snakes.

  • A lot of people think that

  • they're kind of these slimy things

  • that just sort of creep and crawl everywhere.

  • But they're not. They're really beautiful animals.

  • They're nice and smooth and soft.

  • And the most important thing, if you see a snake,

  • is just kind of leave it alone.

  • Let it do its thing,

  • and you'll never have a problem with it.

  • - [Bindi] Look at that! She's smelling at the moment!

  • - [Robert] It's true.

  • So you can see that amazing tongue there.

  • That forked tongue. That's kind of how they smell.

  • So they actually use that to sort of scent the air.

  • They are actually quite inquisitive.

  • - And she actually can't hear anything.

  • So we can tell her that she's very beautiful,

  • but she can't hear us.

  • She can kind of feel our vibrations.

  • - [Robert] Yep.

  • - [Bindi] But she actually can't listen.

  • - [Robert] Well I think now it's time

  • to let Jenny slither on back home.

  • - While you watch this.

  • (jazz music)

  • - A choco bicky is kind of Australian slang

  • for chocolate biscuit, or chocolate cookie.

  • - Devo. That means really sad.

  • Devastated.

  • Let's say you lost your dog.

  • I'm devo'ed.

  • Dunny means toilet.

  • So you'd say, I'm just going to go to the dunny.

  • - I am here at our amazing meerkat adventure area

  • with our, you guessed it, meerkats.

  • These girls are hilarious!

  • These are our beautiful meerkat sisters.

  • As you can see, they're searching for food,

  • which is pretty much what they do all day every single day.

  • These guys are actually from southwest Africa,

  • which means that they live in the desert.

  • Did you know that?

  • You live in the desert!

  • These guys live in giant mobs,

  • from three meerkats all the way up to fifty meerkats.

  • And that's pretty special.

  • Every single meerkat has a different job in the family.

  • But the most amazing job in the meerkat family

  • is being the lookout.

  • So one specific meerkat will be the lookout,

  • watching out for the rest of the family.

  • Checking for any danger, any eagles in the area.

  • Thank you for keeping watch over all of us.

  • I feel very safe.

  • I feel like I'm in good hands.

  • What's happening? Can you hear something?

  • And just like that, if they hear something,

  • that kind of sounds like danger, they'll instantly bolt.

  • Listen.

  • (meerkat barking)

  • That's the sentry calling,

  • saying there's some kind of danger around.

  • Let's hide for a minute and make sure that it's safe.

  • It's safe, I promise! Everything's good.

  • And then they'll come back out for some more food.

  • These guys are also fantastic at burrowing.

  • In the wild, they create these elaborate burrows.

  • They even make their very own bedrooms.

  • So at night in Africa, it can get really cold in the desert.

  • So what they do is they all snuggle up together

  • like one big, happy family.

  • And they keep each other warm

  • during those cold nights in Africa.

  • If there's any danger in the area,

  • or a predator approaching,

  • what they'll do as a family is they'll all group together.

  • So you can imagine, if there's 50 meerkats in a mob,

  • all grouped together, they look like one big giant creature.

  • And nothing attacks them. It's a pretty great strategy.

  • And then they go back to looking for food again.

  • They're so funny!

  • You can hear them talking to each other.

  • They're so mischievous, too.

  • You never know what a new day's going to bring

  • with these meerkats.

  • It's like a giant soap opera.

  • - I absolutely love this image. These lions are amazing.

  • I felt so lucky to travel to South Africa

  • and be on safari right next to these magnificent creatures.

  • One time, we were actually on a midday drive,

  • and we were looking, searching for this pride of lions.

  • And we finally found them.

  • They consisted of about 10 lionesses.

  • And they were all kind of sleeping, nice and lazy,

  • and I got out my camera on a really long lens.

  • They were about, maybe I'd say, 50 feet away.

  • And I was photographing them, watching them,

  • kind of all asleep.

  • And then all of a sudden, as the sun started to dip down,

  • and it was about to become night, they started to get up.

  • Started stretching and yawning.

  • And this photo captures one of the lionesses doing that.

  • A huge yawn. I was really really excited to see this.

  • And this photo was taken

  • just after they all went out on a night's hunt.

  • It was an amazing experience.

  • - Next week on Wild Times!

  • He has those really cute little frog-like eyes.

  • Look! I'm scratching his head and he says,

  • that feels really nice.

  • - [Robert] He loves it.

  • - [Bindi] He likes a good head scratch.

  • (closing music)

- Staring contest!

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