- 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)