Episode 20 Animal Park


Episode 20

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LION ROARS

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Hello and welcome to Animal Park, I'm Ben Fogle.

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And I'm Kate Humble and we're out in new area with Africa's biggest antelope, the Eland.

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This is a very special year for these beautiful creatures,

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because it's the first time in eight years they've had some youngsters here at Longleat.

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-And very enchanting, they are too. I love their little stripes.

-So sweet.

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They are absolutely beautiful.

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We've got lots of stories coming up for you today from the safari park, including...

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The lions loved their rope toy so much, they wrecked it in a week, but will the new one last any longer?

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Mayhem has broken out in the aviary.

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The spoonbills are at war and the casualties are mounting.

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They're definitely not giving it any time at all,

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and if they keep hounding it like that, they'll kill it.

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And we pay a visit to some of the smartest rats in the world.

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They've been trained to find land mines, absolutely amazing isn't it?

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But first, we're off to lion country.

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LION ROARS

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Despite being the most fearsome predators in the park, the lions of Longleat are surprisingly playful.

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For cubs Malaika and Jasira, it's a way of learning the crucial skills of hunting and fighting.

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For the adults, its practise.

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The scratching post is a favourite of Charlie's pride.

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And last week, Kate helped put up some brand new rope toys for the cubs to play with.

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-That's quite tough.

-Both Malaika and Jasira loved their new playground, as did their father.

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-LAUGHTER

-Awwww!

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But male lions are incredibly powerful animals

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and over the last few days,

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Kabir and Mfue have given the playground a bit of a beating.

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This is the remnants of some of the playthings

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Kate helped keeper Bob Trollope make for the lions here in their enclosure.

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Bob, basically they've trashed the place.

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Yes, unfortunately it is no more.

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-It lasted less than a week?

-Less than a week.

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But it shows they obviously enjoyed everything.

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They did, the cubs were playing on it all the time.

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So that's obviously Jasira and Malaika,

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-but they surely couldn't have done all this damage themselves?

-No, Dad helped.

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-Right, so that's Kabir?

-Yes.

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But the one who did most of the damage was Mfue.

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Mfue is from the other pride who is here.

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Most probably because of the scent of Kabir and the cubs on there,

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he has trashed it and tried to kill that.

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-The plan today is we are trying to make this male lion-proof.

-Parent proof, I suppose.

-What have we got?

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We have these solid wooden blocks.

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This is silver birch and we will dangle some of these so they can still bite and claw.

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We've actually got some that we were halfway through doing.

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Shall we have a look at what we made earlier?

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-Presumably this is part of the enrichment, keep them busy and just to keep them entertained?

-It is.

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What have we got here? This is a very heavy ball.

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Yes, this is like a trawler net float.

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Presumably, the idea of this is it's supposed to be indestructible.

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These are the only things we've found that resemble a ball of any sort that they cannot break.

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They can scratch it and bite it.

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But not actually pop it, obviously?

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We're still working on this, so we've taken the tape off so it is completely lion-friendly as well.

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What else have we got here?

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We've got one we are dangling.

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Hopefully they will swing on this.

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Then we have one of the fenders here,

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we saw Jasira climb up and jump on to it.

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So it's obviously something to amuse them.

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Obviously Jasira and Malaika love all of this, but mum and Kabir are also going to come up?

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They all play with it. Obviously the two youngsters play with it mostly,

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but they all play with it. That's what we wanted.

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The big question is, do you think this is going to survive the dad test, the parent test?

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I'm pretty sure the ball and the wood will, but whether the rope does?

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There's only one way to find out.

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Join us later in the programme when we find out whether this is indeed lion- and parent-proof.

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The park's aviary is one of the largest of its kind in Europe.

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It's home to a wide variety of exotic birds,

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including Chilean flamingos, sacred ibis and four species of duck.

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Longleat's four spoonbills arrived here 18 months ago.

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Since then they've lived happily together...until today.

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Suddenly, two of them have declared war,

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relentlessly hounding one of the other spoonbills to within an inch of its life.

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Keeper Michelle Stephens has rounded up the bullied bird and brought it inside the house.

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Now, she's called the safari park vet, Duncan Williams, to make sure it's OK.

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It's got a few bashes around its face.

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He has been bullied a little bit by the others.

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I will listen to his chest.

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'Luckily, the spoonbill has no serious injuries, but he has been terrified by his ordeal.'

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His heart's going so fast, he's so stressed.

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'Duncan decides the best thing is to keep him inside to recover.'

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Meanwhile, back outside, the pair of bullies have found a new victim.

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They've turned on the fourth spoonbill.

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-Where's the other one at the moment?

-At the back.

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Neither Duncan nor the keepers have ever seen this kind of behaviour before.

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They're at a loss to know how to control the spoonbill pair's aggression.

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I don't really know why because it's only happened in the last day and a half,

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that these two, this pair have been picking on it.

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They're definitely not giving it any time at all,

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and if they keep hounding it like that, they'll kill it.

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There is nothing for it, but bring the other bullied spoonbill into the safety of the house.

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Desperate for a solution, keepers call in the man who set up the aviary, bird expert Mike Curzon.

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Steady, steady, steady, steady.

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This is the one we've caught so far.

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'Mike has worked with spoonbills for over 40 years.'

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How long do you think we should keep him in for?

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I'd keep them in now until the middle of the summer.

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'Spoonbills are monomorphic, which means boys and girls look exactly the same.

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'DNA testing when these four arrived indicated they were all male.

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'Nevertheless, Mike thinks he knows what the problem is.

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'Even if they are both boys, it's possible that the two bullies

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'have formed a pair bond, which will explain their aggressive behaviour.'

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With no females around, those two males will take the part of a pair

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and behave as a pair and be aggressive.

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Mike thinks the size of the spoonbill group is also contributing to the problem.

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Anything that lives in a colony whether its people, birds,, you always get bickering.

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They shout across the garden fence to each other and neighbours fall out with each other.

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The problem is with the spoonbills, there are only four.

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If there is any aggression from two, it is on to the other two.

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If you have a complete colony, a larger number,

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bickering isn't taken out on individuals, they can't be singled out.

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It's spread through the group.

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If you watch the flamingos, there is constant bickering going on.

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It doesn't become aggressive because something else happens

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or another one walks by and walks between them.

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It doesn't usually become violent.

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And the more there are in the colony, then it spreads the load.

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Thankfully, the two bullied spoonbills have recovered well from their ordeal.

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For now, they will be kept safely apart until some spoonbill girls can be brought in to calm the boys down.

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I think the important thing now is to find probably one of the continental zoos who are breeding them

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and bring in four females.

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And then hopefully everything in the garden will be rosy.

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A lot of activity, then a lot of noise and then hopefully a lot of little spoonbills.

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The park is home to a number of primate species,

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from western lowland gorillas Samba and Nico

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to around 80 rhesus macaque monkeys

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and the Geoffrey's marmosets, Mike, Michelle and baby Mandu.

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Geoffrey's marmosets come from the rainforests of Brazil.

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Sadly, due to disappearing habitat, they are now classed as vulnerable in the wild.

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At Pets Corner, keeper Jo Hawthorne has looked after the marmosets since they arrived four years ago

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and designed their open enclosure herself.

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These highly intelligent monkeys are some of her favourite animals.

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I absolutely love primates anyway, and these guys because they are so small,

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I find it amazing that they're so clever.

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The chimpanzees and the orang-utans, and the bigger primates,

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these guys are as every bit as clever but just in a small package.

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Just to watch them, I think the visitors get a thrill out of seeing the little human things they do.

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Recently, Jo has been studying animal management at college,

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learning about how to enrich animals' lives in captivity.

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Now, to give the marmosets a stimulating mealtime experience,

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Jo is going to encourage them to feed as they would in the wild.

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This is actually very exciting.

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Look, it's three broom heads actually turned the odd way up.

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And basically this is going to be something for the marmosets to forage in and find food.

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I have some lovely wax worms which are their favourite,

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I will drop those down into the brush head.

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Obviously in the wild, these guys would do what we call a visual glean,

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so they will see these little things squiggling around in the undergrowth

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and by dropping them in here, they will have to dive in and have a look and forage for them.

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In their native habitat, marmosets live in tall trees

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and rely on their excellent eyesight to find food.

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Straightaway, Jo's new feeding method attracts their attention.

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As soon as obviously I put them in, they are down to have a look.

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Wax worms and meal worms and things like that, they absolutely love.

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Any squiggly movement in that brush, they will be there.

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If they can't get it from the top, they will look round the sides and grab it

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while it's falling down in between the brushes. They are onto it so it's great.

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It works superbly this, really well.

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There's certainly nothing wrong with their eyesight

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so next, Jo wants to encourage the marmosets to find hidden food using their sense of smell.

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What we've got here is actually a jelly which we make up for them every day.

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It's like you and me making a jelly at home, you make up the mixture and you put it in the fridge

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and it sets, nice and hard, so you get it out and it doesn't wibble-wobble like ours at home.

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But it's basically got lots of protein in there for them.

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What's this? What's this?

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They're watching me and thinking, "What's she got for me now?"

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They're very inquisitive. So come and have a look, check it out.

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The marmosets are clearly interested,

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but first they want to establish the coconut isn't dangerous.

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They're used to seeing coconuts hanging up the right away around with the food in.

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But seeing on hanging up that way, it's like, what is going on?

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We will be back to see if the marmosets pluck up their courage or if they shy away.

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Up in lion country,

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the adult males have been trashing the old rope toys.

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Earlier today, keeper, Bob Trollope and I fixed up some new ones.

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Now the time has come to put the new toys to the test.

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Bob, we're hoping this is all now completely parent proof.

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Hopefully, fingers crossed.

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Now, just talk us through who we've got. We've got the two young cubs?

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We've got Malaika and Jasira.

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Is that Malaika in the front?

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Malaika is the one following Luna.

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Jasira is in front of dad and that is obviously Kabir.

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So it's mum that's leading the way?

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Yeah, I'd have thought Kabir would have been the first one in there, but obviously not.

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So obviously, we've left a lot of our own kind of scent around there.

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Is that what they're going to be sniffing out in the first instance?

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I think Luna will be a bit more cautious.

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But the others are playing with that ball.

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-And obviously Malaika and Jasira are still getting on fantastically well?

-Yeah, brilliantly.

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Yeah, they're good for each other because there's only a couple of months difference in their age.

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Are they getting more aggressive as they get older?

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Not towards each other. They just play harder, let's say.

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And have they both got very distinguishable personalities now?

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Oh, without a doubt. Jasira, the one just wandering off there, she's very much like her mum, Luna.

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A bit more mischievous, a bit more adventurous.

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You say "adventurous". She's kind of prowling around on her own now

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while her half-sister is definitely more interested

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in the toys.

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Mum's having a little sniff there as well.

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I think the names reflect their character as well because Malaika means "angel".

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She's a bit more angelic than Jasira.

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And Jasira means "courageous".

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Bob, obviously, we've made all of these play things here.

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Would they find natural play things in the wild?

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They would come across things, especially the youngsters would play with.

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You know, everyday things...

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elephant dung, rhino dung they would play with.

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I suppose tortoises to a certain extent if they ever came across them.

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It is amazing how inquisitive they are and how kind of cat-like, as in domestic cat-like.

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Jasira now is not quite sure what to make of the hanging rope.

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If you were to sit here for hours and hours, you would see so many things that your own cat would do.

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Obviously, it's instilled in them to play.

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Although is that playing, or is that a sort of "I'm not quite sure what this is"?

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Not quite sure. Never seen anything like that before, so she's being a little bit cautious.

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And you see how the tail... Oh, look, there she goes. She's going to go up to the top, is she?

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She's having a look from the top. Bit safer there.

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So here comes dad now.

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He wants to come and see what we're doing.

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He's more concerned with the Land Rover than toys. That's for the kids.

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And is he just going to circle us and check that we aren't a threat, or does he already know that?

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He sees vehicles every day. He's just most probably more interested where we've been walking around.

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It's a little bit of scent enrichment just by us walking around.

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So he'll just be investigating things like that, going off and checking his territory.

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Found a bit of poo to roll in.

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Having a little roll over there.

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And mum's not too concerned about them being off on their own and getting into trouble?

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She keeps an eye on them.

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But she's a very good mum.

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Jasira playing with mum.

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Stealing it from her, saying, "I want it!"

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She's trying to drag it off and kill it.

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That's interesting with the back foot on there.

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If that was a bit of prey or whatever, she would be disembowelling it with her back leg.

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So they are kind of replicating what they would do if they actually had prey out in the wild.

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Well, Bob, thank you very much.

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Let's hope, anyway, that this lasts longer than the seven days that the last one lasted for.

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Recently, I went up to Pets Corner to meet head of section Darren Beasley's newest arrivals.

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-What's it?

-It's my brand new babies, Kate.

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Shall I move the newspaper? You're dying to see, aren't you?

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I am. Oh! Goodness me!

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It looks like a cross between a rat and a kangaroo. It's enormous!

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In fact, these two giant African pouched rats are still just juveniles.

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As they mature, they can grow to be over two feet long.

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They're far too big to be kept in a hamster cage, so Darren has given them their own enclosure.

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I'm in the rat house of Pets Corner with head of section Darren Beasley

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and the two very handsome, although not terribly friendly at the moment, pouched rats.

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This is the first time I've seen them in here,

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cos the first time I met them, you'd only really just got them and they were living in your office.

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How have they done with moving to a much bigger space in here?

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Obviously, it's better for them. They've got more enrichment stuff now.

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They've got more logs to climb and chew and generally please themselves.

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Slightly more difficult for me, though, because I don't have so much control over them.

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I physically have come in with them and get into the rat tank, as it were,

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which is not a bad thing, but you've got to remember this is their home.

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If ever you're working with an animal, they need space to get away.

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They may not be very approachable at the moment, but Darren has high hopes for these giant rats.

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He's planning to train them.

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Now, tell me about why you're bothering to train them.

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These are very, very intelligent creatures and the more we can fill and enrich their brain, the better.

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But also, I do know that these animals

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are trained in Africa, their country of origin,

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and they're trained cos they've got such an intelligence

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and a great sense of smell, to find land mines.

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It's an incredible, incredible thing.

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It's using its full ability.

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He's using every gram of his sense of smell,

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as he would to find all his food and danger in the wild and we want to bring him out of this environment.

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Can you imagine if I can walk him around Pets Corner - I've got a little halter.

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If I can walk him around Pets Corner and let him sniff out all the wonderful things.

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-It would be fantastic.

-It's great for them and, hopefully, great for us as well.

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How do you begin training an animal like a giant pouched rat?

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Nearly every single animal learns by association or a connection of things.

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What I want to do is, by using this - I put a little bit of orange scent on here...

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-Can you see that?

-Yes.

-That's nice and smelly.

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He'll come and smell that and I'm going to make a silly little noise, like a click noise.

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The idea is that, every time he smells this orange scent,

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he knows there'll be a food reward or something nice for him at the end,

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and eventually he should get confident enough to follow me and my target anywhere we go.

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If I put it over here, you should see he'll come and sniff it. There we go.

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Actually grabbed it. Look at that.

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DARREN "CLICKS"

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Come this way with it.

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DARREN "CLICKS"

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And you see his whiskers going as well. Really sensitive whiskers.

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His ears are going. He's all over the place there.

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So all his senses, as you say, are absolutely on full alert.

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Working doubly overtime. They are very, very aware of their surroundings.

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They've got to look after themselves in the wild. They need those key senses - hearing and sense of smell -

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to be on tip-top form. This is encouraging that, not letting it lie dormant. He'll not be a big fat rat

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laying in a cage watching the world go by. He'll be a fighting fit and very aware rat.

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Eventually, I should be able to hide objects around Pets Corner

0:22:100:22:14

as little mini rat challenges, put a bit of orange scent on them and they should find them.

0:22:140:22:18

They'll go and find them and get some enjoyment out of that.

0:22:180:22:21

At first it'll be, "Hey, we're getting food," but then it will be just, "Let's go and explore."

0:22:210:22:26

-It'll be rat hide-and-seek.

-Exactly.

0:22:260:22:28

Dog chases a ball or a stick.

0:22:280:22:30

We'll have rats chasing little smelly orange foam balls, I hope.

0:22:300:22:34

Well, Darren, very, very good luck with them.

0:22:340:22:37

I look forward to coming back to Pets Corner one day and seeing hunting rats out and about.

0:22:370:22:42

-They are magnificent animals and I hope the training goes well.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Darren.

0:22:420:22:47

Back at the marmoset enclosure, Jo Hawthorn is setting them a dinner-time challenge.

0:23:060:23:11

In their natural rain-forest habitat in Brazil, these highly intelligent

0:23:140:23:18

little monkeys have to use all their senses to survive.

0:23:180:23:22

Jo has already encouraged the marmosets to use their eyesight to find food.

0:23:220:23:27

Now, to encourage them to use their sense of smell,

0:23:270:23:31

she's hidden a special protein jelly inside an upturned coconut.

0:23:310:23:37

Neither Mike, Michelle nor baby Mandu has ever seen an upside-down

0:23:370:23:42

coconut before, so at first they're naturally wary of it.

0:23:420:23:46

They're very inquisitive but very cagey, so anything new...

0:23:470:23:51

It's a bit like when they come out of the morning in their natural habitat and they see something

0:23:510:23:56

that's not quite right, that's out of place.

0:23:560:23:59

It's a good thing to be very kind of cagey about something out of the ordinary.

0:23:590:24:06

Each marmoset has their own personality suited to their role within the family.

0:24:070:24:13

Dad is always very level-headed.

0:24:130:24:17

He's always the one that will come at first, who will pave the way.

0:24:170:24:20

So he'll think, "Oh, actually, that's OK."

0:24:200:24:23

I wouldn't say he's really nosy, but he'll sensibly go out and have a look

0:24:230:24:28

and the others follow from that. So second to that you'll get Mandu come straight out after her dad.

0:24:280:24:33

"Well, if he can do it, I'm going to do it." Mum has always been the very fearful one.

0:24:330:24:39

She's kind of, "Well, you know, I'm not sure."

0:24:390:24:42

She always sits back, always has done.

0:24:420:24:44

After the marmosets have had their protein, it's time for dessert.

0:24:460:24:51

Having encouraged them to use their eyesight and sense of smell,

0:24:510:24:54

Jo now wants to stimulate their sense of touch.

0:24:540:24:58

Basically, we've got a tray here of chippings

0:24:580:25:01

and I'm going to bury and half scatter this fruit

0:25:010:25:04

in amongst the chippings, and we've got this grid

0:25:040:25:07

which we're going to place over the top

0:25:070:25:10

so they have to feel through and work for their dinner.

0:25:100:25:12

I'm going to put this in here now.

0:25:120:25:14

We'll turn it over a bit, make it a bit more difficult.

0:25:160:25:19

We've got some nice blueberries here.

0:25:190:25:22

Greens are very important, so we've got some green beans there,

0:25:220:25:26

some apple, mango, and we're going to put this grid over the top here.

0:25:260:25:30

Here we are, guys.

0:25:350:25:36

What's this?

0:25:360:25:39

Come on, then, guys, you've got to work for your dinner today.

0:25:390:25:43

You've got to imagine, if you've got big bits of fruit and they have to go

0:25:450:25:49

and find the fruit and have to get it in an awkward position,

0:25:490:25:53

this makes it much more realistic for them.

0:25:530:25:56

And it gets harder, the less fruit.

0:25:580:26:00

It's getting like a needle in a haystack now.

0:26:000:26:03

They have very big brains for any kind of primate.

0:26:030:26:06

You think how small they are.

0:26:060:26:08

They have a larger brain capacity than most other primates.

0:26:080:26:13

So, although they're very small, it does make them extremely intelligent.

0:26:130:26:18

Some of them, I'd say, are as intelligent as us. He's really working to get a piece out here now.

0:26:180:26:23

So they'll keep going. It's like you and me.

0:26:240:26:27

If we really want something to eat at the bottom of the freezer and we have to look for it, then we'll do it.

0:26:270:26:32

I think these guys are kind of pretty much the same.

0:26:320:26:34

The marmosets seem to be enjoying the hunt for the tasty fruit.

0:26:340:26:39

Jo is delighted to see them showing some of the natural behaviour they would use to survive in the wild.

0:26:390:26:46

It's good to know that although we have them in this environment,

0:26:460:26:49

where there are people around - they know me -

0:26:490:26:52

they've still got some of that kind of fearful element,

0:26:520:26:56

so they're always very careful still, which is nice to know.

0:26:560:26:59

They're in a free-ranging enclosure

0:26:590:27:01

amongst all these hundreds of visitors that we get in every day

0:27:010:27:04

and it's nice to know that they'll still hold back and they'll still

0:27:040:27:08

kind of take the time to suss something out.

0:27:080:27:10

So that's really good. They're so clever.

0:27:100:27:13

Every day they do something, I think, "Cor, how did you know to do that?!"

0:27:130:27:17

So they might be very small but they're very clever.

0:27:170:27:21

We're up at the tapir enclosure with dad Jethro and mum Jessie.

0:27:420:27:48

Sadly, we've come to the end of this current series of Animal Park,

0:27:480:27:51

-but we've had some amazing memories.

-We really have.

0:27:510:27:54

There were the wolf cubs born and of course the lion cubs,

0:27:540:27:57

which took everyone by surprise cos nobody was expecting that.

0:27:570:28:01

I know. And of course it was the 40th anniversary here,

0:28:010:28:04

and we even found out that these guys, the tapirs, are Lord Bath's favourite, and I can see why.

0:28:040:28:09

I can, too. You are a big, soppy date, aren't you, Jethro? Sadly, that's all we've got time for today.

0:28:090:28:15

We've really enjoyed being here.

0:28:150:28:17

-Thank you so much for watching and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Bye.

-Bye-bye.

0:28:170:28:22

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