Episode 2 Animal Park

Around half a million people a year take the boat trip

at the safari park, and the keepers need to be ready and prepared

should a passenger fall into the water.

And it's not just drowning you need to worry about.

Yes, in the middle of the lake lives a 30 stone gorilla on the island.

In the water are six very strong sea lions

and two of Africa's biggest killers, the hippo.

All of which probably makes this the most dangerous lake in the country

but today, we'll be finding out what the keepers do

if somebody really does fall in.

On Animal Park today, we'll be setting up a surprise for

the young tigers, but it's not as big as the surprise they've got for us.

-There she goes! Wow!

-Look at that.

-She makes it look completely effortless.

-Amazing.

We'll be revisiting the heart-wrenching tale of Bev

and her little orphan babies.

And, statistically speaking, the African hippo

is about 100 times more dangerous than the great white shark.

So would you throw someone in with them?

But first stop is tiger territory.

It's been a few weeks now since dear Kadu passed away.

She was the last one left from the old gang and when she died,

it was the end of an era.

But that doesn't mean there are no tigers at Longleat,

because, last year, three newcomers arrived from a zoo in France.

All three are sisters from the same litter.

At two years old, they're still just youngsters

and they are certainly full of bounce.

MUSIC: "The Love Cats" by Jamie Cullum

Today, there's a plan afoot to find out just what they're capable of.

The tigers are still in their night-time quarters

and Kate and I have come to help get things ready.

Bob and I are here in tiger territory,

walking, completely unprotected with a large crate of meat,

which doesn't seem to be a brilliant idea.

I think Ben's got the right idea, being right up a ladder.

I am rigging the cameras, Kate, so hopefully those are all set.

So basically, Bob, the plan today is for us to try and film

the tigers doing something a little bit different.

Yes, what we're going to do is hide a few pieces of meat

-in different places to what they used to.

-OK.

And we're going to stick some up the tree

-and some on the fallen tree down there.

-OK.

You know, it's something that we used to do with the old tigers.

I remember, I remember. Well, Ben, shall I leave you some stuff here?

-That's to go up into the tree?

-I'll give you about half.

I'll give you the heavy ones, so you've got some work to do.

-Is that for me or the tigers?

-There you go. Will that do?

-Perfect.

-Lovely, and we'll go on and put them up here.

Yes, because I remember doing it with the old three,

and they were sort of relatively

enthusiastic about it, but I think they preferred their meat

being delivered by the meat wagon, really.

They do prefer it.

Obviously, that is a much easier way of feeding them.

But we like to do a bit of enrichment from time to time,

and by hiding their meat,

they have to actually use their senses,

rather than just see the feed wagon and chase it.

We don't have the opportunity of feeding them every day, so on days

that we don't feed them, we like to hide their food.

This is a really good tree here.

Now, it seems strange, Ben's halfway up a large tree,

and we're putting them up here.

Shouldn't we be hiding them on the ground, really?

Well, if they use their nose and follow our scent,

they'd find it straight away.

So the can follow our scent and then, "Well, where's the meat?"

So they have to actually look for it as well.

So by sticking chunks of meat up in high places,

up on the end there, it's ideal.

-So you're really making them work for it?

-Yeah.

OK. Well, I'll put this first bit out. Where do you suggest?

Well, if you put a couple on the trunk as well, they'll follow it

up here, find this piece,

and then instead of just laying there eating it, jump off.

Jump off! That would be amazing.

Well, we'll carry on spreading this out, Bob,

and see what Ben's got up his sleeve and up his tree.

How do you think we should do this?

We've got larger chunks and smaller ones.

I reckon if we can get some big ones on the branches

below the cameras, because they're only young tigers,

so hopefully they'll have lots of climbing.

And the smaller bits we'll put down the bottom to encourage them over.

I'll do this first. Round the bottom of the tree?

-Yeah, and if you can lift some onto here.

-Like that?

It's about getting their attention, so they know it's over here.

That's right, yeah.

So bearing in mind that these are the three youngsters,

what do you envisage they're going to do?

Who's going to come over?

More than likely, Soundari'll come over. She'll come over.

All three are young, so they're all active.

A lot more active than our old ones were.

I can see any reason why shouldn't get to where the cameras are.

That high?

One bound, grip, next down, meat, and jump off.

So Soundari, you think, is going to be the first?

She's the more lively one, the one that looks about,

so she'll be the one to spot there's something different with this tree.

Straight away. The ones will watch her and follow her lead.

And you think they're going to go all the way up here?

I reckon you could probably even go to the branch above that.

Let's put that one there. Hopefully it's not going to fall off.

Do you want to pass me another piece as well?

Can go higher than this, Ian?

Right where the ladder is, at the top there, go to there.

-About that?

-Wow!

Are you sure they're going to get all the way up there? It's amazing.

You think of leopards being the cats that climb,

but tigers, they're so big and heavy.

Are they really go to get up there?

Yes, it shouldn't be too difficult for them.

We don't want to make it easy, but then, we don't want to

make it too hard or we're wasting our time.

So the cameras are ready then?

The cameras are all set. Let's just hope the tigers don't have vertigo.

Are you on there?

Right, hopefully we're going to get some good tiger action.

We'll find out what the big cats make of their tiger treats later.

But now, we're going back in time

to revisit one of the most touching tales we've ever seen.

To many people, working in a safari park would be a dream job.

Certainly, keepers have a wonderful opportunity to get close to exotic

animals, cuddly youngsters and some very unusual pets.

It's almost inevitable that the keepers will form strong bonds

with the creatures they care for.

But that can be very stressful,

because animals do get sick and, of course, they can die.

Illness and accidents can strike at any time

and that's when the keepers are truly tested.

Mike Holloman used to work with the wallabies and a few years ago,

we followed what happened when he saw one of them was in a bad way.

I saw her the other day, noticed that she was off her food.

We tried to give her a bit of food,

and she sort of picked it up, looked at it, dropped it.

We noticed a swelling under her neck

and realised that was sort of constricting her breathing.

When we tried to catch her,

her breathing got very laboured and we thought, she's not at all well.

The sick wallaby was isolated in an indoor pen

and the safari park vet Duncan Williams was called in.

Come on, sweetheart, come and see Uncle Duncan.

That's very swollen underneath there.

Ow! All right, sweetheart.

She's got some sort of abscess problem right underneath her jaw.

It's very, very swollen

and I don't suppose she'd be able to eat an awful lot.

It's also pressing

on her larynx, causing that awful breathing.

I'm going to give her an injection,

a long-acting antibiotic injection,

to try to settle down this infection a little bit.

If it doesn't respond, the chances are she'll die from the problem.

Obviously, if things aren't going particularly well and she's not

responding, we'll probably put her to sleep rather than let her suffer.

To survive, she'll need

her strength, but with such a sore mouth, it was hard for her to eat.

Mike prepared the softest thing he could find, some well ripe fruit.

Mike was finding it hard to remain detached.

It is sort of worrying when they're sick.

You go home and you think, when you're lying in bed,

"What can I do to sort of improve the situation?" - things like that.

Come on then, it's your favourite.

It's a nice bit of banana. You love it. A nice squishy, squashy one.

Come on then. There you go.

We'll leave you to peace. There we are, my love.

There was nothing else that Mike could do for the little wallaby

but leave her to rest quietly overnight.

However, the next day, there was some very sad news.

We came in this morning and had a look at her and her breathing had

got very rapid and husky, so we thought we'd better call Duncan out.

And he had a good look.

We caught her, had a good look at her, and sadly decided

the kindest thing would be to put her down.

Unfortunately, the wallaby was a lot worse.

The swelling had increased quite a lot.

There was actually pus sort of burst out inside her mouth.

She couldn't eat at all and she was a lot of pain, so we did

the kindest thing, which was to put her down,

put her out of the suffering and that's it, I'm afraid.

They're all sort of like a little family here,

all the little animals, even wallabies.

When there's a lot of them,

each one's an individual and it's very sad when one of them dies.

I was really upset this morning

and so were the rest of the staff as well. But there we are.

But nobody could have known that this death was only the beginning

of the darkest time they've ever seen in Wallaby Wood.

We'll be returning

to follow the dramatic developments later in the programme.

Each year, almost half a million visitors take a trip around

Half-mile Lake on board one of their tour boats.

And although the boats may be safe as houses, with that many people in

close proximity to this much water,

there's always the risk that one day, they'll have a, "Man overboard!"

The thought of someone falling in would be a worry, even if this was

just an ordinary sort of lake, with deep water and maybe some big fish.

But this isn't your average lake.

It's home to a pair of one of the most dangerous mammals in the world,

Spot and Sonia, the African hippos.

Then there are the six hungry Californian sea lions.

I'm going to go bitten!

The keeper in charge of the lake animals is Mark Tye,

and he knows just how dangerous they could be to a person in the water.

Sea lions are naturally inquisitive animals,

so anything that falls in the water, they want to go and have a look at.

They have got a very, very powerful bite,

and it's not something you really would want to have.

I've been bitten by a baby sea-lion with little needle teeth,

and that hurts enough, so a big adult would do you a bit of damage.

One person who was unfortunate enough to learn this the hard way

is head of boats Bill Lord.

I think it was about ten years ago now.

I was standing on the quay here.

The bull was in his breeding mode. He jumped up, decided I was

a good target and actually bit the back of my leg.

They wouldn't normally do that, but he was in an unusual attitude,

you know, anything in his way, especially a man, I suppose!

Don't know what he thought I was going to do with the girls.

He did have a go at my leg.

That big brown patch, that is the bite, which still irritates,

even today, ten years later.

They're lovely creatures, but they have teeth.

Then there are the hippos. In the wild,

more people are killed by hippos each year than by lions,

tigers and great white sharks put together.

If you get in their way,

they will flatten you, pretty comprehensively.

They're very aggressive, particularly between themselves.

When you see big groups of them in ponds in Africa,

they're generally either sleeping or bickering.

Even our two girls, they quite often have fall-outs and will

go to opposite ends of the lake to stay out of each other's way.

They've got a habit of moving around without you seeing them

and they just appear from nowhere.

And it just could be one of those days, you know,

when someone got in the way. And it would be, I don't know,

I wouldn't like to say what the end result would be.

Luckily, they've never had a serious incident with a visitor in the water.

But it's vital that the staff know what to do in case the worst happens.

The boats are run by the keepers from Pets Corner,

and every month they practise their rescue drills.

The head of the section is Darren Beasley.

Someone going in the water is always in the driver's and crew's mind.

So they practise a procedure called man overboard.

And basically, that means they have to retrieve a float ring,

it's called a perry buoy, from the water.

The thing is, they get so good at it, we like to challenge them and push their limits a little bit.

So today we're going to up the ante.

We're going to make this man overboard a bit more dangerous

to really test this lot and see how good or, hopefully not how bad, but how good they really are.

We borrowed a dummy, and this dummy is a big, heavy model of a man

that I'm going to try and heave into the water,

because actually, the crew are very good at receiving these perry buoys,

but what happens if this person or object couldn't splash and hang on to a perry buoy?

What happens if this person, their body was just floating?

We've got all different shapes and sizes working down here.

So we want to know that we've got some practice and procedure in place

to be able to get a heavy thing either onboard or back to the shore.

So it'll be interesting to see how they react when they see this doll.

We've got the added value -

the hippos have gone in the water as well.

We go days sometimes with the hippos being in the mud or on the land.

Now they're in the water, so they're out there somewhere as well.

So with a pair of two-and-a-half ton hippos

each sporting tusks like pickaxes,

six dangerously boisterous sea lions

and half a mile of lake, what would happen if there really was a man overboard?

We'll find out later on.

Well, we're back up in the tiger enclosure.

All the meat is up in the trees, the cameras are rolling

and all we need now, Bob, I think, are the tigers.

-So shall we let them out?

-Can you let them out please, Sarah?

So she's going to open up and they're going to come straight out, are they, Bob?

Hopefully. They would have seen us mooching about, and hopefully they'll smell our scent as well.

Who's this, bounding over there?

-This is Soundari.

-That is Soundari.

And who have we got coming in now?

We've got Svetli coming in as well.

She's normally the more placid one.

Right. Look at that!

There was I, Bob, saying, "Can they really reach up that high?"

but suddenly, when you see them at full stretch on their back legs, you realise what enormous cats they are.

It is incredible. These have still got some growing to do.

-Really?

-These are only just two years old, so they have a bit more to do.

What do you think she was doing there? Just testing out the tree to see what grip...?

She can see those big pieces up there, but she's not going any higher than her body will actually let her.

She's trying to find her easiest route up there.

It's not going to be easy for her.

If we make it too easy, they just jump up there, get it away and gone.

She'll take the easy option.

-There she goes, there she goes!

-Wow!

-Look at that!

-She makes it look completely effortless.

-Amazing.

She's got a prize now, and that's what we want. She worked for it.

She's not going to go very far away from that tree because she knows there's more up there.

It does seem strange, Bob, that given that these are tigers

that were born in captivity, they've never come across predators

and even if they had, you can't get further up the food chain than them.

And yet they are so wary.

Why would that be?

I think they're very cautious, because it is something totally new to them.

If you were to do that daily, then they'd obviously come out

and be quite blase about it.

But it's something new to them, so I suppose,

rather than jump in at the deep end and find out you can't swim,

they are just paddling.

-Here she goes.

-So she's almost eating as she goes along,

but that's a slightly bigger chunk, so does she have to get off to eat that?

She could lay there, but she'd most probably...

She's just proved me wrong by turning around!

It's a slightly wider part of the tree, isn't it?

She'd generally just go off to a safe area where she finds it

comfortable and reasonably safe to eat.

There she goes.

Now, this is the really high bit, so she's thinking,

"I've eaten a lot now. I'm not sure if I can haul my body back up that tree."

She's put on a few pounds since this morning.

She's just trying to find the easier way around, look.

No, don't go up behind there, we can't see. She's got some, though.

That's one of the smaller pieces I think I put at the bottom of the tree.

She's not letting anything go to waste.

-And there she goes.

-There she is, wow.

Look at her, going all the way up.

That is just incredibly high.

She's struggling to grip and move up, because the pieces are a little bit higher.

-There goes, she's got it.

-She's got it.

I know nothing will replace the other three, but it is lovely.

Bob, thank you very much indeed

for letting us join in this tiger experiment,

and I think we shall leave them in peace

to keep finding their meat throughout the day.

-That's a lot.

-Thanks, Bob.

A few years ago, we followed a series of dramatic events as they unfolded in Wallaby Wood.

It began when a young female died from an infection in the mouth.

Then, not long after, keepers Paul Pettenden and Mel Newby made another terrible discovery.

Just went to feed the wallabies, check on them, and actually found a dead one just in the corner.

It is quite upsetting, yeah, but you've got to get on with it

and make sure the others get through.

But could this case be linked to the first death?

Duncan the vet was called in to do a post-mortem.

He discovered that the second wallaby was suffering from a completely different problem.

There's a horrible bloody fluid in the small intestine

and I think, basically, she has died from enteritis.

Enteritis is basically inflammation of the intestine,

so it's just sort of a severe gut upset.

I mean, if it's an infectious disease,

there's always a possibility it could spread through the whole colony.

And that would be a catastrophe.

So tissue samples from the dead female were sent for urgent analysis.

With the spectre of a mysterious disease hanging over Wallaby Wood, it looked like grim times lay ahead.

But sometimes, at the darkest hour, there is a ray of light.

When Paul and Mel took a closer look at the dead female,

they discovered something that was little short of a miracle.

We heard some breathing and then we noticed that the stomach was moving.

So we went and got some gloves on, and checked the pouch

and found a baby wallaby inside the pouch, still alive.

Against all the odds, a joey was still alive inside the pouch.

They had lost the mother, but the race was now on to save her baby.

The baby was rushed straight to Pets' Corner, where keepers have experience caring for little orphans.

The joey was a female and only about five months old.

Darren Beasley knew how vital it was to get her feeding.

It's always a big worry when you have to hand-rear an animal.

You never know whether you're going to do the right thing,

because obviously, some animals, if you hand-rear them, they can't be reintroduced.

Is it going to live, is it going to eat?

From what I understand, it's been without its mum for a couple of hours,

a few hours, so it might be touch-and-go for the first 24 hours.

The baby would need milk every two hours because that's how often she would have fed from her mother.

Cow's milk is too rich, so keeper Bev Allen had goat's milk in the bottle.

You have to try and get her to feed off the bottle.

And of course, this is not natural for a wallaby,

so it's sort of a gradual thing that you've got to do by putting the milk in

and getting the baby used to it.

And then eventually, it should latch on to the bottle

and just start drinking naturally, basically, so hopefully it will get the hang of it.

Hopefully she will survive and grow up, but we've just got to wait and see, really.

Tonight is the first night, basically, so it's going to be

whether she will survive or not.

For Bev, This would be the most demanding duty she'd ever taken on

and we'll be back in Pets' Corner later to find out if the youngster survived.

For the last four and a half centuries,

almost every Lord of Longleat got themselves painted

at least once so that they could join all the ancestors on the walls of the great house.

But Alexander Thynn, the seventh Marquess of Bath,

is not only the most colourful family member, but he's also the most painted.

There are dozens of portraits of him dotted around the house.

And now there's a brand-new one, painted by a local artist Robert Tilleard,

so I've met up with Lord Bath and his faithful companion Boudicca for a private viewing.

So this is the latest portrait.

Oh, it's brilliant! I really like that.

I think Boudicca is the selling-point of the picture.

Now, you see, you're doing yourself a disservice there.

I think the two of you... What's so lovely about it is that so often these sort of ancestral portraits,

if you like, are sort of stiff and formal, but that is absolutely you and your dog. It's lovely.

And also, I expect I'm the first one in the family to sit on the stairs for the portrait.

With bare feet.

-Yes.

-Which is very important.

It is very much her expression.

But I love the fact that he has allowed you very much to be you.

-Yes.

-Is that important?

If you're asking an artist to paint you, do you have a say in how you are portrayed?

That sounds silly, but artists do have very fixed ideas sometimes.

I certainly liked to go along with this completely.

I think sometimes, one wonders, couldn't it have been another expression?

Don't I have any other expressions?

But in this case, I'm really quite happy with my expression.

But I think the selling-point is Boudicca's expression.

She does, she looks the picture of a very content dog.

How on earth did you get her to sit?

-Did you both have to sit for hours on end?

-Many photographs were taken.

And I think, as far as she was concerned, it was practically all done from the photograph.

Cos she's not very good at standing still. She's sort of sniffing around here.

She's a very curious dog, isn't she?

So there's a great tradition, isn't there,

for ancestral portraits in the house? The house seems to be full of them.

Well, I think that once Sir John had set the pattern that there was a portrait of him...

We're missing his wife.

-That was destroyed in a fire.

-Right.

But there has been practically every one since.

They're there, but they don't have their doggies.

It's quite recent we have the doggies.

You've definitely started a new trend.

Thank you very much for showing me this latest portrait,

and we've got lots more coming up on today's programme.

We'll find out what happened to Bev's little baby.

I'll be making a strange discovery up in the woods.

Look, look at that!

And I'll be meeting a bird named Lucky Chestnut

to see why a turkey is for life, not just for Christmas.

But first, we're going back to the lake,

because there is about to be an emergency.

Driving the boat is Alexa Fairbairn, and Bill Lord is here to assess

her performance, while crewing is John Reynolds.

He is being watched by Darren.

And there's just one passenger on board, though he's not going to be a passenger for long.

His name is Kyle.

He's on loan from the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.

-He weighs 30 kilos and he's about to need rescuing.

-Good luck, mate.

Man overboard on the starboard side!

Ladies and gentlemen, if I can ask everyone to retake their seats.

If everyone can remain calm and keep the gangways clear just in the meantime,

-while we sort this situation out.

-That's good, that's good, he got control of passengers straightaway.

That's crucial.

While John throws perry buoys out to Kyle,

Alexa is struggling to spot exactly where the dummy is,

so that she can keep the boat's lethal drive motors away.

Here it is, right behind you.

We're doing a very quick turn.

Get the boat to him in a very fast manner, but then stop it before we get to him.

And the reason we've turned is to keep him out of the way of the outdrive

cos otherwise it would cut him up.

In reality now, our big worry is he's got to try and stop people jumping in the water,

cos obviously people are going to try and help.

One person in the water is bad enough. More than one...

I noticed he glanced over and he got a sighting of the hippos. I am hoping he's looking.

With the territorial hippos and over-boisterous sea lions so close, it's vital that John and Alexa

work together to get the dummy out of the water as soon as possible.

Reverse, and...

Meanwhile on the bank, staff from the quay are moving into position to help

in case John can't get the dummy on board

and the only way to rescue it is to drag it over to the side.

The dummy weighs 30 kilos.

That's the equivalent of a ten-year-old boy.

But with waterlogged clothing, he'll feel much heavier.

The weight of it takes John by surprise

and almost pulls him into the lake.

The pressure's on.

John has only a few seconds to get Kyle back on board.

If he was a real person,

he might be close to drowning by now, or to being attacked.

That went very, very well. That's a heavy old dummy.

I think the water added 30 kilos.

130 kilos I think, the way that was.

That was pretty quick. Alexa manoeuvred the boat very well.

Come in.

'We've managed to get him on board,

'so we'll meet you back at the quay.'

Yep, OK.

First aider may be required.

That's it, well done.

That's good.

That's A, B and C done.

Now we've go to, D, make sure these guys get the boat landed.

I can see we've got Kim waiting.

She's a first aider.

We would have got an ambulance on the way anyway.

We've not done it today, even though, obviously,

we would in real time.

Slow it a bit now.

It's gonna be a six-minute retrieval.

When you think we were right at the far end of the lake, that's really jolly good.

Stop.

Brilliant, brilliant. That's rope on.

Well done, Johnny.

How are you feeling?

-He's a bit wet, mate.

-A bit soggy.

Once back at the quay, the practice rescue is over.

Time to assess how it went.

It wasn't easy, actually.

Once I'd got both the arms hooked, it wasn't so bad,

but until I got both the arms hooked,

it was quite difficult to keep hold of the person.

Doing it with a doll is a lot more realistic, it's a lot heavier,

so it means a lot more work for John.

A lot more work for me to be able to spot him as well,

because he's not wearing a fluorescent jacket.

It could be so much more dangerous if you don't get things right.

One mistake by the driver or by the crew member, he goes in the plop,

Alexa actually hits the casualty in the water with the boat...

There's so much to worry about. I take my hat off to these guys.

They're doing a sterling job

and I'll be coming on his boat for a ride in the future, I can tell you.

Today, we're looking back

at one of the most heart-wrenching tales we've followed

since we first started filming ten years ago.

It began when a wallaby died of an infection in the mouth.

A couple of weeks later,

another was found dead from a mysterious illness in the gut.

But it was the strangest thing.

In the dead mother's pouch, her baby was still alive.

It was rushed to Pets Corner, where keeper Bev Allen

started trying to feed her by hand

with goat's milk in a bottle, every two hours round the clock.

The next day, I was there when tragedy struck again.

I've come up to find safari park vet Duncan Williams,

because there's been more bad news about the wallabies.

Duncan, what's happened?

Well, we lost another female overnight.

So that's two in two days?

That's right. I've just post-mortemed the second one.

Unfortunately, we haven't found the same signs as we did on the first one.

There wasn't the extensive gut infection

going on in the second one as there was in the first.

Presumably, you're gonna have to wait for results

to find out exactly the cause of death.

But are you worried that this could be some sort of contagious bug?

I should get results towards the end of this week.

It will be good to know exactly what's doing it,

because the implications for the others are quite major.

If it is an infectious thing, we have to get in there

and try and prevent it from spreading.

Have you ever come across anything like this before?

No, not to this extent.

To lose animals as quick as this, we haven't really seen this.

-So it's a real mystery?

-Yeah.

-They both had joeys, I gather?

That's right, yeah.

It was another female joey just now.

I think it's going down to Pets Corner

and Bev's going to try and hand rear that one as well.

She's going to look after two?

She's gonna have her work cut out. Unfortunately, they are very young.

They haven't got much hair, so it's going to be a harder job for her

to recreate pouch conditions sufficient for them to survive.

With two joeys to be hand-reared

and the illness still unexplained,

the park was mobilised, ready to deal with a major crisis.

Deputy Head Warden Ian Turner went to conduct a grim search

for more bodies.

Just got to check around everywhere, just to make sure that there's nothing tucked away.

That's fine. They've been in here last night.

You can see where they shuffled the straw up a bit.

Ian is about as experienced a keeper as you can get,

but was still affected by the situation.

When stuff gets old or it's poorly,

when you're prepared for it because it's been ill, it's a lot easier.

When you turn up every morning

and you have to look round like this...

We do a check every morning anyhow,

so it's a normal check, but now it's a bit more tense,

because you're expecting to find something.

Back in Pets Corner, Bev was working hard to save the two baby wallabies,

but despite her best efforts,

the chance of them both surviving was never good.

I'm afraid the first wallaby did pass away.

It was pretty upsetting,

but it was sort of touch-and-go, early days.

It's sort of all that hard work I put into it.

It gets to you a little bit.

It is very sad.

I've got to say, on a personal note, Bev is doing brilliant.

I mean, it's quite heart-wrenching to put your heart into something

and then lose it, but she's done it.

She's pulled through

and, hopefully, she's gonna concentrate on the second one now.

Poor Bev was back to square one.

She had to start the two-hourly feeds all over again

with the new little orphan.

It's just sort of got used to taking the bottle now,

so, as you can see, she's drinking quite well.

It's just like a human baby,

because you've got to get up, you've got to feed it.

If she gets too dirty, we've got to give her a quick wash

to make sure she's clean.

It does take a lot of time, but it's worth it.

Bev made an artificial pouch with a hot-water bottle, sheets and towels

to keep the orphan safe and warm.

Meanwhile, back up in Wallaby Wood,

Ian finished his search and, at last, there was some good news.

Today, there's nothing. Nothing yesterday.

If there's nothing tomorrow and nothing at the weekend,

we can start thinking we're in the clear,

and it was something and nothing.

But this tale is far from over.

Find out later on what happened in Wallaby Wood

and if Bev's remaining little orphan ever survived.

There's a new boy in the park

and it looks like he may be a bit of a psycho!

At first, they were holding him in Pets Corner,

but he kept escaping and attacking pushchairs with babies in them.

So now, they've moved him somewhere safe.

But is he really bad or is he just misunderstood?

It is, of course, the turkey and just over here is Lucky Chestnut.

Now, John, you're Lucky Chestnut's keeper. What kind of turkey is he?

-He is an English Buff.

-Right, the markings on the head are incredible.

They are. they do change colour.

What's he doing now?

-He's just displaying right now.

-OK.

-He's about a year old.

-Right.

What are we doing down here with these apples on strings?

-Well...

-We're not gonna stuff the turkey, are we?

Not today, I'm afraid, no.

-We're gonna give him a little bit of enrichment.

-Right.

We just like to make sure he's always got something to do to,

keep him occupied and entertained throughout the day.

OK, so what are we doing with the apples then?

We've got some pieces of bamboo. One over there and one over there.

We'll just stick them on there, hang them,

so he's got something to peck away at.

So, obviously, they like apples.

-What sort of height do you think we want to go at?

-Just...

-About there?

-That's about right.

-So they like apples, what else?

What else does he like? Cabbage, carrots, grasses.

We don't give him too much grass though.

And how long has he been here now?

He's only been here a couple of weeks.

He was in Pets Corner originally, but he kept escaping.

-Did he? Are they good escape artists?

-He is a very good escape artist.

He escaped at least three times down there.

Having a look at his face again, there are these incredible,

sort of red bits that hang down from the neck, what is that?

They are the caruncles.

-And those are the things that change colour according to its mood?

-Yes.

He goes very, very bright red, or he goes blue.

On occasion, he goes white as well.

They are an extraordinary colour.

And there's one little feather that looks like it's falling out at the front, it's black. What's that?

-I believe it's just called the beard.

-And it does look beard-like.

It does.

It looks like a paint brush, sort of... Bristles, I think.

It might sound like a daft question, can they be slightly aggressive?

The whole crew are running away now.

They look terrified as this turkey chases them around the enclosure.

Could they do any damage?

I wouldn't have thought he'd do much damage,

but if you stand your ground, generally he'll leave you alone.

But if you keep on running away from him, like the crew are...

Stay still, everybody!

-Then he thinks he's boss.

-Right.

While Lucky Chestnut is chasing Ben and the crew around,

I thought I'd let you know a couple of interesting facts about turkeys.

They came originally from America

and may have got their name because people believed

they were related to a kind of guinea fowl

that was introduced to Western Europe from Turkey.

By the way, a female turkey is called a hen, but a male is called a stag.

There is a possibility you'll get him a mate here? That is on the cards?

Hopefully we'll get him a mate.

My only suggestion is if you do,

you'll have to call it Lucky Brussels Sprout.

Yes!

-Thank you very much.

-You're very welcome.

You're all so scared!

The East Africa reserve is home to the safari park's biggest animals.

But it's also the natural habitat to thousands of other creatures,

very small ones.

All those British species we sometimes take for granted.

Recently, the East Africa team,

led by Andy Hayton,

has been working on some schemes to encourage our own native wildlife.

So as well as the stuff that you're doing down there,

the bird boxes and the feeders,

it looks like you've been going to town up here

with the much more natural habitat.

Yeah, some people may say it looks like a mess,

but these are all natural deadwood habitats.

So in your normal woodland, you would get all this breaking down,

which then encourages invertebrates,

which then encourages voles and hedgehogs and this kind of thing.

-You can see the fungus growing.

-Yeah.

This sort of thing is brilliant for things like beetles,

and if you get stag beetles,

which are having a really hard time at the moment,

because they don't have habitat.

-The problem is that people think they have to be tidy.

-Absolutely.

And this certainly isn't tidy,

but when you start explaining to people what it is...

You can do so much in here.

Look, just pecking away at these leaves here,

you've got, basically, dinner for all sorts of things.

Of course, I've lost it... But woodlice in there.

And there's a little worm in there.

So, as you say, this is going to encourage in

all sorts of birds, little mammals.

It's absolutely brilliant. Why did you get so enthused by this?

I've really, really got into it now. It's great.

There's a log over there,

we've put some chainsaw cuts in.

-Again, brilliant for insects.

-They can hide.

Nice that you've kept nettles.

People always want to obliterate nettles, and they do take over, but they're great for butterflies.

Absolutely, yeah.

Even if people have got a tiny little garden...

It doesn't have to be anything as big as this.

Half a dozen logs stacked up fairly neatly with leaves in there,

they'll start rotting down, and you'd be amazed at what moves in.

For kids, as well. You'll see...

-Shall we see if there's anything under these?

-Yeah.

For children to go rooting through this is kind of treasure.

Look, we've got a great little beetle there.

Worms, lots of woodlice here.

Loads of different larvae, slugs...

All this kind of stuff will attract other animals in.

We've had lots of toads down under these things.

Newts. In this pile, I was messing around and I found a couple of newts.

Oh, fantastic!

-Ooh, look!

-A little toad.

-Look at that.

You mentioned you'd found newts. I think that's exactly what that is.

-Quite a tiddler.

-Fantastic, isn't it?

Look at that lovely orange belly. Flick over...

I think that would mean...

There we go. You're not going to show it off, are you?

That is a common newt, I would have a guess at.

What a great little thing.

It's fantastic to find little ones.

That is great, cos they're obviously breeding right here.

You don't really need to say a huge amount more than that,

seeing that little guy.

Let's pop him back

and cover them up again.

-That's really good.

-That's great news.

It's nice to find something like that.

It kind of shows what you're doing is right.

-And basically in one season.

-Yeah, yeah.

-So quick.

And it's only going to get better and better and better, hopefully.

One week after the last unexplained death in Wallaby Wood,

it began to look as if they were finally past the worst.

The lab results confirmed that all three adults died from unconnected infections.

It was all just pure bad luck.

Down in Pets Corner, there was more good news.

Bev Allen's little orphan joey was doing very well,

apart from a minor problem with dry skin.

Bev named her Kimberley, or just Kim for short.

I'm going to put some aloe vera cream onto her skin,

because she's quite flaky.

She's got very dry skin, so it just helps her skin out.

She's still very wobbly on her feet.

But she's getting better.

She don't like coming out,

so she tries to find somewhere to hide when she's out.

Here she comes.

Hello.

That's it, it's OK.

I usually do it two to three times a day,

just to help out.

It has got a lot better, cos we've been doing it for about a week

and it's a lot better than it was, which is really good.

Under Bev's care, Kim went from strength to strength.

And a few months later,

Kate was there when it was time for some exercise.

OK, we'll just pop her down here.

Have you been doing this reasonably regularly?

Is this an important part of her development?

Yeah, I basically do it every day.

She's at that stage where she would come out of the mum's pouch,

run around and then go back in when she wants to.

-Right.

-So it's just getting her used to it, basically.

And presumably getting strength into her limbs and all of that?

She's a lot faster than she used to be.

She's had practice running around, so she's getting a lot better now.

Look at her! She's so...

Her coat's really grown. Wow, Kimberley, look at you!

-She's enormous, Bev!

-She's getting a lot bigger now.

-Isn't she?!

-She's getting there.

She just looks fantastic.

Look at you! Aren't you a beautiful girl?

But Bev couldn't keep Kim forever.

That wouldn't be a full life for a wallaby.

So after all they'd been through,

the day finally came to cut the bonds and take Kim back to Wallaby Wood.

Yeah, big day for Kim and me.

Her age is good, because she's about a year and two months now,

so that's a good age to put her back.

It is a bit scary for me to leave her overnight. It's a big worry.

I think once tonight's over and done with

and I can see her in the morning,

it's gonna be a relief on myself, really.

I think she's always going to be a bit friendly and tame,

because she has been hand-reared.

Which isn't a bad thing, because you can get close to her,

you can monitor her and if you need to give her medication, you can.

She is mixing with the other wallabies,

No problem with her being hand-reared.

They don't mind.

So really pleased, really good.

When she came to me, she was very weak.

So I did think, was she going to make it?

But she did.

The first couple of days, I was trying to keep her warm.

To get her to drink as well was critical, basically.

She had to drink the milk.

After the first couple of weeks, because she was very strong.

Look at her now. She's eating.

A bit sad in a way that she has to come back with the other wallabies,

but I can come up and visit her, and just watch her grow and get bigger,

and hopefully have little joeys of her own!

In the year since that fateful day,

Kim has settled well, and led a full life with all the other wallabies.

But with all the time that's passed, how are Bev and Kim getting on now?

I've come to join a rendezvous in Wallaby Wood.

Now, it's not often that keepers from different sections

here in the safari park get to meet,

but today it's a meeting of Bevs.

Over here, we have got Bev Allen from Pets Corner,

-with Bev Evans from Wallaby Wood, effectively.

-Yes.

Now, Bev, you're here meeting an old friend, this is Kim the wallaby,

who you hand-reared.

Yeah, I hand-reared her quite a few years ago now, when she was only

about five months old, so, as you can see, she's a lot bigger now.

What I loved is that you suggested this Bev comes in first to give her

a piece of banana, because she remembers her so well.

Yes, she does, definitely.

Kim is incredibly friendly to us guys up here, but

there's definitely still a bond between Bev and Kim.

Tell me, whenever you come up and see her, do you get a warm feeling,

that, "Wow, I hand-reared her!"

Yeah, I'm really pleased that she has done so well, and I'm just...

I'm pleased that she's been accepted back in with the group,

which is amazing.

Because it was really hard to say goodbye to her all those years ago,

to get her mixed back in.

I was worried something might go wrong or they might not accept her.

But seeing her now, how she is now, is amazing.

You've got a beaming smile!

Just remind me, you literally had her in a rucksack.

Oh, look, she's dashing off now.

You had her in a rucksack for a long period of time.

I was hand-rearing her up to about 10 months,

so it was a very long time that she was with me.

Getting up every two hours to feed her to begin with,

and then bringing her up here to meet the other wallabies as well,

and getting her introduced to the group. Yeah, it's hard work.

And how has she settled in here, pretty well?

Yeah. She's had a joey or two.

Haven't seen anything pop up the pouch just as yet this year,

but she gets on with her adult male here and the rest of the girls.

Would you ever consider doing the work that Bev did with the wallaby?

Because Bev's so good at it,

all we can do is give her all the random joeys from now on!

-You'll get on to the phone down to Pets Corner.

-Emergency.

-Emergency mum!

-Exactly.

-Listen, I hope it doesn't happen again,

let's hope they do look after them themselves,

-and fantastic to see Kim doing so well.

-Thank you.

Last year, they had some trouble with Trevor the ostrich.

It started when the keepers called in construction boss John Miles

to make a new water hole in the East Africa Reserve.

But the work coincided with the ostriches' breeding season,

and for some reason Trevor got it into his head

that John and his truck were some kind of threat.

Don't you kick my truck!

Trev, we can talk about this!

This year, there's been some more trouble.

Ben and I went to find out what's going on.

Well, here is everybody's favourite ostrich. It is of course Trevor.

I say everybody's favourite, Andy,

but not much of a favourite with you at the moment.

The amount of love and hate I've got for that animal

-is unbelievable at the moment.

-What's he been up to?

As you can see on his beak, he is really, really pink at the moment.

And the lower legs, actually.

He is in full-on breeding mode at the moment.

So he gets this pink colour when he's in breeding mode?

And just a complete surge of nuttiness.

And I'm his main rival, I think, in Trev's mind, at the moment.

We've even had to sneak you in undercover in our vehicle,

because you can't go near him.

My truck, he had a lash at me this morning, and he's dented the wing,

and if I ever drive in here to look around the animals,

you can see the patrolmen, "For God's sake..."

It's got really outrageously out of hand, it really has.

I really like Trev, but he's got a major problem with my vehicle.

I think it's...myself and Ian Turner darted him earlier in the year -

we did it from my truck this year,

and I don't know whether, being darted from my vehicle,

Trev had a bit of trust for my truck

and all of a sudden it's bit him, and now he's...

-And that was a vaccine?

-He had to have a vaccination,

and we thought "We'll do it from my truck,

"Trev's pretty thick and he won't remember."

I was going to say, it's everybody's favourite fact about ostriches

that their eye is bigger than their brain,

but maybe he's proving everybody wrong,

that ostriches don't forget that easily.

I think I'm in a pretty exclusive club now, with Johnny Miles,

me and him are brothers in arms with Trev.

-And John Miles is of course...

-The contractor.

He'll spot John's green truck from a mile away, and just cause mayhem.

He despises John for some reason, and his vehicle.

Now I've joined that very exclusive club!

Presumably, if he's got this bright pink bill,

he's mating again, this is good news for the ostriches of Longleat.

It's great news, he's doing exactly what a male ostrich

should do, he's just unfortunately taken me as his main rival!

Have you been looking at Honey in a way that you shouldn't?

She's a good-looking bird!

He comes out of it, but at the moment, it's annoying,

because it goes to show, animals are no respecter of position.

I'm supposed to be in charge and I'm the lowest of low with Trevor,

I can't do anything with him with my vehicle.

That's the way it goes with animals, so I've just got to back off.

But it's just...rage.

There's no other way to describe it,

when he starts getting hold of me, it's absolute blind rage.

And I'm driving as fast as I dare, which is about 30 miles per hour,

and he's still running alongside me, kicking the truck.

Can we he heal this rift?

You're going to have to make up!

I think I'll have to get him a really nice Christmas present.

See what happens.

We'll try and come up with ideas.

I know you've got the engine running!

It's got to be my truck, cos he's right there.

If we were sat here in my vehicle, he'd be all over it.

I can forgive him.

Good luck with everything. Sadly we've run out of time,

but here's what's coming up on the next Animal Park.

It's all change in lion country,

because Kabir, the king of the pride,

is in danger of being attacked and killed by his own children.

There's a life and death struggle to save a red deer and her newborn baby.

'And down in the bat cave there's a tricky operation under way

'to give the residents their MoTs.'

-Well done!

-You got it!

'We'll have all that and more on the next Animal Park.'

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