Episode 2 Animal Park

50 years ago, the first lions arrived at Longleat,

but it was a further three years till Monkey Jungle opened her gates.

Back then, it was baboons living here.

There were 200 of them, but they had to leave

because they proved to be such good escape artists,

they even got out, raided a milk float and drank its entire contents.

Today, there are 160 monkeys here,

and they still leave a trail of destruction in their path as they

dismantle visitors' cars.

They are led by a notorious monkey known as Phil,

with a fearsome reputation.

Even the keepers are terrified of him.

And Phil is here,

so I'm going to be busy distracting him to keep him out of Ben's hair

while you find out what's on today's Animal Park.

A keeper's worst nightmare comes true

as a sea lion breaks out of the park.

At this point, we were starting to get worried,

because he could end up following this river all the way.

And this eventually goes to the sea.

It's double trouble in the African Village.

This morning when I came in to check on them,

she had two little twins in her arms.

And Jean comes under attack

as the biggest birds on the planet defend their nest.

What are we going to do?

'After almost a decade away, we're back for the summer.'

'50 years on from the opening,

'the nation's first safari park is now home to over 1,000 animals,

'from the weird and the wacky to the wild and the wonderful.

'And this place has been famous

'for its menagerie of inhabitants right from the very beginning.'

When the sixth Marquis of Bath suggested introducing lions

into this landscape, it caused a national outcry.

The press went wild, locals feared for their lives.

Questions were even asked in Parliament.

But in more recent times,

it was a new arrival that captured the public's imagination.

This is Anne.

Anne is one of the oldest Asian elephants in Europe,

and for the past five years,

she's been enjoying these leafy surroundings.

They say an elephant never forgets,

but this is one who perhaps wished she could.

Brought over from Sri Lanka as a calf,

she performed for most of her life in Bobby Roberts' Super Circus.

But when footage emerged in 2011 of Anne being horrifically mistreated,

there was a public outcry.

Anne was rescued and given a police escort to Longleat,

where she was housed temporarily in a rhino house.

Keeper Ross was with her from the very beginning.

When she first came, she never said a word.

She wouldn't, she just wouldn't. She wouldn't look at you,

she always looked at the floor.

And if you looked at her, she would look away.

She was sad, and you could see that.

And sadness was over every aspect of her, like her body language,

her condition, everything.

The moment she arrived at the park five years ago,

a long and gruelling process of rehabilitation began.

We've been granted special access behind the scenes to meet Anne,

and the three keepers dedicated to her 365 days of the year.

She's all right, isn't she?

She's looking good.

Anne's survival relied on her trusting humans,

but no-one knew if she would ever do that again.

That was the hardest bit about the beginning, was learning her.

Because you had to gain her trust.

There were times when we thought,

"This isn't going to happen. She's just not there."

Anne showed no connection other than fear, but the boys were determined.

After a whole year with no change, something happened.

Anne was coming back to life.

There was logs, and there was sort of like an angled log.

She started just pushing it.

And every time she pushed it,

she'd look over at us, like, "You all right?"

Then she would push it again, and she would keep looking.

We would just go, "Go on, do it. "It'd be brilliant."

Then she finally snapped it,

and she looked at us like, "Oh, my God, I've broke it."

And we were just laughing,

and it was that moment where she started looking at us

in the eye and started...was, like, "You guys are all right."

That is the moment for me where it kind of changed a little bit.

No change is fast with an elephant that has been through so much,

but every day, they are all getting to know each other better.

She's quite inquisitive. She'll always investigate. Sometimes

she won't like something you make,

but she'll go and investigate it, see what she thinks of it.

She's cheeky. She likes to pull our laces and undo them

and pull them so hard that they knot up.

Last year, Anne was moved into

a specialist purpose-built home in the park, called Anne's Haven.

And this morning, it's bath time.

Like most people,

they don't really want a bath first thing in the morning.

Anne particularly, she's like a kid in that respect.

She doesn't want to do it,

but once she started, "I'm wet now, it's all right."

Anne's part of the group, so when we are having a laugh,

we'll always tell Anne about it, whether or not she listens or cares,

it doesn't matter. She's just in on the fun.

She does understand what we're saying sometimes,

and it's that sort of relationship we have with her,

which is, to me, fundamental.

Improving her mind was the first step,

but the next challenge would be her body.

We'll join the boys later as we get a chance to see her next stage of

recovery here at the park.

SEA LIONS BARKING

Hear that? That should be a clue as to where I'm going.

This is Sea Lion Beach

and Mark Tighe has just got in contact with me to say,

"Rush down, because they have got..."

Oh, my goodness! A new arrival, look at this.

Oh, Mark!

Hello, poppet.

Look at that little face.

So, Mark, when was this one born?

-A week ago.

-Really?

A week old.

Look at her. And who is her mum?

Her mother's Jo-Jo.

So Jo-Jo's still around?

Jo-Jo's still around.

That's great to know.

Was it Jo-Jo who used to give birth in really difficult places?

No, that was her mum, Ozzy.

Ozzy always used to give birth from the boats,

and anywhere that was awkward.

That's right. So, has Jo-Jo inherited

any of her mother's difficult traits?

No, she's pretty good at birthing.

She's got the same traits in that she is not the most into-it mother.

Oh, really?

She has a baby and after about a day, she's like,

"Send me back to the lake. I'll come back in the evenings, feed it."

-She pretty much leaves it all day long.

-That's amazing, isn't it?

And I mean, again, would that be a similar situation in the wild,

that the adult females would give birth, leave them in a safe place,

go off and feed and then just come back?

Yes. That's so much the case,

and you would probably find that all these pups would be together

-on a beach somewhere.

-She's looking very fat,

so she is clearly being well fed.

They are all still growing, so they don't really moult...

-Is it this one here?

-No, this is Nancy.

Is it? Oh, Nancy, hello!

I haven't seen you for ages.

-Auntie Nancy.

-Auntie Nancy.

Now, she seems a little bit perturbed by Auntie Nancy.

Are you coming to hide under here with us?

-Under our feet.

-And have you got a name for this one yet?

We did sort of... Not really.

The other day when we came down here,

she came running towards us, bouncing.

So we thought "Roo".

That's a brilliant name.

I think Roo would do.

What do you think, Roo?

She says, "I don't know, but I'm going to be very shy."

Well, Mark, congratulations.

Another great success,

another new life to continue hopefully another...

half century here at the park.

Roo, you're amazing.

But now our latest recruit to the animal park team, Jean Johansson,

is on her way to find breakfast

for some of the Park's most ravenous inhabitants.

There are three Amur tigers here -

Svetli, Shouri and Soundari.

In the wild, these top predators

would hunt large deer and even bears,

overcoming their prey by force and eating them as quickly as possible.

So here at the park, the keepers are always on the lookout for a meal

they can't devour in a matter of minutes.

You can imagine my excitement

when they said I'd be working with big cats,

but there seems to be a lot of deer and rhino in this enclosure,

so I'm guessing there's no big cats here, Jenna.

-Has there been a change of plan?

-There's not been a change of plan.

We're not in the big cat enclosure, but we are still working for them,

so we're going to pick up some ostrich eggs today.

And they live in here. They're quite a good source of protein for the big

cats, so we're going to go and grab some for them

and see if they can crack them open.

The park's two ostriches, Smithy and Stacey, aren't a breeding pair,

which means their infertile eggs won't hatch.

So, rather than go to waste,

the super strong eggs are what the keepers are after.

Right, so the ostrich are up by their nest.

-Yeah.

-We're just going to radio Dan and Nicky in the truck and we'll get

you in there so that we can go and distract them away.

So...

Giraffe three, Dan.

Weighing as much as two fully grown men,

the ostrich is the world's largest bird.

Unfortunately for Jean,

they are also equipped with the largest eye of any land animal.

So there's little chance of her sneaking up on them.

Smithy is liable to protect the nest and Stacey.

You can see him getting a bit flappy now, and he's already spotted us.

The plan is simple - Nicky drives towards the nest,

then Jean lures Smithy away with some food.

But unfortunately, things aren't going to the simple plan.

Come on, ostriches. Come on.

-He's not happy.

-You can see, he's just staying with his wings down.

He's making himself look bigger, like, you know, he can get us.

You know, I don't think she's going to leave, bless her.

-What are we going to do?

-Luckily, we've got another nest.

Ah, plan B.

Let's do it.

Ah, great. Nest number two.

Got the two eggs.

And not an ostrich in sight,

because it did get a little bit hairy up there.

They are really protective of the nest.

And why do these make such a good treat for big cats?

They are better for you than chicken eggs.

I think it's lower cholesterol and saturated fats.

I don't know whether they will be able to break them, though.

They are meant to be quite strong.

I'm wondering, even with the big teeth of a tiger,

will they be able to crack this?

I'm going to do a test.

Come here.

Wow! That is amazing.

That can easily take my full body weight.

So even if predators do get a hold of these, and the tigers,

they are going to have a bit of a job getting them cracked open.

We'll catch up with Jean later in the show as we find out

what three hungry tigers will make of their "egg-cellent" surprise.

I have to confess that my favourite time of day here in the park

is when it's closed to the public and it's silent.

And sometimes you can walk around and hear the lions roaring,

and it reminds you that there's just this little bit of fence between you

and some of the most magnificent big cats in the world.

Now, one of the biggest fears here has always been lions escaping,

but mercifully, that's never happened.

However, I'd be lying if I told you that no animals have ever breached

these fences in the last 50 years.

Back when the park opened in 1966,

people were most worried about the lions getting out.

Hippos may appear placid, but they have an aggressive streak.

This, coupled with their heavy weight,

can make them a scary opponent.

Back in 1970, the head warden at the time, Mike Lockyer,

had a pretty close encounter.

He recounted the tale for us a few years ago.

In those days, the lake wasn't as well shored up as it is now,

and it was relatively, I suppose,

easy for them to get out and go walkabout.

And when one was missing,

an animal that's quite used to people shouting and saying,

"Come on, come on",

and give them a loaf of bread and that kind of thing.

If suddenly one is missing you think, "Where is that one?"

We start looking further, and as the time goes on, you think,

"It's gone", and wonder where it will turn up next.

About a mile from the safari park is the village of Horningsham,

where local farmer Steve Crossman made a curious discovery.

I came out one morning to check my cows,

about half past seven.

I was walking down where we're walking now, and...

I came to the gateway and noticed there were some very strange

and odd-looking footprints on the ground.

And they obviously weren't anything to do with my cattle...

so I went and got my father,

and we had a look and we couldn't work out quite what was going on.

We followed the tracks.

They went up to the pond, up at the top there, by the bridge.

Something quite large had obviously gone in the lake, moved around,

moved out and came back down,

and the footprints went back down there.

Strangely, the footprints led right back to Steve's own farmyard.

We had a phone call. I think it was from someone called Crossman down at

the farm here, who said, "I've got your hippo down here.

"I've shut at in the yard."

Of course, he'd shut it in the yard

in the same that he would shut cows in the yard,

by simply closing a wooden five-bar gate.

We went rushing down there,

and there was a sort of hinges on one side

and the gate latch on the other, and a more or less hippo shape

in the middle where he had just walked straight through it.

It eventually ended up in this wood here and

then came back to the lake again.

All it was really interested in was getting back to the water,

or coming out for grazing.

They broke a couple of fences.

Going through a barbed wire fence is nothing to a hippo.

But they didn't cause any lasting damage.

Caused a bit of a laugh and a stir round the village,

but it was just a one-off, I think.

But that wasn't the only daring escape there's been from this park.

As you'll see later on, another animal got an awful lot further.

Now, it's over to tiger territory,

where Jean is about to find out

whether the tigers fancy scrambled ostrich eggs for breakfast.

-Hi. I have some ostrich eggs here for you.

-Perfect.

To mask the sight and smell of the eggs, they'll be buried in sawdust.

The longer the tigers spend searching, the better.

And how are we going to go about hiding them?

Just pop it on top, then you can cover some sawdust over.

We still want them to find them,

so you don't want to mask the smell too much.

Just for fun, shall we put some dotted around

without any eggs in them?

Definitely, spread it out a bit so they won't have to fight or anything.

That would be perfect.

These Siberian, or Amur tigers have never seen ostrich eggs before,

so there's no way of knowing quite what they'll make of it all.

-Lion reserve, Hannah.

-'Come in.'

Yeah, Hannah, we are all good to let them go.

-'Tigers on the way out.'

-Oh, I see one.

They just came bounding round the corner.

This is the searching behaviour.

This is what we try to do an enrichment.

There really searching,

really searching for what's around their environment.

It's so strange to them.

We've never, ever done anything like this with them before.

This is Svetli.

Just having a little play around with it.

There she goes. Fantastic.

I know from experience these are really hard eggs.

She's just not quite sure of

what to do with it, so she's trying out different methods.

And it's perfect enrichment.

This is exactly the kind of behaviour

we are trying to instil in our animals.

There's no point just giving them a plate of food.

We really have to try and make them work for it, so this is fantastic.

So, Shouri's now realised that something's going on.

Maybe two heads are better than one?

-Yeah.

-Is this going to cause a conflict?

I don't know. Before, if you'd asked me,

I would have said absolutely yes.

She's got up and left.

This is really different behaviour from them.

I wouldn't expect Soundari to walk away from something,

-because we do...

-Wow, she's staring right at me.

-Wow.

-This is good.

This is really good. It will keep them busy all day,

rather than just for half an hour period in the morning.

In fact, it was quite a while

before the tigers discovered the contents of the eggs.

They are right in there.

Their faces are right in the yolk.

Just lapping up. Their little tails are twitching.

-What does that mean?

-It means they're enjoying themselves.

-They're happy.

-I'm so glad it went well.

You've put a lot of hard work into that. And thank you so much.

It's been amazing to get to see tigers up close like this.

I'm so glad.

Whether the park's open or closed,

there are 1,000 animals that need to be fed every day

by an army of 114 keepers.

They come in each day because of their bond with the animals,

but also because they never know what they're going to find.

And keeper Tina has found something extra special today.

This morning was a very nice surprise.

We were expecting a birth of a pair of our ring tailed lemurs,

and today was her due date,

and usually due dates overrun or come early,

but Haseena, our mum-to-be, was bang on time.

And this morning, when I came in to check on them,

she had two little twins in her arms.

For most people, having twins is a pretty big deal.

But not for Haseena the lemur.

Haseena, now, this is her seventh birth but her sixth set of twins.

So, it's quite a norm for her.

You walk in in the morning and she's like, "Look, I've had another one,"

and you pass some food for her breakfast and she almost offers you

a baby in return for the food.

Ringtailed lemurs are female dominant

and generally give birth to one baby a year.

Newborns are carried on their mother's chest

for one to two weeks before moving round to her back.

And, at less than a day old, these two are happily settled on to mum.

When lemurs are born, as you can see from the twins,

they kind of come out as mini little lemurs.

You see, they've already got the grey back and the white tummy,

like the adults do but they have the distinctive black and white tail

which is what ring tails are well known for.

They use it for communication in the wild,

to keep in touch with one another.

Mum's using her tail right now to protect the babies

but they will use it when they're older to act as a scarf

to keep themselves warm in our British winter days.

This species of lemur are very sociable and tend to live in groups.

All her children will participate and help the youngsters grow up,

learn what it means to be a lemur,

learn to forage for their own food

and they will become part of the family.

Lemurs are very strong bonded.

But there is one lemur in this group

who sometimes likes a bit of me time.

Julian! It's all right.

And that's Dad, Julian.

We're currently looking for Dad,

who is father to all of the youngsters

that you can see running around here.

There's one easy way to spot Dad.

His most distinctive feature is his tail but not for the usual reasons.

He's only got half of a tail.

We're not sure how he lost his tail exactly.

We all have our own brave stories.

He was protecting his family against a bear or something like that

but, to be honest, with his character,

he probably just got it shut in a door.

With Mum, Dad and all the babies doing well,

Tina is feeling pretty happy with the whole family.

I love the lemurs. I've been here since they arrived

and it's lovely to be able to see the life cycle of the lemurs.

This is how they progress,

this is what they look like in a year's time

and it's just nice to see animals flourish, really.

Meanwhile, over in lion country...

..the vet's been called.

One of the lion cubs has got a growth on its nose

which needs removing under anaesthetic.

Not knowing what this is, we'll take the opportunity to remove it

and get it gone before it gets too big

or turns into anything more nasty,

that might require more extensive surgery.

Today at the park, a highly skilled team,

specialist caging and an anaesthetic dart gun

makes a job like this routine for the team

and as painless as possible for the animals.

It's a well-oiled machine.

So, how can they be so calm working with such a ferocious creature?

Well, in part, it's due to one man, Gerry Benbow.

When the Safari Park first opened its gates 50 years ago...

..Gerry was just the local vet.

Gerry Benbow was the vet when I first started here.

He started as a normal vet, just looking after cats and dogs and cows

and then Longleat came and said,

"Would you come and look at our lion?"

After years of routine work with pets and farm animals,

Gerry suddenly had to take on dozens of completely new species.

His widow, Valerie, remembers how unfazed Jerry was.

Gerry loved animals of all kinds, from a mouse to an elephant.

He loved them all and when he was working, that was his world.

Perhaps the biggest operation Gerry took on

was one not dissimilar to the one performed by James today.

But the setting was very different and far more dangerous.

When he first treated a lion,

they had no facilities of course and he was actually out in the park in

the open with a range of guns around him

and everybody watching the lions.

I think when we treat any new species,

it presents problems for us.

Yes, but this is not just any new species, this is a lion,

so how do you feel about handling one of them?

Well, of course, the smaller ones, we can handle fairly readily

by holding them by the scruff of the neck and at the rear end.

But, of course, those in the reserve roam wild

and present far more of a problem.

Things were pretty different back then.

Gerry didn't have a hi-tech dart gun

or even a fence between him and the lion.

In fact, the only effective way to administer anaesthetic

to a lion was via the crossbow out in the open.

It often took several attempts

because the crossbow had a limited range.

Even when the dart did go in,

it didn't deliver enough sedative to knock an animal out completely.

The keepers had to take the risk of roping a still semiconscious animal.

Hang on, he's pretty lively.

Gerry needed to remove a growth from Abraham the Lion's lip,

without Abraham removing Gerry's arm.

Just be careful of your fingers.

No, he had no experience at all

and it was something completely different.

I suppose a challenge, really.

The operation on Abraham was a success

and, for 31 years, Gerry tended the park's animals

with great dedication.

He died in 2004 but Valerie still remembers

how important his time here was to him.

I think he made an enormous impact

because he wasn't just the vet.

He was almost part of the establishment, if you like.

It was so ground-breaking that to be involved in it, he felt very proud,

very proud to have been able to do that.

The legacy of dedication and devotion Gerry left

has passed to all the vets who followed in his footsteps.

Like James today and Duncan Williams.

Gerry was a great pioneer.

He really developed the health and welfare of the animals.

All our decisions are based around

what is in the best interests of the animals.

30 years' experience, he would have had great knowledge

and would have been able to share that

with new and upcoming keepers all the time.

He loved Longleat and his ashes are actually scattered in the park.

Today we've been invited to meet Anne, a mistreated circus elephant.

The keepers have dedicated thousands of hours to gain her trust.

When she arrived at the park, her body was in a terrible state.

She couldn't lift her trunk above her head,

which is, like... The main part of an elephant is their trunk.

She had a lot of dead skin on her and her feet were overgrown.

She had a lot of problems.

But that was five years ago.

Today, it's 8am and that means one thing.

It's Ka-trunk time.

This is just like a child's game,

so we've got sticks to go through the holes.

We put some hay in it to make it a layer

and put some fruit on top of that.

The idea is, she pulls the sticks out and the food falls

out the bottom here so it's like a win, really.

But this is designed and built so she can actually exercise her trunk.

An elephant's trunk contains over 40,000 muscles.

But when Anne first arrived at the park five years ago,

she couldn't lift hers off the ground.

Now Anne's trunk muscles have improved so much

she can reach as high as the top level of the sticks.

Are you going to cheat? Yeah, you're going to cheat.

Don't cheat, Anne.

No, no, no.

She's cheating! She's decided to come in in a destructive mode

and, rather than being all nice and ladylike and elegant

about the whole thing, she's decided to be

the destroyer of all destroying things.

She's just won, she's just won a prize.

So she's going to eat that first.

Senior team leader Ryan is incredibly proud of his team.

They've given Anne her whole world back.

An elephant without a trunk,

it's like a dog without a tail and a bark.

It's like a cat without its senses.

The trunk is everything.

But although the keepers

have achieved miracles with Anne's recovery,

Anne is in her 60s. She's a very old lady now.

In the wild, Asian elephants only tend to live

to around 60 or 70 years old.

Anne suffers from severe arthritis

and it's getting harder and harder to ensure

she has the best level of care.

Currently, for Anne's welfare and team health and safety,

they've been working with Anne from behind bars.

But after much deliberation, the park have decided

to start a new system of free contact with Anne,

which means working in the same space as her.

It's not a decision taken lightly, no.

It's not something we can just turn round and say,

"Today we fancy going in there."

I'd like to go in there and pat her or give her something or ask her to

put a foot up or whatever. It's not like that at all.

If you go and step in with a 3.5 tonne animal,

you have to, 100%, be able to read that animal.

For an elephant that has endured such cruelty in her former life,

this is the ultimate test of the trust

created between human and animal.

With Anne now struggling to raise her feet high enough for them to be

health checked from outside,

Ross is going through the bars to work on them at close quarters.

Anne, foot.

As the heaviest ground mammal,

the pressure pushing down on an elephant's foot is enormous.

Good girl!

Lovely stuff.

If Anne's feet aren't in good condition, it could even be fatal.

You get mud and stuff fester inside of it.

Then you get a thing called foot rot which is one of those smells

that any animal keeper anywhere

will tell you, you never forget.

It's a horrible smell. If you don't keep it clean,

it can go further along and can get a little hole and that will track up

into the digit, into the actual bone itself and then they get a thing

called osteomyelitis, which

is a really, really bad thing.

It can kill her.

But despite the seriousness of the situation,

the whole process still has to be done on Anne's terms.

We don't make her do any of this,

this is something that she's willing to do,

this is something she wants to do.

If she wants to end the session

or put her foot down at any time, she can.

Because this is one very special elephant.

The trust is there with her. She knows us, we know her.

There is nothing, no secrets any more.

She knows everything about me.

It's only because of the bond that has been slowly built

which allows Anne's health to continue to improve.

We want the best for Anne and everyone does.

Everyone in the world who knows Anne wants the best for her

and we're the ones that can provide that.

Whatever we have to do to do that, we'll do it in a heartbeat.

If I couldn't be an elephant keeper,

-I probably don't know what I would do.

-I really don't know.

There is no other job in the world like it

and there's no other job I'd enjoy more.

Some of the animals on the park are so big that the keepers need to come

up with new and inventive ways of how to feed them.

I'm guessing we're talking about the giraffes?

-Yes.

-So, how are we going to do this?

At the moment, we've got a trailer load of browse

behind us on the truck

and we're going to go up to the browse hang-out

and hang it really high for the girls to come over.

Browse is a tree and I take it this is something they love?

They love it. We've got maple,

we've got beech and willow today and that's their top three favourites.

They're all the way down at the bottom of the field at the minute

so once they see us doing this,

-they're going to come on up.

-OK, out we go.

I'll take this old one off, you put that new one on.

It's pretty heavy, Bev.

Now, they seem to be starting to just mosey on over.

They generally don't run up unless they're very overexcited.

How often do you do this?

-We do this every day.

-We're good to go.

Seeing them this close, I'm noticing huge eyes and very long tongues.

Yes, they've got very, very long tongues.

They are over 40 centimetres in length

and it helps them get all the leaves and things.

There are also sort of blue-black in colour

-to stop them getting sunburned as well.

-Tell me again,

-why do they have blue tongues?!

-To stop it from getting sunburned

because if you had a very, very pink tongue,

there are always putting their heads up towards the sky,

-there are always browsing.

-It makes sense.

As we're on our way out, we have a little bit of browse left.

We'll see if any of the girls want to come over and say hello.

-Is that all right?

-I can feed them?

-Yes.

-I'd love to.

-If you hold on to that.

-OK.

They'll come over and see us hopefully,

if they're feeling in the mood.

Hello, how are you?

I'm feeling a little bit nervous.

He's all right, he just tugs it quite hard.

And he's off with it!

-He's big, isn't he?

-He is humongous.

He's about 18 foot.

-He shouldn't get any taller than that.

-He's surprisingly friendly.

You like that, don't you? There you are.

I never, in a million years, thought I would be feeding a bull giraffe.

He was so well behaved.

He is a good boy. When he wants to be, he is very good.

He is good 90% of the time.

I did get the feeling, though, that he is the boss.

The park has learned a lot over the 50 years since opening

and today it would be pretty tricky

for any of these animals to make it out of their compound.

But it hasn't always been that way.

We've been looking back at some of

the few animal escapes from the safari park over the years.

And by far, the most notorious breakout happened in 1988.

A few years ago, the then head warden, Keith Harris,

remembered how it all began.

Well, every morning, all the staff in all the different sections go off

and do a headcount so the people

looking after the lake at the time came down,

counted the sea lions and noticed one was missing.

For a sea lion, there was only one possible escape route.

Normally, the water comes over and cascades all down this concrete.

We think she came down into the stream.

This stream goes into the River Frome.

So we thought, "Oh, dear, we've got a chase on our hands now."

The fugitive was a female called Laddie.

There was no telling how far she might go because of course,

rivers lead to the sea.

The first report came from the town of Frome, three miles downstream.

Deputy head warden Ian Turner set off in hot pursuit.

We got a call that a sea lion had been spotted in Frome,

which obviously was a bit of a weird thing so we rushed down to see if we

could see it and there was nothing.

I spoke to a member of the public who was here

and he said the sea lion was last seen swimming that way.

We couldn't quite believe what was going on

but we had a really good look around here and literally now

the chase was on to try and find out where she is now.

We had to try and follow her as best we could, which is not too easy

because she can move a darn sight quicker down the river than we can

get on the roads. We were just looking in every stream we could.

We called in people's houses, knocking on people's doors

and we went to this house and we said,

"Have you seen a sea lion?" They said,

"There's a bloke down fishing at the bottom of our trout farm and he said

"he saw the sea lion there and it grabbed this massive big trout

"and was just playing with it."

Literally, we went and saw the bloke and said,

"Yeah, he just came swimming along.

"I've been fishing here for hours and caught nothing.

"The sea lion comes up and grabs this massive great fish,

"plays with it, throws it to one side and just carries on."

At this point, we're starting to get worried because she could end up

following this river all the way and this eventually goes to the sea

so you could have a sea lion, and once she got that far, we would

never ever catch her so this was

starting to get quite a bit of tension and a bit nervous now.

For two days, there was no sign of Laddie.

Had she got clean away or was she lying low?

Then Keith got a tip-off.

We had a phone call that she was in an ornamental pond in Trowbridge.

How she got there we don't know

but she had obviously followed a stream somewhere along the line.

By now, Laddie's breakout had made the headlines.

Here is the BBC local news report from the 7th of July 1988.

After swimming more than 17 miles,

helping herself to fish caught on a trout farm and commanding the

attention of a crowd of spectators,

Laddie the sea lion wasn't about to give herself up easily.

Are you optimistic that she's going to come back?

We will get her sooner or later.

It might be an all-day job but sooner or later, she's coming back.

Her pup, Lindy, was brought in to try and tempt her over.

But that didn't work.

Eventually she sat on the side of a culvert.

So what we did is, we pushed her off

and then we were able to push in the box.

Well, at the time, we were so relieved that we got her back

without any injury or damage to her.

I think in some ways, she was relieved to be back.

As soon as we put her back with the other sea lions, she was fine.

Laddie had clearly just been testing the keeper's wits and resolve.

I'm glad to see that 28 years later,

no other sea lion has tried

to recreate this most greatest of escapes.

Now it's time for Jean to catch up with a couple of youngsters.

It's been 11 weeks since the arrival of our adorable twin lemurs

and I can't wait to see how they're getting on.

-Hi, Tina.

-Hi, are you all right?

I'm good and I spot our little babies.

We've got Ronnie and Corby.

Ronnie and Corby?

-Great names.

-They're doing really well.

Starting to show their characters,

so you've got Corby, who is very much out there,

and you've got Ronnie, who is very much a mummy's boy.

They can be quite mischievous as well?

A little bit. This is Corby.

Like I was saying, he is quite adventurous compared to Ronnie.

So not as shy? He's really into our camera over there!

What kind of things will they be eating when they start to eat?

They start on anything that Mum picks up

so we have a nice diet here.

No fruit because they are prone to obesity in captivity.

Really? They all look nice and slim.

-This is Casper.

-Hi, Casper!

There you go.

They are very much, you have to feed Mum first,

because they are the bosses.

Mum likes to see what's inside the bucket.

Come on, you have to be patient!

When do you think the little ones will be able to eat as well?

They do try, so you can see they're trying to get some from Mum there.

-That's great.

-They're trying to eat a little bit.

They all seem to be very polite and not grabbing food from each other,

-which is good to see.

-They do,

they have a strict hierarchy which is really good.

They do have their squabbles. Like a family.

Sometimes they fall out.

I guess that's going to happen in any gang or any family, isn't it?

How has the behaviour of the two babies changed in the last 11 weeks?

They are starting to learn what it means to be a lemur.

Attacking things.

They are very much like toddlers at this age.

A handful?

They try everything with their mouths

and they have to touch everything

so they are very much a handful at the moment.

They're exploring and learning all about their new surroundings.

It's so great to see how they are fitting in

and see that they're getting on well.

-Look at this.

-Oh, look!

-Can I do one as well?

-Yeah.

-Just for old times sake.

Who would like a piece?

I never, ever, ever get bored of getting this close to these animals.

It is, I think,

the biggest privilege of working here for the last ten years.

It was. Whenever I look at a lion, I think if you!

You do look a bit liony. It's the mane.

Come on then, there you go.

Here's what's coming up on the next Animal Park.

The world's fastest land animal is put to the test.

Go, go, go, go, go.

Woohoo, look at her go!

We go back to 1968 when giraffes first arrived at the park,

and meet the people brave enough to rub shoulders with them.

The smaller giraffe actually stood on Stephen's foot.

And the life of a baby goat hangs in the balance.