Episode 3 Animal Park

Zebras grazing on the plains, giraffes looking on -

it's a classic East Africa scene.

-We could be in the Serengeti.

-Except we're not.

We're in the rolling Wiltshire countryside,

where some of Africa's most iconic animals have roamed

-for the last 50 years.

-When the park first opened,

the idea was to create a little corner of Africa

in the heart of England, and, amazingly,

the people who came here could set up picnic and eat their lunch

with the animals all around them.

Sounds wonderful, but things have changed a little bit since then.

However, we have plenty of wild stories coming up on today's show.

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

Go, go, go, go, go!

THEY SHOUT

Look at him 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 small giraffe actually stood on Stephen's foot,

so you can tell how close we actually got.

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

But before all that,

we're out and about with our newest recruit, Jean Johansson,

as she prepares to take on the might

of the park's most mischievous monkeys.

They first arrived in 1968 and have been causing chaos ever since.

Today, a troop of 116 macaques lay in wait

for a steady stream of cars to enter the monkey drive-thru,

hitching rides, ripping off trim and generally causing havoc,

and nothing can be done to stop them.

It's Jean's turn to help with the daily clean-up.

-It's a bit of a jump.

-So, already...window washer.

Yeah, one of our favourites. We can put it on the back of the truck.

Yeah, so, we can look forward to finding a couple of these, I think.

Oh, looks like we've got a lovely L plate.

And also a bumper sticker. Right, we're doing well.

We are doing well. Ooh, there's a bit of trim.

-Ah, their favourites.

-They love picking that up.

That's a nice, thick bit, so they would have had some fun with that.

-It's a bit like a junk treasure hunt, isn't it?

-Yeah,

and it's important to pick it all up

cos obviously we've got all our other animals in here,

like the gnu and the blackbuck.

How much of this stuff do you find after, you know, a drive through?

Oh, in a day, we can have handfuls of it.

It can sometimes fill up the back of the truck.

And on a busy summer, we can have, yeah, even more.

Macaques are the most widespread species of primate

apart from humans.

To stop this set of vandals totally trashing the place,

the keepers have come up with all manner of games and tricks

to keep them entertained.

So, what have we got in here?

-So, I've made them some ice lollies.

-Good idea.

We've got some of their favourite treats

and they can also eat the stick, as well.

-What else have we got in here?

-We've made them a little box.

We've put some of their favourite branches,

and we've also hidden some bits of pepper and carrot in,

so they can use their fingers to get it out.

And we've also got some camel fur

cos our camels are moulting at the moment,

so we're going to see what they're going to do with that.

-What would monkeys want with camel fur?

-I think the smell,

playing with it, they kind of roll around in it and things like that.

-Monkey wigs.

-Yeah.

-Right, let's do it.

And they're quite sociable in their eating patterns?

-They like to eat as a group?

-Yes, they are.

You'll have more of the dominant ones coming over

and then you'll have the less dominant ones all hanging back,

-kind of waiting for their turn.

-And what about the children?

Will mothers and elders tend to feed them?

Yeah, there's one with a baby just there.

Will Mum just carry that baby around for a while?

Yeah, it looks still quite young,

so it'll be mainly on the front of the mum.

As it gets bigger, it'll start exploring,

kind of getting on her back.

-And Mummy will soon start training her how to do...

-Yeah, definitely.

-..how to take off window wipers and things.

-Yeah!

You can see, as well, you've got some of them on our enrichment box.

-They're really poking.

-And this is good for their dexterity

-and their problem-solving skills, as well?

-Yeah, it's really good.

It keeps their minds working.

They know that those bits of carrot are in there,

-so they're having a real good look.

-These are all, like, toys and fun

and things that they can play around with.

They seem to be having a good time, yeah.

Well, despite all the damage they've caused to all the many cars

that have driven through here,

-I think they really deserved that treat.

-Yeah.

From car-mobbing monkeys...

..to sea lions capable of holding their breath for up to 20 minutes,

the park is full of amazing animals you have to see to believe.

And none more so than the world's tallest animal - the giraffe.

Speaking to us back in 2004, the first head warden, Mike Lockyer,

was able to describe the scene when the first giraffes arrived.

I imagine, to anybody locally seeing them,

I mean, it was a thing that they'd never seen before in their lives

and would probably unlikely ever see again.

It was quite an exotic, you know, sight.

And when they were first let out,

I mean, they were a bit cautious and a bit flighty.

Then they realised, you know, space,

"We can have a little gallop," and, of course, they loved that.

Once they got used to their perimeters,

they settled down fine.

The giraffes were an instant hit,

as this was the only place in the world outside Africa

where the public could mingle amongst them.

We've just opened a new reserve for giraffes, which is 100 acres,

and there's 17 giraffes and a lot of zebras.

The trouble is, of course, the giraffes eat the trees,

but, still, the main point is that the public can get out and picnic

and look at them in complete safety.

And we've invited some of the first people

lucky enough to share a picnic with them back to the park.

I remember, particularly, there was a large giraffe

and a baby by the side of her.

And the kids went right up to that one.

The small giraffe actually stood on Stephen's foot,

so you can tell how close we actually got.

My mum opened up the window and all of a sudden,

a giraffe sticks its head straight through window and she's going,

"It's going to come in and get me! It's going to come and get me!"

But it wasn't just the first visitors

who fell in love with these gentle giants.

It was the keepers, too.

Best memories of the whole place was the fact that it was

an entirely new venture.

Nobody had done this, so everybody who was here was excited,

there was great camaraderie

and everybody was really trying hard to make it work.

One of those original keepers was Alec Long.

Alec's daughter Rose and granddaughter Helen

remember how working with the giraffe changed his life forever.

He came here in 1968 having just retired from a farm in Horningsham.

He was lucky enough to be offered a place here by Lord Bath at the time.

He knew nothing at all about giraffes or zebras or camels at all,

but he was told they were just like cows.

So, he came on a temporary basis and he didn't leave for 30 years.

Alec completely fell in love with the giraffe

and dedicated his retirement to caring for them.

He knew all of them, didn't he? He knew all the names, everything.

-Absolutely, yeah.

-And they recognised his voice, as well,

-cos he did have a bit of a booming voice.

-Yeah.

We'd see his brown car sort of come through

and it wasn't just us that saw it, but all these guys.

The giraffes knew his car,

and as soon as he was in the park with the car,

they were coming towards him.

So, they'd all come over, all round the car, heads down,

cos they knew he had Polos and Extra Strong Mints.

-There was a real affinity between them.

-Yeah.

Alec worked at the park until he was 86 years old.

He loved it so much. This was absolutely his life.

This place was his life.

I do count myself very lucky to have been here at that time

and to have seen all of that.

Back at the park today, times have changed,

and although you can no longer stroll out amongst them,

the giraffes still hold a very special place

within the safari park family.

The giraffes are one of the most favourite animals at Longleat.

Everybody's got their favourite.

Some love the monkeys, some love the gorillas,

but giraffes are one of the favourites.

Now, I have to confess that I rather bemoan that I wasn't here in 1966

and able to picnic with the giraffes and the zebras.

Those scenes were absolutely magical, but I'm guessing,

as a keeper, you're probably quite relieved

that none of us can do that any more.

-I love the nostalgia element of it, Kate.

-Yeah.

But I must admit, from a health and safety perspective, you know,

we're much happier with the set-up today.

But, yeah, of course, it just looked so amazing back then.

What an experience. Can you imagine? And again, we sort of forget that,

I suppose, most people in the '60s

would never have seen giraffe or zebra in the wild.

It would have been a completely new

and incredibly exciting experience for them.

Yeah, totally, and possibly, you know,

maybe they'd seen a grainy image on a black-and-white TV back then

or maybe a trip to the zoo, but certainly in a setting like this,

nobody would have seen anything like it before.

And, I mean, let's not take it away from today.

It's still magical. I still love sitting out here.

How many years have you worked here now? Come on, fess up.

I came for a summer job in 1987.

THEY LAUGH

Instantly fell in love with the place.

-And they're Rothschild's giraffe here, aren't they?

-Yes.

And Rothschild's giraffe are not very common in the wild any more.

Extremely rare.

You know, certainly, we think less than 1,000 animals in the wild.

I've heard various numbers bandied around at 200, 500,

but I think, to be safe, say less than 1,000 in the wild.

And so any animal that is born here

is really important for the conservation of the species?

Massively important, yeah.

Since we've had giraffe, I think we've had 120, 121 live births

and, of course, over the years, those Rothschild's giraffe

have gone around...you know, around Europe, really, just to ensure that,

genetically, the whole of Europe does have Rothschild's giraffes.

It is an incredible thing, I think, to realise what a key role,

I mean, you have played.

Fiercely proud, yeah, of the amount of giraffe calves that we've had.

-Really proud.

-Yeah. Well, it's a huge success.

It's always really exciting to be here.

-Congratulations on a really good job done.

-Thank you, Kate.

Each and every day, keepers must come up with new and inventive ways

to keep their animals in peak condition.

Today, they're focusing on the world's fastest land mammal...

..the cheetah.

After years of persecution by farmers,

the cheetah has become a threatened species.

Five years ago,

keepers travelled all the way to South Africa to collect some

and begin a new breeding programme at the park.

Keeper Laura is part of the team who look after them.

I'll always convince people that cheetahs are the best.

You shouldn't have favourites, but they are completely my favourite.

Out in the wild, cheetah are capable of reaching speeds

in excess of 60mph,

but it's incredibly hard to recreate that kind of behaviour in captivity.

I want to stimulate their mind.

I mean, I know they enjoy just sitting and watching stuff all day,

but it would be nice for them to just get up

and really use those muscles, as well.

So, Laura and the team have come up with an ambitious plan

to construct a cheetah chase with a lure

to encourage them to truly run wild.

When you're not looking in the section,

they will chase pheasants, crows, all of those kind of things,

so we know it's in there somewhere.

We're just going to try and courage it with our own little machine.

But building a high-speed cheetah chase

has never been attempted here before and it could be dangerous.

This is where electrician Nick and mechanic Rob step in -

the on-site tech wizards.

I've built sheds, built gates. You name it, I've done it, really.

The job's never the same day in, day out.

Every day could be something different.

I never know what I'm going to turn up to when I come in.

They've got a proposition for the girls.

If you wanted to go for quick, practical, lightweight, easy to move

would be if we can do a system off of a battery cordless drill.

There's no mains power, so there's no danger, obviously,

towards the animals. And two - it's easy, accessible,

you can take it anywhere in the park.

Bingo.

But that's not the only challenge.

The next big thing is what do we put on the end of it

to get them to chase, really? What's their favourite thing?

So, while the tech team get to work on their latest invention,

the girls get stuck into sorting out the bait.

At the moment, we have meat, we have hide,

we have feathers and we've got fish, as well.

So, we're just going to put it in little piles

and see which one they go to first.

It's crucial that today's taste test is a success,

or the boys' new toy might be a total waste of time.

If we get this wrong and choose the wrong lure,

then the cheetah might just be completely uninterested.

Time to release the cheetahs.

I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

They've been watching us do it, so they're going to run out.

Here they come. They're coming. Come on, cheetahs.

Feathers!

-They both went for feathers first.

-She's sniffing it, though.

Wilma's gone for feathers. Well done, Willy.

So, I'm thinking feathers is the way forward.

-I think feathers is the way forward.

-That went really well.

I mean, we couldn't have asked for it to go any better, to be honest.

The idea now is just...

It's going to be so good because they've picked feathers, as well,

so the fact that we're going to put feathers on the end of the lure

and run it through grass...

It's going to work. It's going to completely work.

Go on, then.

But have the boys come up with the goods their end?

It's a bit nerving.

It's going to look a bit silly if it don't work now.

Right, ready?

-That's so good.

-Is that fast enough?

-Yay!

I'm so excited to see the cheetahs' reaction.

I've been here for three years now and I've been wanting, every day,

for this to happen, so now it's finally happening,

I am very excited.

With the test run complete and the bait agreed,

confidence in their home-made invention is high.

But how will it perform when pitted against

the fastest cat in the world?

It's feeding time here at Animal Adventure,

and for two of our animals from South America,

that means a game of hide and seek.

-Hi, Charlie.

-Hiya.

-I've brought you some food.

Who are these two?

So, these guys are South American brown-nosed coati.

Down at the bottom, we've got Tallulah and up at the top is Ringo.

-So, a boy and a girl?

-Yes.

-Oh, they're very cute.

And what are we going to do today?

So, today, I just need a bit of help hiding some food for them.

Coati are renowned for their great sense of smell,

so it would be really great to see them digging up their food.

They've got long noses, so I'm sure they'll put them to use. Let's go.

Oh, this is a great enclosure, Charlie.

Lots of trees and wood around for the coati to play in.

Yeah, so, if we head round this way,

we can hide all the food in the ground under the woodchip.

OK, I've got some mealworms here, some grapes and some chicken.

So, we're going to dig three holes and then we can put

-a different piece of food in each hole.

-OK.

And why do the coati like digging for their food?

So, in the wild, they'd have to look for insects and things

in the ground, under the undergrowth.

So, it's fantastic to see them doing what they would do

-out there in the wild.

-Put some chicken in there for them.

So, you've gave them a little combination of some fruit,

with the grapes, mealworms and some chicken, as well.

-Yeah.

-Do they eat quite a varied diet?

They do. They are omnivores,

so they would eat pretty much anything they can find,

but I think they're probably going to go for either the mealworms

or the meat first cos that's their favourite.

-Right, shall we let them in?

-Go for it.

-Mealtime.

-Jungle Kingdom one to Jungle Kingdom two.

-RADIO:

-'Yeah.'

Are you all right to let the coati out now for us, please?

'Copy that.'

Ah, we have a coati in sight.

Yeah, that's Tallulah.

Do you think she can smell that food from up there?

I would imagine so.

She has got a great nose and she is pretty greedy.

Here she comes.

So, she'll be using that nose right now?

Yeah, you can see she's sniffing around straight away.

She's found something right away. She's gone straight for the chicken.

She'll probably shove all that in her mouth

and then go on to the next part.

She knows there's something there for sure.

Oh, Ringo's having a look.

He's using his nose to have a sniff, see what she's doing.

Yeah, he's thinking about coming down.

We've got some mealworms, grapes and chicken here, Ringo.

Down you come. You can see the little nose wiggling

when they're sniffing out the food. That's cute.

-Ringo's gone straight for the grapes.

-Yeah, healthy option.

The food's that way.

-She's very nosy.

-She's picked up our scent, as well.

She can probably smell what we've got in our hands still.

They've got some little sharp teeth, as well.

-Very sharp, yeah.

-That was unexpected.

They would go for small birds and rodents in the wild,

so they do need to have quite a set of teeth on them to tackle them.

So, how do think our little menu of mealworms, chicken and grapes

-went down?

-Well, Tallulah certainly went for the meat first,

so it's really great to see, for next time,

that that's what she likes, that's what she wants.

And how did the grapes go down?

Ringo seems to be enjoying them, he's tucking in still,

so that's good to know for him.

Look, he's really burrowing his nose into the woodchip.

It's almost like his nose is another limb.

Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like a hand to him.

He pushes it all around with his nose, looking for the bugs.

Well, they both look very happy.

-I think we both know what their favourite meal is.

-I think so.

-Thanks very much.

-You're welcome.

While we've been here for the good times,

we've also been here for the bad times.

The moments that really stick in my mind

are when the keepers here have gone out of their way

to help an animal in distress. Nothing in life is certain,

but sometimes, that extra mile could just save a life.

Almost a decade ago, when Bev Evans was caring for the pygmy goats,

she arrived one morning to find a nanny, called Sour,

had given birth to three little kids.

But because pygmy goats have only two teats,

it makes it hard for them to care for three babies,

and the mother will often reject one of them.

Rather than stand by and simply watch it die,

Bev stepped in to help,

desperately trying to get Sour to recognise her kid.

But it was no good. She didn't want to know.

Nobody ever wants to take a baby from its mother,

but this was a matter of life or death.

She took the kid to the staffroom where it was warmer.

It was a little girl, but her body temperature was dangerously low.

We're just taking over Sour's job and stimulate her

and get her cleaned up, get her dry,

and we're just trying to see how she's going to do, really.

It's been a little bit touch and go.

It's hard to say if she's going to survive or not.

She wouldn't survive long without milk,

and the best place to get that was from mum.

So, Andy Hayton, who was head of the section,

went back to Sour.

So, this will give the baby the best head start

you can possibly wish for.

That's a start. Lovely.

Let's try a little bit.

-She does feel cold.

-Yeah.

This special first milk is called colostrum.

It's full of antibodies to help protect newborn babies

from disease and infection in the first few days

of their precarious lives.

To survive, she'd need a lot more milk than this.

-She swallowed then.

-Swallowed, did she?

-Yeah.

But she was too weak to take any more.

In fact, she didn't look good at all.

Sour's only had twins before. She's never had triplets.

So, she was probably quite occupied with giving birth to the second one,

and then the third,

and by that time, this little one had got a bit cold

and wasn't really bleating as much and wasn't really standing as much.

So, once the other two were up and about,

Sour's attention kind of turned to them.

Maybe she knows something that we don't.

Maybe she thinks this little one's a bit of a lost cause,

but we can't really tell that until later on, really.

Is that better?

She's perked up a little bit

and then she's gone a little bit sleepy again,

so, you know, we'll just keep carrying on with this,

just trying to give her a bit more energy, really.

As I said, she's still very weak.

The little kid was fading fast.

Maybe we'll give her a bit of a kick-start in a minute.

She's trying.

-She's taking it.

-OK.

As a last resort, Andy tried an emergency treatment -

a kind of pick-me-up medicine that's used by farmers

on struggling newborn lambs.

It's like a vitamin, mineral supplement type of thing

and it just gives them a real boost.

It's kind of kill or cure almost.

She's not as perky as she was.

Almost sometimes, they just quit.

It's what happens.

-She's not gone yet.

-She's not gone yet, no.

But Andy and Bev knew that there really wasn't much hope,

and it was only a matter of time.

We'll find out later what happened to the poor little kid.

In this series, Jean Johansson, the newest member of the team,

has been exploring the park and finding out exactly what it's like

to be a keeper.

What are we going to do?

Next stop - the hoof stock section.

I'm really excited because I have never seen a tapir before.

Oh, our tapirs are lovely. We've got three.

We've got Eddie, our male, and then two female tapirs, as well.

So, how did they kind of adapt to being here

in the lovely greens of Wiltshire?

They don't mind too much, but cos obviously our climate

is not as humid, there's not as much moisture around,

-they do kind of get dry skin sometimes.

-Right.

So, it's nice that we can groom them daily

and it kind of just keeps the skin nice.

So, is that something we can do today?

-That's something we're going to do today.

-Tapir grooming.

They're quite responsive, so if I call them,

-hopefully, they'll come see us.

-Really? OK.

-Come on, Eddie!

-SHE WHISTLES

-Eds!

-Come on, Eddie!

-Jessie!

They're quite friendly.

They do like a brush and a cuddle, and they're quite placid.

But you've got to remember there's a lot of weight behind them.

They can be dangerous.

If they need to defend themselves in the wild,

they're not defenceless.

-Here they come.

-Hi, Ed. Good boy.

-Hi, Eddie. He looks happy to see us.

-If we step this side of him...

-OK.

-..just so we're not in between him and one of his ladies.

-OK.

-Hi, Eddie.

-He feels a bit wet. I think he's had a swim.

I can see a bit of an elephant, a bit of a donkey, a bit of a pig.

I thought they looked a bit like Shetland ponies.

-Their closest relatives are horses and rhinos.

-Right, OK.

Oh, he's enjoying that.

Ah. You like that, Eddie?

Oh, I can see.

Now, am I right in thinking he wants his tummy rubbed?

-Yes.

-There you go. Oh, this is great. How lovely!

-Why do they like this?

-They just really enjoy it.

It's good for their skin, it's good for us to be able to rub them down,

so we can see all over their body,

make sure their feet are in good condition,

that they haven't got any cuts and scrapes on them.

-TAPIR SQUEALS

-What's that noise?

-I think that's a squeal of excitement.

-Oh, great.

Enrichment is a vital part of animal care

and the keepers here spend lots of time coming up with ideas

to keep the animals here mentally and physically active.

Now, these marmosets, as you can see,

they have plenty of different surfaces to run around and explore,

and their food is put in things like...

This is ingenious. This is a brush

and they tuck the food in so that they have to forage for it

and find it, exactly as they would in the wild.

But not all the keepers' ideas work. Sometimes, the animals go for it.

Sometimes, they don't respond at all.

There's simply no guarantee.

And it's this uncertainty that awaits the cheetah lure team.

It's time to test out their home-made contraption for real

and they're nervous.

These animals, again, are completely unpredictable,

so they could just not be interested at all, remotely,

so we're just going to have to play it by ear.

While the girls secure the bait, it's up to Nick to set the trap.

The plan is to pull the lure out with a four-by-four,

while Nick sets up behind the fence to reel it back in.

A bit like with fishing, you just jiggle the lure

just to get their attention and once they see it and they go for it,

just reel it in as quick as you can.

But he's never attempted to race a cheetah before.

The main concern is, obviously, I need to get the distancing right

when I actually stop winding the lure back in.

If I bring it in too far and they're fully chasing it,

we could end up with the cheetah running into the fence.

With the bait set and Nick primed and ready to go, it's now or never.

No pressure, Nick. No pressure.

Can the team tempt the cheetahs into running truly wild?

Got their head upright, looking ready, though.

Go.

Go, go, go, go, go!

THEY CHEER

Whoohoo! Look at them go.

Oh, my God, look at them go.

Yeah!

That was amazing. They both ran for it straightaway.

That was so good. So, so, good. They were so quick, as well.

Wilma just came out of nowhere. We were all like, "Karl's looking.

"Oh, look, Wilma's there running after it now."

At a speed of around 30mph,

it's been a success and the girls are thrilled.

That was working really well.

That was so much better than I'd hoped for.

That was amazing. For both of them to run at the same time, as well,

was just awesome.

But Nick wants to give it another go

just to see if he can get those cats going even faster.

-Yeah!

-Oh, my God, look at them go!

Look at them go!

Yeah!

Whoo! Well done.

That was amazing. That was so, so quick.

He was running so fast.

I reckon between about 40mph and 50mph. That was really quick.

My heart goes when you see that initial look.

You know when they're going to go for it.

You can just tell by their stance.

That was a first for me - a tug-of-war with a cheetah.

I don't think I'll ever get that again in life.

The cheetah has a unique flexible spine,

which can extend and recoil so quickly,

the cheetah's able to make strides of 20ft.

I always talk about it to members of the public and everything,

how they get up to those top speeds,

so seeing it in action for the first time at this angle is just amazing.

Seeing how they can flex up their spine

and get that 8m stride on the go is really amazing and fantastic to see.

These guys are built for speed - that's what they're built to do -

so it is in there somewhere.

We just needed to tap into it and get it back out again.

We're trying to get their fitness

to that level that they'd be at in the wild.

It's just great. Great for them and great for us to see, as well.

Today is my day off. I love these guys so much, though,

I just want to see them doing what they're supposed to do.

Now we're heading down to Half Mile Lake,

where Jean, our newest recruit,

is helping out with the world's largest primate -

the western lowland gorilla.

Keeping the animals entertained is a full-time job,

and here in the gorilla enclosure,

that means some big toys for some big boys.

-Hi, Lauren.

-Hi.

-Wow. Who's this behind you?

This is Kesho, our dominant silverback here.

We're just making some new enrichment up for these boys.

It's the first time they've had anything like this.

We've drilled holes in the side here and we put small amounts of food in,

so, hopefully, they can roll them around

and the food will fall out

or they can hopefully reach in and try and grab little bits.

You know, if they were just given their food in one go,

it would be really boring,

so every day, we try and think of something new for them to do.

So, what we've got here is three barrels

cos in silverbacks, he's going to be a dominant male,

so with these, we're hoping that, cos they're so big,

he won't be able to grab all of them at once,

so the other young boys can have a go and join in, as well.

-OK, shall we take them out?

-Yeah, sure.

In the wild, it's common for young male gorillas

to leave their families and form bachelor groups,

much like the one here at the park.

But there's still a pecking order, and it's Kesho, the big silverback,

who rules the roost.

I'm excited, Lauren. Should we let them out?

We'll let them out and see what happens.

This is Kesho, our dominant male.

Right, Kesho bounding straight out, as expected.

Here we are. This is Alfie and that's Evindi - our two youngest.

Now, they're kind of looking a bit inquisitive.

They're a bit unsure, aren't they?

He's being quite generous in letting them

-kind of look in their barrels.

-He's very unsure, isn't he?

I guess maybe cos he's not seen it before,

he's letting them do the stupidness

and try and see if it's dangerous first.

OK, so, he's letting them try it first, but he's got the barrel down.

In you go, Kesho.

Quite intelligent to know to go straight in those holes,

-get their fingers working.

-They are really intelligent animals.

They're all different levels of intelligence, too,

so they've all got different methods that they're doing.

So, Kesho is kind of just using brute force there to get it open,

whereas Evindi and Alfie are kind of working at it a bit slower.

They're pulling out the grass and they're rolling it,

which is kind of what they should do.

That's what the aim was - that it's a bit more cognitive

-rather than brute force.

-Yeah.

They're trying to get it the fastest,

so that Kesho's not going to run over and steal theirs

-once one of them's worked it out.

-Yeah.

In the wild, they'd be searching around the bushes,

looking for nuts and seeds,

so we're just trying to recreate that it's not easy for them

to just grab their food and go.

Anything that takes a bit longer, that they've got to work for it.

I've noticed that they're kind of watching each other

to see the best techniques for getting into the barrels.

That's the way primates learn, especially young primates

would watch the older ones and see what they're doing.

Kesho, though, because he is a bit lower intelligence,

he's definitely watching the young ones,

-seeing how they work it out.

-Yeah,

and I think he's kind of going for ripping the barrel apart

and hopefully finding that fruit.

-There you go.

-Oh, look, he's got the lid off.

He's managed to snap some of that off, yeah,

so he's just pulling out the grass there

and finding the nice bits in there.

-Who's that over there?

-This is Evindi on the far right.

Evindi, who was smart enough to rip the lid off

-has gotten to the fruit first.

-Yeah.

And he was the one at the window looking so, yeah,

he was kind of working it out before they were even out here.

-Do you think?

-Yeah, definitely.

They'll be watching us, watching where we put it in,

so they know kind of where to go for.

That's amazing. So, when we were having a chat

and filling our barrels, he was watching how we put the lid on.

That is amazing.

Well, Lauren, everything has gone to plan.

It's worked well, yeah. I'm glad.

It's one that we'll put on the books and we'll try again, I hope.

Kesho still hasn't really got any fruits,

and I reckon that he might be here for another couple of hours,

so we'll leave him to it

and hopefully he gets a treat at the end.

Now we're going back almost a decade

to find out what happened to a newborn kid goat

that was rejected by its mother.

Bev had to step in and try to save the baby's life.

She tried body massage and tiny feeds of the mother's milk,

but the kid's life was hanging in the balance.

The most important thing was to keep the baby warm.

We brought in a hot-water bottle just to try and warm it up

from all angles, really, and it's starting to perk up a little bit.

Starting to lift its head, but only in, like, fits and starts.

It's not really jumping for joy yet.

This kid was rejected because her mother, the nanny called Sour,

couldn't look after three babies at once.

But then Andy spotted a problem with one of the other kids,

so he called in vet Paul Higgs to take a look.

Five hours after being born,

one of them still couldn't stand up properly.

Whenever he's putting weight on it,

his back legs were both just splaying completely.

Yeah, he's quite weak, isn't he?

I think his main problem is that his toes aren't...

If you put his toes flat,

he can't actually stand on the bottoms of his feet at the moment

cos his tendons are all contracted down.

This was another problem caused by having three babies in the womb.

They were squashed together with no room to stretch,

so the tendons in his back legs hadn't developed properly.

Generally, they come right within 24 hours, you know.

Otherwise, we could...

If he's still not right sort of tomorrow afternoon or whenever,

then we can stick a splint on them.

That's the other thing. But considering it's both of them,

we don't really want to be splinting both his legs

and usually, they just come right all by themselves.

While the vet was in the goat house,

Bev was waiting in the staffroom with the poor little kid.

The baby was fading away.

But then something changed.

About an hour ago, she was still wrapped up in a towel,

hardly lifting her head,

and then I just took the towel off her and she just stood straight up,

had a wee and she's been like this ever since. She won't even sit down.

Yeah, with little young ones like lambs and kids,

they've got very little energy when they come out,

very little reserve, so if they get cold, they rapidly use those up.

Once they've warmed up, they tend to come back to life quite quickly.

She seems quite good. If you stick your finger in her mouth,

she sucks really nice and strong now,

so she should be quite happy to go onto the bottle now,

-rather than just squirting it into her mouth.

-That's good.

-And she's got loads of energy.

-Good.

She looks as good as the other two now, doesn't she?

She does, yeah. Bless her.

It's turned out pretty well, as you can see.

Bit of a shock, actually, taking off the towel

and she just stood straight up.

So, from an early death's door to up and about and quite lively,

yeah, really pleased.

It's been a long day, but, yeah, a very good day in the end.

The kid couldn't go back to her mother

and it was up to Bev and Andy to raise her by hand,

bottle-feeding day and night.

But just one week later and she was already strong enough

to spend every day out playing with the other kids.

She came home with me on the first night

and she stayed at my house probably a good five or six days

because she was just so incredibly weak.

She's special in lots of ways.

She's called Bubble because she sits there after she's had her milk

and blows big bubbles out the side of her mouth.

So, yeah, a special character.

Now, that was nine years ago, and now I'm back with Bev...

-Hello.

-..and beautiful-looking Bubble.

-Where's Bubble?

-Just by your foot.

-Bubble is looking very round, by the way.

-Yes.

Is that too much food?

A little bit that, but, also, pygmies are usually as tall

as they are round, so pygmy goats are a little bit like that.

Let's just get... Oh! Hey, greedy, greedy pygmy goat.

-Bev, obviously, you work with a number of animals here.

-Yeah.

You see the highs and lows.

But do you see an animal like Bubble and think, "Do you know what?

"That little bit of intervention makes a huge difference

-"between life and death"?

-Definitely, definitely.

And if we hadn't done that, she definitely would have died

and she's gone on now to have babies of her own,

who have had babies of their own, so it's great.

And what is the life expectancy of a pygmy goat?

How long can we expect her to hang around?

You know, ten, 12 years is pretty good,

so at nine, she's doing very, very well.

She's got no medical problems, no arthritis, nothing like that.

She's doing really well for her age.

We might be lucky. She could go up to 15 years.

And she's turned into quite a feisty little pygmy.

She's very small, but she's very feisty

and she's always been like that.

It might be because she was hand-reared, but, yes,

if she meets anyone new, she lets them know that she's around

and tends to butt them a little bit.

And how does she get on in terms of the hierarchy with this lot?

Yeah, she does really, really well.

She acts like a normal goat, she doesn't have any odd behaviour

and her sister Clara, who's the bigger goat,

tends to be in charge of the herd.

And Bubble seems to have changed colour a little bit.

Yeah, all of our goats tend to do that.

Huckleberry's done it, Piglet's done it.

But it's generally as they grow older,

they lose their baby coats and then they go into their adult coats.

And sometimes their winter coat and their summer coat is different,

but in general, once they've got into their adult coat,

they stay the same, so she's always been quite ginger.

-Bev, thank you so much and congratulations.

-Thank you.

What a success story Bubble has been.

Here's what's coming up on tomorrow's show.

Here you go, guys.

A world-class team of experts have flown in

to save a threatened species.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most of us.

A vet is on red alert to save a wolf pack

whose cubs are fading fast.

He doesn't go back to the pack,

then we're not going to be able to save him anyway.

And keepers risk it all

to pull off their most daring enclosure extension.

Our risk is that they actually get down off the tree

and they're free...roaming.

-There'll be all that and more on the next...

-Animal Park.