Grassland Animals The Animal's Guide to Britain


Grassland Animals

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Britain. The history and the culture.

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Born of a landscape that we know and love.

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But...hang on a minute.

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That's just how WE see Britain.

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We humans are in a minority.

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We share our land and our shores here with hundreds of thousands

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of other species of animal,

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many of which have been here a lot longer than we have.

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So what I want to know is what they think of Britain.

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What matters to them?

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And that's my mission - to see the UK through our animals' eyes.

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Where are their favourite places in these crowded islands?

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How do their senses affect their view of our country?

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And what do they make of us?

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Off you go!

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This time I'm going to encounter a hand-picked group of creatures,

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specially adapted to live in our grasslands.

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Look at that!

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I want to understand each one's unique perspective on Britain,

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the amazing things they do and the unlikely places they survive.

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Together, they'll reveal our country as we've never seen it before.

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Welcome to The Animal's Guide to Britain.

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Every summer Sunday morning, thousands of British humans get up,

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go out and re-shape our most abundant habitat.

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They manage Britain's grasslands.

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But we've got to remember that our grasslands are a man-made habitat.

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Up until only a few thousand years ago, the dominant vegetation across Britain would have been woodland.

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It was only with the advent of farming, cereals and grazing,

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that grasslands became far more widespread

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and a whole set of species enjoyed a bonanza.

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And today, when British humans talk about the countryside,

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it's usually this that they mean - our grasslands.

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But big changes in farming practice

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mean that the survival of grassland species

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is constantly in the balance and dependent on the choices

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that humans make.

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So how have grassland animals coped with these changes?

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And are they still happy out there on the plains of Britain?

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Now here's an animal that's perfectly adapted

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to thrive on our grasslands.

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A creature that was once befriended by Mozart,

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but sings in pure Cockney.

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It's a born survivor. It demonstrates some amazing behaviour

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and it looks absolutely stunning.

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It's one of my favourite birds.

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The creatures that I'm talking about, of course, are starlings.

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And this wonderful tame flock is going to

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allow us a remarkable insight into the world according to starlings.

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And starlings, well, they're true grassland specialists.

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And they've got some superb adaptations

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for this type of lifestyle.

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Firstly, look at their legs.

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Proportional to their body size, they're long, strong and stocky.

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Perfect for walking all day long.

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The second adaptation comes down to their bill, and just look at it -

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it's long, straight and pointed.

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Perfect for pressing down into the soil after their insect larvae prey.

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But lots of birds have bills like that, that's no big deal.

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But what happens underground certainly is. Take a look at this.

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This is what we call open-bill probing.

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Just look at that!

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I've been called a worm on a few occasions, but I never thought that I would

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live to see the world as one as I was being predated by a starling.

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This is amazing!

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I can see into the starling's throat!

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Look at that!

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But when you think about it,

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most animals' jaws are designed to close with some force.

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But the starlings are the complete opposite.

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Their force comes in opening their bills.

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And look - you can see what's happening.

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They press them down into the soil and then using very strong muscles

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they open the bill so that they can,

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using their tongue and their beak,

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grab hold of their prey and pull it out.

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It's absolutely fantastic.

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In all of my years of watching wildlife and the great good fortune

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I've had to make wildlife programmes,

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I've never had a view like this. This has rocketed into the charts.

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It's right up there.

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A couple of the birds are trying to cheat

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and have come underneath the table

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because they are a new species of starling called

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the subterranean starling.

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And at the moment,

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they're scoring great success because...

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Oh, get them off!

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The last of the adaptations involves their eyes,

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which are truly remarkable.

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Most birds can't swivel their eyes in their sockets like we can.

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But starlings certainly can.

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They can face them forward, a bit like owls, and us,

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so they have very good binocular vision.

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And this means that they can judge distances extremely accurately.

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But unbelievably, it's better than that.

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When they've got their bills open in the soil they can turn their eyes

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so they can actually look at what's directly beneath their mouths.

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What they're hunting for, what they're foraging for.

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And you've got to admit, that is pretty impressive.

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All together, these three adaptations make these birds

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supreme grassland animals.

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But when you think about it,

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Britain hasn't always had as much grassland as it has today.

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Around 5,000 years ago,

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when humans began to clear Britain's woodland for agriculture

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the starling's adaptations to grassland meant they boomed.

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As civilisations came and went, more of Britain's forest was cleared,

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and for starlings, life just got better.

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They moved into cities

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and London ended up with more than its fair share.

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And by 1949, they were in such large groups that when they landed on the hands of Big Ben...

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they actually stopped the clock!

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Londoners were facing a second Blitz.

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So they wracked their brains for an effective defence, eventually devising...

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the dustbin lid and stick.

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But it was going to take more than that to shift the birds.

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So that's how there came to be so many starlings.

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They form such large groups

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because they need to flock for their survival, and here's why.

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This bird is foraging perfectly naturally in the grass here,

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but look at it.

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A lot of the time it's got its head down in amongst the foliage,

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which is fine for finding food,

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but no good for keeping your eyes open for predators.

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The whole time it's got its head down there I could be

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a potential sparrowhawk swooping in here.

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So how do starlings overcome this problem?

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Well, it's quite simple really.

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All they need is a few more starlings.

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All they need is a flock.

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Or a friend like me.

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The extra eyes in a flock

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mean there's more chance that predators will be spotted.

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Even in the air, predators such as peregrine falcons and sparrowhawks

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can attack, but starling flocks provide another form of defence.

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Acting as one, the birds can dart away from predators in a flash

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and their mesmerising movement may help confuse any potential attackers.

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So how do these vast swirling flocks manage to react

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in a fraction of a second,

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in a way that flocks of other birds just can't?

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To find out more, I need to fly with some starlings.

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The question is, how am I going to do that?

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In a little French car.

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A rickety old French car.

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Hello, Lloyd. All right, Chris?

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Yeah. How are you? I'm fine, thanks. Good.

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Do you think this'll work?

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I think this is going to be good. They seem keen, don't they?

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They're looking pretty keen, especially this one.

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Oh! Hello! You've got to fly now!

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Off you go!

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Fantastic!

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Well, it's a pretty small flock but it's as close as I can get

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to flying with starlings.

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So, what are the basic principles of flocking?

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Well, they do it by following three simple rules.

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One - stick close to your neighbour.

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And that's what's happening here.

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Lloyd is part of the flock, so wherever he goes, they follow.

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Even when he's driving a car.

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Two - don't get so close that you collide.

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And three - fly in the same direction as your neighbour.

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And you can see them adjusting their position to do this.

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So those are the fundamental rules,

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but it's far more complicated when they're in their massive flocks.

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Scientists have discovered they do much more than look

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at the one bird in front of them.

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They're looking seven birds - all around them - deeper into the flock,

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constantly monitoring what these birds are doing so that

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they can predict when their neighbour is going to turn

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and already begin their own movement when it does so.

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And it's this that allows the flocks to move so quickly, so fast.

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Impressive as these flocks are, there aren't nearly

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as many starlings as there were in the days

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when their flocks could stop Big Ben.

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Since the '60s, starling numbers have fallen in Britain

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and across northern Europe,

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mainly thanks to modern pesticides that kill their insect prey.

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But in Britain, starling flocks can still become enormous,

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though only during the winter.

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So why is this?

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Well, a lot of the starlings that you see in winter

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are not British at all.

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In eastern Europe and Russia the ground becomes frozen,

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so the birds can't get their beaks into it to feed.

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Britain's mild winters and muddy fields become highly desirable

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to millions of hungry foreign starlings,

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which arrive every autumn to feed in their favourite spots across Britain.

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Britain is still a pretty good place for these birds to be.

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But if I was to reach up and ask any one of these starlings

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here what we could do for them,

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then they would probably say a few less pesticides

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out there on the fields.

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And if that could happen,

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then perhaps these swirling spectacles would be here to stay.

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Of all the British grassland animals, there is one group that

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are probably more important than all of the others.

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They're very widespread and quite a few of them have made the move

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from grassland into our gardens, so I'm sure you're familiar with them.

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The animals we're talking about are bumblebees.

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Look at that. What a fantastic thing.

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There are actually 23 species of bumblebee in Britain,

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which all have their favourite areas.

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And let's be clear from the start, we're talking about bumblebees, not honeybees.

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All of the honeybees in the UK are domesticated animals.

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Honeybees are smaller and less hairy,

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bred to provide humans with honey.

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And they're farmed.

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They're a bit like insect sheep.

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These things, though, ARE wild and their view of the British

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countryside is very different than honeybees or even humans.

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Bumblebees never nest in hives.

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Their nests, as a consequence, are much harder to find,

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although I have spotted one earlier over on this bank here.

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And if you get down you can see the entrance hole just here.

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Some of the species nesting in grassland make their nests at the base of dry, grass tussocks.

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But others choose the holes made by rodents - things like wood mice and bank voles.

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And that's the case here with these white-tailed bumblebees.

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There are never normally that many in the nest.

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I'd say in this nest possibly about 40 or 50 bees.

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Even the largest nests only have about 400.

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Nothing like the 80,000 you can find in a honeybee hive.

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In spring, the queen bumblebee lays eggs that produce sterile workers.

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Towards the end of summer, she lays male and queen eggs.

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The fertilised queens leave and hibernate over winter,

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but unlike honeybee colonies, the rest of the bumblebees will die.

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When the bees are coming close to me, I'm holding my breath.

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They don't like the smell of mammalian breath because

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ground-nesting species like this are frequently predated by badgers

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that will dig them out to eat all of the grubs.

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But they're much more tolerant than some other species near the nest

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and if you stay still or stay out of their flight line and don't breathe on them,

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then you're very unlikely to be stung.

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Famous last words.

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There actually have been lots of famous words about bumblebees,

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not all of them true.

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It's often claimed that physics

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proves that bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly.

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This is thanks to calculations by scientists at a 1930s dinner party,

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who concluded the bees' wings were too small to create enough lift.

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Luckily, the bumblebees know better.

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The calculations were based on the principles that allow planes to fly,

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but the four moving wings of a bumblebee are far more sophisticated.

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They also get a mention by Charles Darwin,

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who was around when they were known as humblebees.

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Not because they are lowly beings, but because as they fly, they hum.

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The bees became a bit of a family project, as Darwin and his children

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followed them around the garden,

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dusting them with powder to see which flowers they'd visited.

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This led Darwin to recognise the value of bumblebees as pollinators,

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claiming that if they disappeared,

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then so would some of the plants they pollinate.

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Building on this, 100 years later,

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Albert Einstein is reported to have stated,

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"No more bees, no more pollination, no more man."

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Despite having fewer bees per colony,

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a bumblebee nest is able to pollinate as many, if not MORE

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flowers than a honeybee hive.

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In fact, each bumblebee is up to 20 times better at pollinating than a honeybee.

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This is because their bigger bodies can carry double the amount of pollen,

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that they're quicker at each flower and they work twice as many hours.

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Our hardworking bumblebees will even fly in colder and wetter weather than honeybees.

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A real asset, given Britain's soggy climate.

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But our bumblebees are drastically declining

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and because they're such important pollinators the British government is spending millions of pounds

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to understand their needs.

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So how do you get into the mind of an animal so different to us humans?

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Scientists have created a whole artificial world to study them,

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monitoring each bee by number.

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Weighing them in and out of the nest...

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to discover the precise quantities of nectar and pollen that they collect.

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The work is far from finished,

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but it has given key insights into how efficiently they forage.

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For example, using smell.

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Unlike the honeybee, which dances to tell other bees

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where the good flowers are,

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bumblebees spread the smell of the best flowers around the nest.

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This way, the bees learn to target only the flowers with the most nectar and pollen.

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And another scientist has found something even more surprising...

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..by spending hundreds of hours just watching.

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I see you've got little brother here, peering down on the nest hole.

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Yeah. I'm watching all the bees that go in and out,

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and also if any other animals use the hole as well.

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Why are you concentrating on the nest when most other researchers

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at the moment are interested in bees' foraging behaviour?

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Well the nest is where everything really important goes on.

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This is where the queen raises her whole colony

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and where all of the new queens and males will be produced.

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OK. So here's the camera, where's the recorder? What have you got?

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Well, this wire runs underground back here where,

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concealed out of harm's way is our recording device.

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That's to stop people messing about with it, I presume? Yep, absolutely.

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So we can have a look at some of the footage now if you want.

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OK, yes. Let's have a look.

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Is it just this species you've been working with or others as well?

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I've been looking at all of our common bees this year.

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Next year I hope to look at some rare bees. OK.

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Gosh, look at that! And then you've got the bird coming in.

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What is it?

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This is a great tit. Oh, yeah, yeah.

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And if you keep watching, you can see it's actually grabbing the bees.

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I never thought you'd get great tits coming in.

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We never suspected birds at all.

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No studies have ever shown that birds will predate nests in this way.

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Any other birds? Or is it just great tits that are proving a bumblebee nuisance?

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No. I've got some footage of crows on here that you can have a look at.

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It's digging around the hole, isn't it?

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Seems to. I've captured several crows attacking different nests.

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But given that bumblebee populations are shrinking and becoming increasingly fragmented,

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it could be that nest predation is a significant factor affecting their future survival, couldn't it?

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And that's why we really need to find out what's going on.

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Having seen birds, mice and squirrels raiding bumblebee nests,

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it's now clear what a dangerous place Britain can be if you're a bumblebee.

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Because bumblebees are on the menu for so many animals,

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they really need long grass to hide their nests in.

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That and plenty of flowers rich in pollen and nectar.

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And these two factors make hay meadows, like these,

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their perfect habitat.

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But as farming has changed, sadly, we've lost most of our hay meadows,

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and, along with them, the bees that lived there.

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So what's left at the field edges has become increasingly precious.

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The farmer here has deliberately left this margin.

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And it's not just grass - look at it -

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it's full of wild flowers. It's great!

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So if you're a bumblebee, farms that leave uncut edges

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are the best to live in.

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But in 21st-century Britain there's still one type of grassland

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where bumblebees can find an abundance of flowers.

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A habitat that's becoming crucial in their battle for survival.

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The average British garden is actually a fantastic place for bumblebees.

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Look at this one here, enjoying itself on this Buddleja.

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But in some ways, that's a happy accident because people

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plant their gardens because they like the pretty flowers.

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But these insects are enjoying the essential nectar, and the bee,

0:24:180:24:22

the pollen that it needs.

0:24:220:24:24

But look - it's just about over for the Buddleja. No problem though

0:24:240:24:28

because the conscientious gardener will be planting species

0:24:280:24:31

which flower throughout the summer period.

0:24:310:24:33

Look, here's another one which is just about reaching

0:24:330:24:36

its prime down here,

0:24:360:24:37

which will also be providing for these insects.

0:24:370:24:39

And this one over here, which is just coming out is a species

0:24:390:24:43

which is very much favoured by bees.

0:24:430:24:45

And did you know that the average suburban garden can

0:24:450:24:48

actually produce as much nectar as one square kilometre of rainforest?

0:24:480:24:54

So these places can be an incredibly rich resource.

0:24:540:24:59

They're being planted by humans for their beauty,

0:24:590:25:02

but for once, the beauty is in the eye of the bee-holder.

0:25:020:25:06

I'll get my coat.

0:25:080:25:10

Bumblebees are such important pollinators

0:25:140:25:17

of crops and wild flowers

0:25:170:25:18

that it really is in our best interest to look at things from their perspective.

0:25:180:25:23

If we humans can leave some rough grass for nests

0:25:290:25:33

and plant pollen and nectar-rich flowers in our gardens,

0:25:330:25:35

then we'll be making Britain a better place for them to live in.

0:25:350:25:40

Supernatural powers were once widely thought by British humans

0:25:500:25:54

to reside in the bodies of their fellow animals.

0:25:540:25:57

And for one group of creatures in particular this has been perpetuated

0:25:570:26:00

by Hollywood and particularly the British Hammer Horror films.

0:26:000:26:07

These animals are widespread across the UK and they frequently share our spaces.

0:26:070:26:13

So it's surprising that few people have ever seen them properly.

0:26:130:26:18

Well, it's surprising, but they are terribly small.

0:26:180:26:21

Most of them weigh less than a two-pence piece.

0:26:210:26:24

And you know, their view of Britain couldn't be more different

0:26:240:26:27

than the human one, notably because they come out at night.

0:26:270:26:31

Bats!

0:26:430:26:45

And I want to meet some fascinating grassland-loving bats - the horseshoe bats.

0:26:450:26:52

There are two species - the greater horseshoe and its smaller cousin,

0:26:520:26:56

the lesser horseshoe.

0:26:560:26:57

They're distinguished by the horseshoe-shaped

0:27:020:27:05

flap of skin around their nostrils,

0:27:050:27:06

which they use to direct the high-pitched sounds

0:27:060:27:09

they make with their noses.

0:27:090:27:11

They can move this flap of skin to direct the sound,

0:27:110:27:15

a bit like a megaphone.

0:27:150:27:17

With a bat detector, we can hear a lower-pitched version of these amazing sounds.

0:27:170:27:22

SQUEAKING

0:27:220:27:25

They pick up the echoes by waggling their ears backwards and forwards

0:27:250:27:30

up to 60 times a second.

0:27:300:27:32

Then, their brains process these signals to create a 3D picture of their surroundings.

0:27:320:27:37

So what does a horseshoe bat want from Britain?

0:27:420:27:45

Well, firstly, it needs somewhere to hang out.

0:27:470:27:51

And typically we tend to think of those haunts as dark Transylvanian castles with damp dungeons,

0:27:510:27:56

but more often than not it couldn't be further from the truth.

0:27:560:28:00

They like the same creature comforts that we do -

0:28:000:28:04

shelter and somewhere nice and warm.

0:28:040:28:06

And for that reason, they very often set up their homes in our houses.

0:28:060:28:11

And one group has done that down here.

0:28:110:28:13

And with the help of night vision, I won't be disturbing them.

0:28:170:28:20

(Oh, my goodness me!

0:28:240:28:26

(My goodness me, look at that!

0:28:260:28:28

(Oh.

0:28:280:28:30

(That's fantastic. This is a roost of lesser horseshoe bats.)

0:28:300:28:34

They really are quite special.

0:28:340:28:38

So what are they looking for? What does the bat want from this site?

0:28:380:28:41

Well, firstly it wants it to be nice and warm.

0:28:410:28:44

Secondly, it wants to be safe from predators.

0:28:440:28:47

Things like rats, mice, even great tits,

0:28:470:28:50

will come into a bat roost and peck at the bats whilst they're resting.

0:28:500:28:54

And lastly, it needs to be free from human disturbance.

0:28:540:28:58

In fact, it's illegal to disturb, wilfully or even by accident,

0:28:580:29:04

bats on your property, and specially their roosts.

0:29:040:29:08

And at the end of the day,

0:29:080:29:10

if you're a British bat, that's got be one of the best things

0:29:100:29:14

about living in this country.

0:29:140:29:15

I've always been terribly fond of bats and to sit beneath a roost

0:29:170:29:22

of lesser horseshoes like this

0:29:220:29:24

is such a treat,

0:29:240:29:26

even when they're poohing on your face.

0:29:260:29:29

It's fabulous, but I don't want to disturb them too much,

0:29:290:29:32

so I'm going to leave.

0:29:320:29:33

Well, that's the accommodation sorted.

0:29:390:29:41

What these bats need now is a square meal.

0:29:410:29:44

And they've started to think about leaving the roost to go to hunt.

0:29:440:29:50

These initial bats here are just coming out to see how dark it is

0:29:500:29:54

and because it's not quite dark enough,

0:29:540:29:55

they're nipping back in again to give it a few more minutes.

0:29:550:29:59

Wow! That one flew right past my face.

0:30:030:30:05

It was amazing!

0:30:050:30:07

I looked into its little funny face. It's incredible!

0:30:070:30:10

Because they emerge at night,

0:30:120:30:14

horseshoe bats and bats in general have gained a sinister reputation,

0:30:140:30:19

something that goes back way before Hammer Horror.

0:30:190:30:22

In medieval times, just seeing a bat was bad luck, and if a bat should

0:30:340:30:39

circle around your head three times, then death would follow.

0:30:390:30:45

Their reputation was further blackened by witchcraft.

0:30:470:30:51

In Shakespeare's Macbeth,

0:30:510:30:53

the three witches make a brew using batty ingredients.

0:30:530:30:57

With their hairless wings, bats have been blamed for baldness.

0:31:000:31:03

So for the removal of unwanted hair,

0:31:070:31:09

their wings were boiled to make a tonic,

0:31:090:31:11

which could be simply applied.

0:31:110:31:13

All bats were given the same bad press until science took over,

0:31:160:31:21

and, bit by bit, discovered that Britain actually has

0:31:210:31:24

17 different species.

0:31:240:31:26

And in recent years, we've learned a lot more about horseshoe bats.

0:31:350:31:39

For instance, where they live in Britain.

0:31:390:31:43

They seem to favour Wales and the southwest of England.

0:31:480:31:51

But why?

0:31:510:31:52

One reason is to do with how they get around at night.

0:31:550:31:59

Now they're heading out to hunt for insects,

0:32:020:32:04

and I'm using a bat detector to find them.

0:32:040:32:06

Bats need somewhere to roost and they need a plentiful food supply.

0:32:110:32:15

But often these aren't exactly very close together and they

0:32:150:32:19

need to get between the two.

0:32:190:32:21

And they're doing it in darkness,

0:32:210:32:24

so for us that would be a real challenge.

0:32:240:32:26

Horseshoe bats can use echolocation to navigate, but that only works

0:32:260:32:30

if the sounds they emit have an object to bounce off of.

0:32:300:32:35

What they need are features.

0:32:350:32:37

What they need are hedgerows like this because these

0:32:370:32:41

are their commuter routes, these are their roads, their motorways.

0:32:410:32:45

So these field margins are incredibly important to them.

0:32:450:32:50

Amongst our bats, the horseshoes are particularly dependent on hedgerows,

0:32:510:32:56

the highest density of which occurs in the southwest and Wales.

0:32:560:33:02

But there are plenty of other places with hedges, yet no horseshoes.

0:33:020:33:06

So hedgerows can't be the only thing these bats are looking for.

0:33:060:33:10

Clearly, in Wales and the southwest,

0:33:110:33:13

humans are doing something else that horseshoes love.

0:33:130:33:17

Keeping cows, because these bats have got voracious appetites.

0:33:180:33:23

Well, they've got big appetites, but they're not that big.

0:33:230:33:26

What the bats are interested in is the dung.

0:33:260:33:29

Of course, it's not the dung they're interested in,

0:33:320:33:34

but the insects which live on and in it and what we're looking at here

0:33:340:33:38

is a fantastic group of yellow dung flies,

0:33:380:33:40

one of the favourite foods of the lesser horseshoe bat.

0:33:400:33:43

But forgive me because, if I dive into this dung...

0:33:430:33:48

..and have a good poke around, yeah, here we are.

0:33:500:33:53

Look at this.

0:33:530:33:55

This is a dung beetle, one of a number of species that

0:33:550:33:58

land on the dung and lay their eggs so their larvae can feed upon it.

0:33:580:34:03

But in turn, these things are one of the favourite foods

0:34:030:34:06

of the greater horseshoe bat.

0:34:060:34:08

However, British farms are changing.

0:34:120:34:15

They were once mixed with livestock and crops.

0:34:150:34:19

But in the last 50 years, farms have specialised.

0:34:190:34:23

Cattle and sheep have gone from large parts of Britain

0:34:230:34:27

to be replaced by crops.

0:34:270:34:29

So the yellow dung fly is now confined to the dung-rich

0:34:330:34:36

sheep farms of Wales

0:34:360:34:37

and the dairy farms of the southwest.

0:34:370:34:40

And where the insects go, the horseshoe bats have to follow.

0:34:430:34:47

I know what you're thinking.

0:34:550:34:57

Every time we go for a drive through the countryside we see hundreds,

0:34:570:35:00

if not thousands of cows, which means there must be

0:35:000:35:03

hundreds of thousands of cowpats

0:35:030:35:05

with no doubt millions of dung flies on them and beetles in them.

0:35:050:35:10

But sadly that isn't the case

0:35:100:35:12

because the majority of farmers are anti-worming their cows

0:35:120:35:16

and these drugs get into their digestive system, they come out

0:35:160:35:20

in the pats and they kill all of the larvae of the beetles and the flies.

0:35:200:35:25

And that, of course, is bad news for bats.

0:35:250:35:30

But the good news for horseshoe bats is that now some farmers are

0:35:300:35:34

redressing the balance with different worming agents,

0:35:340:35:37

or by going organic.

0:35:370:35:39

In Wales, where there's lots of sheep and hedgerows,

0:35:460:35:49

the lesser horseshoes are doing so well, their numbers are on the up.

0:35:490:35:53

And if other farms can add more hedgerows

0:35:560:35:59

and choose their worming chemicals carefully,

0:35:590:36:02

then more of Britain could become an ideal home for horseshoe bats.

0:36:020:36:07

Now, the plains of Africa have the cheetah,

0:36:130:36:16

the world's fastest mammal and arguably therefore one of the most

0:36:160:36:20

amazing creatures on the planet.

0:36:200:36:22

But here in Britain we've got our own plains,

0:36:220:36:24

we've got our grasslands, so what can we offer in return?

0:36:240:36:29

Well, there is a creature.

0:36:290:36:31

To some, it's a nuisance and a pest.

0:36:310:36:33

Others love to spend a day out shooting it

0:36:330:36:36

and then putting it in the pot, and they claim it's very tasty.

0:36:360:36:39

Others, thankfully, love it for being cute and cuddly and yet more

0:36:390:36:42

because it's got lots of amazing folklore associated with it.

0:36:420:36:47

I have to tell you though, it's terribly shy

0:36:470:36:49

and extraordinarily speedy, so most often

0:36:490:36:53

all you're going to get is a fleeting glimpse

0:36:530:36:55

of a disappearing tail.

0:36:550:36:57

The animal we're talking about is the enigmatic brown hare.

0:37:070:37:11

And I haven't done what you might expect me to do,

0:37:110:37:13

which is to rush off to the flatlands of East Anglia.

0:37:130:37:16

I've actually come here to a suburban cemetery

0:37:160:37:20

on the Wirral to look for hares. And I know what you're thinking,

0:37:200:37:23

"You've lost your mind, you've not read the field guide,

0:37:230:37:25

"this is not their type of place."

0:37:250:37:27

But I've got tell you this, unbelievably, is a hare refuge.

0:37:270:37:31

This is the closest that I've ever been to a brown hare

0:37:510:37:54

and been able to move about and speak.

0:37:540:37:56

I can actually see this one nibbling the grass.

0:37:560:38:00

It knows perfectly well that I'm here,

0:38:000:38:03

and it's a fantastic opportunity to get close to this animal and have a really good look at it.

0:38:030:38:09

I don't need binoculars at all. I can gaze straight into its eye.

0:38:090:38:12

And I'm sure you can judge immediately that this is a completely different animal

0:38:120:38:16

to the rabbit. It's much larger, it's got much longer ears,

0:38:160:38:20

proportional to the body size,

0:38:200:38:23

and although it's difficult to discern at the moment with this animal sitting,

0:38:230:38:27

they equally have much longer hind legs in proportion to that body size than rabbits as well.

0:38:270:38:32

But I suppose the question has to be, why is it that rabbits are doing

0:38:320:38:36

so well here in Britain, but that hares are finding it really tough?

0:38:360:38:42

Why is it that they've had to take refuge in a garden of remembrance?

0:38:420:38:47

Well, to answer this question we're going to have to learn a lot more

0:38:470:38:50

about the hare's ecology and behaviour.

0:38:500:38:53

Then I can tell you why this is a happy hare in a cemetery.

0:38:530:38:57

Let's start at the beginning.

0:39:000:39:02

Hares only made it to the UK when they were introduced

0:39:090:39:12

by the Romans for food,

0:39:120:39:14

along with their cousins the rabbits.

0:39:140:39:17

They soon became part of the British countryside and its folklore.

0:39:170:39:20

In the Middle Ages, it was believed they were witches

0:39:200:39:23

that had shape-shifted and the only sure way of killing them was with a silver cross.

0:39:230:39:28

Their similarities to rabbits have made confusion common.

0:39:310:39:35

Br'er Rabbit, the Easter bunny and even Bugs Bunny

0:39:370:39:41

were originally not bunnies, but hares,

0:39:410:39:43

which history has slowly morphed into rabbits.

0:39:430:39:48

And what's most surprising about this story is,

0:39:480:39:51

compared to their rabbity cousins, how poorly the hares have fared.

0:39:510:39:56

So why are there fewer hares than rabbits?

0:39:560:40:02

Well, let's get down to the hare's point of view,

0:40:020:40:06

starting in a much more typical territory of the hare - the rolling hills of Hertfordshire.

0:40:060:40:10

Well, there is one there actually.

0:40:130:40:16

It's, um...

0:40:160:40:18

I'm not sure you're going to see it even if you move round, but...

0:40:180:40:21

I shouldn't have taken my binoculars off either.

0:40:210:40:24

I'll probably have lost it.

0:40:240:40:27

Oh, no, I have got it actually,

0:40:270:40:29

I've got it and it's hunkered right down into its form.

0:40:290:40:33

A form being a shallow depression in this furrow.

0:40:330:40:37

It's convinced that we can't see it, that's why I've been able to get this close.

0:40:370:40:42

And it's showing typical behaviour. Its back is flattened, its ears are

0:40:420:40:46

right down tight across its back, all I can see is one of its eyes.

0:40:460:40:51

And its eyes are perfectly placed.

0:40:510:40:53

They're on either side at the top of the head,

0:40:530:40:55

which means it's got full 360-degree vision.

0:40:550:41:00

But its strategy is quite simple here.

0:41:000:41:02

It's so convinced that we can't see it, that it's gone down and it's frozen.

0:41:020:41:09

Oh, and there he goes.

0:41:090:41:11

Unfortunately, we sort of pushed our luck there

0:41:110:41:14

and the hare got up and sped across the field.

0:41:140:41:18

Let's just see if we can find the form where it was resting down in here.

0:41:220:41:26

There's not much to it, it's not a spectacular sight.

0:41:310:41:35

But here we are. Yeah, look, you can see.

0:41:350:41:38

This is a perfect form where it's dug out the soil and when it flattens its back here

0:41:390:41:46

and it's got its head down here, you can appreciate that it's very well hidden.

0:41:460:41:52

They're so convinced that things can't see them that they freeze,

0:41:520:41:55

until you get right on top of them, then they flee, like that animal just did.

0:41:550:42:01

So while rabbits have burrows to bolt into, hares only have a form to crouch in.

0:42:030:42:10

And for the young, the leverets, it's worse.

0:42:190:42:21

They don't ever run away, they just freeze...

0:42:210:42:25

..and that's no protection from the sharp blade of a combine harvester.

0:42:270:42:31

So, are livestock farms better?

0:42:360:42:38

Well, no.

0:42:420:42:43

Sheep and cows constantly disturb hares and they eat their crucial cover.

0:42:490:42:55

And there's another problem for some hares.

0:43:030:43:06

In fact, things got so bad they had to call for backup.

0:43:100:43:14

You can see, it's ideal for hare-coursing activities.

0:43:210:43:25

Wide-open fields, plenty of exits and entrances through the hedgerows.

0:43:250:43:30

They can see for miles, they can see if anyone's coming.

0:43:300:43:34

So, it's just ideal.

0:43:340:43:35

What exactly is hare coursing?

0:43:350:43:37

How do you define it legally, as it were?

0:43:370:43:39

Mainly it's a minimum of two dogs and a group of blokes

0:43:390:43:42

and they have the dogs on the lead and literally they walk across

0:43:420:43:46

the field, and they see a hare and they set the dogs off onto the hare

0:43:460:43:51

then they bet on the dogs and it's basically the first dog to turn the hare either left or right.

0:43:510:43:56

So they're actually betting money on which direction the hare's going to be turning.

0:43:560:44:00

We're talking huge sums of money as well.

0:44:000:44:02

Tens of thousands of pounds in certain... Tens of thousands on which way a hare turns?! Yeah, literally.

0:44:020:44:07

And the dogs presumably catch the hares and kill them? Unfortunately, yes.

0:44:070:44:11

Not every time, but quite often.

0:44:110:44:13

We're talking about Lurcher type dogs and they're a fast breed,

0:44:130:44:16

so unfortunately, yeah, the poor old hare doesn't get away every time.

0:44:160:44:22

And it's illegal? Definitely, yes.

0:44:220:44:23

And nationally, how much of a problem is it, or is it just a few isolated cases?

0:44:230:44:28

No, it's a huge problem. Um, with last year, 2009 to 2010,

0:44:280:44:33

we're looking in the realms of at least 1,200 reported incidents of hare coursing.

0:44:330:44:40

It strikes me, if I were a farmer and a gamekeeper, having these people traipsing around

0:44:400:44:44

on the land chasing hares is going to be, you know, a bit of a pain, to be quite honest with you.

0:44:440:44:49

I know of estates, not a million miles away from here, where they've actually taken the stance

0:44:490:44:55

of shooting hares to cull the hares, because as far as they're concerned,

0:44:550:44:59

no hares, no hare coursing, no hare coursing and they don't have all the associated problems.

0:44:590:45:06

Life on many farms is really tough for hares.

0:45:060:45:09

But there are some humans who have used our understanding of what the hare needs to make changes.

0:45:120:45:18

Farmers on a wildlife-friendly scheme have created a patchwork of fields

0:45:210:45:25

so there's always something to eat,

0:45:250:45:29

long grassy strips where hares can hide

0:45:290:45:32

and the farmers cut crops from the middle of the fields outwards to allow the hares to escape.

0:45:320:45:37

The result? Hare numbers have shot up by 35% in a single year.

0:45:420:45:48

And there are other little pockets where hares can thrive,

0:45:480:45:52

and our cemetery in the Wirral is one of these.

0:45:520:45:57

Oh...

0:46:010:46:03

I hope by now you've got a far better idea why these hares have

0:46:030:46:07

taken to living in this cemetery, finding refuge here.

0:46:070:46:10

Firstly, they're not disturbed by any cattle.

0:46:100:46:13

In fact, they're not disturbed by very much at all,

0:46:130:46:15

because this is a place which is renowned for its peace and for its quiet.

0:46:150:46:20

Also, they're protected here from human disturbance.

0:46:200:46:24

There's no-one shooting at them, there's no-one coursing for them.

0:46:240:46:28

The whole area's guarded by community wardens.

0:46:280:46:31

But it's not just about avoiding disturbance.

0:46:310:46:34

If you move somewhere, you've also got to eat to be able to live there,

0:46:340:46:37

and in fact we are indirectly feeding these hares.

0:46:370:46:42

And as a clue to what's on the menu, take a look over there.

0:46:420:46:45

What is it that people bring fresh to cemeteries with great regularity?

0:46:450:46:52

It's flowers.

0:46:520:46:54

And they are a tasty morsel for the hares.

0:46:540:46:58

So from the hare's point of view, this is a place where they can find

0:46:580:47:02

shelter, safety and a fantastic salad of fresh carnations.

0:47:020:47:09

Now then, I don't believe in ghosts, but I have had the pleasure of watching a creature which you

0:47:190:47:25

could say has an almost spectral quality,

0:47:250:47:28

and when you see one of these things gliding over a misty meadow,

0:47:280:47:32

it lends an almost dreamlike quality to the experience.

0:47:320:47:36

And although they're incredibly popular with humans, and pretty much always have been,

0:47:360:47:41

if you're a smaller mammal, then they're the stuff of absolute nightmares.

0:47:410:47:46

Barn owls.

0:47:570:48:00

Their screeching sounds, heart-shaped faces and snowy white underparts are unmistakeable.

0:48:000:48:06

They were recently voted Britain's favourite farmland bird.

0:48:060:48:10

But they haven't always been top of the pops.

0:48:100:48:14

Since Roman times, barn owls were surrounded by superstition.

0:48:200:48:26

Their old names include demon owl, death owl, and hobgoblin.

0:48:260:48:31

They were often nailed to barn doors to ward off other owls

0:48:320:48:35

and even to protect against thunder and lightning.

0:48:350:48:38

During the Middle Ages, barn owls thrived,

0:48:400:48:43

partly due to poor sanitation and a high rat population.

0:48:430:48:46

This taste for rodents transformed barn owls into a farmer's friend.

0:48:500:48:54

And in the 20th century, owl windows were built into some stone barns to encourage the birds to nest.

0:48:580:49:05

It paid off, because barn owls eat lots of small mammals, their favourites being field voles.

0:49:050:49:12

To most human eyes, a grassy field is a grassy field,

0:49:120:49:16

but I've got to tell you there are succinct differences.

0:49:160:49:18

And this one, we could call voleville,

0:49:180:49:21

field voleville,

0:49:210:49:22

because this grassy field is what we call rough tussocky with a deep litter layer.

0:49:220:49:28

Well, here are the rough tussocks, and the deep litter layer I can show you down here.

0:49:280:49:33

If I just part the grass like this,

0:49:330:49:36

you will see that at the bottom of it, there's all of this dead grass.

0:49:360:49:40

And this forms because at the end of every year the grass like this

0:49:400:49:44

grows up, and then it falls over in the winter,

0:49:440:49:47

and then new grass grows through it next year.

0:49:470:49:51

Let's see if we can find any evidence that there are voles living in here.

0:49:510:49:54

I bet you we don't have to go too far.

0:49:540:49:57

Oh, yeah, look at this, look.

0:50:010:50:04

Here's an area where an animal has been active in that litter layer.

0:50:040:50:09

It's come out, it's cleared a patch here.

0:50:090:50:11

You can see all of the seeds that it's been feeding on.

0:50:110:50:14

And here - it's been dragging a piece of grass down its hole -

0:50:140:50:17

is...my finger going down in there, a field-vole hole.

0:50:170:50:23

Now, the difference between this type of grassland and heavily managed grassland

0:50:230:50:28

is that there, in farmland, they cut the grass, harvest it,

0:50:280:50:31

take it away, and then they rake or chain-harrow the field, so you don't get this essential litter layer.

0:50:310:50:39

And as a consequence, you only get about 15 voles per hectare,

0:50:390:50:42

whereas in grassland like this you can get up to 250.

0:50:420:50:46

And when they reach plague proportions, it goes into the thousands.

0:50:460:50:50

Now, given that the average pair of barn owls

0:50:500:50:53

with a healthy brood of youngsters needs 10,000 voles a year, this is the habitat they require.

0:50:530:51:01

And because a barn owl's prey is hidden down in all that long grass,

0:51:060:51:10

it needs sharpened senses to find it.

0:51:100:51:13

Its sense of hearing is its most important hunting sense, not its eyesight.

0:51:180:51:24

And I'm going to demonstrate that... BLEEP, BLEEP

0:51:240:51:27

..using a bleeper.

0:51:270:51:28

Now, I'm going to hide this out here...

0:51:280:51:31

..right down underneath the vegetation,

0:51:320:51:35

like that.

0:51:350:51:37

And there's no way that that could be seen by anything flying over here.

0:51:370:51:41

And previous to this, I've already hidden two other bleepers in the clearing just up here.

0:51:410:51:46

Next up, I'm going to take the control box.

0:51:460:51:50

HIGH-PITCHED BLEEPING That one's bleeping.

0:51:500:51:53

I can just hear that one.

0:51:530:51:55

BLEEPING And I think I can hear that one.

0:51:570:51:59

And I'm going to stand stock still here

0:51:590:52:01

against the tree,

0:52:010:52:03

and in five minutes' time, a barn owl is going to fly round that corner and come up here.

0:52:030:52:08

I'm really confident of that.

0:52:080:52:09

FAINT BLEEPING

0:52:110:52:13

Superb!

0:52:230:52:26

Five minutes? Bang on cue, what did I say?

0:52:260:52:30

The reason I was confident is that this isn't a wild bird, this is a captive bird that's flying free

0:52:300:52:35

and has been trained to come to these bleepers, rewarded with a small piece of meat.

0:52:350:52:41

But nevertheless, she can't see them.

0:52:410:52:44

BLEEPING She's got to pick them out just

0:52:440:52:47

by listening to them. And that's what she's doing. Her name is Kenza.

0:52:470:52:52

And she can hear this above the sound of the traffic, the wind in the trees.

0:52:520:52:57

I mean, I can only just hear these sounds,

0:52:570:53:00

and, of course, these sounds are artificial.

0:53:000:53:02

What she's especially attuned to are the high-frequency calls made by

0:53:020:53:07

small mammals that we can't hear but these owls can.

0:53:070:53:12

Her acute hearing is down to the shape of her face.

0:53:120:53:17

Under the feathers, a barn owl's faces works like a satellite dish,

0:53:170:53:21

capturing and channelling sound down to its incredibly sensitive ears.

0:53:210:53:26

BEEPING I'm going to try and bring her from that one back to that one,

0:53:260:53:33

and then I'm going to try and get her to go back to that one.

0:53:330:53:36

Oh, this is unbelievable.

0:53:360:53:38

It's like a radio-controlled owl, except that I'm using sound,

0:53:380:53:43

and she's able to locate that precisely, literally on the button.

0:53:430:53:49

Absolutely amazing.

0:53:490:53:52

But it's no use having great hearing if you make lots of noise yourself.

0:53:540:53:59

Barn owls have super-soft feathers so they don't make a sound in flight.

0:54:000:54:07

That means their own wing beats don't drown out the sound

0:54:070:54:11

of their prey and the voles can't hear them coming.

0:54:110:54:15

Hunting in this way requires them to fly low over the ground, listening for the voles.

0:54:150:54:20

But in modern Britain, this awesome hunting technique is getting them into trouble.

0:54:230:54:27

Barn owls are so vulnerable to vehicles that any birds

0:54:350:54:39

living within three kilometres of a major road are likely to be killed.

0:54:390:54:45

When you think about it, kestrels can successfully hunt for voles

0:54:450:54:48

along road verges, but that's because they're hovering up here.

0:54:480:54:52

The barn owls are quartering lower down,

0:54:520:54:55

in the vehicle zone, in the death zone.

0:54:550:54:59

And in fact recent studies have shown that major roads

0:54:590:55:02

have removed barn owls from 40% of their available habitat in Britain.

0:55:020:55:09

That's disastrous.

0:55:090:55:10

So are humans doing anything to make things better from a barn owl's point of view?

0:55:150:55:21

Well, some councils are planning to plant trees and hedges along roadsides

0:55:210:55:26

to force the owls to fly higher, above the danger zone.

0:55:260:55:31

But there's another requirement of barn owls where humans are finding it much easier to help -

0:55:360:55:43

places to nest.

0:55:430:55:46

Old farm buildings, well, they're perfect.

0:55:470:55:50

Lots of entrance holes, lots of nooks and crannies inside.

0:55:500:55:54

On the other hand, modern farm architecture, like this,

0:55:540:55:58

well, there's not much provision for barn owls there.

0:55:580:56:01

But humans have come to the rescue, come and look at this.

0:56:010:56:04

Now, initially, this would have been useless for barn owls, but by putting up a box there,

0:56:040:56:09

it's completely transformed it, it's absolutely perfect.

0:56:090:56:13

And this has been a great conservation initiative,

0:56:130:56:15

because I can tell you that 50% of British barn owls now nest in artificial boxes like this one.

0:56:150:56:23

It's hats off to the humans for a change.

0:56:230:56:25

And most importantly of all, some humans are working to create

0:56:300:56:34

vole habitat and therefore more food for these birds.

0:56:340:56:38

We've known the farmer here for many years.

0:56:410:56:44

He's created so much habitat for barn owls, we've put up nest boxes.

0:56:440:56:48

But look, this is fantastic. He's created rough grass field margins,

0:56:480:56:51

both sides of a really nice thick hedge.

0:56:510:56:54

I can see them stretching around all of the hedges here.

0:56:540:56:58

Yeah, kilometres just on the one farm. Several kilometres of these grassy margins.

0:56:580:57:02

And they're not just grass, they're rough, that's the key.

0:57:020:57:05

They've got to be rough, have that litter layer

0:57:050:57:07

so they provide the cover that the voles and shrews and mice need.

0:57:070:57:11

It's good to see not just conservationists, you know, understanding the world

0:57:110:57:15

from a barn owl's point of view, but people who are managing the landscape, too.

0:57:150:57:19

Yeah, and if consumers choose food from farms like this,

0:57:190:57:22

there will be even more farms like this, so everybody needs to understand.

0:57:220:57:25

You know, taking a look at Britain's grasslands

0:57:290:57:32

through the eyes of other animal species has been truly revealing.

0:57:320:57:36

And one thing's for sure, we humans would only have

0:57:360:57:39

to change a few things to make life dramatically different for many grassland species -

0:57:390:57:44

a few less pesticides, a few more rough field margins,

0:57:440:57:48

and a few changes in the way that we harvest our crops.

0:57:480:57:52

Because, you see, one thing is absolutely certain, we humans are the governors of grasslands.

0:57:520:57:59

We make them wherever we go, and because we have the power to shape and control them,

0:57:590:58:05

then we have the power, too, to look after all of those grassland animals.

0:58:050:58:12

Next time on the Animal's Guide To Britain,

0:58:120:58:16

it's the turn of woodland animals.

0:58:160:58:18

Why our biggest insect prefers the capital...

0:58:180:58:21

Superb!

0:58:210:58:22

..and the phenomenal skills that make this bird, the goshawk,

0:58:240:58:29

our top woodland predator.

0:58:290:58:31

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0:58:380:58:42

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0:58:420:58:45

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