Geri Furry Pig Animals at Work

Hi. This is Animals At Work, bringing you...animals at work.

Around the world, there are millions of animals that have jobs.

When we say we've got animals at work, we're not kidding!

This is the show that brings you the most extraordinary,

bizarre and unusual

animals at work.

Coming up:

We meet a pig who's becoming a porky pin-up.

She's being a bit of a diva really, isn't she? What do you reckon?

We run to the hills with a drag racing dog.

And a very hungry caterpillar with an extended family!

# La la la la la la... #

Oh, hi there. Welcome to the show.

First animal is a piggy who hasn't gone to market.

Rather, she's gone into marketing.

She's trying to promote her new furry pig breed.

To help, I'm composing a theme tune for her.

Maybe it could be CHOP of the charts.

Ha-ha! Anyway... Ahem! Here we go.

# They're hairy, they're furry, they can be quite contrary

# Pigs in a blanket!

# They're pink, they don't actually stink

# And their fur will never shrink, they're waterproof

# Pigs in a blanket Pigs in a blanket

# Pigs in a blanket! # I thank you.

First we're trotting round to Wiltshire in England.

Meet this two-year-old Mangalitza.

She's a pig, with real girl power.

This pedigree porker shares her name with pop superstar, Geri Halliwell.

# I wanna really, really, really Wanna zigazig-ah... #

And living next door in Becking-ham palace is, of course, Posh Pig.

# Out of your mind... #

OINNNNK!

Very soon, Geri's life will be spiced up

as this little piggy will be making a move

from model mum to megastar Mangalitza.

And now, meet another rare breed.

14-year-old owner, Maisie.

She's pig-mad and on a mission to make these Mangalitzas famous.

I've loved pigs since, like, the age of like two almost,

and we've always had, like, piggy things in my bedroom,

piggy things everywhere on my walls.

At school everyone thinks it's really unusual and different

that I've got something so unique, and they're so loving as you can see.

And they just love to be petted and they roll over for you,

and they're just really nice to have.

But it's this giant porker that is the centre of her spice world.

Geri's two years old and she's Geri cos of her ginger hair.

When she was younger she was more ginger.

That's why she got the name Geri Halliwell,

but as she's got older and as it's the winter,

she's turned a bit more subtle.

She's very protective of her piglets.

She's almost more dominant than the boar,

which is quite nice cos it's like girl power in a way.

Geri and the other Mangalitzas are very similar to an English breed,

the Lincolnshire curly coat.

A seriously bouffant breed

that became extinct in the UK in the 1970s.

# Oh, Mr Hairdresser... #

These hairy pigs have a thick coat

that allows them to survive the toughest winters.

When we first got them over in England,

people thought we curled their hair, which is silly, but we don't.

It's just how they are.

I think it's really good that we're trying to save their breed,

because they're a special breed. They're not like any others.

PIG SQUEALS

They're not just pigs, they're more than pigs, much more than pigs.

They're very, very friendly.

They're very human friendly.

They have great characteristics as far as pigs are concerned.

Mothering qualities are superb

and nicest of all is that they're good with children.

We keep all the rare breeds here.

Today, sadly, Geri is one of just a few

woolly Mangalitzas left in the world.

I think it's really important that people understand

that if she and other Mangalitzas don't carry on breeding

and people don't breed them,

then they will become extinct and there'll be no more Mangalitzas left.

That'll be a really big shame, because Mangalitzas are so special

and they're just so different to other pigs.

I think it's really important that they keep going.

She'll be hitting the phones

and trying to get Geri a modelling contract.

My dream would be for Mangalitzas to not be rare any more,

so they're not in danger.

I really hope Geri can pull through.

She can pull anything off cos she's a special pig.

Today a photographer has arrived,

and Geri's career as the ultimate pin-up pig is about to begin.

Fingers crossed that he's gonna take good enough pictures

to make Geri very famous.

-Hi.

-How ya doing?

-I'm Maisie.

-Nice to you meet you.

I'm good. I need you to know these pictures have to be perfect.

She needs to be glamorous, she needs to be feisty,

she needs to be Geri Halliwell, kind of, style.

There's a lot riding on this photoshoot.

Geri needs to react well to the paparazzi

if she's going to make the Mangalitzas famous.

-She's being a bit of a diva really, isn't she?

-Geri!

-What do you reckon?

-Yeah.

Now we're checking in to the Czech Republic.

What's this? A dog that takes their owner for a run? On a bike?

But wait a minute, this is actually a sport known as Bikejoring.

Sonja and Pay live in a small ski-resort town northeast of Prague.

When there's snow on the ground, Sonja goes skijoring.

That's when one or two dogs pulls her on skis.

The rest of the year she goes bikejoring with Pay.

I just love him. I understand him.

I'm very happy I can, you know, have him for races and for trainings.

He's perfect dog, I think.

It's fair to say that Pay doesn't find it a drag!

Although they've won many trophies,

they compete for the pure love of the sport.

So now they're training and training for the world championship in Spain,

getting ready so they might make it to the top of their game.

We usually race fastest.

The key to successful bikejoring is control.

Sonja has to pedal hard to help Pay run up steep inclines.

And then she applies the brakes,

so they don't crash when they go downhill.

He's a leader so he knows where to turn, where to stop, you know,

how to start the race and he's very competitive.

He likes to overtake other dogs and he always loves to be first.

Pay is an excellent athlete, but he's easily spooked.

He just made a small mistake and he turned ten metres before the tunnel,

so on a small bridge.

I didn't expect that at all, so I fell down.

I hit my head.

I didn't know for a while, you know, what's going on.

When Sonja heard another racer behind her,

she jumped back on her bike

and she and Pay still managed to come in second.

And, for that, Sonja is very grateful.

I just love him. He's a nice dog, so beautiful.

Last year's crash scared Sonja and Pay.

She's hoping the memory won't hold them back.

They are determined to practice hard for the European Championships.

I didn't go on a bike for three weeks

and when I started again I was shaking,

and when I went fast with the dog, I thought I can fall down.

It took Sonja a while to overcome her fears.

Pay is still nervous, so Sonja is working hard,

so that he won't get spooked in the upcoming race.

If I encourage him enough, he gets more confidence with me

and he's doing miracles.

Continuing to build Pay's confidence,

Sonja takes him everywhere.

# Just the two of us... #

I'm spending a lot of time with him

and I get to understand him more and more,

and he works for me very nice, you know?

He's getting better and better.

If Pay stays calm and runs well,

they may get another trophy to add to their collection.

Five weeks have passed and it's race weekend for Sonja and Pay

at the World Bikejoring Championship.

There are over 200 competitors from ten countries.

Each team races the 7.6 kilometre course twice over the weekend.

The lowest combined time wins.

Yesterday was a disaster.

Sonja's chain broke in the middle of the race.

Even though she pushed with her leg,

Pay had to pull more weight than usual.

Losing precious minutes, the pair hobbled to the finish line.

Today is the deciding championship race.

They're both feeling nervous after yesterday's bad luck.

It's been raining all weekend.

The track is muddy and slippery.

To make matters worse, Sonja's had to borrow her boyfriend's bike.

If I'm nervous, he's taking it from me so much,

so I have to think to be less nervous,

so maybe Pay will be less nervous as well.

So it's all on for this race.

If she wins she's still got a chance at taking first place,

but it's a lot of time to make up!

Racing through the mud is tough and soggy and filthy.

Certainly no sticks in the mud, Pay and Sonja make it to the finish.

How did they do?

Sadly today's good time can't make up for the lost time yesterday,

so there'll be no medal this weekend.

I'm very proud of him.

He's doing the best with me so that I'm proud most of.

But they got over their bad crash, and they managed to finish.

Well done, guys.

I know when all the things go right, we could win.

We are just a very good team.

I think he loves me and I love him.

It's a nice feeling.

We've been keeping an eye on your pets

to see what they get up to on their days off!

Meet Spook the cat from London.

Mornin'.

He really loves to catnap!

Now we're trotting back over to Wiltshire in the UK.

Earlier, we met Geri the Mangalitza.

One of only a few in the UK, she's a rare breed porker. Maisie, her agent

wants to make her furry face famous and to get her a modelling contract.

So Geri's job basically

is to become the face of Mangalitzas all over the country.

Today, her snout is about to get

some shots for her "pork-folio" by animal photographer Nick.

It's really important that I get these pictures absolutely perfect.

But how will this feisty furry female react to the camera?

That's important with an animal that wants to be a star

because it doesn't just need to be good-looking.

It's gotta be laid back, have a good personality.

Yeah. That way.

Want to try and call her back?

Geri!

Oh, dear. It seems like she's going to be a bit of a prima donna.

-She's being a bit of a diva really, isn't she? What do you reckon?

-Yeah.

Now she's gone now, look.

I was just trying to get a wide-angle shot of her babies,

but she's not very happy about that.

You'll have to go with a bucket of food again, to try to get her round

cos I'm not so sure we've got those perfect pictures for you.

-That's it, good.

-Come on, Geri.

Come back again.

This is where you're gonna get your exercise now. Go, go, go, go, go!

Excellent.

That's great.

Her job's quite hard but she'll pull through cos she's a feisty mum.

That's obviously dinner time, is it?

She's working very hard,

and this model mum doesn't even stop for lunch!

Victoria Beckham's over there. She looks very jealous at the moment

cos Geri Halliwell's stolen the spotlight.

Geri Halliwell, has she got an agent yet or are you gonna be her agent?

-I'm her agent.

-You're her agent.

-Well, I think you're gonna have an easy job really.

-Yeah.

Her face is gonna be everywhere.

I want it to be plastered everywhere so everybody can know about the pigs,

and know about Mangalitzas and really get to grips with them.

I'm really excited to see what the photos come out like

so hopefully everything's good.

There's just time at the end of the shoot to pick out the best shot.

You'll see what a good pig she is.

-She looks a bit feisty there.

-That what you want? OK, we can do feisty.

-Glamour.

-We can see her eye, her eye nicely on that.

-I quite like that one.

-Yep.

I'm here today photographing.

It could be Hello, OK magazine tomorrow. Who knows?

If they've got any sense they'll be after her.

I like this one and I was hoping you could print them off for me

-so I can give them to other organisations.

-We can do that.

-You want it done quickly I presume?

-Very quickly.

-It's an urgent job.

-I'll get that sorted out for you.

-OK. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I've really enjoyed that today.

So what's next for Maisie's PR campaign?

I'm gonna have to give them to agents, different organisations,

and I'm gonna have to quite push my way into that

and so she becomes famous and everyone knows her.

I'm really gonna have to push that.

She's come to be in the camera again.

She's a pig on a mission

and I think she's definitely gonna complete it.

But the photos are just the start of Geri's career,

as Maisie will take them down to an animal model agency

to see if she can get this gorgeous hog a contract.

But will Maisie get what she wants - what she really, really wants?

Next up, worms. Hey, hey, hey, don't you go wriggling off now.

These aren't the slimy little suckers. Oh, no.

These worms are as silky smooth as yours truly.

And they work to make a fabulous fabric.

Don't believe me? Well, take a look at this.

Now we're worming our way over to Nairobi, Kenya.

Say hello to Cedric. This creeping critter

might not appear that important at first glance,

but this is Cedric, and he makes the finest fabrics known to humanity.

Cedric is a silkworm and it's his job to create the thread

that makes these posh textiles.

Cedric started life as an egg

that was the same size as the head of a pencil.

When he hatched, he ate and grew, and ate and grew,

until he had multiplied his own weight 10,000 times over!

To grow this fast, silkworms need to eat mulberry leaves every half hour

for a whole month.

One female silkworm will hatch

about 400 to 500 silk worm eggs

so Cedric will have about 400 brothers

along with him when he's growing up.

Hmm, I don't know how she knows which one Cedric is!

-Hey. Great party!

-Oh yeah. Everybody's here.

-Oh yeah, good to see you guys.

-Not only is Cedric working

alongside hundreds of his siblings,

thousands of his close and distant relatives

are also taking part in the silk-making process.

# You spin me right round Baby right round... #

One month after hatching, Cedric is already big enough

and has enough energy to start spinning his cocoon.

Cedric is very good at what he does. He was born to do it.

He wakes up every day and he knows his job is to produce silk

so he will do it to the best that he can do it.

To show that he's ready to start work, Cedric produces a green goo

from his stomach and then settles down to his life's work.

The fluffy white cocoon that Cedric and his friends

are spinning around themselves is actually made of

one long continuous silk string.

If you unwound it,

each string would be long enough to go twice around a running track.

So it's not a surprise that every cocoon takes

three to four days to spin.

The silk comes out of Cedric's mouth and he uses his tiny front legs

to place the string into position in the cocoon.

Once Cedric's part in the silk-making process is complete,

he can retire happy in the knowledge that

he's left behind his silken legacy.

After Cedric's work is done,

he hands the job over to the team in the factory.

They don't just twist together some of the strings to make thread,

they weave the thread into a gorgeous fabric.

Next the gorgeous fabric is dyed or printed.

It takes 700 cocoons to make just one silk scarf.

This isn't just a silk scarf,

this is the fabric of Kings,

brought to you by Cedric and friends.

Meet Frank the camel, who is particular about headwear.

Very pretty!

If you want to get ahead, get a hat.

If you've got the hump, get lots and lots of hats!

Now we're swooping over to the US of A.

At the Port Angeles Coastguard Base,

everyone stands to attention for the daily raising of the flag.

But some base personnel, like bird chaser Wiley,

just can't wait until the end to start work.

And Wiley's boss is full of praise for his mutt.

Wiley fulfills a very important role for us.

His main goal is to basically chase birds all day.

The air station is on Ediz Hook, a magnet for birds.

It's a bit of land that sticks out seven kilometres into the harbour.

It's very dangerous for birds if they get close to the helicopter.

-RADIO:

-Please be advised. We have a report of approximately 150 birds

on the end of the runway. Over.

If there's one thing you can say about Wiley,

it's that he's great at scaring off birds.

Wiley, go get them.

WILEY BARKS

'Before Wiley got here, we had a real serious problem.'

We had anywhere from 500 - 600 birds during the nesting season

that would just sit on the runway. We devoted large amounts

of time and money into trying to solve the problem.

Finally we found an article about a Border Collie at an airport

that had been used to drive the birds away.

We searched through Border Collie rescue

and we were able to find this dog and, sure enough,

as soon as he got out of the truck he started tearing off after the birds.

So it was a perfect match.

We were able to get a dog to do the job

and we're able to do him a service by keeping him

away from the pound and providing him with a very happy home.

Because Wiley is so good at his job, he's got a quiet life at the base.

Well...

HELICOPTER WHIRRS

..As quiet as an air base gets.

In fact, top dog Wiley really does have a very easy life.

Which gives Wiley plenty of free time to make his rounds

and check on how his base is running.

Wiley roams the base checking for any cheeky birds.

All the base personnel make sure that Wiley is looked after,

and he gets treats wherever he goes.

He also makes sure everything is working correctly.

He even has top secret clearance.

He's allowed to go where most of the humans aren't even permitted!

In fact, at times it gets pretty hard to see who's boss on this base.

If Wiley had a rank, he'd definitely be the commanding officer,

cos he has free rein to go wherever he pleases.

Everyone pays him a fair amount of respect.

Pretty much when he wants something, he gets it.

In fact, there's only one thing this top dog isn't allowed to do,

and that's fly the helicopters!

Wiley, what are you doing in here? We're gonna go flying. Come on!

6580 Port Angeles.

Be advised. Wiley is on the landing pad at this time.

Cancel my last. Wiley is clear.

It's the end of the day and most of the base personnel are heading home,

but this is Wiley's home,

and he spends his evenings keeping the night shift company.

He definitely provides a dual mission for us.

We got him to chase the birds. That was the reason for bringing him here,

but we've been very fortunate that his disposition is so friendly

and he enjoys being with people so much

that he's really endeared himself to the entire crew.

Wiley the bird chaser has even got his own set of wings.

This is one top dog.

We're trotting back to Wiltshire in England.

Geri the Mangalitza pig is hamming it up for the cameras.

14-year-old Maisie is hoping that these pictures will get

some much needed publicity for the rare breed of pork pedigree.

OK, thank you very much. Bye.

To get some exposure, Maisie has headed down

to the Pig Breeders' Association, who promote rare breeds.

If they can provide a poster for this magnificent Mangalitza

then she might just get the modelling contract.

I'm looking for lots of posters so I can put her everywhere

so people really can tell that it's Geri the Mangalitza.

I was wondering if you could help me.

Well, I'm sure we can.

Result! The poster can only help Maisie get Geri the contract.

-These are the posters that we do.

-They look brilliant.

So there's only one hurdle left.

Maisie is going in for the hard sell

with an executive at an exclusive photographic agency.

Welcome to Britain's Top Mangalitza Model!

Executive Georgie Knight can make or break Geri's career.

I'm trying to make Geri - Geri Halliwell -

I'm trying to make her the pin-up pig, like the ultimate worldwide

superstar because I want her face to be the face of Mangalitza.

OK. Have you got some pictures to show me?

Yeah, I've got some right here. These are some pictures

we took the other day with a photographer called Nick.

-Gosh she's very hairy!

-Yeah. That's one of the special things

about Mangalitzas - they have special curly hair and in the winter

it gets a lot more woolly, almost like sheep in a way.

So why would I want to put her on my website?

Well, Geri's like an amazing pig.

She has so many qualities and we really need her

to get her face seen by everybody because, without her,

I don't think we're gonna have many Mangalitzas around for much longer.

So it all rests on Georgie picking Geri to be on her website.

So she is quite special then.

She's very special to me.

Well, we'd be happy to put her on our website for you.

Success!

Coming soon to a screen near you, Geri the gorgeous Mangalitza.

Now that Geri's famous it's time to sing along to her special song.

Here goes. 'All together now.'

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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