Episode 1 Penguins on a Plane: Great Animal Moves

Wow!

Every day thousands of different animals

are being moved around the globe.

From the massive...

HIPPO GRUNTS

It's probably just about as hairy as it gets in this line of business.

..to the minute.

You usually get stung a lot.

The dangerous...

If I need you to run for any reason, just get out.

..to the delightful.

Hi, baby!

PENGUIN CALLS

It's all done in the name of improving

the lives of individual animals and saving species.

I think they're going to be very, very, very happy.

Much more appropriate for the species.

But getting them safely to their destination

takes a huge amount of know-how...

It's strong, it's light and we can get really great air flow

from top to bottom. Not just a pretty face, eh?

..and great skill.

It's a live animal, and they can react in many different ways.

This series follows the expert animal handlers responsible for

transporting some of the world's most precious and demanding cargo.

Whoa!

Welcome to the non-stop world of Animal Moves.

In this episode,

the challenge of moving two tons of angry hippo.

The reinforced travel crate is put to the test.

WOOD CRACKS

12 penguins journey from New Zealand to England,

stopping off at some of the hottest places on earth.

The air ambient outside could be 55.

And can eight million bees survive the journey from Italy to the UK

to help save British farms?

If it's the difference between bringing bees in

and not having bees, then there's no contest.

Pinky is a 20-year-old two ton female hippo

who's about to make an 850 mile journey by road

from West Midland Safari Park to a zoo near Toulouse in France.

Hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal.

Moving Pinky is going to be a monumental task

for zoo director Bob Lawrence.

Messing around with hippos is probably just about as hairy

as it gets in this line of business.

Very dangerous, I mean, she gets het up,

she literally goes through the roof of the building.

Eyeing us up.

Corner of her eye at us.

Hippos have incredibly powerful jaws

and they're aggressively territorial.

None more so than Pinky.

She's probably the stroppiest one we've got. Invariably,

if you go too close to the fence and get in her space,

she's usually the first to put her head down and come at you,

so they couldn't have picked a worse one from our point of view.

With wild hippo numbers in decline,

this dangerous animal move is critical.

It's part of a Europe wide match-making strategy

to ensure the survival of the captive hippo population.

The StudBook co-ordinator has identified Pinky

as being of particular genetic value.

She's been moved to a new facility with an unrelated male from Spain

so they can breed there and continue that valuable line.

Pinky will soon be leaving the zoo she was born in

to go and live with a Spanish suitor from Madrid.

At West Midland Safari Park,

Pinky will somehow have to be coaxed into a crate,

then craned onto a lorry.

She'll cross the Channel by ferry

and be driven the length of France to a zoo near Toulouse,

where in another difficult operation

she'll be unloaded into her new enclosure.

Pinky's crate has to be delivered a month ahead of her move.

She is too dangerous to be handled,

so Bob, along with keepers Noel and Emma, must use these four weeks

to train her to walk into the crate on her own.

This also gives Pinky a chance to get used to spending time

in her transport box before her big journey.

The first step is to use food to tempt her out of the lake

and into the hippo house.

Once you get to this stage,

this is the crate here,

so at the far end of the crate we'll have some metal poles in there,

which is obviously a barrier to stop Pinky from going any further,

and we'll just put some food at the far end of the crate

so that Pinky can come in, quite happily, just go in and feed.

Sounds easy.

But Pinky needs to oblige on her travel day,

and she plays by her own rules.

METAL CLANGING

Pinks!

Come on, then. Pinks.

It's rehearsal time.

Half an hour of cabbage chucking,

and Pinky cautiously makes her way out of the lake enclosure

and spots the food in the crate.

Pinky!

Yet more cabbage is thrown to lure her into the hippo house.

But Pinky grows suspicious...

..comes back out...

..and stubbornly refuses to be tempted back in.

Pinky!

She kind of didn't play ball today, really.

We did get to the stage of bringing her up onto the pad here,

but we didn't get her as far as the crate.

We've got a date set, there's transport companies booked in,

there's transport in terms of ferries booked in,

so we kind of need her to cooperate on the day.

If Pinky refuses to go in the crate on move day it would be a disaster.

12,000 miles away in Auckland, New Zealand,

an equally wily and elusive animal is supposed to be

heading off on a journey of a lifetime.

Hello!

Rocky, come here, darling girl.

Rocky, a shy but clever Gentoo penguin,

and 11 of her friends, will soon leave the enclosure

where they've spent their entire life and emigrate to Birmingham.

This is Rocky. Rocky is one of the one year olds going to Birmingham.

She's young and she gets bullied by the others.

Laura Seaman is a keeper at Kelly Tarlton Aquarium.

She has looked after the penguins for eight years

and will be escorting them on their incredible journey.

Gentoos are really active, curious, inquisitive penguins.

They are always busy, they've always got something going on.

When I first started here I thought

there is no way you can tell them apart.

But they are all real individual characters.

The way that they walk, the size of their feet,

even how long their bill is, their call, who they hang out with.

It's all completely different.

PENGUIN CALLS

It is going to be difficult for us not to have these guys in our colony.

I'm anxious for them because it's going to be different.

Gentoos are native to icy Antarctic waters

and have highly insulated feathers.

Temperatures above 12 degrees centigrade induce panic

and hyperventilation and could even be fatal.

But on their journey to the other side of the world

they'll go through some extremely hot places.

In Auckland, they'll be loaded into

a bespoke refrigerated transport container.

Their 12,500 mile journey includes stops at scorching Singapore

and Sharjah.

On landing at Heathrow, they'll travel by refrigerated van

up to their new purpose-built home

in Birmingham's National Sea Life Centre.

The penguins travelling have been selected for

the European breeding programme

to reflect a natural colony, and includes two couples.

We've got pairs here who've been together for 16 years

which is their whole reproductive life.

It's not only the fact that they are together

during their breeding seasons,

they spend time together all year round.

So, they'll go swimming together.

They have positions in the enclosure which they come back to every day

with their partner.

The pairs will be joined by eight youngsters yet to couple up.

Together, they'll create a new self-sustaining colony in England

that will help preserve the species.

But their journey has risks.

All of our penguins have been hatched and raised in captivity,

so they are really susceptible to anything new

which is introduced into their environment.

Especially anything respiratory.

Absolutely everything the penguins could touch

is laboriously disinfected.

People think it's glamorous when you say you're a penguin keeper.

People think it might be cuddling penguins all day,

but we're actually very good cleaners.

To stop these Antarctic birds fatally overheating

on their trip across the equator,

a hi-tech transport crate has been designed and built.

How are you? All good? How are you, baby?

So, there it is.

It's the handiwork of Greg Giarratana,

an expert handler of live and delicate shipments.

He's passionate about penguins,

and has spent three months and £40,000 creating his masterpiece.

Now, he can show it off to his colleagues.

You're getting a bit of an idea now what it's going to look like.

All designed by moi.

That's the air intake

because we want to keep it refrigerant in there,

we want to get fresh air in there.

And most importantly, we want to get the carbon dioxide out.

-There's two layers, so obviously six penguins per layer?

-Yes.

Every window is a little window seat.

-So, they face out.

-This is first class upstairs.

Economy down at the bottom... Nah, they're exactly the same.

This is a great little design. Once again....

-Oh, wow.

-Look at that.

It's all netted. We've got to make sure that no insects come in.

The mesh protects the penguins from mosquitoes that carry avian malaria.

Which can be prevalent in tropical areas like Singapore.

This is where we spray. We spray straight into it.

The time when we only really spray the birds is basically in Sharjah.

It gets quite warm.

The penguins will get an in-flight drink,

but to avoid travel sickness there'll be no meal.

Let me tell you. After 36 hours or 40 hours in a cage,

it's amazing how they come up to you and they say, "Get me outta here!"

With the flight leaving in 12 hours,

Laura now needs to round up the travelling penguins.

I think you can go in right now before anybody sees you.

We do know birds which are a bit more elusive to capture than

the other birds, so we'll try and aim for them first

before they realise what's happening.

Rocky knows something's up and makes a dash for it.

To catch the ones hiding in the water they launch a dinghy.

Gentoos, come jump on the boat!

Whoa!

In my hands.

When this fails, they try tempting them with fish.

Look at this!

Hello, little girl.

Good boy, darling. I know. You're all right.

You're all right, darling.

Oh, Major, do you want to go in too? Do you?

PENGUIN CALLS

Yeah, yeah. Silly Billy.

It's all right, honey.

11 birds down, one to go.

Where's Rocky?

Wow!

Rocky is proving elusive.

Rocky, come here.

Rocky!

The penguin's favourite toy - a small plastic pipe -

is called into action.

Rocky, come here!

Woo-hoo!

The other penguins enjoy the game, but Rocky refuses to leave the pool.

We've got one bird in the pool who I think's going to be quite elusive.

We'll see how we go.

I can see you!

Wow, look at this, let's play.

Come on.

Whoa!

Come on. Woo-hoo!

Look, look, look! Hello, Rocky.

Rocky has joined her travelling companions.

The flightless birds are almost ready to take to the sky.

The team in the West Midlands are also a little closer

to sending off their obstinate animal passenger.

Over four weeks, and with vast amounts of patience and cabbage...

..Noel and Emma have managed to tempt Pinky into

the crate numerous times.

Performing the crate training with Pinky does mean you build up

a bit of an affinity for her, despite her aggressive ways.

It will be sad to see her go, really.

Now, it's move day,

and months of plans and preparation

are at the mercy of one wilful hippo.

Worst case scenario would be that Pinky doesn't go in.

That's the worst thing that could happen.

If she doesn't go in, then the move's cancelled.

It is 50/50, really, whether she goes in or not.

If something happens which really spooks her, that's going to be it

for a long, long time, maybe months.

It's hoped Pinky can be enticed into the crate to feed as usual.

But this time,

bars suspended above the entrance will be dropped down by Noel.

Everything now depends on Pinky.

She cautiously makes her way through the yard

and into the hippo house.

She approaches the crate, but seems to sense something is up.

Eventually she edges forward.

After the initial shock, Pinky quickly calms down.

There was a big bang as the gate came down.

We wanted to make sure the gate came down quickly,

and I think the shock of that kind of just spooked her, really.

But a couple of minutes later and she was all settled down,

so there was no issues there.

Pinky is given a feed to keep her going on

the first leg of her journey to France.

Well, if Pinky was stressed, she certainly wouldn't be as settled

as she is now, and she certainly wouldn't be eating.

The crate would probably be rocking

and there probably would be bits pinging off it all over the place.

Just got to get loaded and get her gone and then it will be all done.

Some checks must be made before Pinky can set off.

First, she's examined by a vet.

She looks very fit and healthy.

Then, Bob has to collect a faecal sample

to check she's clear of worms.

In the wild, hippos use their faeces to mark their territory,

so this can be a messy exercise.

Well, I think I've got my sample.

A very fresh sample.

When hippos defecate they swish their tail at the same time.

It looks a bit like these manure spreaders you see in the fields,

and it throws it just about everywhere.

Usually all over the ceiling and everywhere else, that's why it's

so difficult to keep hippo houses clean,

but it's as fresh as it comes.

While Pinky waits, she gives Bob a reminder of her immense power.

WOOD CRACKS

A nudge splinters the side of her crate.

He reinforces it in time for the arrival of the drivers from

a Dutch haulage company who specialise in

the transportation of zoo animals.

Just go through here.

When the crane arrives,

the safari park's engineer takes the driver to assess the job.

When we begin to pick the crate up,

the centre of gravity will find where it wants to go.

It's the natural physics of trying to lift it on the chain as we

put it in tension. The hippo will then feel the crate moving and

that's when she'll decide whether she's going to jump about or not.

Hippos tend to jump around a bit,

so we're expecting a bit of wobbling, not too much, hopefully.

Now he tells me.

The hippo's making funny noises already. It loves me.

Where's the hippo going?

Toulouse?

Hope she can speak French.

We're going to put a rope on to keep it steady.

Yeah, I've got the rope here, yeah.

If two-ton Pinky decides to jump around,

her shift in weight could swing the crate violently into the building.

It's just lifted, Mick.

The first few seconds of the lift are critical.

Ooh, the hippo's moved.

As feared, Pinky shifts to the back of the crate.

Oh, why did you walk backwards?

Pinky, walk forwards.

They try to contain the swing with the support ropes.

Keep your tension down, keep your tension down.

Mind the fence.

OK, mate.

During the lift,

Bob discovers Pinky has caused even more damage to the crate.

Look at it here. I think it needs a re-planking all round.

Another foot.

300 millimetres. Down on the rope, yeah, OK.

Happy with that?

Good.

She picked her head up looking around, looks fine, steady.

Brilliant.

Enough food and water is sent along for the drive to

the south of France.

Well done. Thank you.

-You've got the card. If there's any problems, call.

-I will call.

We won't be far behind if need be.

Pinky is now going to be on the road for two days.

While hippos are one the biggest animals

transported around the world,

in the meadows of Northern Italy

some of the smallest are busy at work.

Beekeeper Marco Trinchero

is preparing to send eight million of these delicate creatures

on 1,000 mile road trip to Britain.

Bees are my passion, my big, big passion. I love this work,

I love my bees and I love bees in every part of the world.

Bees are susceptible to heat and dehydration, so safely

transporting millions of them across Europe requires specialist skill.

The man with those skills is Scottish beekeeper Murray McGregor.

In the last few years he's imported more than

100 million bees, for himself and other beekeepers.

This has been necessary

because of a devastating decline in our native bee population.

You can see, this colony died out. It's always a sad sight.

You are always sorry to see a dead hive.

Recent dreadful winters, disease and possibly pesticides

have wiped out a third of the bees that pollinate Britain's crops.

At Tillington Fruit Farm in Herefordshire

they have 500 acres of apple trees.

A hive full of bees is needed to pollinate each acre,

and without them they can lose up to half their crop.

We still have 500 empty hives from the seasons before

that we still need to fill up.

And there are other units that still have

less than half their hives filled up.

So, Murray has driven 1,000 miles to Italy to bring back

eight million bees to fill hives at Tillington Farm

and other farms across Britain.

He'll collect the bees from Marco near Turin.

To avoid the delicate cargo overheating or dehydrating,

he'll cross the Alps and France by night.

Once over the Channel, he'll drive to a rendezvous

with beekeepers in the Midlands.

Two million of the bees will then head to Hereford

where they'll pollinate apples at the fruit farm.

Marco's honey farm is in Italy's Piedmont region.

It's been a long drive, very straightforward, really.

It just takes a long time to get out here.

Here at the foot of the Alps,

the altitude and climate makes for hardy bees resistant to wind,

rain and low temperatures.

Perfect for the UK.

Despite the long drive, when Murray arrives...

Hey, Murray! Welcome!

..he heads straight out with Marco to help box up

the last of the bees.

Marco's needing to do a final few boxes just to complete

the load ready for the trip north.

I've known Marco for a while now

and he's extremely passionate about his bees,

they're the central part of his life

and he's very enthusiastic about the stock he keeps.

What do you think of this brood?

Oh, Marco, that's beautiful.

It's a good, healthy colony with a lot of young bees in it.

You want these bees then, Murray?

No, no, they're horrible.

THEY LAUGH

Before transferring the bees into their transport boxes,

Marco first has to identify the queen.

He's checking the colony, making sure he knows where the queen is.

Every hive must have a queen.

She's the only bee in a hive that lays fertilised eggs.

She also produces chemicals called pheromones that induce

the other bees to group together in a colony.

The queen in this doesn't travel with the bees,

-it's just bulk bees we want.

-They stay here.

Yes, Marco laughs, the queens got to stay here

because it's Marco's queen, not mine.

So, a substitute queen is need for the journey.

A strip impregnated with pheromones is attached to the transport boxes.

Believing there's a queen in the box,

the bees will instinctively swarm around it.

He's just arranging the funnel.

And now he's just shaking a kilo and a half of bees into the box.

They are filled to a weight and that's what you pay for.

One and a half kilos of bees,

depending on the size of the bee and how much honey it's got

in its stomach will be anywhere between 15 and 18,000 bees.

They won't be able to forage for nectar on their trip,

so the bees are given something to eat.

Syrup is the bees energy source.

It's a substitute for nectar or honey, it keeps the bees fed.

Clustered in these boxes in the midday Italian sun,

temperatures could rise to fatal levels,

so Marco must quickly take the bees to a cold store.

When the sun's heat subsides at 6pm, the bees can be safely loaded.

Just checking there's enough syrup in these ones

that have been in the cold store.

Last thing we want is for them to run out of food.

We've got a total journey of 1,300 miles.

As he watches the bees being loaded, Murray becomes concerned.

We still don't actually have a final count yet, this is quite perplexing.

There are far fewer boxes than he was expecting.

If we're going to have this problem again,

we need to buy some from somebody else

I have a problem with chemicals. I am sorry.

I don't have problem with you having problems.

Marco has fewer bees than promised because he believes

many have been killed by pesticides used on local farms.

The shortfall could have serious implications for the farmers

in Britain desperate for Murray's delivery.

They're all going to find that they are getting their orders cut.

A lot of them are going to be really unhappy about that

because they want them at a certain optimum moment for their season,

particularly for oil seed rape, for example, or for

apple pollination, and a week late and they miss their window.

Now, the truck is nearly full,

the millions of bees are generating a huge amount of heat,

so the load is left open to the elements.

You want the wind to cool the load, but not to blast it.

So, if you're actually driving and they were lying crossways,

the wind would go right through the package and chill it severely.

So, you like the wind to pass along the load, keep them cool,

let a little bit of rainwater get in for them to drink

and not chill them too much.

120. 160. 200. 291.

It's what we've got, and that's what we have to run with.

The bees could easily die from dehydration on the long drive ahead,

so Murray's co-driver gives them a drink.

They suck up the water and as it evaporates it keeps the load cool.

It's still quite humid,

it's comfortable temperatures for moving them.

We're just not taking any chances.

You can actually hear them react. And as the water goes on the mesh,

their little tongues come and suck it all in.

They like to have a drink.

-Right, Marco.

-Bye-bye.

-Great to see you again.

It's cooler now,

so the bees are now travelling with the cool wind in their hair,

which will actually be very good for their health on the journey.

In New Zealand, some other temperature-sensitive creatures

are being carefully prepared for their long journey.

Rocky, come here.

-Tag number?

-209.

Like a penguin passport control,

Rocky and the other penguins' implanted microchips are scanned

to ensure there are no stowaways.

Thank you very much. Beautiful.

The stress of being handled makes the penguins jittery

and prone to overheating.

-All right, Rocky, aye?

-It's all right, darling.

As a precaution, each crate is lined with ice packs.

Initially, they are a little bit confused,

but no doubt they'll settle down. Thank you very much.

The Gentoos are kept separate for the journey

because when they're scared they huddle up and could suffocate.

You're all right.

In the wild they live in colonies with hundreds of other birds

and hate being alone,

so they're always kept close enough to hear one another.

PENGUIN CALLS

Thanks, guys.

A refrigerated lorry will take the penguins

on their short trip to the airport...

..where Greg is powering up his chilly five-star penguin hotel.

That's a good sign. That's the refrigeration now on.

What we have here is all these temperature monitors.

And what they will do is give me the temperature of every area.

This is critical because the flight to England stops off

at some very hot locations.

Let's say like in Sharjah, the air ambient outside could be 55,

which it probably will be,

because the guys open up the cargo door and that wind that comes across

the tarmac goes right the way through the whole aircraft.

I may need to turn the set point down

to get more refrigerant into there

just to see that I'm getting around 8-10 degrees.

We can keep the birds in a great safe environment.

Not just a pretty face, eh?

The real test of Greg's creation starts now

because his demanding passengers have arrived to check-in.

-Hello.

-Nice to meet you.

-Likewise.

-Well, long flight ahead of us.

-I know.

It's been a very busy day.

PENGUINS CALL

Listen to them sing.

What I'm doing, I'm just positioning the bird. Making sure I've got

the seat belt on properly for them.

As a passenger, the old hostess says, "Strap your buckle

"in case of turbulence," the same applies to the penguins.

Got to look after these birds.

I personally have handled 72 of these birds into the country.

I've got a special bond with them. Absolutely love 'em.

Us humans can learn something from them.

Commitment! Commitment in the relationship.

These two, they are committed for life.

Tell that to the divorce lawyers, they'll be out of business.

PENGUINS CALL

They're communicating with each other

Chatting to each other.

"Are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Are you here? Yeah."

Probably got the best cabin.

I think these guys are going to be travelling better than me.

It's almost time to go.

Feeling a bit apprehensive about what we've got ahead of us,

but seeing the penguins so settled makes me feel a lot better.

Two hours later, the penguins are loaded onto the cargo plane for what

promises to be a luxurious flight in their first class accommodation.

In a truck stop outside Paris, the overnight accommodation

for Pinky the hippo's driver Dominique is far from luxurious.

We sleep not so good because the hippo was aggressive.

Moving a lot. Then it goes like this...

Forward and backwards.

So, a bad night, bad night, yeah.

Dominique gives Pinky a service station breakfast.

They then continue on their journey to Toulouse.

500 miles away at Pinky's new home,

the zoo's head vet Sylvie Clavel is preparing for the hippo's arrival.

Our first hippo will be in the new enclosure.

We can now receive the animals and we hope that everything will be good.

Pinky will be sharing the brand-new enclosure with her Spanish suitor

who will be arriving from Madrid in a week.

Sylvie and keeper Maxim are able to follow Pinky's progress

because her lorry is fitted with a GPS tracker.

In fact, it's 9pm by the time Dominique is approaching Toulouse.

It's been a long journey, but it's a nice journey.

When you start this job it's really tough, it's really hard

and you're sitting like this and eating sweets and drinking a lot

of coffee to stay awake, but if you do it longer then it will be normal.

I like the challenge. I like to work with the animals.

I don't see it as my job, I see it more as a way of life or my hobby.

I am always happy when I arrive,

and I'm more happy when the animals are unloaded

because the trip is always a little bit exciting

and we have a lot of responsibility.

By the time Dominique gets to the zoo it's too late to offload.

So, he gives Pinky a drink.

Then, the two bed down for their second night together in the truck.

She moves a lot, so...

..another sleepless night, it's the second one.

We have enough time for breakfast with coffee, bread,

we wash a little bit.

It's Italian shower.

That's with the deodorant.

Pinky was loaded with a 38 ton crane,

but the French plan to use a rather smaller lifting device.

Dominique's worried the small forklift may not handle four tons

of crate and hippo...

..so bravely uses himself as a counterbalance.

I was afraid the crate was too heavy for the forklift,

but it's on the edge.

But we can do it.

The crate needs to be angled

so Pinky will run down a corridor when released.

But this has caused a problem.

The normal way to release Pinky would be to first open

the outer wooden door.

Then, Dominique could lift up the thick metal bars behind

while perched safely on top of the crate.

But in this position,

the bars can't be lifted up because of the low roof.

We have to remove the bars before we open the door.

-Yeah, but then maybe my door is broken, if she...

-OK.

-It's wood.

They want to take out the safety bars first,

then we place it in position and then open the doors.

I said that's OK, but the doors are only wood,

so if you remove the tubes, the hippo starts banging on the door,

then my door's broken.

Pinky has already shown she can crack the crate.

And now, the safety bars are being cautiously removed

only a wooden door stands between the people and Pinky.

The worst thing that can happen now is that she breaks the wood,

she can escape.

A little bit stressed.

Also worryingly for Dominique,

he now has to be right in front of the door to open it.

When I open the door and the hippo's here...

It's a little of a problem when he stays there and the door opens

and the hippo comes out.

Comes out and I stay here, so where would I...?

Where I stay when the hippo comes out?

Their solution is to try pulling the bolts open

with a rope from a relatively safe position.

Pinky's release is accomplished safely,

and after the initial excitement she soon calms down.

She came out really quickly.

She's really nervous of this long travel

and we have to leave her quiet.

I think we did a good job.

So, now we go to Madrid and we pick up another hippo,

a friend for Pinky, and then she's not alone anymore.

By the following day, Pinky is settled in her new home.

She is now quiet.

She sleeps and eats a little bit hay and apples.

She is in good condition.

The millions of Italian bees are still on their

1,000 mile journey across Europe.

They've crossed the Channel by ferry

to the fascination of other travellers.

I love bees.

They are very gentle cos you can do this, look.

-Touch them and feel how warm...

-Yeah, you can feel the heat.

-Yeah, you can touch right down, they won't sting you.

-Lovely.

Murray's now heading to a service station near Birmingham.

Here he's handing over half a million of the bees

to Kristjan Tabur.

It's been some trip.

There are fewer bees than expected, but it's been worthwhile.

There's still a lot of bees come into the country, a lot of

new colonies established, and in the long run it'll work out fine.

Kristjan is taking the Italian bees to Tillington Fruit Farm

in Herefordshire, where it's blossom season,

and they are desperately needed by the farm's manager William Barnett.

We need the bees to cross pollinate, and that's taking

the pollen from an individual flower of one variety

and transferring it to another flower of another variety,

creating a cross pollination,

which fertilises the flowers and produces fruits.

The farm grows up to 7,000 tons of apples a year,

but without bees they could lose half their crop.

We haven't got enough native bees to set the pollination.

If it's the difference between bringing bees in

and not having bees, then there's no contest.

There are now enough Italian bees arriving to establish

30 new hives at the farm.

This is the hives where we're going to we put the packages in,

they're all set up just waiting for the bees.

We're going to take the syrup out, then take the pheromone strip out.

before we put the new queen in.

There can't be two queen scents in one hive. It's quite risky.

There might be a fight and they will kill the queen.

Kristjan has learnt the hard way to seal

the pheromone strips in a plastic bag.

The first year we left it on the truck

and the truck was pretty much full of bees.

So, we don't do that mistake again.

Bees are so attracted by the pheromones

some have hitchhiked all the way from Italy.

After 40 hours in their boxes, it's time for the bees' liberation.

But they appear lethargic.

They are not dead, no.

They are just trying to keep warm

because it was raining last night, so they are a bit wet.

When I move them they start to come a bit more alive.

As they dry off in the sun

the bees get livelier and the job gets trickier.

When bees have arrived at a new place after a long journey

they are often bad-tempered because

they've been stuck in a box for a long time.

If they find even the smallest gap, and if they're angry,

and they're trying to get you, they'll get you.

You usually get stung a lot.

This looks like quite a lively one.

The bees are dying to get out, so just going to help them a bit.

Hot days are bad to put the packages in

because the bees are flying all over the place.

One box contains enough bees to establish a single hive.

Each now needs a queen.

They have been sourced separately

and travel in special royal carriages

When you put the queen in you first open up this plastic bit over here.

With the queens added the new hives are complete.

Within a day the Italian bees are busy working

the orchards of Herefordshire.

This spring, with Murray's bees, is the first time for 6-10 years

where you can actually stand in the orchard and you can hear them hum.

The fact that all these bees are on farm at this time of year

at least gives me less sleepless nights.

The arrival of Murray's bees means the farm should have a bumper crop

this year, hopefully double that of 2012.

At Heathrow Airport, another precious

and delicate cargo has almost arrived at its new home.

After a 12,500 mile flight, the 12 penguins have landed.

Like millions of other animal travellers every year,

they'll now pass through the airport's Animal Reception Centre.

I'm Laura. Hi, Amy, nice to meet you.

-I'm James.

-Hi, James, nice to meet you.

The birds have been doing really well.

We've been checking them along the journey.

Checking toenails, beaks, breathing and doing really good.

We're just admiring your handiwork,

probably the finest box I've ever seen.

Let me tell you. This journey, we put it through its trials

and it shaped up to be perfect.

It was running like a dream.

It's a hectic night for the reception centre team.

We had penguins and horses on the same flight,

and we've also waiting for fish waiting to be offloaded too,

so we have very large vehicles trying to get into a very small space.

The penguins are in a queue behind 20 temperamental racehorses.

But the avian arrival is causing particular excitement.

I have two penguin T-shirts.

One says, "I love penguins." I have penguin pyjamas,

a penguin housecoat, penguin slippers, penguin underwear,

yep, I love penguins.

But I doubt I'll actually get to see them in that refrigerator.

They've also been in that box a very long time,

-so they're going to stink.

-They're cute as hell, but they reek.

The penguins are transferred from Greg's luxury crate

to a more run of the mill refrigerated van.

It's a little bit tight.

Should be all right, as long as they strap them down.

Haven't travelled all this way to a last-minute hiccup, let me tell you.

Well, you have a safe journey.

I've done my part, you do yours

and breed well, lots of breeding, lots of breeding.

I am a little tired, ready to get some sleep.

Get a drink, really, I'd love a cold beer.

No rest for the wicked.

The penguins set off on the final few hours of their journey.

Their new home will be the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham.

They have spent £2.5 million constructing a penguin paradise

complete with snow machines and lights that mimic the Arctic sun.

Outside, fledgling penguin keeper Naomi

is waiting for her very special delivery.

I feel like I'm about to come a mum or something.

-You don't know what to expect.

-It's so exciting, yeah.

-This is it, isn't it?

-Yeah.

PENGUINS CALL

It's all right, guys, you're here now.

They really like voices, so use your voices, don't feel like a dork.

I sound like a dork, so...

Hello.

You're a big fella.

You all right?

Once offloaded, the penguins are given a health check by Laura

and the aquarium curator James Robson.

Hello, darling. Are you all right?

Are you all right?

Good boy, good boy.

OK. 5.04.

It's a tough job. She's doing some really important checks

after 30 hours of being awake, so this is a key moment to make sure

the birds are as happy as possible before we move them through.

Hi. Hi, baby.

You're all right. You want to come out, don't you?

They're a little bit scared,

but actually it's more the process of taking them out

as they're kind of settled into the enclosures they're in.

Taking them out is scaring them.

Greg's transport crate has lived up to expectations.

They're in really, really good condition.

Their respiration's not too high.

We put a lot of effort into the design of the container coming over,

so I think we are really seeing the benefits now.

First bird.

Hello, darling.

Good girl.

First into the enclosure is a two-year-old female - Marama.

You'll have a friend in a minute.

Because she's separated from her friends,

she becomes rooted to the spot and calls out to them.

SHE CALLS

Oh, she can hear the other honks.

They're in there, I know, they're not far away.

Oh, number two's coming, I think.

The infamous Rocky.

Oh, Rocky.

-Aw.

-Together, Rocky and Marama have the courage to explore.

Oh, they might come and say hello.

The penguins in the enclosure keep checking on their friends outside.

It's very sweet, when they honk I can hear a reply in quarantine.

PENGUIN CALLS

PENGUIN CALLS

Because they're nervous, the Gentoos puff out their bodies.

Look at you puffing up.

They really can puff, can't they?

I didn't realise they can change shape that much. Pretty big puff.

They're getting more confident with each penguin, aren't they?

Oh, I think we're going to have water soon.

If the penguins go for a swim,

it would be a good sign that they're healthy, happy and settled.

Who's going to go in first?

It's a bit like when you're kids,

who's the first one to jump, isn't it?

Who's the brave one?

It's the perfect start to their new life,

and Laura will stay with the penguins for four days

to help them settle in and to pass on her knowledge.

They're looking good after their move.

They're really starting to relax into their new enclosure.

Maybe look out for Grub, can be a bit aggressive

when you're trying to feed the other birds,

so you might get a bit of a bite on the back of your leg.

Now, Laura has to say her goodbyes.

Right. Well, see you guys later.

PENGUIN CALLS

-It's nice to meet you.

-Thank you.

-Best of luck with the birds.

Let me know if you need anything.

Thanks for coming down and thank you for training them up so well.

-Have a day off.

-Yeah.

It's a bit nerve-racking now that Laura's gone to be,

sort of, here on our own.

But signs are good.

They're all eating, they're all healthy, so a good start.

Two months later there are signs of love blossoming.

Rocky and Grub are competing for the affection of Buzz,

and chicks could soon be on their way.

Next week, the mission to move a six foot ray shark across the UK.

Misfits in their Hungarian home,

two Arctic wolves are offered a new life in the UK.

And three eight foot saltwater crocs

come over from France in the ultimate test of moving animals.

Whoa! Back up!