Episode 2 Penguins on a Plane: Great Animal Moves

-WOMAN:

-Wow!

Every day thousands of different animals

are being moved around the globe.

From the massive...

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

HIPPO SNORTS

..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.

HIPPO SNORTS

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, huh? THEY LAUGH

..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.

-Tonight...

-One, two, three. Up!

..the race to move a seven stone, six foot ray shark across the UK.

-Careful.

-It's a sprint finish for the animal movers.

Misfits in their Hungarian home, two timid Arctic wolves

are offered a new life in the UK,

but it's far from easy to catch a wolf.

The wolves aren't moving into the crates,

so the second plan is to sedate them.

-And three eight foot crocs...

-KEEPER GROANS

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

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. Back up.

Boris is a six-foot bowmouth ray-shark

who's about to make an incredibly challenging move...

..from the National SEA LIFE Centre in Birmingham to Blackpool.

Boris is playful and friendly,

a favourite with curator James Robson and his team.

When divers are in the water, he'll come and bother them and fuss around them.

He's just playing, he's interested and he's not afraid of anything.

Bowmouths are a rare and mysterious fish

thought to be related to both sharks and rays,

their unique appearance is a strange combination of both.

Their ridged teeth allow them

to crush the small crustaceans they feed on,

but they're harmless to humans.

Through fishing they've become threatened in their native waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

In an attempt to successfully breed bowmouths,

Boris is going to be making an extraordinary journey

in search of love with a carefully selected female called Betty.

Boris is a very good, healthy, strong male, he's one that you'd want to breed with.

And we've got a very similar one in Blackpool, a female, so we've got two mature adults

and if we can put them together, hopefully, we can get young from that.

But it's all about Betty, if she's receptive or not.

We're pretty confident she will be, cos he's a strapping lad.

Moving this strapping lad is not going to be easy.

In Birmingham, Boris will somehow have to be caught and quickly stretchered out of the aquarium.

He'll then be rushed onto a lorry fitted with a huge tank

and driven 125 miles to Blackpool.

He'll again have to be lifted from the water,

stretchered up six flights of stairs and be released into the ocean tank where Betty awaits him.

Cool.

Preparations for catching and loading Boris...

Boris is in the sling, so we'll lift him up.

..begin at Birmingham a month in advance.

It's going to be pretty tight going round the corners.

James and his team are practising how they'll carry a seven-stone stretcher

through the aquarium's maze of corridors.

They'll need to move fast, because Boris can only be safely out of the water for a few minutes.

This is where the truck's going to be on the day. Now, this is the fun bit.

This is where we need to lift it up. So try and get it as high as we can. Ready? Go!

Whoa! Fit specimen as I am, I'm still a little bit out of puff.

Carrying Boris will be difficult,

but catching him will be even harder.

To make this as stress-free as possible,

James is training Boris to swim up to the window where he'll be caught.

Bowmouths are kind of known as the puppy dogs, they're very, very easy to train up.

And because of that we can take advantage of that

and get him used to slightly weird behaviour, kind of non-natural behaviour.

I'm just going to use a bit of squid,

which is something Boris quite likes a lot of

and we're going to sort of swish it around in the water

and that's going to introduce the smell into the water column.

Here we go.

Went a little too deep that time.

So he's coming to the right spot, but he's coming too deep.

Unfortunately it's not only Boris who's tempted to the window.

So Molokai the green turtle will loiter around,

he'll try and push in or sneak up on you and steal food.

This is why it's a long process.

It can take...several weeks of training.

He's just cruising around now, with any luck he'll come back again.

There we go.

While James can train Boris,

actually moving him will require specialist skill.

The people with those skills are based at SEA LIFE's

central distribution hub in Weymouth.

We're just going to lift it gently into the bag.

Chris Brown and Emma Rees oversee

the transportation of animals to and from over 30 aquariums.

This is where all the European deliveries go from,

So a lot of the animals come through this building, they go through the quarantine,

or they're bred in this building and then we send them out to all the different locations around the world.

There's over 10,000 animals that come through this unit every year.

And that's incorporated into around 360-370 deliveries and collections a year.

Almost every day, Chris, Emma and their team

carefully move a vast array of marine life,

ranging from jellyfish...

to sea horses...

..and from crabs...

to tropical fish.

But moving a six foot bowmouth shark

is rare and demanding even for Chris and Emma.

A day before Boris' move,

they head to Birmingham in a seemingly innocuous truck.

In the back is a specially designed shark transportation tank

that can filter, oxygenate and insulate

up to 2,000 litres of water.

-How was the drive down?

-Yeah, it was all right. Not too bad.

-Smooth, easy.

-Yeah.

Chris has brought along his entire collection of shark-catching paraphernalia.

Might need it to catch its head.

This is basically a giant sock, but the beauty of it

is the shark-ray can't actually see it from in the water.

It'll literally swim straight into the bottom of the sock.

It's quite an interesting one, cos they're wood floats, so you...

Chris now plans to test the catch equipment to discover

which will be the safest and least stressful for Boris tomorrow.

We'll take it as an opportunity to have a bit of a practice today, try different techniques

and try to decide best technique for the bowmouth.

They're a slightly tricky type of animal to move, they've got a very wide front.

They're also very big, very powerful, very strong, so we have lots of different nets.

It's best to bring everything and the kitchen sink and be covered.

Anglers dream of this many different types of net.

It's a cornucopia of nets. It's very exciting in a very sad way.

That's a fantastic hoop.

So we've been training him up from this window,

we've been feeding him exclusively from here.

So when you had your run through with the stretcher,

did you try with something very wide in it?

Because it's going to be...

You can pull his fins in by about that much,

but it's going to be about that wide.

The stretcher we used was going too tight when we were going round,

so we'd rather go with something with shorter poles,

-so we can get around the corners a lot easier.

-Yeah.

So Chris first tries a short, floating stretcher.

He wants to see if Boris can be tempted to swim over it.

I'd like him to just stick his head in there and then let him go.

That'd be nice.

He's coming up.

That's it.

That's it.

He's having none of it.

He doesn't like the stretcher being there,

so we're going to try a different method now.

Chris decides to test out catching Boris in a net...

Can you just push my legs against the wall so that I don't fall in?

..which will then be used to transfer him onto a stretcher.

I just want him to prove that he'll turn into it.

Yeah.

Easy enough. We can get him in there, it's just whether we can pull it in after.

Chris now has a plan for the capture,

but tomorrow will all depend on Boris.

Tomorrow, he won't come anywhere near it.

That's what we're worried about. One chance you get.

You've got to get it right on your first go.

On the other side of Europe, an equally complex but essential move is about to take place.

Anwik and Inoko are three-year-old Arctic wolves

who've spent their entire life with their family pack in this enclosure at Sosto Zoo.

WOLVES HOWL

But for their own safety and welfare,

they're soon going to be travelling 1,600 miles to live in Scotland.

The zoo's vet, Andra Papp, has raised them from birth.

Anwik and Inoko must be re-homed because of dangerous social dynamics within their pack.

They're low-ranking members and at their age in the wild,

they'd instinctively leave to avoid conflict.

It's a behaviour that prevents inbreeding.

But this isn't the Arctic

and if they aren't moved out they could be vulnerable to attack.

Moving two animals that are so fearful of humans,

but also potentially dangerous, is a tricky undertaking.

At Sosto Zoo it's hoped the shy wolves can be enticed to walk into their crates...

..but as a last resort they may need to be darted.

As they're driven across Europe, they'll be regularly checked

and will stop over for the night in Belgium.

1,600 miles later,

they'll arrive at their brand-new enclosure at Five Sisters Zoo.

How you doing, Ennis? All going to plan, mate?

The manager of the zoo, Jamie Ward,

believes their acres of cool Scottish woodlands will be the perfect home for Anwik and Inoko.

After a hectic build, they're nearly ready to welcome their first wolf inhabitants.

CHATTER Today, we're doing the final preps

for the imminent arrival of the wolves.

The landscaping, the electrics,

that's all been done over the last three or four weeks.

The final work with the electric fence around this section.

Easy job? WORKMAN LAUGHS

This is possibly right down to the wire.

Excuse the pun.

I'm very happy with the final design.

Just coming in here pretending I'm a wolf for a minute or two,

I feel safe, secure and happy.

This was the perfect place really for a wolf enclosure.

It is a woodland with a fence around it to put it simply.

They're pretty much going to have free rein of it.

I think to be honest the two new girls are going to get a little bit lost.

Before the wolves can enjoy these spacious woodlands,

they have a long journey to make.

It's not going to be an easy journey, they are going to come by road.

So one man that always springs to mind is Matthew Ford.

He's always thinking of the animals

and he's incredibly experienced at this.

And, to be honest, he's the only man for the job.

Matt Ford is on the final leg of his drive to collect the wolves.

He's been transporting zoo animals around Europe for 15 years.

There's no typical day really, that's the beauty of this job.

We run everything from starfish through to elephants,

lions, tigers and everything in between.

We've brought some boxes with us.

They've got sliding doors at both ends and that way, hopefully,

the wolf will run straight through into the box

and we can close it in there without darting them and without stressing them too much.

-Hi, how are you?

-Nice to see you. How are you?

-Yeah, a long drive, I'm glad you're here.

The transport crates are unloaded and attached to the outside of the wolves' pens.

The back of the crates are made from mesh allowing light through.

When the pen gate is opened,

the wolves should be tricked into thinking the crate is a way out into the enclosure.

If it doesn't work the wolves will have to be darted.

It's going to be dead easy.

It's going to walk straight in that box.

But even the most experienced animal mover

can't always predict the behaviour of their fickle passengers.

The incredibly timid wolves seem aware of all the people outside.

Anwik doesn't move, preferring the security of the pen.

Surprisingly it's Inoko, the less dominant of the two, who edges forward.

But Inoko also senses a threat.

The more people there are the more disturbed the animals are and the less calm they are.

We need to move everyone out of the way, really.

Most people are sent away,

but still the sisters refuse to walk into the crates.

Unfortunately, this means a less pleasant

and more risky method will need to be used.

The wolves aren't moving into the crates,

so the second plan is to sedate them.

So the vets are just going to knock 'em out now.

Use of anaesthetics always carries risks,

so darting the wolves is a last resort.

The dart delivers the anaesthetic instantly...

..and the wolves are left in the dark while it takes effect.

After ten minutes, Andra checks if they're unconscious.

While Inoko is fully unconscious,

Anwik, the bigger and stronger of the pair, is not.

Anwik has to be given an additional shot.

Let's see how we get on. Here we go, it's the first one coming out.

With both wolves now unconscious,

they can be moved into their transport crates...

..and injected with an antidote that should slowly bring them around.

Can we take it straight to the van?

But it's an anxious wait.

The first animal's sat up now, which is no problem at all.

So we just need to wait for the second animal to sit up.

Anwik, who needed extra anaesthetic, is yet to wake up.

So we'll probably give it another five, ten minutes and we'll put the air-con on.

It'll be nice and dark and nice and quiet

and they can begin their journey.

OK, are you ready to go?

For Andra, it's time to say goodbye to the wolves

he's known since their birth.

For Anwik and Inoko,

it's time for their 1,600 mile drive to Scotland...

..where they'll be safe from the aggression of their pack.

They'll be checked regularly by Matt,

but in the dark and cool of their air-conditioned van

they should sleep most of the way.

Avoiding territorial aggression is a common reason

for zoo animals to move home.

And it's why three members of an extremely dangerous species

are about to undertake a very challenging move.

I'm just going to show you a couple of our crocodiles, OK?

Shaun Foggett is one of the most experienced crocodile handlers in the UK.

So although they're quite small,

if you look very closely you can see how big their teeth are. Can you see that?

Crocodiles of the World is already home to 14 different species of crocodile.

But for the first time, Shaun is going to be adding

the biggest and most aggressive kind to his collection.

We have three saltwater crocodiles that are coming to live with us.

They're the biggest reptile on the planet.

They've got one of the strongest bites of any living animal

and they're going into this exhibit just here.

Many crocodile species are sociable,

but saltwaters can turn on each other when living in large groups.

Shaun's new arrivals are coming from a zoo in France

where successful breeding has resulted in too many living in one enclosure.

Moving saltwaters is daunting, even for Shaun,

who has been working with crocodiles for much of his life.

I've just had this fascination with the crocodile ever since I was a kid.

I always remember watching the David Attenborough shows

where they would jump out of the water and catch the wildebeest and they were only in 12 inches of water.

My enthusiasm developed and then I started keeping them privately.

I sold my house and put all the proceeds

into opening the UK's first crocodile zoo.

Shaun only ever moves crocodiles when absolutely necessary.

It is stressful for the animals and dangerous for him and his staff.

Crocodiles have evolved and are built to be in the water, we're not.

The water is the crocodile's territory.

And that's important to remember, because that's what they protect

and they don't like anyone else going in it.

Shaun is used to handling crocodiles of all species and sizes.

Even these juveniles can take a limb off.

The new saltwater crocodiles will be occupying this enclosure.

Right then.

Before they arrive, Shaun must move the current resident to a neighbouring pool.

This four foot female is a Morelet's croc.

She's smaller than the saltwaters about to take her place,

but still poses a lethal threat to Shaun and his team.

Our most important tool of the day. Just a five millimetre rope...

that we will create a lasso out of and try and get it around the crocodile's top jaw,

so we're able to then pull her out of the water and then someone else will run and jump on her.

We give all the dangerous jobs to...the people that aren't me.

HE LAUGHS

Crocodiles instinctively attack any movement in the water...

..so Shaun uses a stick to attract the croc to him.

-Ready?

-Yeah.

-OK, then.

Towel on.

OK. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Because crocodiles attack movement,

covering their eyes helps to pacify them.

Use that stick.

But it's not always easy.

Try and throw it from one end of the towel, Terry.

OK.

Wow!

OK. Whoo! Back up. Back up.

Right, scrap the towel.

No, leave it.

Leave it. Right.

Jump on her. Exactly the same, straight round the neck.

-Just keep your body weight bang on her.

-Yep.

-Ready? Go.

Good man.

-Tape!

-Crocodiles have an incredibly powerful bite,

but the muscles that open their jaws are weak.

A strip of insulation tape is all that's needed

to keep their mouth safely shut.

Deep net up there, Jamie.

-You all right?

-Yep.

The enclosure is now clear.

Preparations can begin in earnest

for the three far bigger and much more aggressive saltwater crocodiles.

At the National SEA LIFE Centre,

they're also about to begin their own equally difficult move.

Today, Boris the bowmouth shark is going to Blackpool.

The team have arrived at 5am,

because they need to catch Boris and stretcher him into his transport tank

before the doors open to the public at ten.

CHATTER

Had a good four hours' sleep, which is excellent.

With the smaller stuff you can relax a bit more,

but with a big thing like this you can't really switch off.

I'm a little tired, but I'm not too bad.

I sort of woke every hour, but, yeah, excitement and apprehension at the same time, I think.

Just starting to fill up the tank, warm the tank up first.

We've got to make sure we start at the right temperature,

a tank like this will keep that temperature throughout the journey.

Quite an anxious air in everyone at the moment

and it's slightly early in the morning, so no-one's woken up properly.

Anxious/not-enough-coffee I think is the balance we've got at the moment.

It's the catch that's the most important part.

We've got to get that bit right to make the whole journey

as stress-free as possible for the animal.

The transport tank is ready,

Chris can now prepare his team for the most critical part of the move.

Right, does everyone who's going to move the animal

want to come forward and let's have a quick chat about it?

So we're completely restricted in space, as everyone appreciates,

but the most important thing for all of us to do

is to make sure the tail of the bowmouth doesn't hit the side of the wall.

So as long as we've got the head securely in there that's the most important thing.

If Emma's got the wet towel, put the wet towel on top of it.

We'll wait till it's calm. As soon as we're happy it's calm, we'll say, "One, two, three,"

and we'll lift up the whole shark and put it on the front of the stretcher.

If we're at all worried and he starts flipping while we're halfway across, then everyone just lower down,

get the head down and he won't be able to do anything.

He can't go backwards, so as long we've got the head down it's fine.

Boris' training has paid off,

because as soon as food is offered up,

he moves towards the catch window.

The first attempt fails...

..and Boris escapes to the far side of the tank.

Fail first time. Fail first time.

-EMMA:

-Ohh! That was hardcore!

-God! His tail went...

-SHE MAKES SWISHING NOISE

It's likely Boris will now be so wary,

he'll prove impossible to catch.

-We're probably going to need some food. Have we got a couple of fish?

-There's some in the fridge.

Despite more of Boris's food being offered up,

-he refuses to come near the window.

-First attempt didn't work.

Eventually, Boris' hunger begins to overcome his concern...

and he moves closer to the bait.

Chris has Boris' head securely in the ring net,

but he now needs to get the bowmouth's powerful tail under control.

-No, no, no.

-Net!

As soon as Boris' eyes are covered, he stops struggling.

The towel's working. CHATTER

He must now be very carefully lifted out onto the stretcher.

One, two, three. Up!

Perfect. That's it.

-Take the weight round.

-Yep.

Right round. All the way round.

Well done. CHATTER

Bowmouths have no ribcage...

so the team have to be gentle.

-Someone needs to sit there.

-Got it?

-Shall I just slide this out?

-Yeah. One, two, three, slide forward.

That's it. Well done.

Out of the water, Boris will struggle to take in oxygen.

He can survive a few minutes,

but every extra second will increase his stress and possibly damage his gills.

-OK.

-OK?

First spin to point.

They manage to negotiate the maze of corridors,

but Boris' uneven body shape

has made the stretcher unexpectedly front heavy.

-Ooh!

-You all right there, Scott?

There we go. Yeah.

MAN PANTS

-We've just got to unhook him now.

-OK, let's go.

Yeah. Careful.

OK, get out of the way.

Step up, you two, together.

MAN GROANS Right.

-You all right?

-Right up high, really high.

That's it. Now lower it down slowly, down on the head way.

Lift the tail up.

There we go.

Gone through the hole. Relax.

That's it.

That's it. Great.

There you go.

When I actually grabbed hold of the tail,

it was a lot more muscly and powerful than I was expecting.

It's full of muscle, probably to get away from tiger sharks and their predators.

If you take an animal straight out like that,

they don't get a chance to use up their energy so he's still got a lot of energy.

It's quite a monumental thing to move a ray of this size.

Slightly relieved now. Still got a long way to go.

The water in the transport tank

has to be replaced with new water from the aquarium.

When under stress sharks and rays excrete a mucus,

if this builds up in the water

it will keep Boris in an agitated state.

And because Boris is now catching his breath,

Chris needs to ensure he has enough oxygen.

I'm just trying to see what the level of the oxygen is at the moment.

So we had it on about 110,

which is...which is higher than normal sea water.

But while he swims fast he'll be using up that oxygen,

so I've just got to check that we're keeping ahead of it

by putting enough oxygen back in.

After five minutes, Boris does calm down

and settles on the bottom of the tank.

He's sat down. He's now recuperating, so he's using up the oxygen while he recuperates.

-Just tell me when.

-Do you want 15?

Yeah?

Chris and Emma need to check if Boris is relaxed enough to travel.

So we just took the breathing rate by watching the spiracles,

you can actually see the cover close and open, that's Boris breathing.

And we just timed it at 44 breaths per minute.

When he's properly relaxed, I'd expect him to be 20-30.

And once we're transporting him, he can go anywhere up to 60 at least.

44 is about what I'd expect at the moment, so I'm relatively happy.

We'll monitor that for the rest of the day, we'll then be able to see if it's going up.

If there's a trend going upwards that would be worrying for me.

Boris is calm and settled,

he's ready for his journey to his new home in Blackpool.

We're all set, so now it's a race against time, really.

We've just got to do this bit as fast as we can.

-Thanks, James. Brilliant.

-Cheers. Good luck on that end.

-Yeah, we'll let you know as soon as we get there.

-Awesome. See you later.

Ahead is a three-hour drive,

then Boris will face an even more difficult transfer

before he can finally be united with Betty.

The Arctic wolf sisters, Anwick and Inoko,

already have each other for company on their long drive across Europe.

The wolves are happy in the back, they're travelling at 16-17 degrees Centigrade.

In their native Arctic habitat,

temperatures rarely rise above freezing,

so Matt has to regularly stop and check on his precious cargo.

Hello.

Just checking they're up and they're alert.

There's plenty of ventilation in there.

Best thing actually for the wolf is to travel in darkness and cool.

They're both looking good.

Jamie and the team at Five Sisters Zoo are rushing to complete their woodland wolf paradise.

Their new guests are now a day's drive away.

..And put another connector on here.

Unfortunately, there's a problem.

-So how many do you think you're going to have problems with? How many sections?

-I don't know.

The electric fence is shorting out.

The live wires are touching the mesh here.

Just a complete and utter nonsense,

so we're putting this one between them to keep the live wires away from the mesh.

The last pressure point is when we turn the electric fence on and do all the tests.

And that's all on that man over there.

So we'll see how that goes.

If the worst scenario, that it was not connected up tonight,

there would be a major problem.

I don't want to even think about that.

The team work late into the evening.

Right.

The wolves are only hours away

and they make a final test of the fence.

Bloody hell! That's eight.

8,000 volts. Good to go.

Perfect!

It's a massive, massive relief.

And I'm really, really excited about the arrival of our two new girls.

The girls finally arrive after midnight.

It's the early hours of the morning,

it's been an incredibly long day for everybody especially the wolves.

-Hey, mate.

-Evening.

Hey, guys, how are you doing?

So we've made the decision to leave them in their boxes inside the van until it gets to first light.

-Great. Well, let's get you some sleep.

-Sure.

Early next morning everyone gathers for the release of Anwick and Inoko.

Everyone ready?

First to be released is the dominant sister, Anwik.

You happy?

Timid Inoko is more reluctant to step into the unknown.

Extremely happy. It couldn't have gone any better,

but...

we obviously still need to monitor their behaviour now and make sure they settle OK.

If you look at them now, they're doing absolutely what they should be

and exploring their new house.

They look better already.

Plenty of grass, much cooler.

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

Much more appropriate for the species.

It's certainly been a long time coming and it's a constantly evolving process,

because we are going to want to get a male

and we are going to want to breed.

-Doing well there?

-Good, man. Quite emotional.

-And um...

Absolutely unbelievable and it doesn't matter how many times you see it,

but we overly underestimate animals and the animal kingdom.

The journey that they've just gone through, the stress at that end.

And to see them just being so

unbelievably relaxed already is just incredible, it really is.

Shaun Foggett is also about to give some extraordinary animals

a better home away from the threat of territorial aggression.

He's in France

and has taken delivery of three eight-foot saltwater crocs.

It's hard to believe it, but they're in the back of his van.

We didn't load these ones up but...

I'm certainly looking forward to unloading them.

Shaun picked up the crocodiles from a zoo in Normandy,

where they were crated by their keepers.

They've travelled through the Channel Tunnel

and are now on their way to Shaun's zoo,

where he'll face the dangerous task of unloading them.

The three deadly animals

are travelling in specially built plywood crates.

The jaws are bound and we've also covered their eyes,

just to make sure they're kept nice and calm,

and the stress level is kept to an absolute minimum.

That's really crucial when you're moving crocodiles

because they don't deal with stress very well at all,

particularly this species.

The bigger they are, the more stress they suffer from.

After ten hours on the road, Shaun arrives back at his zoo at 2am.

He decides the team needs to get some rest

before facing the dangerous off-load.

We're not going to unload them tonight

just because we need some sleep.

The crocodiles can safely be left for a few more hours

in the warmth of the zoo.

-Sleep then, yeah?

-Yeah.

Let's go.

At seven the following morning, a large team assembles.

A lot people are needed to handle crocodiles

of this size and strength.

We're unscrewing the back end

because it's a bit safer than the front end.

Although the jaws are taped,

they still give you a nasty whack with that head, so,

it'll be much easier to slide her out of the box from behind.

Ugh.

-Ready?

-Mm-hm.

OK, might be easier if you pull that box away.

Ben?

-I'm going to need you to get the legs up off the floor.

-Yeah...

Shows the power of her, you know?

I'm a heavy guy, I'm 100 kilos and she's throwing me around.

-Yeah.

-One, two, three.

HE STRAINS

I get the 'eavy end.

All right? Come on, nice and steady.

Try and support her body as well, look.

When we go down, just straight on top of her, Ben, all right?

Go.

Shaun now has to somehow remove the tape

securing the crocodile's jaws...

..and get out without being bitten.

Electrical tape.

He's devised a plan to replace the thick tape

with a piece thin enough to be pulled off with a rope

from a safe distance.

OK. The end of that rope is going to go

-under the skin.

-Yeah.

-Under the tape, yeah?

Doesn't matter which way round.

-Not the orange tape, just the black.

-Yeah, yeah.

Right then, Ben, if you go.

The team make a tactical withdrawal

before the last piece of tape is pulled off.

Right, Terry.

-Good man!

-Super.

She's moving.

So let's get this shut.

She's going to go in the water now, look, and explore her new home.

With a big croc loose in the enclosure,

Shaun has to work out how he can release the other two.

I think it's too dangerous for us to be in there, though.

I don't think it's worth the risk.

We cut the tape off now as we're sliding her back into the box

so she's free, and then unscrew the other end

and then just jump over the top of the box and tip it up

and let her walk into the exhibit.

I think that's the best, safest way.

Although safer than going into the enclosure,

Shaun's new plan entails riskily releasing the crocodile's jaws,

then quickly shoving it back into its crate.

Right, guys, just so you all know, this tape's coming off here now,

so she'll be completely unrestrained, OK?

So if I need you to run for any reason, just get out. All right?

OK.

-I'm going to need to really give that a pull.

-Go for it.

OK.

Right, we've got one more layer.

-Jaws are off.

-OK. The jaws are now not secure.

If you can just push the box forward, just gently and slowly.

Go, go, go, go, go. Go, go, go, go, go, go.

I'm losing grip on her now, so I'm going to have to let her go.

OK. Ready?

That'll do, Jamie, that'll do. We can push her from there.

The crocodile can now be released directly from the crate.

But the one loose in the enclosure still poses a significant threat.

-Have you got eyes on her, Jamie?

-Huh?

-Have you got eyes on her?

-Yeah.

Right.

Right, if you tip it up...

That'll do, that'll do.

-This way?

-Yeah.

-Last one.

-Good stuff.

The third crocodile is released using the same method.

So the tape's off, exactly the same, guys, yeah?

If I need to shout, then just run.

I'm going to slide this box.

This time, the team have two loose crocodiles to keep an eye on.

All three crocodiles are safely released.

All good, positive first signs.

They are all on the land together, which is perfect.

All in all, it's a perfect crocodile move, really.

A few days later, one of the crocs even lays some eggs.

Shaun believes it could be evidence

that they're feeling happy and settled in their new home.

So after all that effort and stress moving them,

here's the proof that they've settled in very well

and they're very happy crocodiles,

which means we're happy keepers, too.

Boris the bowmouth shark has almost arrived at his new home.

It's amazing, we're travelling down a motorway

with a massive ray in the back of our truck.

With a large volume of water like that,

if you brake too quickly, you can cause a bit of a wave or a slosh.

That's not good for the driver or the animal

because they'll feel that slosh.

So it's very important to drive very steadily

and ensure you can brake very, very slowly.

Boris is about to face the most difficult part of his transfer.

To get to his new tank,

he will have to be stretchered up six flights of stairs.

It's just lifting the head, getting the body over,

but making sure people aren't going to get whacked by the tail.

After a three-hour drive, Boris has arrived in Blackpool.

-Hello. You all right?

-How are you doing?

I'm all right, my dear. How are you?

Chris and Emma can now discover how Boris has coped with the journey.

We've been checking the breathing throughout the transport.

So before and during the transport. It was 44 last time.

We've just done it again here and it's 40, which is great.

So it's gone down, which means that Boris has relaxed

a little bit on the transport over here, so we're all set.

-Do you want to just take this for us?

-Yeah.

Yeah, he's good. His breathing has gone down.

Before Boris can be moved into his new home,

the water in his tank again needs to be changed.

So we're just taking water out of the tank now

and we're just bringing in new water from Blackpool SEA LIFE.

So basically, this is a mixing time, where we're mixing waters.

And it gives Boris a chance to get used to the new water

and any waste or anything else that's in the water

will now slowly go out through the drains.

Now we've just got to match the salinity, as well,

and the temperature has stayed pretty consistent throughout.

It's a nice warm day, which has helped us,

but also, it's a very insulated tank.

I'm going to give him a nudge in a second and get him to go for a swim.

-Hiya, you all right?

-Oh!

What we worry about is if he stays still for too long

and he starts to build up lactic acid and his tail becomes stiff.

So I would've just nudged him then to give him another swim,

just to make sure that lactic acid

keeps moving out of his muscles, basically.

But he did it by himself, so I didn't have to interfere at all.

-He must've heard you.

-Yeah.

Chris and his team are about to begin the transfer.

And to add to the pressure, a large crowd has gathered to watch.

OK, cool. Shall we have a quick briefing? Can I have everybody here?

It's really the move between here and the ocean tank

that's the kind of move with the most obstacles.

So it's going upstairs, going around corners.

And that's when unexpected things can happen.

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

We're going to go tail first, but tail high.

-Yeah. And then when we get to the top, we'll have to spin it.

-Yeah.

OK. So we need to have people who are ready to do this in a minute.

-Hello, Kate? RADIO:

-'Go ahead.'

Can we have the staff in position to block off the connecting corridor?

'No problem.'

To prevent Boris slipping out of the sling,

he has to be carried up the stairs tail first.

Guys, can you step back?

Spin him around. Turn.

I've got this side. Slide him forward.

LAUGHTER

Oop! Step forward. That's it.

EXCITED CHATTER

Hello, Boris!

Hi, Boris!

As soon as Boris enters the tank, Betty comes to investigate.

But after only a short swim, he drops to the bottom...

..and doesn't move.

-Hello, Scott?

-He's watching you.

-RADIO:

-'I can hear you.'

Boris is just sat on the bottom of the tank,

leaning on the tunnel.

This makes Boris vulnerable to attack

from other predators in the tank.

And nurse sharks do start to take

a worrying interest in the new arrival.

Chris sends in two divers.

They can just watch over him.

So they're not actually getting involved,

but if they see a nurse shark come too close,

they'll be able to push the nurse shark off.

So I'm still on tenterhooks

just while we wait for his first swim around the tank.

'Do you want the divers to do anything at the moment?

'Scott's just giving some signals. Do you want him nudged?'

Just stay there for ten minutes.

Just give them the OK signal to stay put, that's great.

Boris, can you move, please?

When he's not moving, lactic acid is building up.

And we just don't want that to mean that his tail starts getting stiff.

I think what we'll do is give the divers a couple more minutes

and then we might have to get them to give him a nudge

before one of the whitetips does.

-Yeah, he's moving his tail.

-Is he?

-His tail looks better already.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, eyeball him.

-He's actually looking around.

-See his eyes moving?

-Yeah.

He's just catching his breath

and he's a bit more vulnerable than he would be normally.

Just point to your...

Turn the anal fin.

Yeah, the other one, the other one. Yeah, that's it.

That's it. OK.

OK. That's a bit better.

After 20 minutes, Boris still refuses to move.

There's now a serious risk

that lactic acid accumulation in his tail

may cause it to seize up.

All right, guys, how are you doing?

Chris decides the divers need to try to get Boris moving.

Move it a little bit and just keep it moving.

-Yeah.

-See what happens.

He's going to go down there, touch the tail

and just feel for the lactic.

He's just basically saying that it feels soft.

That's what he said, it's soft.

He's going to be, like...

Can they, like, tense up?

Yeah. Their tails can get really stiff,

and that's a bad sign for them.

That means their muscles have built up lactic acid.

Yes, yes, yes!

Oh, you don't want to go over there, mate.

Straight back to there.

Yes! We've got him swimming!

-Go on. Have a look around.

-He's trying to get the fish.

He looks a bit weary, does that diver.

Go on. That's it. He's found the tunnel! He's over the top.

-Yes! Go on!

-And we're moving.

Almost.

That's all right. That's great. Very good.

That's so nice to see.

-Yay!

-There we go.

-He's like, "Oh, this is a new bit."

-Ooh!

-He's going for a proper investigation.

-Yeah.

This makes all the efforts going into this

and all the stress of the move worthwhile.

Seeing Boris swimming around, it's absolutely amazing.

And I can't wait for him to spend a bit more time with Betty, as well.

Since 2004, we've been working with these animals,

trying to bring them together.

And finally, we got some mature adults.

And to see them swimming together like this is amazing.

There's no way you can go home

until you've seen them take their first swim.

So it takes a certain amount of time. They've got to calm down.

Bowmouths seem to do it in their own way.

You wouldn't get this from most other sharks,

but they seem to need to sit down for a set time until they recuperate.

Yeah. You've just got to be patient with them, really.

-There he is.

-It's certainly worth the wait.

End of a long day.

Yeah. A good day.

I think it's time for a nice...

Cold beer. I'm really tired.

-Do we look tired?

-I think we might do.