Episode 4 Rhys to the Rescue

This is incredible.

Want to see some of Wales's wildest animals?

You've come to the right place.

My name is Dr Rhys Jones and I'm based

at Cardiff University's School of Biosciences.

I'm licensed to handle some of the country's rarest

and most dangerous animals.

OK, everybody stay still.

And if you find a snake in your bathroom,

I'm a man the authorities will call in to help you.

But it's not just snakes.

I'm licensed to work with everything from owls...to iguanas.

Oh, my ear!

Chimps...

..to seals.

Because I love the scaly, the furry,

the crawly and the unknown.

What did you think you've seen?

-A black panther.

-A black panther?

-Black leopard.

Oh, my God!

And I can help you to love them too.

'In this episode of Rhys to the Rescue,

'I help an iguana with an eye issue.'

That's terrible, isn't it?

'I do a dirty job on the "cheep".'

Hello, boys.

'And I check in on my old friend, Billy the chimp.'

I've helped to rescue owls, snakes, chimps and badgers

but sometimes, you get an emergency call

that forces you to drop everything, pull out all the stops

and then enter the unknown without a thought for your own life or limbs.

And one such call from a member of the public has brought me

to a business park in Cwmbran on a life or death mission.

Today, we're saving some baby ducklings.

The ducklings have fallen through a storm drain

and if I can't get them out,

it'll be curtains for these distressed chicks.

We're going to have to try and wrench this drain up

and that doesn't look as if it's going anywhere.

So, we're going to need to try and lever this up somehow.

Mum is quite concerned.

She's got seven other chicks with her there

and it looks as if three have fallen down the drain.

Let's see if we can wrench it open and get them.

DUCKINGS CHEEP

Well, I don't think that's been opened for a while, has it?

That was straight before we began.

Now, we have to get down there.

Hopefully, mum can see where we are. Hello, little one.

OK...

Oh! There's one of them.

CHEEPING

Hold on.

Ugh, it smells disgusting down here.

Got her. Three little chicks.

Now we've got to find where mum has gone.

There she is, there she is. Mum!

Hey! Hey!

Just when it was going so well...

This way!

Mum's on the move.

There's two that have made it so far.

We're nearly over by the lake.

I can't get those three to follow.

Mum is in by there.

You can hear the other chicks in there with her.

That's their little brothers and sisters calling them now. Go on!

On you go.

Nearly there, nearly here.

What a charade, saving ducklings!

I hope we don't get another call out for them tomorrow.

'The bulk of my day-to-day work

'is carried out alongside PC Mark Goulding,

'Wildlife Crime Officer for South Wales Police.

'The majority of our call-outs are to do with wildlife crime

'and public safety, but occasionally,

'we're called to deal with animal welfare issues.

'On our way back from a wildlife crime case,

'we receive an animal welfare call through the police switchboard.'

..Charlie Bravo 64...

We've just had a call from someone who's known to me

that they have an iguana...

It's got some kind of growth

and they've asked if we could have a look at it.

-Is it this area now?

-Yeah.

-We may as well drop by and have a look at it.

The iguana in question is a green iguana.

In the wild, green iguanas are native to Central and South America.

They can reach up to 6 ft in length and are herbivores,

eating a varied diet of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Because they're relatively docile, they've become popular as pets

but in reality, they need a lot of careful looking after.

Unfortunately, the green iguana I've been brought in to see

is in a bit of a sorry state.

-Is this a three-year-old iguana?

-Yeah.

He is tiny for a three-year-old, absolutely tiny.

Have you any problems with it feeding?

He's fussy. He'll only eat salad.

We tried him on crickets and meal worms, he don't want to know.

-Just pure salad.

-OK, when you say salad, what type of salad?

You know, the Florette bags?

Do you supplement for calcium as well,

do you give him things like figs?

-No. Now and again we get calcium sand.

-Right, yeah.

That's normally halfway across his tank. He has that as well.

He just don't seem to have grown since I've had him.

-So, basically, for three years, you've had problems?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Let's have a look at him.

There you go.

We didn't realise it was that bad.

It looks like it's a quite nasty cyst. This has come up very quickly?

Yeah, in the last week.

There's a couple of ways they can get them, especially round the eyes.

If they're not sloughing properly, shedding their skin properly,

they can get infections very quickly.

I'm kind of guessing it's down to nutrition.

If they're not getting the right nutrition

they can become ill very quickly.

I'm just wondering why people can't be stopped buying them

so there's not so many around for you to have to take,

cos people don't know what's coming with them, do they?

I think what happens is people go in and say, I can afford that,

but it's looking further, it's having the foresight to understand the vet's bills,

the extent of the diet that these animals will need.

I don't have a problem with people owning reptiles, per se.

It's just the way they sell them willy nilly.

It's the fact that there's a huge responsibility,

when you take that an exotic animal like that.

People don't know what they're letting themselves in for.

I really feel the best thing is that we take the iguana.

I need to see my vet and get this lizard on a new diet completely.

Thanks very much for calling us out.

'Whilst PC Goulding gets on with his policing duties,

'I head off to one of Wales's leading reptile vets, Mark Evans.'

Right, you've got another challenge for us, then?

I don't know if you can have a look at this eye?

It's either a cyst or an abscess or something like that.

-Keeping things well in captivity is not easy, is it?

-No, not at all.

Let's have a quick look.

Can you see how that top jaw is rubbery?

That makes me think that there's definitely been a problem with

temperatures, vitamin D, UVB light, calcium, all of them together.

That's terrible, isn't it, yeah?

So, we've definitely got calcium problems.

This could be a cyst, a tumour or an abscess,

but the most likely thing is an abscess and I actually wonder

whether something like a splinter might have tracked up under the eye.

Time for some tough treatment and if you're squeamish, look away now.

This is a culture swab that we would normally take a growth out...

I'm actually going to use this as a scooping agent.

It's OK. Hold on, little one. It's OK.

It's OK.

-That's quite impressive, isn't it?

-Yes.

Huge amount of pus coming out that eye.

Ugh...

Well done.

Are you talking to me or the iguana?

-I'm just going to almost pressure hose this now.

-No problem.

-Getting any remaining pus out, hopefully.

-Exactly.

It's OK, little one. It's OK. He's been incredibly good.

There we go, we're sorted.

-Amazing. Thank you very much, Mark.

-No problem.

A course of antibiotics, saline flushes

and a new diet should see this boy right.

We'll check on his progress later.

'But first, we're going back in time.

'Two years ago, I was called out to Parc Penallta,

'a wildlife park landscaped from a former coal tip

'just outside of Ystrad Mynach.

'I was there for a reptile rescue.

'It was an odd time of year,

'as winters in Wales are too cold for our native reptiles,

'so they go deep underground and brumate -

'the reptile equivalent of hibernating.

'So, how on earth was I going to rescue reptiles

'when there were none around?

'Well, let me explain.'

You might be wondering what I'm doing here

on such a cold and frosty morning.

I'm here for a rescue of a sort. I'm at Parc Penallta, South Wales

and we're here to rescue a group of isolated slow worms

just down towards that pylon over there.

We know that there's a larger population of slow worms

just outside of the park's borders,

but in between both of these populations

is some horrible rank grassland and bramble.

It's just really no good for these reptiles.

'The problem for the population of slow worms at the bottom

'is that they've become cut off by this grassland

'and become so isolated they've started to inbreed,

'and now run the risk of developing genetic defects

'that will lead to their slow extinction,

'unless, of course, we can get them to diversify their gene pool

'by uniting the two groups.'

Our job here today is to create a wildlife corridor

which will enable migration from the greater population outside

to meet our small, isolated population here.

We're here to save those reptiles.

But I can't do this on my own.

I've got a couple of friends coming down with some chainsaws, some strimmers,

some hedgecutters, and also, a mini-digger...

'..because we're not just here to chop bits down and rip things out,

'we're also here to build stuff,

'specifically, we're going to build a hibernacula.

'A hiber-what?!'

Now, you may be wondering what I'm talking about when I mentioned "hibernacula".

Well, in true Blue Peter fashion, here's one I built earlier.

Underneath this enormous mound of mud is a reptile hotel,

and it has very definite structure.

There's around six tonnes of rubble, wood and bracken,

all there to super-insulate these reptiles throughout the cold winter.

So, why do we need to build these hibernacula,

these big overwintering facilities for these reptiles?

Well, we're trying to encourage them, right the way through this corridor,

to connect up with the larger population on top of the hill.

Adult slow worms don't move that much in a year.

In fact, the adults that are here will be quite happy to live here probably for the rest of their life.

However, the kids, well, they'll need a new place to live.

This hibernacula was built last year to accommodate the kids moving out

from the population down at the pylon, and, well, this year,

that's why we're building a hibernacula further up this corridor

to try and connect this population with the population on the hill.

And no extravagance will be spared in the construction of this reptile Ritz.

The hotel will be sited in this two-metre-deep, four-metre-long hole.

Five tonnes of brick and rubble will be used

to create chambers and passages large enough for slow worms,

but too small for their predators - voles, mice and rats - to get at them.

Logs, brush and twigs are all packed down on top of the rubble

to provide the reptile hotel with an efficient and green layer of insulation.

Of course, no swanky residence is complete without a grand entrance.

We're about to build the front door to our hotel.

That will help the reptiles to understand there's a nice warm entrance

for them to go into the main structure of the hibernacula.

Next, our reptile hotel needs a roof,

and the spoil from the hole is put back on top and compacted down.

And for that final touch, a few wild seeds for the landscape garden.

There...

one hibernacula.

One reptile hotel, ready for the next generation.

Of course, it might not look much to you or me,

but this really is the reptile equivalent

of an all-inclusive, six-star luxury hotel with views to die for.

I'm just hoping that when we return later in the programme,

we'll find some guests who'll agree with me.

Back at Rescue HQ, Puff the iguana is responding well to treatment.

For the past fortnight, I've been treating his wound

with saline flushes...

..and antibiotic injections.

It's very, very tough skin,

so a very sharp, tiny needle,

so he's not going to feel any pain from that.

'He's also been enjoying a gourmet diet.'

We've got rocket, some watercress,

some mango, some red pepper,

and some grated butternut squash,

and we're going to top this meal off

with a sprinkling of calcium powder.

And has all that TLC worked?

Look at that eye!

I can't believe we saved the eye, let alone that it's healed so well. Absolutely incredible!

And his jaw, thickset and strong. The calcium's doing its job.

He just looks fantastic!

Puff is one lucky iguana.

He could easily have lost that eye, or worse.

When I took him to see Mark, he was severely malnourished

and undoubtedly in some pain, but the trouble is,

unlike cats or dogs, exotic animals can't bark or miaow when they're hungry.

They don't cry or yelp when they're in pain.

In fact, direct communication with an iguana, or a tarantula,

or a snake, is really difficult, even for an expert like me.

And yet exotic pets are becoming more and more popular,

which worries me, because people often take them on without realising how difficult they are to keep.

To start with, the vast majority of exotic animals are not habituated to our colder climate

and need specialist housing, lighting, and diets,

not just to flourish but to survive.

But unfortunately, I'm increasingly coming across exotic pets in distress,

although mainly through ignorance, not cruelty.

For example, vet Mark Evans and I recently dealt with this corn snake,

badly burnt by a heat lamp.

We also dealt with the case of a blue-tongue skink

fed on a totally inappropriate diet.

Native to Australasia, in the wild, skinks will eat mostly insects, such as crickets and grubs.

But this poor young lady's owner had fed her almost exclusively on blueberries.

X-rays...

As a result, she had a severe calcium deficiency

which had led to her developing a twisted spine.

After we put her on an intense and varied diet,

she thankfully made a good recovery. But although she's not in any pain,

the spine will never heal.

But it's not just diet.

I also encounter a lot of cases of people taking on reptiles,

snakes in particular, without realising how big, strong and aggressive they'll become.

That cute little six-month-old, two-foot-long Burmese python

for sale at £175 at the pet shop down the road

will grow to an average of 18 foot, will need a vivarium the size of a small bedroom,

and will live for around 20 years.

This 15-foot Burmese ended up living with me

after being abandoned by owners who could no longer cope with her size and needs.

I don't want you to think I'm against people keeping exotic pets,

cos quite clearly I'm not. But all of the animals here -

and I have over 20 in my care at the moment -

are all exotic animals that have been rescued.

They're expensive to feed, definitely expensive to house,

and the veterinary bills don't come cheap either. I don't want to have to take on any more.

What I want is for people to carefully consider before they try

to purchase an exotic animal that they truly understand what they're letting themselves in for.

'Time for me to return to Parc Penallta and my reptile hotel.

'It's been some time since we built it.

'It's high time I checked for residents.'

Whoa! That's a total change, isn't it?

That's a year and a half since we've been here, and...

I can hardly recognise it. That's amazing, the transformation.

That was all wet mud the last time I looked at it.

The reseeding has really worked,

where we put all the seeds out and we've got... It looks like a little meadow over there now.

Of course, the reason we're here, though, is slow worms.

'Of course, my original plan was to build a reptile hotel -

'a kind of love shack where two different local populations of slow worms

'could meet, greet and breed.

'But this area is now so successfully overgrown

'I can't see my five-tonne hotel anywhere.'

Ah, that's it there, I think!

That's it. This is our reptile hotel.

Talk about camouflaged! I had a job to see it.

I had to be right on top of it to see it myself.

This really, really has worked well.

We've a lot of different species growing around it now, insulating it.

It's very useful for reptiles.

'If I'm right, the corridors of my hotel

'should now be populated by reptiles,

'including, hopefully, slow worms.

'But I'm not going to wreck my work by digging it out.

'Instead, I've had tins placed around the hotel

'and on a warm day like today, some of the reptiles should come out

'of the safe but cold hotel to warm up under them.'

Aw, too wet!

'If slow worms have moved into this area

'then I would definitely expect to find evidence,

'and I'm sincerely hoping I'll find a slow worm under one of these tins.'

Nothing, no. This one's too cold.

It's a bit like the Goldilocks syndrome, isn't it, really?

A little bit too hot, a little bit too cold. We need to find one that's just right.

We need to keep an eye out cos it's not just under the tins where we're going to be finding these animals.

They could be right out in the open. Here's another one.

The fact that we're not finding them under the tins doesn't mean that they're not here.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

-Oh, look at you!

-RHYS LAUGHS

Like a real toad, only a bit smaller!

Yay! A slow worm! We've got one! Oh!

That's brilliant. What this proves to me, if we're finding slow worms here,

we're going to have slow worms right the way down towards the pylon

and all the way back up towards the hill, so this is....

I mean, this is great. A success story. Job done.

Well, there we are. Proof positive that blood, sweat and tears gets results.

'I leave Penallta a happy man. My hotel's a success,

'and I'm confident the slow worms will be giving it a five-star review

'on the reptile Holiday Show!

'Meanwhile, I've still got one last task to fulfil

'before this series of Rhys To The Rescue draws to a conclusion.

'In Episode One, I helped rescue Billy,

'a 30-year-old chimpanzee kept in stark conditions in a Bulgarian zoo.

'Until Graham Garen of Wales Ape And Monkey Sanctuary

'persuaded the Bulgarian authorities to hand him over to his care,

'Billy hadn't seen another chimp for at least 15 years.

'Graham undertook a 4,000-mile round-trip

'to bring Billy back to Wales.

'I was called in to help introduce Billy to two potential playmates,

'rescue chimps Tubman and Bimbo.

'By nature, chimps are highly social

'and our aim was to introduce the three of them to each other

'in the hope that they would become lifelong companions,

'living in this large shared enclosure.

'But it wasn't as simple as sticking them in a room together

'to see how they got along. In the wild, and in captivity,

'chimps will attack and even kill outsiders who come into their territory.

'And we had to be certain that Bimbo and Tubman

'wouldn't assault Billy.

'And so, after a four-week settling in period...'

This is it. This is the big moment.

'..we finally introduced them to one another, face to face.'

-THEY SHRIEK

-'To begin with, things were fraught.

'An overexcited Bimbo terrified Billy.'

It's OK, it's OK. We're here, we're here.

It's OK. We're here, we're here.

'But after a bit of coaxing, and a dance...

'..a wonderful thing happened.' Look at that!

It went so well. Did you see the way they were gripping hands?

'Billy and Bimbo became buddies.

'It's now two months since they were initially introduced.

'I'm going back to the sanctuary to file my final assessment.

'Have Billy and Bimbo remained friends?

'And have Tubman and Billy formed any kind of bond?

'If the three of them are to remain together, I need to see they're happily rubbing along -

'eating together, playing, squabbling

'and making up - just like any other family.

'But before I'm reunited with the chimps,

'I've got another task to perform at the sanctuary -

'I'm going to the wolves.'

In this pen are two Canadian timber wolves

that were confiscated by the German government from a zoo

and brought here to the sanctuary in Wales.

Now, they're not socialised wolves, they're not habituated to humans,

and today, it's time for their monthly medicine,

and that means getting hands on.

-Morning, Graham.

-Morning.

'I absolutely love wolves and I've spent

'a number of years studying them in the wild and in captivity,

'which is why I'm confident about getting in the pen with them.

'But before I can get near them to administer their medicine, they need to get used to me.'

What I'm doing at the moment is getting the wolves used to my scent.

I just want them to realise that I'm no threat to them whatsoever.

Wolves are very misunderstood.

I think most people think that if you sit down with wolves

they're immediately going to attack you.

And they're formidable predators, don't get me wrong,

but the last thing they really want to do is run up and bite you.

If they've got the choice, they'll avoid you. In the wild,

there are very few cases of people being attacked by wolves. The signs are looking good

because the wolves are coming closer and closer to me,

which means they're becoming a little bit more habituated.

'OK, time to get the medicine show on the road.'

What we're doing now is bringing one wolf in at a time,

and the wolf's doing exactly what we thought it would do -

it's going under the cover, under the shelter there.

We've now got to apply the pour-on to the neck.

Pour-on is a non-toxic, anti-parasite compound

that soaks in through the skin.

We have to do this to make sure that this animal

is de-wormed, de-flea-ed and de-ticked.

This is dangerous. Graham could get bitten here,

and a wolf can bite down 1,700 lb per square inch. It's not like a dog bite.

So we've just got to keep everything nice and calm.

The next thing we do is put a towel

over the animal's eyes, just to calm it down.

OK.

The pour-on has to be applied to bare skin.

OK. All right there?

Hold still, hold still.

Well done, well done. Backing away.

There we go.

The next thing to do is take the loop back off the neck.

OK, Graham.

Job done. Good.

'And we repeated the same treatment on the second wolf.'

That went better than I anticipated and I just hope these guys forgive me before my next visit!

'It's the moment I've been waiting for.

'I'm about to be reacquainted with Bimbo, Tubman and Billy.

'But suddenly, I'm a bit nervous.

'I feel like the guy who's persuaded three of his mates to share a flat.'

Hello, boys.

'If the arrangement's worked out, I'll be welcomed with open arms.

'But if it's a disaster, they'll probably throw bananas at me.' Do you remember the camera?

'Thankfully, Billy seems happy to see me.

'He's looking quite at home.'

Come on, Billy.

'It soon becomes apparent that Billy and Bimbo are still firm friends,

'something Bimbo's more than happy to celebrate.'

Come on! Whoo!

THEY LAUGH

Whoo!

'Tubman's happy to join in, too.'

Come on, Tubs. Get him out to play.

'And Billy? Well, he's just taking it all in his stride.'

Billy likes tangerines, too.

-Oh, right.

-When he came, he couldn't peel them himself.

Now it's not a problem!

-Do you think he'd ever seen a tangerine before he came here?

-Possibly not.

They said they used to peel all his food and just chop it up.

He's certainly enjoying himself now. Look at that.

-How has he been since we've last seen him?

-They've settled down really well.

They spend their days inside the room here. They sit together, they groom each other, they play tag.

They just look so, so happy.

He's not at all bothered, Billy.

RHYS LAUGHS

You know, a lot of chimps, they see Tubman like that, now,

then they think he's going to be nasty to them.

You'd think he'd be worried, but he's just sat there eating his tangerines.

-Yeah. It doesn't look as if anything would faze Billy at all now.

-No.

He's just totally happy.

He's got this face of, "Yeah, I've seen it all before." He's seen all the dancing and commotion.

He's got tangerines. He's not bothered.

I am so happy for you.

I am really so happy for you that you've fitted in so well.

I am so proud of you, Billy - you have done so well,

haven't you? You've fitted in so well.

Do you know, I...

I undertake so many rescues each year -

some happy, some sad,

some good, some bad -

and to get a success story like Billy,

it just makes it all worthwhile

and it just reminds me, I literally have the best job in the world.

Oh, and he's got me again!

THEY LAUGH

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd