Episode 2 Autumnwatch

Autumn has well and truly arrived. Plenty of squirrels out and about,

gnawing and storing. And the raptors are calling and soaring. And my

foxes are pawing. We are here to celebrate the most colourful time of

year. Welcome to Autumnwatch. Hello and welcome to Autumnwatch

2017! It is our second evening from the National Trust Sherborne park

estate in Gloucestershire and we are alive and we have a mission to bring

you the very best of British wildlife at this time of year.

Without delay, hesitation, stopping to pay ?200, passing go, let's take

a look at our thermal camera which is out on the estate at the moment.

There is something there, what do you reckon? You can see here is. It

is a field mouse! British wildlife! We bring you a mouse. It is sweet.

Look! Very good. Very sweet. Moments ago, we were looking at this, as

ever, the wildlife let us down slightly, this is a deer, it looks

like a fallow deer. But it is behind the gate! Yes, it is, a fallow deer.

There she is. Yes. We will be coming back to those later in the

programme. OK. Last night, rather to our surprise, most of the action

took place down on the Sherborne brook. Let's go live to the brook.

There it is. Absolutely... Absolutely nothing! There should be

back there, don't worry but there was one! We just missed it. But lots

and lots has been going on down there. We filmed this just last

night. This was a real shock. An otter, I think the best one we have

seen since we came to Sherborne. They were very elusive in the

spring. They were. It was pouring its way over the bottom am looking

for fish. That fallen branches are kind of highway for mice and

rodents. The stars of the show! There was a bat and boom! The tawny

owl comes in and tries to nail the mouse. We think the mouse got away

but the tawny owl is getting its eye in. It goes off and it is keeping

watch on the log and boom, a rat! It manages to escape and swims away to

live another day. But the tawny owl is not finished. He has a sit down,

thinking, "I've got this nailed now, there are lots of things walking up

and down and I'm going to wait to ambush them again". Somewhere in the

background now, another rat, coming across. Will it come? LAUGHTER

Yes! And a rat got away again, it let go. Good effort, though. But

that really amazes me because it is really noisy down there, I was

there, there is a weir and everything but owls hunt would

sound? It's very noisy, it has got abusing its eyesight, seeing the

animals and recognising it is a highway, and it is that in the tree,

using its eyes but not it is. I'm surprised it is trying to take adult

rats, average weight, 230 grams, a tawny owl's average weight is about

470 grams, so it's of its own body weight and big rats can be up to

600. They are robust and have a fierce bite but as we know, the

tawny owl is a formidable predator. We saw them a couple of years ago

taking wood pigeons and magpies so adult rats, most owls and things

like kestrel and barn owls would not take on an adult like that but we

got. A big meal. Ricardo Fuller tawny owls! That was all in

black-and-white but at Waterwatch we are about colour, so let's see some

colourful animals in the river. That's beautiful! A brown trout,

youngster, all those gorgeous colours, red spots down its flanks.

How big do you think it is? You said yesterday they vary in size. A

couple of metres? How do you know that? About the size of a great

white! Will have do lower some rulers into the water. Isn't it a

beautiful fish? Lovely animals. Is or colour? Yes, please. Rustic

orange and electric blue, the Kingfisher, and depending on the

size of the drought we just saw, the Kingfisher could be fishing for that

very trout because they do gophers more drought. Minnows, sticklebacks.

Great to see it down. -- they do go for small crowd. Now you can sure

few ornithological knowledge, was it a male or female Kingfisher? I don't

know, I didn't see it close up, was it a male? It was a female, they

wear lipstick, the bottom of their bill is red. I was not paying

attention to the bill. You would know it otherwise! Some of the

wildlife we have at Sherborne and we are live here but not just here

because Gillian is in Bournemouth and we saw her yesterday and she was

in this fabulous garden where they have regular fox visitors. But she

is not just sitting back enjoying the spectacle. No, she is the boxes

to the test. Yes, I am in a suburb of Bournemouth

because this garden has become a for urban foxes. That is because the

owners have been feeding foxes for decades and they come here every

single night without fail. Let's get a really good look at this. They are

out here right now. I know they look really tame but these are wild

animals. If I reached to open the door, they would be off like a shot

and isn't that how it should be? Wild animals driving in amongst our

homes and Gardens. While we have been here, we have been treated to

this kind of sight a lot, seen about six individuals, and go in the last

few days but more recently, I was treated to a really close encounter.

For most of us, seeing foxes is a fleeting glimpse down the lane. But

check this out! This is what happens when you spend 16 years being really

dedicated and leaving food out for these animals, like Sandy has. We

have been watching them for the last few weeks. It is amazing how

different each individual is. This one is really bold. It comes right

up close. It is really quite used to seeing people in here and movement.

Often, the TV is on and there are people in here talking at the lights

are on and this is what it does. It is really, really amazing

opportunity to watch individual foxes learn about their

characteristics and what makes them so successful in our cities and

suburbs. Now that fox we saw there is the one

that the owners called Teardrop. We think he is a male, he is a

subadult, born this spring and he is one of the foxes that really engage

with a scientific experiment we set up with the help of Dr Dawn Scott at

the University of Brighton. What we set out to do was to test the

problem-solving skills, the intelligence of urban foxes. Here is

what we saw on last night's show. This is the single string

experiment. It is phase one of the experiment and that is a fox called

Blondie, who grabs hold of the cube, startled herself but then comes back

and grabbed the reward. The other one, Teardrop, here, with those dark

patches on its muzzle, and like Blondie, Teardrop pulled the string

and gets the reward. So this was just the first two Knights of the

experiment. Both foxes figured it out but Teardrop is the one that

really ran with it. Once Teardrop figured out the single

string experiment, he came back and each time we reset the experiment

and baited it again, he would come back and he really started to have

some fun with this and started pulling so he broke the Fox Box

experiment. There he is, getting his reward. This is clearly one clever

Fox. In just two Knights, he got the experiment right in six out of seven

attempts. So what happened when we decided to take it to the next

level? We moved from one string to a two string experiment, still with

just one roared, of course, -- one reward, a piece of chicken but given

the choice, would Teardrop pull on the right string? Let's see what

happens. Now, here we are. The food is on the bottom of the two strings.

And here comes Teardrop. But he goes for the first string he sees, Paul

that it and there is no food, no reward. He is confused. -- pulls it.

This is not how it has been. But he keeps looking. Second try, again, he

just goes to the first string he sees and again, same result, no

food. It was not until hours later that he finally went to the right

string and pulled his reward. And there he goes, snatching it out.

Now, clearly, Teardrop looks like he struggled with that and we did sort

of worry, and we outfoxed the Fox? Perhaps he just needed a bit more

time so that is what we gave him and we will find out what happened later

in the show. Back to you, Martin and Michaela.

I could watch that all night long. I'm thinking I'm going to go back

and test my foxes. We are on to the start of something, Fox Mastermind

Uk. You could make that. Probably not in Perspex but nothing else.

Would it be successful? I think so but it is a very smart box. We were

catching up on some of the bird that had not quite fledged when we left

in Springwatch, the barn owls and the kestrels and they'll

successfully fledged but what about the other raptors that we were

watching? The bothered and the kite? Let's take a look. We have a single

buzzard in the nest that was being very well cared for by its parents

and eating an enormous range of food. Here, it is enjoying an

earthworm. Well, it's got stuck around his head but it is serving

its purpose. The kites were fantastic, extraordinary views into

the nest of the individuals and by the time we left them, they were

branching, they had left the nest and were practising their wing

flapping. The naturalists at the National Trust continue to watch

them and I'm pleased that -- to say that the kites fledged soon

afterwards and the bothered as well. What happened to them? Within the --

within about 70 days, the kites would have been independent, finding

food for themselves and at that stage, they can travel great

distances. One went 1020 kilometres to Iceland. When it comes to

breeding age, two or three, they come back and most of them come back

and read within 22 kilometres of where they were hatched, and similar

for the bothered. At the moment, the buzzard has probably drifted off a

long way but it will probably come back to breed within 12 kilometres

of the estate. It would be great to come back in three years and see

them nesting! That is how they should increase the numbers. Those

were the raptors at Sherborne but I have to say my favourite nest was at

Salisbury Cathedral, the peregrine nest. We had two adults that nested

at the top of Salisbury Cathedral and they had a chick but when it was

19 days old, a foster chick was introduced into the nest by the

RSPB. It was found often. It was amazing because it was very quickly

accepted by both parents who provided a range of food and both

chicks thrived. They were given names, after rivers, one was called

Dean Andy Frost one was called T20. This is the update. When we left

them, they were just a few weeks away from fledging. You can see

Wylie is the one in the front, full feathers and Dean is the one at the

back with a bit of down. After we left them, the cameras stayed on and

there was plenty of wing flapping and there was a view attempted

efforts at fledging. -- a few attempted. You can see that Wylie is

the one doing more of the flying but this is Dean, look at this, a

valiant effort, did not quite make it that time. As expected, Wylie was

the first at 46 days old, on the 28th of June. Followed a few days

later by Dean on the 2nd of July at 44 days old. Both of them stayed

around the cathedral, exactly what we would expect and both were still

being fed by the parents and that would go on for at least another

couple of months. It was a really heart-warming story and it is even

more heart-warming to know that both of them successfully fledged. We

were given fantastic privilege to views of them. It was amazing but

where are they now? Slightly different with peregrines than it is

with Stoke and foxes where the females stay and the males

disappear. With peregrines, as we noticed a couple of years ago, it is

the males that tend to stay, as we noticed in Bath a couple of years

ago. They were both males but whether they are still on territory,

we don't know, we have not had any reports of the coloured rings but we

know where the female is because she was the first-ever adult peregrine

fitted with a satellite tracking device in the UK and we put it on in

the summer. This is going to be great news, giving us new science

and better informing conservation but it means we also know exactly

where she goes. She was active in the summer here, Salisbury Cathedral

in the centre, quite a small range of about 36 square compass, not

travelling far to find food for youngsters but this is where she is

active now, a massive increase in range, up to 197 square kilometres,

all the way to Stonehenge at the top and covering a much broader area and

probably catching a much greater range of food with all the wildlife

and waders in the area at the moment. We will follow her

throughout the winter and bring you an update. Fantastic to get the

data, really interesting but what is even more fantastic, of all the

raptors that we had an Springwatch, kestrels, barn owls, buzzards, red

kite and peregrine falcons, all of them successfully fledged. That's

remarkable. We like a bit of good news!

Yesterday, we talked about how the changing climate brought rare birds

on to our shores to breed. It is not just birds, we have attracted some

stunning insects as well. It's the end of September, and in

London's Richmond Park, change is in the air. As verdant green gives way

to rustic red, and some residents are making their Mark in this

ancient royal park. But while a cacophony of noise and

announces the brash presence of ringnecked parakeets, strange scars

on Waterside branches are a far more subtle clue to a far more recent

coloniser. The Willow Emerald damselfly. Last

night's residue from the dew adds a jewel-like quality to her body. But

after drying off, a flick of this female's wings launches her into the

air. Resting nearby is another Willow

Emerald. At first glance, it's indistinguishable from the female.

But upon closer inspection, a pair of prominent pincer, gives the game

away. It is a male. There is no time to waste for either sex, for the

damselflies, the short days autumn are the time to breed. Like tiny

helicopters, the damselflies dance in the autumnal sun. Males vying for

a female, and the chance to reproduce. The sky is full of

courting couples. But to mate successfully, the male needs to get

a good grip. The female, held tightly around the

back of the head with the male's class was, brings her abdomen up to

mate with him. He mustn't let go. Other males won't hesitate to knock

him off. Like other damselflies, the pairs's

contorted bodies create a contorted ring. But unlike other species, the

Willow Emeralds won't lay their eggs in water. Instead, they choose a

more unusual and much drier location - the trees.

The female uses a specially designed over positive to pierce the bark,

Lei Li two! In a tiny hole below the surface.

Now that he knows this pairing has been a success, the male wastes no

time in heading off to search for another damsel. Leaving this female

to continue to carefully deposit the next generation. This egg laying

behaviour is unique in the damselfly world.

The eggs will over winter in the butt, insulated and away from most

predators, ensuring a high survival rate. Come spring, the eggs will

hatch, and the nymphs will drop directly into the water nursery

below. First recording in any numbers in

2009, these enchant in creatures and the tell-tale scars they leave are

likely to become an ever more familiar sight as the climate warms,

and our Summers stretch out. The dazzling dance of the damselflies is

an autumn spectacle that is here to stay.

They're absolutely enchanting. When you look at them in close up like

that, they are really beautiful. There are at least 56 different

species of dragonfly and damselfly in the UK. They are difficult to

tell apart. It is not easy to tell a damselfly from a dragonfly, so there

is a handy online guide that you can check out on the website. A good

news story with the damselflies come to the UK. But you will know there

is bad news in the insect world, a group of German entomologist

amateurs started measuring the biomass of large flying insects, the

biomass being their body weight. We can represent that, therefore, as

the baseline in their study. They continue to record this all the way

up until last year. This is what they found. There has been a decline

in large flying insect biomass in Germany of 75%. There are no studies

that have been conducted in the UK, which run in parallel to this, but

given that it is Germany and the man management is the same as in the UK,

we can imagine a similar situation is happening here. You may think

climate is responsible, changes in the climate, but critical analysis

of this data reveals climate is not to blame. It might be habitat

fragmentation, loss of habitat. That could be playing a role, but

whatever, this is justifiably being described as an ecological

catastrophe, with far-reaching consequences. If you lose all these

insects, it has a massive impact further up the food chain. We have

already seen that. Great partridges, for instance, we have monitored

these birds for some time. Between 1970 and 2014, they have enjoyed a

92% decline. Spotted flycatchers, a different sort of bird, but in that

period, again, they have declined by 86%. These are just a couple of

species dependent on these insects. Of course, everyone is grabbing for

a smoking gun, and one of the success suspect culprits are

in June this year, a particular group of pesticides was proven to

have harmful effects on both honeybees and wild bees. An entirely

separate, another controversial chemical, it has been shown to be

harmful to insects. One thing is click on what we need is more

rigorous, robust science to be conducted very, very quickly, so we

can understand this, and it can inform our decision-making. It

really very, very urgent. It's shocking news, isn't it. As you say,

we need more data. That takes time and a change of policy will also

take time. What can we do? There is something we can do and it is very

simple, it is this - plant wild flowers. In spring but, we talked

about plant pots for pollinators, and encouraging people to plant wild

flowers. If you managed to plant a wild flower meadow, even better. It

is so important to have flowers throughout the year. Autumn, it is

important to not over manicure them, then we'd stuff out. Ivy is

important, let it grow. It is vital as a late nectar source for

pollinators. Lots of information on our website about that. As you said,

it is a catastrophe, isn't it. An absolute catastrophe. Do you know,

Chris, I think humans, as a species, are good at reacting when we are in

complete and utter crisis mode. This is a crisis mode, so we need to

react. Let's move from despair to desire, Martin...

What sort of desire, Chris? Autumnwatch wouldn't be Autumnwatch

if we didn't have rotting dear. We have been lucky enough over the

years to record the deer at it. A most spectacular sight, red deer,

they are willing to offer all, to lose their lives for the chance to

mate with the female. Look at that. Here is a sika deer, it not natural,

from China, they have been in the wild for 160 years. And look at

this, the fallow, a beautiful deer, often in parks with those great big

antlers, trying to entice the females.

The thing is, when we have managed to fill those deer rutting, we have

done it in a park, not like here in Sherborne. They are fully wild deer.

They are here, but you have to look closely. If you come with me, let's

have a look. You can see, hear, it is what they call a browse line.

Deer have gone along here and nipped off bits of the hedge. You get a

gap, which is not obvious. Here is something I have found. Look at

that. That Bramble on the end has been nipped off by a deer. They love

a juicy bit of Bramble. You can see that at home if you go out into the

woods. We know for sure there are some deer here, but what types of

deer, what deer are here? I met up with the estate's deer

manager, Bill win. He has worked here for 23 years, and if anyone can

help us find the Amat, Bill can. We assume the position, and settle

down. Bill has gone off, because he knows the woods so well, he is

trying to gently push deer in my direction. I don't know if it's

going to work. But I've got to be really quiet, and sit absolutely

still. Bill, I did manage to film

something. I saw something belt across there. Back in the wood, I

saw another one over at nearly 100 acre field. Two! Plus, a fallow.

I've seen a Brown flash. That sums it up. Thanks very much indeed,

anyway. You are welcome. 6-0. You'll saw six, I saw none.

There are much more obvious signs of deer if you know where to look. Bill

took me to have a look. This looks like, to the uninitiated,

a muddy area, but there is more to it than that. This is a fallow but

scrape, made during the rut to Mark his territory, and to let all the

local females know he is around. And he will be your innate into it, he

will do all this fraying of the branches all around his scrape. I

can see down here, I suppose the size of the slot box. That of the

beast. That is quite deep. And there is a nice smell, a pungent smell. I

am afraid that is the smell of rutty but. He has glands on his head and

his feet. This is both for other bucks, that are intimidated by this.

But also saying he is a big and attractive guide to the females.

"Come and join me." That is it! Despite all of Bill Mac's help, I

didn't see a single deer. So I set the wild camera team a challenge,

could they go out in Sherborne and film the deer and tell us what

species are really here. This is a little much Jack, a

Marmite dear, some people don't like them. They are not a natural

speeches, they are invasive. But they are spreading across the

country. That is one. This is a roe deer, with that lovely white button

and the moustache you can see. Two species, and the next one is

fantastic, just what you might expect to see, really hard to see,

hidden in the woods, you can tell with the great antlers, this is a

fallow deer, a magnificent buck stopped I have never seen antlers as

big as that, they looked like polished walnut, absolutely

gorgeous. He is not just hanging about in the woods, there is a

female there as well. You can hear that belching call, here is the

female. Watch carefully. There it is. That is a fallow dear

meeting! Hats off to the camera team to mount -- for managing to film

that. Hand-macro mating is very quick, a single trust. Let's peer

into the darkness and see if we can see any deer with our live camera.

Oh, no! A moment ago, we saw this and there is a deer. It looks like a

fallow to me, they are surprisingly big, fallow deer, and they have an

astonishing ability for such a big animal to just melt into the

undergrowth, quite extraordinary. Lovely. Great to see. We have at

last seen a couple, there are three species here. Have you seen any deer

at all since we have been here? I have, Martin, Michaela and I saw

some driving in in the car this morning! Isn't it just the way, as

they say. Do you know what? It made us feel really good because we know

increasingly that nature can make us feel good. People have started going

out into the woods, and in days of yore, this would have been a hippie

action but now we think there is some good science behind it. One of

the things we know physiologically is that our eyes are especially

adapted to see well in the green and green yellow part of the spectrum.

We can see more colour in that part of the colour spectrum that is

visible to us than in any other part -- part which indicates we have been

involved to be in that environment, not the built environment which we

find so much more stressful. But we all know, Chris, I know if I feel

stressed during the day and I'm behind my laptop although, as soon

as I go and walk my dog, Rio, either in the mountain, which I love, or

the beach, I instantly feel better, the stress comes off your shoulders

and you are the same? Yes, I go out every morning with a scratch and it

undeniably makes me feel better. But this is not just about feeling, this

is not just a subjective thing any longer, scientists have investigated

this and they have seen that the saliva recall is, the measuring

stress, goes down and also our heart rate and blood pressure goes down

and the amount of natural killer cells in our body goes up, natural

killer cells are those which attack things like viral infections and

tumours. It is even thought that we imbibe and take in from the

atmosphere, the wooded atmosphere, certain chemicals that promote the

development of these cells in our body. Science is beginning to prove

that natural therapy definitely works. Look at you and I, we spend a

lot of time outdoors and we are completely rounded, grounded,

healthy individuals! It does not always work! On a serious note,

though, we know connecting with the outdoors can have a profound effect

on us. For lyrical poet Marchant Barron, who suffers from cerebral

palsy, connecting with wildlife and the outdoors gives him a voice. With

the help of his friends and support team and the staff at Westonbirt

Arboretum, he tells us in his own words how nature inspires him.

When I'm with trees, I feel they know me.

Just being with a tree sparks my poetry.

Their stillness ripens my words. Trees are my sanctuary. Take Army,

like a hand on my shoulder. -- they calm me. Whatever is happening in my

life, this sense of alwaysness comforts me. For him, poetry is his

voice, it is where you get a true insight into what he thinks and how

he sees the world. I think it is the piece that he finds in trees, the

quiet, just a place where he can get away from the world for a bit and

just really connect with nature. They seem to make him feel very calm

and still. They are almost listening to him and watching him. I have

always written poetry in my head. My dream was to have my words floating

in the autumn trees like a piece of art. When my poems are put within

the tree, there's a direct connection with that tree, a

conversation. In a book, this may be lost. The Arboretum is a library of

trees, holding people's fractured stories. When I saw the horse

chestnut, I fell in love. This old, playful tree has spread its roots

and looks as if it is wondering. It made me think, even when we are

tethered, we are free, which is true for us all.

We can be tethered, yet we are free in our minds.

The dipping of branches into and out of the earth creates adventitious

roots. It made me laugh to hear how this horse chestnut's roots were

indeed adventurers. I saw how this tree pushes on through the soil to

fill the earth with its joyful shape so this tree became tangled foot and

will always be an adventurer. The tethered wonder reaches out, as

muscled trunks stretch in the morning light. Entangled with

languorous limbs, a shadow spill. Sinew to hands got spiked, crusted

fruit. Blood burst. Polished leather strong and the grounds of Amber, an

bar, honeyed gold, a tumble full. -- Amber, always. Remember battles? The

miss then clip, click, split of conkers, playful.

This ring of six yews creates a shelter belt. EV sheltered and

enclosed in Evergreen. I wanted this poem to be about sanctuary and how

sanctuary is not always light. In darkness, we find the light. I

believe that the trees know our darkness. Dealing with darkness is

about being and waiting. Hallowed. Wait, don't rush through the

darkness. Watch the yews paint evergreen on this cloistered eclipse

of sky. Outside, seeds pirouette. Here, colours cool. Winds harsh

within the wooded henge. Gather your shadows in this route flock to

resting place. -- root-locked resting place. Leave them to pale in

the moonlight. Ahead, the path awakes with maples.

It makes me feel the most complete I can be. I know myself more.

But for me, this project is all about the trees and having people

Fantastic. Great to see Marchant Barron's ambition realised, with the

poetry at Westonbirt but you have to admire people who can take a broad

experience, personalise it, distil it and put it into some beautiful

form which is instantly communicable to everyone else. That is what

poetry is about and he mastered it, absolutely superb. Let's go back to

Bournemouth now to see how Gillian is getting on with her foxes.

Well, I'm feeling very close to nature as well because right now, we

have got our star, Teardrop, who has been feeding. We have been watching

it all this time feeding out there. He's just dashed off but it has just

been lovely to be able to observe, to watch all this behaviour. There

was a vixen in here. They had a little play, chasing each other

around and it is just wonderful but it is not just foxes that come to

this garden. A few days ago, I was treated to another encounter with a

more surprising urban resident. As if it was not enough to have

foxes in your garden, there's a badger that is just on the scene! I

can't believe how close it came. It is incredible to see them all

together like this. They are very tolerant of each other. Foxes and

badgers have a kind of unsteady truce. They are known to share the

same boroughs and they share a lot of traits they are both omnivores,

they are quite experimental with their food. So that means they are

both quite successful and take advantage of places like this. While

the foxes are very curious, they will investigate different parts of

the garden, the badgers have a set run and they know where the food is

and they make a beeline for it. And then they just settle in and chow

down. Foxes have been able to move into towns and cities and suburbs

but this is not usual. These badgers are here because a relic of woodland

just outside, at the back of this garden, and it means there is a

habitat for them to retreat to but because Sandy has put in years of

dedication and love feeding these animals, this is the sort of treat

that she has in her garden. What a treat it is. I really have to

say a massive thank you to Sandy and Bruce Haslam for letting us take

over their home and providing this place where we can see foxes and

badgers in the same place. It is not just a treat. It has actually been

really useful to see how these really different animals have

reacted to our Fox Box experiment and, well, the foxes took to it

pretty well but how did the badgers react?

Well, that is what the badger thought of the Fox Box experiment!

It is just as well, to be honest because badgers are like these

little bulldozers, little tanks and they would have just completely

destroyed the experiment. If you remember, we were trying to get to

see if Teardrop would get through phase two of the experiment. Just to

remind you, phase two was taking the experiment on from one string, onto

two springs but still with just one reward. -- two strings. Not sweet, a

piece of chicken, of course, but we were going to keep moving the reward

back and forth to make sure Teardrop did not start to favour one string

over the other. And if you remember, Teardrop really struggled with this.

So given a bit more time, let's see how he got on.

So you can see that the food is on the top but Teardrop goes to the

string that he found the food on the last time and pulls it back and gets

no reward. We reset and he comes back. This time, we see something

new. He pulls a little bit but then he stops and he looks, he really

looks and sniffs and it is like he is really trying to work out, he can

see the little morsel committees trying to work out where the food

is, he decides it is on the right-hand side and he gives it an

almighty tug and get the food. We keep resetting the experiment at

each time he tries, the more he does it, he gets better and better. And

again, he goes back and checks which one has it and pulls the string and

again, gets the reward. And it is worth it, he's got it. So this was

run over six nights and he just got better and better, to the point

where the last three nights, he got this right 100% of the time. Now by

all accounts, it looks like Teardrop was learning so we took this to Dawn

Scott and what was interesting was that she was not surprised at all

because dogs can do this and of course, foxes are closely related to

dogs. So we decided we had to up the ante again and we took the

experiment on to phase three which involved crossing the strings like

that. Leaving just one reward again. Would Teardrop figure out which

string connected to the reward and pull the right string? This is

something that dogs cannot do. So, Martin and Michaela, what do you

think? Is Teardrop smarter than the average dog?

Tricky. Definitely, yes. My dog could easily beat the fox. Mine

could definitely not. We will find out, anyway. Gillian will join us on

Thursday to give us the results of that final experiment. How amazing

is that garden gnome, but only do they have foxes, but badgers as

well. That is something Dawn Scott was interested in in the spring,

when she asked for your help with a scheme she was launching called

Spring tails. She wanted clips of interactions with different mammals

in the garden. What was the top mammal? Who beat who when it came to

food? Amazing, actually. 700 people sent in. Brilliant. It is brilliant.

Thank you to everyone that sent some in. 600 were analysed. Let's look at

some of them. This is from Chris down, this is cats and a fox. Keep

an eye on the cat in the foreground, and look to the right of them. It

was a fox. It came in and the cats saw that fox. I think that's quite

surprising. I think they are ganging up. They were. Ganging up in a cruel

manner. The next one is Badger versus hedgehog. He is a hedgehog

and a badger badgers are often accused of eating hedgehogs. But

hedgehogs are digging in! It is like a rugby scrum! I love that, that is

brilliant. Do you think the Badger got up and the hedgehog was stuck to

his side?! What about hedgehogs versus hedgehog

's? We had a lot of clips sent in with this. This particular clip

starts off slow, give it a chance, it was viewed by 5.5 million people

on Facebook. Doctor Dawn... He just face plants in the food! As well as

the common animals you might expect to find in a garden, some people

said in an usual clips. This is an otter. There is some food near the

middle. The fox comes creeping in behind. We'll be otter comeback was

not what will happen if it does? That fox is seen off! When the fox

is coming, will he hope that the otter has disappeared? Yes. The

otter has gone, or has he? No, he hasn't! He may be coming, but he is

a bit of a wuss. A lot of people would think the fox comes out on top

in these interactions, but it doesn't. Otters are tough animals

when you get up close to them. It is no surprise. Do you want the

results? Cats win over foxes. Badger holds the ground over cats. Badgers

eat foxes. Who is the top drum? Badgers. -- top trump. Thank you for

sending that in. We love it when you get involved. We are challenging you

further, because yesterday, we asked you to send in clips of clever

animals in your garden. Send those in and we will show them tomorrow.

We want things like brainy bats. That would be good. What else could

we have? Smart sparrowhawks. That type of stuff! But not dogs!

Watching animals is always exciting, whether they are tiny creatures or

enormous animals, Lucy Cooke went north... where is my map? Here.

Right up north, this is the Isle of Arran. She got into the sea here,

she saw one of the biggest animals of them all.

Each summer, the world's largest aggregation of basking sharks can be

seen off the Scottish coast, feeding on the plankton rich waters around

the inner Hebrides. During the autumn, they migrate southwards to

their wintering grounds, after reports that some may be stopping

here in the Firth of Clyde, a survey was carried out last autumn, proving

that a healthy number of sharks did visit last year.

One year on, I am joining a research expedition to find out if the Clyde

really is a migration hotspot for these ocean giants. Let's go!

This is our home for the day. We are packed to the gunwales with friendly

scientists and eager tourists. If there are any basking sharks out

there, I hope we will spot them because we have enough eyes

watching. These people have come from all over. There is someone from

Norway. We have had people from Australia, America and even Thailand

that have turned up. We have an incredible wildlife spectacle on our

doorstop. Head guide looks sadly is in charge of monitoring the sharks,

and he is building up a database of their movements. Last year, we saw

over 30 shots. We catalogued 26 individuals. Hell do you identify

them? We take a photograph of the basking shark. We look at the dorsal

fin of the shop. This is essentially what we are looking for. We are

looking for these. That is right, the basking shark dorsal fin can be

up to a metre high. You have a lot of information on this fin. If you

look at the surface, there is distinctive pigmentation. By

triangulating these together, we can get a positive ID. You get some

distinctively marked Finns. This one has a groove on the apex, hence the

name, Group E. I have never seen a basking shark,

and I would dearly love to see one today, what do you think our chances

are? Our chances are reasonable. We are in the right place at the right

time of year, it is a case of the plankton abundance being enough to

fee. So we should stop talking and get back to it? Yeah. All right.

A good indicator of the presence of sharks is the presence of shark

food. We have got different status of pots, mainly smaller ones. At the

range of under a millimetre to if you bigger ones, which are 2-3

millimetres. These are the ones the sharks are after. They are tiny

blobs of fat, high energy. If you consume enough, you can fuel

something as large as a basking shark. Exactly.

Yeah. Frustratingly, even with plankton in the area, the sharks

continue to interviewed us. But that they are here at all is a minor

miracle. For centuries, these beautiful animals were hunted, and

the last basking shark was killed in the UK in 1994, right here in the

Firth of Clyde. A hunting ban has been in place ever since. If we can

prove the sharks are coming back year on year, it will show how

effective that ban has been. We have been scanning the water for

about five hours. I have to say I am starting to lose hope. But now the

wind is coming up, and all of these waves looked like they could be

Finns. The thing about basking sharks is they have been

inappropriately named, because it implies they lounge around on the

surface, but they only spend 10% of the time on the surface. The rest is

spent much deeper, and is why they are so mysterious. I have a feeling

their mysteries are going to hold for another day for me.

Unfortunately, my hunch was spot on. After eight hours on the water, we

headed back to shore for a debrief. The area we travelled through today

are places where you have seen basking sharks before, why do you

think... the guys have been working hard to work on the plankton data.

Last year, we had over 6000 per cubic metre squared. Tomorrow is

another day and we will be back on the water looking again, looking for

Finns on the surface. It's still early days for this

research project, and because the basking sharks are just passing

through, they only have a really short window to gather data. So,

it's easy to understand, really, how these massive animals have managed

to remain so mysterious for so many years. Arles admit, I really wish

I'd got to see one. But it's always good to have an excuse to come back.

Have you ever seen one, Chris? I have come off the Isle of Man. I

have, too. I swam with them. I spent some time out by tracing, and I

spent a lot of time this year by a cafe where they do lovely green tea.

You won't see a basking shark in a cafe. You can look over the water

and see the Finns. Did you see one? Know, like Lucy. Why didn't Lucy C

one there? It is probably because of the stormy weather. What happens is

the plankton, they need it at the surface, the basking sharks. With

the stormy weather, they spread over a larger area, or they can be lower.

If it is 20 metres down, basking sharks are there, but you will never

see them. Whilst we are on the marine environment, if you watched

last night, we launched an initiative called sea bird watch. We

wanted you to have us count sea birds from photographs put up. I am

pleased to say, by 6p and today, 26,994 images have been processed.

No less than 236 had been done by one individual. Top work! You are

doing well, but you need to do better. The fate of these sorts of

birds, they are adorable. Steady... They are impressive. Impressive

looking at this. This is just a star. The review was of stargazing

live did better armour currently, than the viewers of Autumnwatch.

Please, rise to the challenge. Analyse more pictures and help these

very adorable, adorable sea birds, and you will find the details on the

website. Get your kids to do it. It is half term. It is a good thing to

do, get them doing that. That is all we have time for. What have we got

coming up tomorrow? Jullien swap 's canines for incisors, she leaves the

foxes to go to Cornwall to look at Beevers.

And we plunge into the depths of a puddle to find a creature that has

been hanging around there since the time of the dinosaurs.

Chris and I are going head to head, top gun for us. We may not be

allowed to say that. We will find out the top bird, goose or Swan,

tomorrow. Really looking forward to that. We hope you have enjoyed the

show. We are back tomorrow night, 8pm, BBC Two. See you then. Goodbye!