Episode 1 Rhys Jones's Wildlife Patrol

'Welsh wildlife is under attack

'and I'm on the front line trying to protect it.

'At sea, on land...' Oh, wow.

'..and in the air our 5,000 native species

'of birds, mammals and reptiles...'

This is all fresh.

'..are threatened daily by illegal activity.

Black Swan. '..vandals...'

That was a slow worm cooked right through.

'..and alien invaders.'

That's not happy. That is not happy.

'I'm Dr Rees Jones, and from my laboratory

'at Cardiff University I work with the police...'

Hello, police.

'..wildlife groups, and concerned members of the public...'

Tell me the story of exactly how you found him.

'..in the fight to save our animals from humans

'and humans from animals.'

OK, everybody stay still. Stay still.

'And in this programme, is there a poaching problem in Maesteg?

'What's in the box, and why is it scaring this cop?

'And there's a sting in the tail...'

That is absolutely deadly.

'..for a creepy-crawly lover.'

If you get stung by that, you're lucky to survive an hour to two hours.

Each year, our four Welsh police forces

deal with approximately 600 wildlife crime incidents.

But it's also estimated that between two and three times that number goes unreported.

That's because the majority of wildlife crimes -

badger baiting, the killing of birds of prey, and poaching -

occurs in the most remote and least populated parts of Wales.

So when a concerned member of the public informed me

that several wild fallow deer were visiting their garden

and that they all had similar debilitating leg injuries,

my first thought was, "Is this the result of a horribly botched poaching job?"

Whatever was going on, it needed further investigation.

So I made my way down to Cwmfelin near Maesteg,

to the home of Sharon Whatley,

whose large garden the injured deers had been visiting.

Most days we get visits from one or more,

as many as ten deer.

One of the things we've noticed is that a number of them have injuries

and quite bad injuries.

But when you are saying injuries, what, are they scagging themselves?

Mostly it's... They look as though

they've lost a rear foot just above the hoof.

Completely healed over, and it almost looks like a clean amputation.

And we've seen it in older deer

and, in fact, a little while ago we saw it in a small fawn,

and it's really heartbreaking to see them struggle.

You know, they seem to get around all right on three legs.

They obviously managed to survive, but something is doing it.

I have no idea what.

From these images taken by Sharon and her husband,

my initial suspicion is that these injuries -

clean cuts just above the hoof -

are consistent with the use of an illegally set leg-hold trap.

These traps have been banned in the UK since 1958.

But it's way too early to jump to any conclusions.

The house is surrounded by farmland as well as woodland,

and at this stage I wouldn't want to rule out the deer

being caught in a cattle grid or stock fencing.

So I want to take a forensic look around the area.

'What I immediately find is plenty of evidence

'of fallow deer activity all around the garden. Pathways...'

You can see this is where they're jumping, and into the garden.

'Tracks...' Hoof marks here. Little marks like that in the ground.

Of course, if the hooves were pointing out like that

it would be sheep, but we can see that these are definitely deer.

'And not forgetting poo.'

Now that is fallow deer.

If it was roe deer it would be far shinier, smaller and shinier.

Wow, this is really fresh as well. This is probably last night.

'But it's not until I head into the surrounding countryside

'that potential culprits begin to surface. Discarded fencing...'

This is the issue of using barbed wire. This is not malicious,

they've just tied two pieces of barbed wire together,

but you can imagine that an animal

could really trap its leg in something like that.

Luckily, there's no evidence that a deer has done that.

'..fly tipping...' This is really thoughtless and selfish, isn't it?

We've got milk bottles there. That could cut deer limbs.

You know, it takes two minutes to go down the road

and put this in a recycled centre.

Why on earth would you go to the effort of parking up

and throwing this down into a beautiful woodland? Senseless.

'..and finally, fencing laced with more barbed wire.'

There's some barbed wire here. I can see some of it's broken off.

It looks quite messy, it could do with repairing.

I just can't see how that barbed wire

is going to inflict the injuries that we've seen on the cameras.

I mean, we're seeing whole sections of limbs severed

and I can only imagine that this would scag or rip the skin.

'At this point in my investigation,

'I have no solid leads as to what is causing the injuries.

'Is it poaching? I honestly don't know.

'I need better evidence, so I set up trail cameras and treats.

'I want to try to get a closer look at these injuries.

'If I can study film of the deer,

'I'll be able to make a clearer judgement call.'

This is where he's going to eat, so...

'If I see any snagging or tearing,

'it's more likely they'd be caused by barbed wire or cattle grids.

'But if these injuries are clean,

'as they first appear in the still images,

'it could be poachers using a leg-hold trap.

'And if so, I'll need to call in my colleagues

'from the Police Wildlife Crime Unit.

'In the meantime, I'll leave the cameras for 48 hours

'then return to see what, if anything, they reveal.

'I must say, I do enjoy my work with wildlife.

'I love my outdoor office and the variety of challenges I face.

'One minute I'm out in the open air investigating suspicious activities,

'the next, face-to-face with many people's worst nightmare.

'Just like my next case.'

OK, time for a big, hairy spider alert.

'An issue I find myself increasingly involved in

'is the international black market trade in exotic wildlife.

'In recent times, I've worked on cases involving venomous snakes...'

This is Cathalina the cat snake.

'..escaped boa constrictors...'

Oh, my goodness.

'..big crocs in Africa, and believe it or not,

'a not-much-smaller croc in a flat in Newport, of all places.

'So when I received a call about somebody trying to post a spider in Swansea,

'I wasn't nearly as surprised as PC Nathan Smith,

'the officer who's dealing with the incident

'and has now called me in to identify the hairy horror in the box.'

Somebody was actually caught trying to post this through Royal Mail?

Yeah, well, it was going to be sent special delivery.

It was the case that the lady came in and said,

"Can you send this to a foreign country?"

And when the postmistress questioned her on what was inside the container

she said it's an insect.

And obviously her suspicions were raised then

and the lady did confess it's some form of spider.

They spoke then to their helpline which said

under no circumstances can animals be sent, you know, on welfare issues,

across to other countries.

It's not against the law, believe it or not, is it?

It's actually just against the policy of the Royal Mail to post them.

'OK, time to find out what's exactly in the box.'

And I'm proceeding with extreme caution.

Spiders make popular pets.

Goliath bird-eaters, Honduras curlies, Mexican redknees,

but my biggest fear is that this package could contain

one of the more aggressive tarantula species,

such as a cobalt blue, fast and highly strung.

It'll bite first and ask questions later.

By which time, I'll be going home in an ambulance.

Oh, there we go.

I can see one container with a spider in with a tarantula,

which looks like a whiteknee, doesn't it?

That does not look like a happy spider.

Oh, that's not happy. That is not happy.

Can you see the way it's all hunched up like this?

So this is going to be quite an aggressive animal.

Certain tarantula, if they get agitated or upset,

can fire tiny hairs from the abdomen

into the eyes of the person looking at them or handling them,

and this is not something you can go to hospital and have the hairs removed -

they're just going to be in there burning and it's horrible.

It can last for years. And, of course, they've got fangs.

They're venomous, so although most of the tarantula won't cause problems,

there are tarantula species that can certainly put you in hospital.

In truth, a bite from this whiteknee tarantula

will give me nothing worse than a sore finger and banging headache.

In its native South America, it lives on small insects

and its venom is relatively mild.

But if it started firing hairs, I'd be in trouble.

Unfortunately for me, this spider needs a quick health check.

-He's poised to go absolutely ape.

-I know!

Absolutely poised on this foot here, all right?

There's a live cockroach inside the package -

the tarantula's lunch - but aside from being dehydrated

and severely hacked off, this tarantula is in reasonable nick.

So let's just quit while I still got my sight.

I took the tarantula home with me

to join my menagerie of rescued snakes, lizards and mammals.

But that wasn't quite the end of the story.

After further investigation,

PC Smith was able to establish that the lady

who was trying to send the tarantula through the post

was not a dealer breeding, selling and posting these animals on a regular basis.

This was merely a one-off event,

so, as the animal was in fairly good nick,

we were able to return it to her.

However, not every such story ends so happily.

There is a thriving internet-based market in exotic species,

which is allowing dangerous wild animals to enter Wales through the post.

Basically, if you know the right people, channels, forums, chatrooms,

you can have pretty much anything sent to you,

even animals such as snakes, scorpions and spiders

that would normally require a dangerous wild animals licence.

You know the right people,

they're prepared to post it to you... for the right price.

This is a desert hairy. They've got quite a nasty sting on them,

I'm just keeping an eye on him, because they do like to go for fingers

and they do like to use their stinger.

If I was stung now, I'd feel very ill indeed.

Quite easily if you run into anaphylactic shock,

this could kill you. There is no question of that.

And nobody gets more excited about seeing scorpions in the wild than me,

but I find it challenging how that translates

to a need to have one of these in your own home.

But, you know, these are readily available on the Internet.

You can order these and get them posted to you.

Which is exactly what one man from Cardiff did,

but the market is so unregulated

that what came through the post from a German internet site

was not the desert hairy that he'd ordered.

Oh, no. It was something altogether more deadly.

When I received a call to immediately attend

Llanishen police station in Cardiff,

I already knew it was a serious situation.

The previous evening a local man had been stung by his pet scorpion

and although his life was no longer in danger,

he was still in a Cardiff hospital.

Alongside PC Jamie Davies,

Wildlife Crime Officer Sergeant Ian Guildford

and officials from the council's environmental department,

I was now going to his property to try to identify the scorpion

and other animals he was apparently keeping on the premises.

Basically what we're doing now is we're en route to have a look

at this gentleman's house and see what's in his collection

and check there's nothing deadly there,

nothing that requires a Dangerous Wild Animals Licence for.

'But what I need to do first is identify the species of scorpion

'that has put the gentleman in hospital.

'And for that I need to speak to his partner,

'who is so upset and angry about this incident

'that she wants to remain anonymous.'

Can I ask what happened to him then? What exactly happened?

Well, I can only tell you what he told me

because I was fast asleep at the time.

He came and woke me up and said,

"I need to go to hospital, I've been stung by a scorpion."

Right, can I ask how he has obtained this? Do you know?

He told me Germany, but I've only learned that now.

From Germany, OK. And how was that? In the post, or...?

I presume so. I don't know.

-Yeah, on the internet.

-That's fine.

I'm looking at the sting here and this does look to me

-like a fattail scorpion.

-That's what he said it was.

That is absolutely deadly. There is no antivenom for it

and if you get stung by that

you're lucky to survive an hour to two hours.

The fattail scorpion is a native of Africa and the Middle East.

Its Latin name, Androctonus, literally translates as man killer.

The gentleman who bought this fattail

is incredibly fortunate to still be alive,

but it is terrifying to think he received it through the post.

Particularly as he says what he actually ordered was a desert hairy.

I'm more concerned now, if that one was misidentified

and sold to you through an internet site

and they've sold the wrong scorpion,

as I said, that scorpion's deadly and you actually need

a dangerous wild animals license to be able to keep that.

'Which leaves me wondering if anything else in his collection

'of spiders, snakes and scorpions is not what he believes it to be.

'The gentleman has a collection of boas and tarantulas

'and an eye-catching emperor scorpion.

'But there's nothing to cause me any alarm,

'apart from the fattail scorpion.'

I really do need to take that with me.

If this particular animal had got out...

I don't want to think about it and that's why I'm angry and, er...

-And you should've had a licence for these.

-That's if he knew.

-I'm trying to look at it from both sides.

-Yeah, and now we're here...

If he's ordered a scorpion that he believes to be one thing

and he's been sent completely the wrong animal,

I've got to take his word for it first of all.

Don't they check these through Customs?

If they come through the post,

they come through Coventry sorting office.

-Right.

-I can imagine some poor old Royal postie,

"I wonder what's in this package?" There wouldn't be time to respond.

By the time they realised what it is, the gentleman could be dead.

'There have been no deliberate criminal offences committed here.

'All we can do is seize the scorpion,

'notify German wildlife crime

'and hope they take action against the seller.

'Fortunately, the gentleman who was stung made a complete recovery.

'But if this market continues unregulated like this,

'how long will it be before an unmarked package

'containing a dangerous wild animal, spills open

'in a postal sorting office near you?

'It's time to get back to the unsolved injured deer case.

'Two days after setting the trail cams, I return to Cwmfelin to see

'if we've captured anything on film.'

Well, we've got no peanuts left at all.

To me, this is evidence that deer have visited.

Have we got them on camera?

That's another question.

'The answer?

'Oh, yes!

'After a couple of false alarms with a curious cat,

'followed by very brave mouse

'and a posse of greedy grey squirrels and jays,

'we get our first fallow deer.

'Now this fellow, is a fully-grown buck.

'He's at least five to six years old and he's a big lad.

'I'd say he's pushing a metre at the shoulder

'and he's got to be weighing in

'about 90 kilograms, so he's a bruiser.

'And with antlers like that,

'you wouldn't want to meet him down a dark alley.

'Although, given that limp, you'd easily slip past him.

'This buck fits the pattern of the previous evidence.

'He's completely missing the bottom of his right hind leg

'and it looks like a neat and clean cut

'just above where the hoof should be.

'He's soon joined by another buck, younger, around three years old.

'He is also limping.

'And by his gait, it is his left hind leg that is injured,

'which is confirmed when he quickly moves across the camera.

'So there we have it in black and white -

'two bucks, both with very similar injuries.

'But I need daylight to bring some colour and clarity.

'And the next morning, the big buck obliges.

'What I can now clearly see from the shape and the colour

'of the injury, is that this is an old wound,

'that it has healed cleanly and,

'given the shape of the wound,

'it is consistent with having been

'caused by a poacher using a leg-hold trap.

'However I also know that deer poaching

'is not the problem it once was in Wales.

'Only four years ago it was a big issue,

'but then South Wales police forces and the Forestry Commission

'ran Operation Antler, with stakeout and checkpoints

'in vulnerable forest blocks throughout South Wales.

'The police also targeted butchers

'and restaurants known to sell venison - deer meat.

'Operation Antler resulted in a sharp decline

'in reported deer poaching incidents.

'But in today's hard times, has the temptation of some free venison

'persuaded a rogue poacher to surface?

'I contact PC Mark Goulding, Wildlife Crime Officer

'with responsibility for Welsh Police strategy on deer poaching.

'I show Mark some of the trail cam footage.'

Oh, yes, I can see it.

It's missing the hoof. That is suspicious.

I've seen similar injuries before but I don't want to draw

any conclusions on how they were caused.

I think what's best is that

we take this investigation a stage at a time.

We'll have a look at my initial feelings

being that of misuse of a spring trap

and then we'll take some steps from there.

'Time for some investigation and experiment.'

Mark's brought a couple of animal traps along with him today.

The first one is a fenn trap. It's a legal trap.

It's used to control rats, mice, rabbits, grey squirrel

and it works quite simply.

The prey comes, steps on the plate...

'We conclude that while this would leave a deer with a nasty bruise,

'it's nowhere near powerful enough to sever its leg.

'And any deer caught in a fenn trap would quickly shake loose.'

This monstrosity however is a home-made, illegal gin trap.

The jaws - and these are made of screws -

are designed to clamp in, rip in and hold the flesh of the animal.

'Gin traps are deliberately designed not to kill

'but to hold a live animal until the poacher returns.

'After all, poachers wouldn't want to come back to

'a spoilt and rotting carcass.

'So they're barbaric but could they sever a large mammal's leg?'

Goodness me. Keeping my fingers right at the top here, Mark.

Phew!

That was CLEAN through!

Goodness me, the force! That's incredible force.

I cannot imagine what that would do to an animal's leg.

'Well, let's do the science.

'Carrots are 89% water

'and a mammal's muscular flesh is 75%.

'Therefore, in my opinion,

'this trap would undoubtedly rip into a deer's leg.'

Of course, the big question is would this monstrous thing

slice through bone?

Well, in boffin garble, it would take the pressure of about

100 megapascals to be able to cut through a deer metacarpal.

In plain English?

That's about the equivalent

of cutting through this glass jar of pasta sauce.

'So, in the name of science,

'I volunteered Mark to lead the experiment.'

OK. Three...two...one.

-No.

-No.

-Isn't that interesting?

You can see those teeth are biting

-and they're even scratching the glass there. Look.

-Yes.

-But it hasn't pierced the glass.

-Yeah.

So I still think screws like that

are going to really cause some damage.

Yes, I mean, I think this is actually highlighting

what these are designed for.

Don't forget this is designed not to sever the foot of an animal.

-If it severs the foot of an animal, the animal'll get away.

-Yes.

So the fact that it is not breaking the glass in any way,

shape or form, shows that the spring has been designed

so it's powerful enough to clamp

but it's not powerful enough to snap the bone.

So what conclusions can we draw from that?

With the injuries that we're seeing,

I could imagine that a trap would hold a deer

but wouldn't snap the leg off.

The only way I can see those injuries being caused by a fenn trap

is if the fenn trap has been pulled out of the ground,

the fenn trap has been pulled along on the leg of the animal,

it's jumped the stock fence and pulled its leg off

-with the weight of the animal as it's jumped the fence.

-Yeah.

-It's too complicated.

-Yes.

-We need to find a far more simple explanation to this.

-Yes.

'So our experiments have led us to conclude that in the balance

'of probability, poaching is not responsible for these injuries.

'So what is?

'Honestly? We don't know. But we will solve this mystery

'and we'll be back with the answer later.'

'Which leaves me just enough time to do a quick emergency call-out.'

I've just had a call-out from a couple in Aberdare.

Apparently they've got a snake trapped in their garden.

Looks as if it's caught its head in some netting.

We're not quite sure what type of snake it is yet

but we really need to move.

The longer that snake is trapped in the garden, the more likely it is

a big bird, something like a crab, would come down and attack it.

'Given the location and the warm weather,

'my money is on it being a grass snake

'that has got itself tangled up hunting frogs.

'But let's see, shall we?'

-Is there... A snake, is there, just in this side?

-Yeah, it's here.

-Ah, fantastic. The snake is at the top there?

-Yes, just up here.

-OK.

Let's have a look. Oh, it is. It's a grass snake.

It is a grass snake. I'm going to put some gloves on

because I don't know if you know

but with grass snakes they can secrete...

-Yeah.

-..a WONDERFUL smell(!)

Let's have a look. Come on.

Oh, she's really jammed her head in there.

Let's see if we can just gently snip her out.

I've blunt-ended scissors here

so I'll be able to snip her out without actually catching her skin.

The good news is that she doesn't seem to have cut herself at all.

She's just in a big old tangle. So let's see

how many cuts it takes to release her.

You all seem very pro-snake. You've been OK with it?

-Yeah.

-Well, that's good.

Feel a bit sorry, to be honest with you.

Well, that's exactly what we should be feeling.

Going to watch now as we've got to go right over the top of the eye.

When did you first notice the snake here?

Paul was doing a bit of landscaping in here. He noticed it this morning.

He said, "Come and have a look at this."

So we were looking to see what it was.

We thought it was grass snake

but we thought it was a bit big for a grass make.

Well, this is quite a small grass snake.

-They can get to 1.6 metres...

-Right.

-..in the UK.

It's our largest terrestrial reptile here.

THEY CHUCKLE

OK, I'm hopeful.

We've got her. There we go. Shall we have a look at her in the light?

There we go. That's our grass snake.

You can see that the scales have taken

a bit of a battering her and she's a little worse for wear.

I think she's been little sorry for herself. You're perfectly safe.

If you just want to very gently smooth that animal

you'll notice it is actually bone dry.

Do you want to have a smooth as well?

There we are.

The skin is so shiny and smooth that it refracts sunlight

-and that's why it looks slimy to the touch.

-Are you releasing it?

Yes, we'll release this animal back into the wild.

I'm going to give it a once over, just examine it,

and check that we haven't got any cuts.

I can't identify any cuts at the moment.

She's a very lucky girl indeed but, obviously,

she's been really traumatised by this.

We'll try and find some woodland nearby

which has got a good water source as well.

Oh, this looks like an ideal area to release our girl.

It's got lots of cover.

We know that we've got a small canal down the other side,

lots of running streams

so there'll be lots of food for her - lots of frogs and toads.

Oh, look at her - bright-eyed, alert, she's looking good,

head held high, strong body - she's ready for release.

'Meanwhile, back in Cwmfelin, PC Mark Goulding and I

'strongly believe we've resolved the mystery of the injured fallow deer.

'Having consulted with forest rangers at Natural Resources Wales,

'between us we have come up with the culprit - stock fencing.'

This is what we're talking about, isn't it? Look at that.

'More specifically, stock fencing that has been topped with

'two parallel lines of barbed wire instead of the standard one line.

'This type of stock fencing isn't illegal

'but we're convinced it's causing these injuries.

'And this is how.'

The way I understand it is that the deer are basically jumping

the stock fencing and whether it's their hind leg or their forelegs,

they're basically catching and they're stepping through like that.

So if you imagine this is the deer leg,

and of course because they're jumping they've got momentum.

So what's happening is they're twisting right over

and then you've got a firm grip.

And of course, a flighty deer, Rhys,

it's going to be pulling and pulling, and pulling,

and pulling and pulling...

to get out. That's going to dislocate, surely?

And it's consistent with the injuries that we've in seeing

on both the video and the pictures.

I'm absolutely satisfied that this is the cause

-of the injuries to the deer in this area.

-I'm in complete agreement.

-Case closed.

-I think so. It's case closed on this.

'Except, of course, for one thing.

'What about those injured fallow deer?

'Well, the good news is they don't need to be humanely destroyed.

'Their wounds are healed, they're not in any obvious pain

and they're seemingly able to feed and graze without any hindrance.'

The bad news is that the bucks won't be able

to compete in the rut. When it comes the mating season,

they'll be left in the corner looking on forlornly.

'Next time we have owls with insomnia..

Look, Dave! Dave!

'..a buzzard in takeaway trouble...'

A lot of oil in its feathers.

'..and an unlicensed, seafront, snake wrangler

'who feels the full force of the law.'

Hello. Police!

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