:00:10. > :00:20.$:/STARTFEED. Welsh wildlife is under attack. I'm on frontline
:00:20. > :00:25.trying to protect it. Our 5,000 native species of birds, mammals
:00:25. > :00:34.and reptiles. This is fresh. threatened Daily, by illegal
:00:34. > :00:40.activity. Black Swan. Vandals. was a slow worm cooked right
:00:40. > :00:46.through Ayalon yen invaders. That is not happy. I'm Dr Rhys Jones,
:00:46. > :00:50.and from my laboratory at Cardiff University I work with the police,
:00:50. > :00:56.wildlife groups and concerned members of the public. Tell me the
:00:56. > :01:04.story of exactly how you found him. In the fight to save our animals
:01:04. > :01:11.from humans and humans from animals. Everybody stay still. In this
:01:11. > :01:18.programme we have owls with insomnia. A wash and blow dry
:01:18. > :01:28.buzzard. And an unlicensed seafront snake wrangleer feels the full
:01:28. > :01:31.
:01:31. > :01:35.force of the law. With over 50 wildlife incidents reported to
:01:35. > :01:40.Welsh police forces every month, I'm kept busy as a scientific
:01:40. > :01:49.consultant and licensed handler of dangerous wild animals. The listing
:01:49. > :01:54.is lethal, and is like lightning. Working extensive low with wildlife
:01:54. > :02:00.crime officer, C Mark Goulding, half of my work is out in the wild
:02:00. > :02:05.looking at crime, and the other half is looking as what happens
:02:05. > :02:09.when humans keep wild animals themselves. In all my years in the
:02:09. > :02:12.field, by far the strangest case I have ever worked on was just about
:02:12. > :02:18.to unfold in front of my disbelieving eyes. First PC
:02:18. > :02:21.Goulding and I had a call about a man on Porthcawl seafront dressing
:02:21. > :02:26.as a Native American, and charging people to have their photo taken
:02:26. > :02:30.with a snake collection. Now we have had a further call from a
:02:30. > :02:35.concerned grandmother who is worried about an identity she
:02:35. > :02:39.allowed the Porthcawl trader to put around her granddaughter's neck.
:02:39. > :02:43.Lynne O'Hagan and her granddaughter Callie returned with a souvenir of
:02:43. > :02:48.the occasion. My daughter and I dook my grandchildren down there
:02:48. > :02:53.last week, we saw this gentleman. We let our granddaughter have a
:02:53. > :03:00.photograph done. I didn't know what makes they were. I did ask him he
:03:00. > :03:05.said it is the biggest snake in the world. It is a Reticulated Python.
:03:05. > :03:11.Native to south-east Asia, Reticulated Python are non-venomous,
:03:11. > :03:18.but the world's longest snake species. They can grow up to 27-
:03:18. > :03:22.feet long and notoriously tempermental, they hold their prey
:03:22. > :03:26.and squeeze the life out of it. I'm not saying they could kill a human,
:03:26. > :03:31.but they could in inflict a serious injury to a young girl.
:03:31. > :03:34.They are known to be very unpredictable. If I had known what
:03:34. > :03:39.they could do I wouldn't have subjected my granddaughter to have
:03:39. > :03:44.her photograph taken. Time for a strip to Porthcawl.
:03:44. > :03:48.Just because -- a trip to Porthcawl. Just because a snake is not
:03:48. > :03:52.venomous, doesn't mean it is not dangerous. If you have an animal
:03:52. > :03:57.growing to 30-foot and does kill people in Asia, it is a dangerous
:03:57. > :03:59.animal. Although this one is not that big, it is not suitable to be
:04:00. > :04:04.on public display. Porthcawl seafront, and the
:04:04. > :04:11.gentleman we are looking for, who calls himself Dr Mangas Colaradas,
:04:11. > :04:18.isn't hard to spot. Who did you get permission to do this? I have done
:04:18. > :04:22.it for over 30 years, on private ground you don't need to have
:04:22. > :04:28.permission. Do you have third party insurance? No. What have you got?
:04:28. > :04:33.Reticulated Python, Burmese pie thon, and a Boa Constrictor.
:04:33. > :04:43.will assess the health and well being of the snakes and then see
:04:43. > :04:49.what they are doing. Dr Moralez has several snakes with them. They
:04:49. > :04:53.appear to be in good health but there are other issues, he's
:04:53. > :04:58.working without a performing animals license and no public
:04:58. > :05:04.liability insurance. These snakes are displayed in far from ideal
:05:04. > :05:08.units, but my main concern is the Reticulated Python put around
:05:08. > :05:17.Callie's neck. I'm very concerned about the
:05:17. > :05:21.Reticulated Python, particularly. would never allow them. With
:05:21. > :05:26.children what snakes would you allow? On very small children the
:05:26. > :05:30.corn snake. On the under teenager the boas. Under no circumstances
:05:30. > :05:33.that wouldn't be allowed out. is just for show. Of course this
:05:33. > :05:37.denial is simply not true. But then being less than truthful in front
:05:37. > :05:42.of a police officer is not actually a criminal offence. By this point
:05:42. > :05:47.my eye had already been drawn to another worrying sight. A sweet jar
:05:47. > :05:51.jammed with dead snake. Can you explain what is here? They are just
:05:51. > :05:56.for show. Can I ask how to you came to be in possession of a dead Hog
:05:56. > :06:01.Noses? He died on me. Over a number of years. All of these animals have
:06:01. > :06:04.died whilst you have had them? Normal causes.S What this one here?
:06:05. > :06:11.That one I had that one in a Chinese restaurant and they gave it
:06:11. > :06:16.to me. It looks like a cobra. I couldn't say. It also looks like a
:06:16. > :06:21.cobra. I suspect it might be an endangered and highly protected
:06:21. > :06:24.species of cobra. I now need PC Goulding to step in. First of all I
:06:24. > :06:28.will seize the two containers, I want this and that to be
:06:28. > :06:32.investigate today see if there was any offences committed. The second
:06:32. > :06:35.thing is, you don't have any third party insurance in place, as
:06:35. > :06:39.disclosed by yourself, therefore you can't trade here doing this for
:06:39. > :06:45.money. So what I want you to do is pack up all your snakes now, while
:06:45. > :06:48.we go into this further. You need to hold a performing animal license,
:06:48. > :06:53.OK, to do what you are doing. At the moment you are no longer
:06:53. > :06:57.trading here, until you get a performing animal's licenses, you
:06:57. > :07:02.confirm there is third party insurance, at the end of the day if
:07:02. > :07:06.you are putting Reticulated Python around the necks. I'm not. I have
:07:06. > :07:11.evidence you have. If that child gets bitten you need the cover.
:07:11. > :07:18.understand what you are saying, when did the license come out?
:07:18. > :07:22.has been out since 1925. Goulding closes down the stall, he
:07:22. > :07:26.seizes the dead specimens for analysis and leaves the live snakes
:07:27. > :07:31.with Dr Colaradas. The law as it stands means he doesn't require a
:07:31. > :07:36.license to keep any snake, even the Reticulated Python, which once it
:07:36. > :07:39.is a fully grown adult, when fully grown it will take a number of
:07:39. > :07:41.reptile experts to handle it. At the moment it is the jar of dead
:07:41. > :07:51.snakes that requires further investigation. We will return to
:07:51. > :07:56.
:07:56. > :08:00.this case later in the programme. When it comes to their interactions
:08:00. > :08:03.with humans, wildlife get themselves into all sorts of
:08:03. > :08:08.unexpected pickles. I have seen hedgehogs stuck in jam jars a snake
:08:08. > :08:12.wrapped around a car general, and a squirrel trapped in a wardrobe.
:08:12. > :08:15.When my friend Malcolm Jones from the Ebbw Vale Owl Sanctuary ask if
:08:15. > :08:24.I could help with a bird covered in oil. I shouldn't have been
:08:24. > :08:28.surprised it turned out not to be a seabird but a buzzard.
:08:28. > :08:32.Is this The Buzzcocks? Goodness me, look at that. He's absolutely
:08:32. > :08:37.saturated. How did that happen? must have gone into a container of
:08:37. > :08:40.fat, and he was left on a woman's doorstep in a box. She took it to
:08:40. > :08:46.the local vets, they phoned me up, I went down, and they said what's
:08:46. > :08:52.mart with the bird. I said he as covered in cooking fat, I said you
:08:52. > :08:58.have to bath him. And he they said how, I said get a load of squeezey
:08:58. > :09:02.bottles and get it all out. buzzard covered in chip fat oil,
:09:02. > :09:07.how does that happen? We have a really healthy buzzard population
:09:07. > :09:10.in Wales, you will see them gliding and soaring over the towns as well
:09:10. > :09:14.as field. That is because they are opportunistic hunters, who will
:09:14. > :09:21.follow their prey, small animals and rodents wherever they go,
:09:21. > :09:26.including urban landscapes where unexpected buzzard hazards lie.
:09:26. > :09:30.Come to any town or city you will find a back lane like this, Indian,
:09:30. > :09:33.Chinese and Italian restaurant, they all have one thing in common,
:09:33. > :09:37.they all cook with oil. Most restaurants will store their used
:09:37. > :09:42.oil in containers like this, and they are sealed on the top and
:09:42. > :09:46.poses no real threat to wildlife. Others leave their old oil in a
:09:46. > :09:50.container like this. If you left an open container out, it is not just
:09:50. > :09:54.going to have oil in but pieces of food as well. You can imagine the
:09:54. > :09:59.local veerm minute population sticking their nose in and get --
:09:59. > :10:04.mer minute population sticking their nose in and getting a feed.
:10:04. > :10:09.If you were a buzzard and you saw that, and you would swoop in by
:10:10. > :10:13.landing on what he perceived as a hard shiny surface, only to realise
:10:13. > :10:19.at the last minute he was plummeting into oil. Once he has
:10:19. > :10:28.gone in there he is not flying out. These are raptor feather, they
:10:28. > :10:32.delicately interact with the air currents. Look what happens when
:10:32. > :10:35.you put them in the oil. They are saturated. Imagine if that was
:10:35. > :10:45.every feather on the bird's body, there is no way it could take back
:10:45. > :10:47.
:10:47. > :10:50.to the air. The only solution for our buzzard is to start a deep-
:10:50. > :10:56.cleansing course. She's going to have to be washed every couple of
:10:56. > :11:03.weeks with a mild, non-chemical baby slam poo, until she felts all
:11:03. > :11:06.of her -- shampoo, until she melts all her feathers. Despite all the
:11:06. > :11:10.protests, this is the only way to do it. You have to be cruel to be
:11:10. > :11:15.kind. In the wild she would be unable to fly, hunt, fend for
:11:15. > :11:23.herself or keep out the cold. Because the oil is Stopparding her
:11:23. > :11:28.from preening and fluffing her feathers, she could be susceptible
:11:28. > :11:34.to pneumonia, hence the hair dryer treatment. I'm confident this
:11:34. > :11:40.buzzard will be ready for release, and hopefully she will stick to a
:11:40. > :11:44.fat-free diet! Earlier in the programme PC Mark Goulding and I
:11:44. > :11:49.seized a sweetie jar of dead snakes from a trader on Porthcawl seafront.
:11:49. > :11:54.I'm bringing that jar to my laboratory at Cardiff University,
:11:54. > :12:01.my concern is some of the snakes could be protected under CITES, the
:12:01. > :12:05.Convention on International trade on endangered species. CITES a
:12:05. > :12:11.worldwide treaty, aimed to prevent the movement of 30,000 listed
:12:11. > :12:15.animals and plants. Nobody may possess, hold or sell any CITES
:12:15. > :12:19.protected species without a permit. Anybody who does is potentially
:12:19. > :12:25.committing an illegal act. I'm going to check the consents of the
:12:25. > :12:35.jar, if any of these snakes are CITES listed we will have to make
:12:35. > :12:37.
:12:37. > :12:41.the matter further. It absolutely reeked, a mixture of oil and
:12:41. > :12:46.vinegar. They have had their insides removed. Normally if you
:12:46. > :12:51.leave the gut in an animal, it will decay very quickly. Somebody knew
:12:51. > :12:56.what they were doing. It looks more like a bush snake at the moment, it
:12:56. > :12:58.could be a bloom slang, I will have to do a scale count. We count the
:12:58. > :13:06.individual scales around the eye and at different points on the
:13:06. > :13:15.snake to give me a positive ID of the species. It is just disgusting.
:13:15. > :13:22.Another possible Boomslang. There is not much debate about that one,
:13:22. > :13:27.a cobra. Time to call PC Goulding. What was in big sweetie jar. Five
:13:27. > :13:33.venom mus species so far. That is a real surprise. First of all we have
:13:34. > :13:43.a Many Branded Krate, we have also got a Burrowing Asp. Burrowing Asp!
:13:43. > :13:48.Two Boomslang. I don't know what to say at the moment. The one you will
:13:48. > :13:54.be most worried about is there is a Spectacle Cobra there as well.
:13:54. > :14:01.Spectator is CITES appendices II, it is a protected species in India.
:14:01. > :14:08.I will have to speak to UK Border Agency, mainly because any parts or
:14:08. > :14:11.derivatives of The Spectator, there has to be an im-- Spectacle Cobra,
:14:11. > :14:17.there has to be an import license. I haven't seen a list of snakes
:14:17. > :14:22.like that alive or dead in this country in the public domain. I
:14:22. > :14:26.didn't expect a jarful of venomous snakes in a jar on the seafront,
:14:26. > :14:31.this is South Wales. Suddenly the case has gone from a simply closing
:14:31. > :14:36.down from a possibly well meaning to ill-informed street trader, to
:14:36. > :14:40.one that could involve the possession of protected unlicensed
:14:40. > :14:44.species. Further and of greater immediate concern Dr Colaradas has
:14:44. > :14:48.stated that venomous snakes have died of natural causes in his care.
:14:48. > :14:53.Does this imply that he was regularly handling venomous live
:14:53. > :14:57.snakes, if so, has he brought any unlicensed snakes into the country.
:14:57. > :15:02.By his own admission he travels between Spain, North America and
:15:02. > :15:07.Wales, so the opportunity is there. As a matter of public safety it is
:15:07. > :15:14.a possibility that South Wales police force simply cannot ignore.
:15:14. > :15:18.We are going in to look for, first and foremost, whether there are any
:15:18. > :15:23.vein non-ous snakes there, that is why we have Dr Rhys Jones.
:15:23. > :15:31.magistrate has granted the police, the UK Borders Agency, and the
:15:31. > :15:41.department for Food and Rural Affairs, a warrant to access Dr
:15:41. > :15:41.
:15:41. > :15:48.Colaradas's home address. (banging) He has tarantulas, a Golden Python,
:15:48. > :15:52.a bowl of Boa Constrictor heads. Where have they come from? We have
:15:52. > :15:55.a warrant here to search the property, is there anybody else in
:15:55. > :15:58.the property? No. Is there anything in here you would like to tell me
:15:58. > :16:03.about before we go in? No. Is there anything in here you shouldn't
:16:03. > :16:09.have? No. Are you sure? Positive. The search of the house reveals
:16:09. > :16:13.several tanks containing snakes. All of them in reasonable condition,
:16:13. > :16:17.thankfully none of them vein non- ous. We were right in think --
:16:17. > :16:22.venomous. We were right in thinking he was bringing them from abroad?
:16:22. > :16:26.The Burmese Python has come from Spain, Malaga, he has a CITES
:16:26. > :16:30.permit there. He has accounted for the two Hog Noses. Sadly, with the
:16:30. > :16:35.reptile trade, as you know, the Hog Noses were actually sent in the
:16:35. > :16:39.post, shockingly at the moment the Anaconda cannot be accounted for.
:16:39. > :16:45.He says he bought it from North Wales for cash. He doesn't know the
:16:45. > :16:48.person, has no receipts, but, of course, there is no offence. When
:16:49. > :16:52.requested about the bowl of Boa Constrictor heads, Dr Colaradas
:16:52. > :16:55.explains they come from snakes that have died in his care. We also
:16:55. > :17:02.uncover a number of boxes containing other dead animal parts.
:17:02. > :17:06.Everything from what looked like buffalo horns to budgies, none of
:17:06. > :17:10.these are from protected species, no offence has been committed. We
:17:10. > :17:14.do seize a pair of bird wing that is we expect are from a protect
:17:14. > :17:18.European Eagle Owl. We come across a number of deactivated guns,
:17:18. > :17:23.knives and cross bows. It is an odd assortment, it appears that Dr
:17:23. > :17:29.Colaradas is no more than an eccentric with curious interests.
:17:29. > :17:36.Then we search his van... In the well of the passenger side door we
:17:36. > :17:46.find several deaf vered animal paws and a knife -- severed animal paws,
:17:46. > :17:53.and a knife, there is a domestic cat, dog and badger paw. It still
:17:53. > :17:56.has fur all over it. It is not illegal to be in the possession of
:17:56. > :18:01.protected cat, dog or fox paw, but it is an offence to have any part
:18:01. > :18:04.of a badger. There is a lot going on. Some of it is really
:18:04. > :18:07.frustrating. At the moment we have the feet of the badger, it is an
:18:07. > :18:11.offence to be in possession of it. But I'm thinking further down the
:18:11. > :18:15.line, I'm thinking about whether they will run a court case on
:18:15. > :18:21.badger feet, and he was saying it is road kill and already dead. It
:18:21. > :18:25.is a bit frustrating. Yeah, it is frustrating. Nevertheless, PC
:18:25. > :18:29.Goulding has enough evidence to caution Dr Colaradas. Based on the
:18:29. > :18:36.information I have got so far, I'm reporting you for the offence of
:18:36. > :18:39.possession of badger parts and der rifives, I have to remind dr
:18:39. > :18:44.derivatives, I have to -- derivative, I have to remind you
:18:44. > :18:48.you are still under caution. Have you got anything to say? I think it
:18:48. > :18:51.is petty. With Dr Colaradas cautioned, the case will be handed
:18:51. > :18:55.over to the Crown Prosecution Service. We will back for the
:18:55. > :19:01.conclusion later in the programme. As a scientist and ecologyist,
:19:01. > :19:05.people ask me what I think about climate change, does it exist? My
:19:05. > :19:12.one-word answer is, yes. How can I be sure? Because I'm seeing clear
:19:12. > :19:19.examples in the natural world. Such as owls with sin someia. Barn owls
:19:19. > :19:22.general -- with insomnia. Barn owls generally hunt prey in the dark,
:19:22. > :19:28.and dusk and dawn is when they hunt. They don't hunt by day, unless it
:19:28. > :19:31.is a really bad winter and food is scarce. When my friend, renowned
:19:32. > :19:35.Welsh wildlife photographer, David Bailey, called me in early spring
:19:36. > :19:41.to say he had been snapping not one but several barn owls, all hunting
:19:41. > :19:44.in the daylight in the same Dorset location, I was so intrigued I
:19:45. > :19:49.couldn't resist crossing the border and attempting to solve the
:19:49. > :19:53.mistreatment What do you commonly see here? I moved away from the
:19:53. > :19:57.areas eight years a I'm seeing things I didn't see eight years ago.
:19:57. > :20:03.Red kites, I see them regularly. It shows how well they have bred and
:20:03. > :20:08.spread. More recently I was photographing the hares and the
:20:08. > :20:11.game keeper tipped me off about the owls. He asked had I seen them, the
:20:11. > :20:15.numbers is what's interesting, there is not just one or two but
:20:15. > :20:20.several hunting in the area. are saying daytime, what time of
:20:20. > :20:25.day exactly? 12.0 on wards I have seen them. That is unusual. I have
:20:25. > :20:31.seen them 4.00-5.00 towards twilight, that is not unusual. But
:20:31. > :20:36.the mid-of the day is unusual. It is my guess that the -- middle of
:20:36. > :20:41.the day is unusual. It is my guess that it is to do with the owl's
:20:41. > :20:45.prey, I need to find out what they are eating and why? That is ideal
:20:45. > :20:50.for barn owl, in and out of there easily. You don't see these on
:20:50. > :20:53.farms any more. This is a perfect shelter for barn owl. The tractor
:20:53. > :21:00.driver tells me they sit up there on the rafter.
:21:00. > :21:05.In here? Yeah. It is too early for them to be roosting yet, these are
:21:05. > :21:09.schedule 1 birds, under the wildlife act if they were roosting
:21:09. > :21:14.we would have to be 30ms away. It would be interesting to have a peek
:21:14. > :21:24.and see if there is anything. the beams here. You can see the
:21:24. > :21:30.owls have been on there. Look at this. The pellets? Yeah. That's
:21:30. > :21:37.barn owl. We can tell it is barn owl, they haven't a very acidic
:21:37. > :21:42.stomach, so they don't digest the bouns as efficiently as other owls.
:21:42. > :21:47.You can actually tell which bones they are there. It is incredible.
:21:47. > :21:57.You could remake a little shrew skeleton. There is a female mur.
:21:57. > :21:57.
:21:57. > :22:02.Look at that, fantastic -- femur, look at that. Fantastic. Shrews are
:22:02. > :22:07.largely nocternal, if the barn owls are hunting them by day, what is
:22:07. > :22:12.forcing the shrews to look for their shapele diet of worms, slugs
:22:12. > :22:21.and snails. I think I have come up with an answer, I'm just about to
:22:21. > :22:28.give my theory when a barn owl interrupts me. Dave, Dave, Dave,
:22:28. > :22:32.There is another one. It was 2.00 in the afternoon, for the next 30
:22:32. > :22:38.minutes we watched three barn owls hunting along the meadow and the
:22:38. > :22:42.waterway, the theory as to why? Unpredictable weather patterns,
:22:42. > :22:45.also known as climate change. You were here a couple of weeks ago,
:22:45. > :22:49.how wet of the weather? Was it raining? It goes back to the
:22:49. > :22:53.beginning of the year in January when I first visited the area, this
:22:53. > :22:57.access road was flooded. It was blocked off. During the past few
:22:57. > :23:00.weeks it has stopped raining. think that the owls couldn't hunt
:23:00. > :23:04.whilst it was raining f it was flooded. It wouldn't have affected
:23:04. > :23:09.their prey. They would have been fine. But the act is, that the
:23:09. > :23:12.wings of owls are very porous, so they get soaked through very
:23:12. > :23:16.quickly. The birds just cannot fly, they wouldn't have been able to
:23:16. > :23:21.hunt. They would have been trying to come out now, but it is utterly
:23:21. > :23:25.freezing, it is one of the coldest Marchs on record. We have starving
:23:25. > :23:30.owl, unable to eat because of the flooding originally, and in this
:23:30. > :23:35.cold, what it does is it changes the behaviour of the owl's prey
:23:35. > :23:40.items. The mice, the shrews, instead of coming out at tonight
:23:40. > :23:43.they will stay in, it is too cold, they will become active in the day.
:23:43. > :23:46.If they are active in the day there is nothing to hunt at night. The
:23:46. > :23:56.owls are forced to come out into the day. I truly believe that is
:23:56. > :23:58.
:23:58. > :24:01.why the owls are hunt hading in the daylight. Yeah, yep. Back in
:24:01. > :24:04.Swansea the Crown Prosecution Service has decided to pursue a
:24:04. > :24:09.case against Dr Mangas Colaradas. He has been charged with the
:24:09. > :24:19.illegal possession of badger parts and derivatives under the 1992
:24:19. > :24:23.Protection of badgers act. -- Protection of Badgers Act, and also
:24:24. > :24:27.the possession of illegal eagle parts, the maximum penalty he faces
:24:27. > :24:30.is six months in prison. Prior to any trial I have been asked to
:24:30. > :24:34.evaluate the parts in my lab at Cardiff University.
:24:34. > :24:38.Dr Colaradas is claiming that the badger parts came from road kill he
:24:38. > :24:43.happened upon in Spain over a decade ago. I think they are much
:24:43. > :24:46.fresher. My belief is supported by my colleagues at the Cardiff School
:24:46. > :24:50.of Biosciences, who also give written expert statements agreeing
:24:50. > :24:57.that these parts are less than 12 months old.
:24:57. > :25:03.Dr Kol is also claiming that the third wings belong to a European
:25:03. > :25:07.eagle, I disagree, I believe they belong to a European eagle owl, the
:25:07. > :25:12.possession requires a CITES approved license. To find out if
:25:12. > :25:15.these are European eagle owl wing, I pay a visit to the national new
:25:15. > :25:20.seem of Wales collection centre. Behind the many corridors and
:25:20. > :25:25.drawers lie thousands of animal specimens. I'm hoping the curator
:25:25. > :25:30.of mammals, will be able to give me his professional opinion as to what
:25:30. > :25:38.she she is of bird these have come. It looks like an Eagle Owl wing, we
:25:38. > :25:48.should have one in the collection. There we go. This is what we want
:25:48. > :25:53.to compare that with. That wing could be coming off that owl.
:25:53. > :25:58.a European Eagle Owl. No debate there. Armed with my own findings
:25:58. > :26:05.as well as those of my colleagues I was looking forward to my day in
:26:05. > :26:08.court. But it wasn't to be. Dr Mangas Colaradas turned up for his
:26:08. > :26:12.pre-trial hearing at Swansea Magistrates' Court dressed in
:26:12. > :26:17.Native American clothing. He caused quite a stir. Very soon he was
:26:17. > :26:21.appearing in both the national and international press in head dress
:26:21. > :26:25.and war paint stating that he was an Apache Indian and he lived
:26:25. > :26:29.according to their practices and beliefs. He was further quoted in
:26:29. > :26:33.the press as saying he ate his snakes when they died. Dr Colaradas
:26:33. > :26:37.was issued with a court summons. His trial set for August of last
:26:37. > :26:42.year. On the very morning the trial was due to go ahead the Crown
:26:42. > :26:52.Prosecution Service decided they no longer wanted to pursue the case. A
:26:52. > :27:17.
:27:17. > :27:23.I'm just a scientist, not a lawyer or legal expert, I have to respect
:27:23. > :27:27.the experts' decision to drop this case. The problem for me lies in
:27:27. > :27:34.the Badger Act itself, full of legal loopholes and quite frankly
:27:34. > :27:39.it no longer fits the bill. In my opinion the Badgers Act is an
:27:39. > :27:44.important piece of wildlife legislation, but if it is have any
:27:44. > :27:48.future purpose, then the Welsh Governments and other relevant
:27:48. > :27:56.bodies need to revisit and revise it. Whilst we are at it, we need to
:27:56. > :28:01.look again at the Performing Animals Act, it is almost 90 years
:28:01. > :28:08.old, and almost anyone can get a license from their council, as long
:28:08. > :28:13.as they don't have a conviction for animal cruelty. We contacted Dr
:28:13. > :28:17.Colaradas last week, on the issue of the Reticulated Python, he says
:28:17. > :28:22.he only let the public handle snakes that will not bite. He said
:28:22. > :28:26.he was unaware he needed a license for performing animals and had been
:28:26. > :28:34.operating for 20 years without one and never been asked for one by the
:28:34. > :28:38.authorities. He said the licensing system didn't seem to be used. He
:28:38. > :28:42.has subsequently obtained one from Swansea council, and has got
:28:42. > :28:46.insurance so he's operating legally. I do hope his Reticulated Python
:28:46. > :28:53.stays at home. Next time, a mystery bird opens a
:28:53. > :28:59.can of worms. Tell me exactly how you found him? Who is the lodger