Episode 4 Rhys Jones's Wildlife Patrol

'Welsh wildlife is under attack...'

SIREN WAILS

Ow!

'..and I'm on the frontline trying to protect it.'

Oh, wow!

'Our 5,000 native species of birds...

'mammals, and reptiles...'

-This is all fresh.

-Yeah.

'..are threatened daily, by illegal activity...'

Black swan.

'..vandals...'

That was a slowworm, cooked right through.

'..and alien invaders.'

That's not happy. That is NOT happy.

'I'm Dr Rhys Jones,

'and from my laboratory at Cardiff University,

'I work to save our animals from humans...

'and humans from animals.'

Got it, got it, got it. Got it. OK, everybody stay still. Stay still.

'And in this programme...

'I get a midnight call out to an unwanted intruder.'

There's a snake on the stairs.

'I come over all unnecessary in the woods...'

There it is. I see it.

'..and I aim to prove that by bringing back this big blighter,

'we can save our Welsh countryside from an invasion of these...'

Keeping exotic animals as pets has never been more popular,

and now there are now an estimated 2 million exotics in the UK.

That's almost double the number of a decade ago.

We're talking spiders,

iguanas, scorpions, snakes, primates,

crocodiles, wallabies, meercats...

You name it, somebody's got one.

Until it escapes, that is.

And you'd be surprised how many people

come across exotic escapees in their shed,

their garden, their house.

Stay still, everyone.

And then they call me.

RHYS SIGHS

Well, this is the nature of emergency call-outs.

It's 20 to one in the morning, it's Saturday night,

I was just tucking myself up in bed,

when we get an emergency call-out from PC Mark Goulding.

There is a snake in a house in Barry.

We've got very little information. It's about 4-foot long.

We don't know if it's venomous, non-venomous,

could be anything. We're en route.

-What do you have?

-What exactly happened?

Well, we came home from the club,

and the wife went in to change,

upstairs to change, and there's this snake on the stairs.

It's an orange and yellow one.

OK, so you don't know what this snake is or where it's come from?

-No, no, don't know what it is.

-Let's have a look.

-It's an orange and yellow one.

-Let's have a look up there.

I'm keeping an eye. I don't want it going in any bedroom...

No, we'll get it now.

I asked the family to put a jacket over the snake...

-Fantastic, OK.

-..to keep it in one place.

Right, let's have a look at what we're dealing with here.

It was in the middle of the stairs,

-and he's made his way up to the top of the stairs.

-Right.

-OK.

-Oh, you can see his head.

-Yeah. Hold on, ten seconds.

Got him!

-There we are.

-Is he a pet, do you think?

It is. This is a corn snake.

This is harmless, it wouldn't have hurt you.

But THAT'S going to give you quite a fright

-when you come in...

-Yes, I've been sitting here since we phoned you

'cos I wanted to know exactly where he was all the time.

So, well, yes, I mean I've been having a nose and a tidy and,

"Oh, this is dusty", and all that business.

What this is, this is definitely somebody's pet,

this is primarily an American species,

it's not native to the UK.

It's not an aggressive animal, look, it's not going to try and bite you.

-No, no I don't mind.

-Wa-hey, look at you!

You're OK now?

Yes, it doesn't bother me at all!

Why were you hiding behind the banister then?

Ah, well, I didn't know then!

So, it's different now that Dr Rhys Jones is here?!

Yes, now I know what it is

and that there isn't a mammy or daddy somewhere lurking as well,

you know, there's more around...

It was a one-off, and it's come in from the park, don't you think?

You can buy these animals in local pet shops,

what we tend to find, though, is that they're very good escape artists,

but we also find that members of the public find the snakes get too big,

because whilst the snake is not too expensive to acquire,

all the requirements to look after it ARE expensive.

So sometimes individuals, unscrupulous individuals,

will abandon these animals.

Now, the thing is, Mark, when I'm looking at this animal,

it's in very good condition. It doesn't look as if it's been

left out for any amount of time. It's really, really...

Well, look at the belly. Lovely white scales,

it's clean, it's healthy, it's a good weight, this to me,

-looks like an animal, which has recently escaped.

-Yeah.

How well do you know your neighbours? The individuals in the area?

Mostly all of them, except there's a new family on the end..

Well, that may be our first point of call, then.

I think what we'll do, we'll hit the pavement.

We'll knock a few doors.

Is this yours?

Can you imagine? Ahhh!

Do you know what, though? I may wait a couple of hours before I do it.

Oh, I'm sure!

Thank you.

I've got the flowers.

The following morning,

PC Goulding and I were back on the same street,

with the same corn snake,

but knocking a different door.

On a copper's hunch, we were going to try the new neighbours.

Hello, PC Mark Goulding, South Wales Police.

We had a call to a property, a couple of doors down,

of a snake which we've collected

and we're just looking to see if anyone's lost a snake?

-Ah, I've lost two.

-Oh, you have, have you?

Yes, a red and white one or a brown and orange...

Ah, this is kind of an orange and white, corn snake, is it?

Yeah, an amel corn snake?

-Were they both corn snakes, were they?

-Yeah, both corn snakes.

OK, how long ago did you lose them?

I was away on holiday last week,

and when I got back, their tank was empty.

So some time last week.

Talk about a copper's instinct!

It turns out the new neighbours have got quite a menagerie,

including, of course, the one we recaptured.

-Is this your little snake?

-Yes, that's definitely Candy.

-That's Candy.

-There we go.

-Candy, yeah.

-Can I ask,

can you show me where you were keeping Candy?

We don't want this happening again, and I know you don't either,

-so let's have a look where you're keeping her.

-This tank.

-OK.

I thought it was secure,

-I didn't think she could fit through there.

-Right, OK.

I did catch her coming through there once, a few months ago,

so I cut some hose pipe to slide it behind,

-as I've done in this one with the other corn snakes.

-Yeah.

It seemed to work, but I did notice when I came back the bottom was out.

So, she's slipped through, yeah, yeah. Corn snakes, as you know,

can get out of anywhere, they're fantastic escape artists,

so I think what you'll have to do is just really make sure

that there's not a possibility she can get through that glass again.

I tell you what, I'll hand her back, do you want to put her back in?

The only thing I would say is the neighbours have alluded to the fact

there's a quite a few elderly people in the street,

-so if you could do everything you can...

-Absolutely.

..to keep the snakes within the vivariums

and if not, within the house, that would be great.

And I'll let the family know

that you do have snakes here, and if they DO come across

something that they don't recognise,

then it may be worth knocking on this door.

-OK, thank you for your time.

-Fantastic. Thank you.

-OK, thanks for your time.

-Thank you very much.

-No problem at all.

That was a good result.

Interestingly, the second corn snake hasn't reappeared.

And if it's out there in the wild,

there's a reasonable chance it could have even survived

joining an army of alien invaders

now happily living and breeding across Wales.

We've already got a healthy population of Aesculapian rat snakes

breeding away in Colwyn Bay, and there are colonies of false widows

and yellow-tailed scorpions across South Wales.

There are terrapins, signal crayfish and mink throughout our waterways.

Canada geese in our skies,

muntjac deer in our forests and fields,

and, of course, grey squirrels in every other tree.

And whilst many of these animals look cute and lovely,

the damage they do to our native species, crops, and human habitats

are costing the UK an estimated £2 billion per year.

Although, by far the most damaging and costly alien invader

is not an animal, but a pretty pink plant.

This is Himalayan balsam

brought to England in 1839 as a pretty little plant,

since then it's spread across the whole of the UK,

and is now a major alien invader here in Wales.

The reason this plant is so successful

is because it can grow very quick, very fast,

and so tall, up to two or three meters in height.

Each plant produces up to 800 seeds

in these little pods here.

The seeds can be fired up to seven metres away from the plant,

that's 23 feet in old money.

Have a look at that. You see here that the Himalayan balsam

has taken over on both banks of the stream

and now the stream is in danger

of becoming completely silted over and overgrown.

It's an absolute monoculture there.

What it's done is, it's grown so fast, and so quickly, and so high,

that it's eclipsed the growth of all other plant species,

now there is just balsam.

I wish this was an isolated case,

but as an ecologist, I see this all too often.

This plant is completely and utterly out of control.

Of course, in the Far East Himalayan balsam has many natural predators,

insects such as leafhoppers chomp it up and keep it under control.

Here, it's out of control, it has no natural predators whatsoever.

And left to its own devices, this is the scenario,

this is the scene that we would face across all of our riverbanks.

So what are we going to do about this proliferating problem?

Well, I've got a rather bonkers idea.

I reckon we can help control Himalayan balsam

if we re-introduce beavers back into our Welsh rivers.

Which is not as daft as you may think.

There have already been controlled re-introductions of beaver

into Scotland and many parts of Northern Europe.

And here in Wales, we're in the advanced stages

of beginning a limited and controlled

re-introduction programme,

hopefully within the next 12 to 18 months.

But up until 400 years ago, beavers WERE a native species,

but in the UK, as well as most of Europe,

we hunted them into extinction for their fur, their meat,

and most of all for castoreum,

a liquid produced by beavers for scent-marking

that is used in the making of perfume,

as a food flavouring,

and because it contains high concentrations of salicylic acid,

a natural painkiller,

still used in other forms in aspirin.

But what our beaver-bludgeoning forbearers didn't quite grasp,

is that salicylic acid is not produced by the beavers themselves.

They get it from willow bark, which forms a key part of their diet.

Beavers are herbivores, eating tree bark, roots, leaves

and the grasses that grow along riverbanks.

But unfortunately, a lot of our native riverbank plants and trees,

including the willow,

are being driven out by the pink peril that is Himalayan balsam.

So you might think it a bit daft to re-introduce beavers

to Welsh waterways if their natural diet is under threat here.

And this is where my bonkers theory comes into play.

After all, what is Himalayan balsam?

It's a plant!

It has roots, leaves and a rather succulent and nutritious stem.

So, in theory, beavers should be happy to eat it!

But would it work in practice?

What I need is some eager beaver to put it to the test!

This is Upcott Grange in Devon.

They've got a captive breeding programme here for beaver.

In the event that beaver are re-introduced to Wales,

this is where they'll probably come from.

And in this shed are the beavers

who'll be my guinea pigs in this experiment.

This is an extraordinary privilege

to be this close to a living, breathing beaver.

There are three pens here, part of a captive breeding programme.

I've been given access to film them today,

because I believe these animals,

if introduced to balsam, will eat it!

And because the pesky Himalayan balsam

is so invasive and easily spread,

I've been given written permission by Natural England

to collect just enough for my experiment.

I don't think they'll take it straight away,

so I'm going to set up some trail cameras as well, and...

see if we can record them eating.

BEAVER BARKS

You can hear that noise that the beaver is making there,

he's basically saying, "Hey! Back off, stay away!"

So he's not afraid, but he's unhappy that I'm here.

So, I'm going to make sure that I put the food down now,

and then we should leave quite quickly.

Moment of truth!

Beavers, of course, are completely vegetarian,

so they normally eat, well, in captivity here,

things like apples, carrots, etc.

But I really have a gut feeling that they ARE going to eat this balsam.

Let's just set up some trail cameras and see if they'll eat.

OK.

I leave the beavers to get sniffy over their set menu of balsam...

even more balsam...

or the alternative of just going hungry.

And then what d'you know?

After a couple of near misses,

and one wilful act of vandalism...

we returned to find one of our beavers

happily chomping away on the balsam.

We've actually got a beaver that will eat balsam.

-BEAVER BARKS

-There is the evidence.

BEAVER BARKS

We just popped back... We've been away about an hour,

we thought we'd just stick our heads in and see how it's going,

I can't believe they've done that. That is just fantastic.

Now I'm not saying that my little experiment

is anything other than an encouraging first step.

And I'm certainly not suggesting for one minute

that the re-introduction of the beaver

will be a one-stop solution to eradicate Himalayan balsam.

But what I am saying

is that re-introducing them is part of a process

that will start to bring our ecosystems back into balance.

But will it happen? Watch this space.

Whilst our countryside is undoubtedly being changed

under our very noses by all of these alien invaders,

it is one of our native wild animals

that still seem to cause the most controversy.

I'm talking about the badger.

Many of us see these beautiful creatures

as our cutest wild animals.

Many others blame the badger for the spread of bovine TB in our cattle,

and would like to see a major cull.

Whilst other sick-minded individuals

see their persecution through badger-baiting

as some kind of twisted sport.

Sadly, PC Mark Goulding and I have attended a number

of badger-baiting incidents down the years.

But our next case, also involving badgers, was a new one on me.

I've just had a call-out from Mark Goulding,

apparently a badger has been found dead

outside the orangery at Margam Park,

Now, that's the fourth badger

that's been found dead in the area in the last month.

I'm on my way to meet Mark to find out just what is going on.

Margam Country Park is a stunning 1,000-acre estate

just north of Port Talbot, renowned for its deer herds

and its rich wildlife, including an extensive network of badger setts

in the hills above the castle.

The park staff is understandably concerned

at the number of badgers being found dead in public areas,

and the first thing we're going to do

is inspect the body of the latest casualty.

OK, just one thing to be mindful of,

and I don't have to explain it to you.

We need to look for any obvious signs of injury,

that's obvious to you, but as far as I'm concerned

-we need to treat this as a poison case...

-Yeah.

..for no other reason than Health and Safety.

Because obviously we're handling the carcass,

if there's poisons on it, we are going to get it on our hands.

I don't need to explain to you. You're a doctor in this area.

-Absolutely.

-But bear it in mind, we could be dealing with poisons,

and the common poisons, aldicarbs or carbofurans,

-misuse of pesticides, basically. OK?

-No problem.

-Great.

Let's see what we've got.

OK. Oh, dear, so he's curled right up!

-It's not an old animal, is it?

-No.

This is frozen solid,

so we're not going to be able to give a complete examination here,

but let's see what we can see here.

So, first of all, Mark, it looks as if the animal

has walked off its own steam in here,

and then it's curled up and it's died.

So, why has it done that?

There are several reasons - was it hit by a car?

And it continued on its journey into Margam Park

and then curled up and died, some time later,

from maybe internal injuries.

Normally if there was an impact from a car,

you would have blood around the nose or maybe broken teeth,

but there's nothing, is there, at all.

There's no sign of blood, no trace of blood around here.

I'd then be looking to see if the animal was attacked,

maybe either bludgeoned or shot.

Normally badgers would be shot in the head,

again, there's no sign at all, is there?

Again, completely clean, there's no sign of blood.

There's no obvious breaks, let's have a look at the limbs as well.

It appears, from my point of view, that, Rhys, this is a young animal.

It is a young animal, and it's highly suspicious

that it's just curled up in a public area,

and died in this fashion,

so at the moment everything is leading

-to a possible case of poisoning.

-Yeah.

I need to get the animal to one of the labs,

and get it postmortemed. I mean, it may have died

-of a natural cause, it may have.

-Of course.

But I think from the investigation point of view,

we need to deal with this as a poison at the moment.

Our preliminary findings here,

along with the mysterious recent deaths of three other badgers

in the area, make for a suspicious set of circumstances,

that need further investigation.

Bagged and tagged, we take the badger

to the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Carmarthen.

A government-run facility, it is funded

to carry out postmortems and toxicology reports

on animals for a number of agencies, including the police.

'But are there any exceptional, non-criminal, circumstances

'that might have resulted in this series of badger deaths?'

One thing I hadn't considered is the potential of the animals starving.

Well, it's been absolutely freezing

and it's very difficult conditions for our wildlife,

this year, in particular. So, it is a possibility.

It will be very interesting to see the results

-of the test and the toxicology here.

-Yeah.

'Poisoning, natural causes, or the victim

'of this year's long and cruel winter?

'We'll return later in the programme for an answer.

'In the meantime, we're called out to try and sort out yet another

'non-native species on the loose.'

-OK, Mark, what have we got?

-We had a report of

a possible theft of an African black eagle ten days ago,

from the actual aviary.

So, when officers attended,

it appeared that this African black eagle

escaped the aviary.

It's been out now for about ten days

and it's been sighted a couple of times,

but we knew around the tenth, eleventh day

the bird was going to be hungry.

And it's landed, in a forest block, near a mountain-bike trail.

We're going out to see if we can get this bird.

That's a big bird.

Yeah, absolutely. I spoke to the falconer,

who confirmed it has a wingspan

of over seven and a half feet. The last thing I want

is someone to take matters into their own hands

and approach the eagle.

I don't know how powerful the talons are,

but I take it, if somebody grabs an eagle

without knowing how to deal with it, it could cause some injury.

Oh, yes.

As the name suggests, African black eagles

are not native to Port Talbot.

They are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa,

where their extremely powerful beak and talons are finely honed

to hunt hyrax - small, mountain-dwelling mammals

that are the closet-living relative to the elephant!

Funnily enough, there aren't many hyrax in Port Talbot either.

But as big as it is, an escaped African Black Eagle

poses little, if any, threat to humans.

And because it is such a specialist hunter, it is also highly unlikely

to attack domestic pets or farm animals, even if it is ravenous.

'But as Mark points out, it would use

'its beak and talons to defend itself.

'And they'd rip through human flesh like a knife through butter.'

'As we near the location where the African black eagle

'has been sighted, the bird's owner pulls alongside our police car.'

-Hi, Rob, have you been up there?

-I've been up, yeah.

'He's had a look around the forest block,

'but hasn't seen anything.'

-You're aware the black eagle have feathered tarsals?

-Yeah.

'He's very sceptical about us finding the bird,

'but agrees to accompany us on the search.

'Given the circumstances and the location, I'm equally as unsure.'

Just trying to scan around, to see if it's in any trees,

if it's gone to ground.

I mean, look at the amount of vegetation around here.

This is going to take a lot of skill and a lot of luck, to find it.

OK, let's get eyes on the ground here, as well.

-OK, let's just be nice and quiet.

-Nice and gentle, nice and quiet.

There! There! There. There!

-There!

-Oh, there it is. Come here.

-It's up here, guys.

-Right.

-Rhys, do you want a glove?

We are going to try and flush him down this side,

the two of us working together.

I'm hopeful he is too exhausted and is on the ground.

Nice and slow. Nice and steady, boys.

Nice and steady.

OK. OK.

Slow, slow. Slow, slow.

OK, Rob?

Slow, slow.

Slow, slow.

-Got it.

-Got him?

-Yeah.

Excellent.

-RHYS EXHALES

-This is absolutely...

-ROB LAUGHS

-Are you all right, there?

Oh. Teamwork. Well done.

ROB LAUGHS

This is the most sceptical call I've had in the last week.

I am so glad you rang, honest to God.

That was a good rescue, eh?

That is incredible. Nothing short of incredible.

Mark, I've got to take my hat off to you.

Well done! Good job!

I was expecting to see a Harris hawk.

I am the most sceptical guy on Earth, but I am so, so glad.

So, Rob, the value of a bird like this - what are we talking about?

£10,000.

-No!

-Yep.

-£10,000!?

-Yep. If you had to replace this, yeah.

I wouldn't pay £10,000 for a car!

I know. I've seen your car!

LAUGHTER

'And unlike Mark's car, this bird's in incredibly good nick,

'considering it is captive bred, and until ten days ago

'had never left its aviary.'

Oh, I'm really pleased. I'm really pleased we got it back.

'Although Rob's hand bears witness to its wild side -

'a talon having sliced into it.

'But as it's not going cheap,

'we'd better get this bird back to its aviary.'

-Rhys, that was a good spot!

-That's what I do!

-It is!

Yeah, thank you.

Reference the escaped African black eagle, incident 649.

Just to let you know we've recovered the bird,

everything's in order. Over.

I didn't think we'd stand a gnat's chance of getting that.

It was utterly unbelievable.

'Back at Margam,

'and three days after taking the dead badger to Carmarthen, we return

'to give the postmortem results to duty officer Alison Lloyd.'

'The good news for the park is the badger did not die of poisoning

'and we're not dealing with a wildlife crime.

'The actual cause of death is both surprising and sad.'

The postmortem basically showed that the animal had died of starvation.

Oh, gosh. OK.

Now, it wasn't an old animal, but when you consider that

we've experienced one of the coldest springs that we've ever had,

badgers, primarily, will seek out earthworms. And it's not just food.

They'll get a lot of their moisture from them.

They'll eat hundreds a night.

Imagine if that ground is frozen,

they will be unable to dig and obtain that food.

And if they were starving

and living out on the hills surrounding the park,

and they've come down and into a more public area in search of food.

-It could be that it just curled up and died there of absolute exhaustion.

-Yeah.

I think the thing for you is,

if you have badgers here that are starving,

what's the right course of action? Is it "let it be"?

I think you've got to let it be. What we don't want is wild animals

becoming dependant on human beings for their food source,

because if we've got a changing environment,

the climate is changing, I need those animals to react

to that climatic change. It's a natural process and that is really

what we need the badgers to do -

seek out either an alternative food source, or the like.

We need them to react to the climatic change.

This sad case really brings home to me the impact of a new risk

to our wildlife. If you were to ask me just six months ago, I would

have told you there are only three major threats - that being,

illegal activity, vandals and, of course, alien invaders.

And yet, over the last six weeks, we have seen two clear examples -

barn owls flying by daylight

and, of course, the tragic case of our badger starving to death -

of a fourth threat. That being, the reality of climate change.

Is this year's harsh winter a one-off?

Sadly, I don't believe so, but I'll tell you something,

if our native wildlife doesn't learn to change and adapt

to these new and extreme climate ranges,

I'm going to bet that many of our alien invaders can.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media