Episode 1 Rhys Jones's Wildlife Patrol

'Welsh wildlife is under attack.

'And I am on the front line trying to protect it.

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

'mammals...'

Whoa!

'..and reptiles are threatened daily by illegal activity...'

-Police!

-Go. Go!

'..mistreatment...'

-That's interesting. How did he...?

-How did he lose the foot?

'..and alien invaders.'

That does not look like a happy spider.

'I'm Dr Rhys Jones...'

Oh, there it is!

'..and from my laboratory at Cardiff University, I work with police...'

-Hello! Police!

-A bird in there.

'..wildlife groups...'

It's OK.

'..and concerned members of the public...'

I truly believed it was going to kill me.

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

'and human from animals.'

Everybody stay still!

'And in this episode, two legs - good...'

Where is it?

It looks like a real spider.

'..eight legs - bad.'

No, no, I don't want to see it.

SHE SCREAMS

'I get all wrapped up in a 4,000-year-old murder mystery.'

Look at that!

That is ridiculous!

'And an owl in distress...'

Goodness me!

'..leads to a call from the cops.'

'As a nation renowned for being animal lovers, it never fails

'to surprise me how obsessed we get with owning inappropriate pets.

'At the extreme end, I've dealt with people

'who've bought venomous snakes...'

This is Kathalina and, yes, she's venomous.

'..scorpions...'

If you went in to anaphylactic shock, this could kill you.

'..and even a crocodile.

'But when they find their dangerous trophy pets are taking over

'their homes, they dump them and then someone calls someone like me.

'In fact, I'm currently housing around 30 unwanted

'and abandoned exotic animals.'

Oh, my ear!

'Mainly, they're fad pets.

'So, at the moment, thanks to the TV dramas Game Of Thrones

'and Merlin, I'm over run with unwanted bearded dragons,

'which are lovely when they're this big...'

But a bit more challenging when they've quadrupled in size

and live for ten years.

'In the recent past, I was plagued by terrapins that turned

'overnight from little cuties to plate-sized monster that bite.

'Horrified owners dumped them in the nearest lake or river,

'where they killed the local wildlife,

'and it was left to idiots like me to try fish them back out.

'So, yeah, cheers for that one, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

'But my own personal bete noire is Harry Potter.

'I've had more call-outs

'for unwanted, escaped and abandoned snakes...'

Do you know how much trouble you've caused?

'..than I can count, and all thanks in large part to the boy wizard.

'And it's not just snakes.

As this case is about to show,

'young Harry has also had an unforeseen impact on owls.'

I've just had a very interesting call from my friend,

Malcolm Jones, from the Festival Park Owl Sanctuary.

He's just taken charge of a snowy owl

and apparently it's in a far from good condition.

He's requested that PC Mark Goulding and myself

go up and have a look for ourselves.

If Malcolm wants both Mark Goulding and myself to go up

and have a look at this bird, there's got to be a lot more to it.

'Of course, Harry Potter has a snowy owl called Hedwig.

'But, unlike Harry, snowy owls are not native to the UK.

'In the wild, they live largely within the Arctic Circle,

'but due to the popularity of Harry and Hedwig,

'more and more snowy owls are being captive bred and then sold as pets.

'The trouble is, even captive bred snowies need an experienced

'bird-handler because they're big, they're ferocious hunters,

'and they need enormous aviaries.

'So, I really do hope this case is nothing more sinister than

'an inexperienced owner handing over a bird they could no longer handle.'

Hiya, Mark, all right? A snowy owl?

Yes.

We've had a snowy owl brought into the sanctuary

that has been brought to the police's attention.

A member of the public was concerned where the animal

was brought from and the condition of the animal.

Currently, the owl sanctuary are trying to rehabilitate it,

but the condition is so bad

that we're going to have to look at animal welfare issues.

At first glance, the snowy owl looks in reasonable condition.

She's a female, about four years old and in moult.

But when sanctuary owner Malcolm arrives,

a much more disturbing picture emerges.

Where's his tail, Malcolm? Goodness me!

-Look at his feathers on his wings.

-That is disgraceful!

You can see where he was bleeding look, both wings.

Oh, my goodness me!

That is absolutely disgraceful

that anyone could let an owl get in that condition.

That is neglect on a level that I've never seen.

You don't have to be an expert to see the clotted blood,

the exposure, I mean, look at the back.

Look at that! Goodness me!

You can see through one side of the wing to the other.

HE SIGHS That is just horrendous.

-I've seen enough.

-Goodness me. Let's put the bird back now.

Thanks, Malcolm.

'No doubt about it, this poor bird is in a life-threatening condition.

'The damage to its wings, the exposed flesh and bones

'leave it prone to infection and disease.

'And it is also malnourished.

'But what has caused these injuries?

'I reckon the bird has been chained at ground level on a gravel floor.

'Any bird of prey's natural instinct is to perch on a high spot,

'looking for its next meal.

'So if it's chained, it will instinctively, and compulsively,

'flap its wings, scraping them along the ground,

'fraying the feather ends

'and causing gravel to spray like shrapnel.

'It's horrible but the question is, is it criminal?'

OK, gents, I need the ring number.

-I have 682...

-682...

..80 Zulu.

'A legally captive bred bird will have a numbered ring

'and matching documentation.'

OK, so we've got one live owl wearing a closed ring.

So what we know is this is a captive bred bird

and that the sale of the bird

as questionable as the sale is,

is legal.

OK.

The member of the public who bought this bird

went there to buy a barn owl.

The gentleman didn't have a barn owl, Rhys,

-so, do you want a...

-So you get a snowy owl instead.

This case is being investigated and enquiries are currently being

made to check out the various persons involved.

We've got a little while to go

but I have a good idea of where this is going.

This is going to be a warrant and a door knock,

or kick the door in,

because there's information that there's more birds of prey

at the location where this animal was bought

and apparently in just as poor condition.

With our snowy owl far from out of the woods,

we'll return to this story later in the programme.

But if there's one thing we seem to enjoy even more than

inappropriate pets, it's scaring ourselves silly

with stories of wild wildlife on every corner,

whether it's big cats prowling on Bodmin,

crocodiles in Bristol

or, this year's favourite, plagues of killer spiders,

everywhere, apparently.

A school in Gloucestershire has been forced to close

after an invasion of venomous spiders.

Since the false black widow scare exploded across

national media outlets last summer, I've fielded hundreds of calls,

postings and tweets about killer spiders in people's houses,

sheds, cars, toilets -

especially toilets -

and 99.9% of the time I can assure them

it's not a hairy killer dangling above their loo.

But then there's always that 0.01% of calls

with a hysterical and scared individual at the other end

where I'm really not quite sure....

'I've just had a really peculiar call-out.

'A young lady here in Cardiff has seen what she thinks

'is a massive spider on the roof of a garage opposite her.'

Hello, Dr Rhys Jones. Nice to meet you. Are you all right?

-Nice to meet you.

-So does somebody want to tell me what they've seen

cos we're looking to find out whether this is real or not?

So basically you were looking out the window, weren't you?

And she just seen this massive spider and she wasn't sure

if it was real or not cos obviously it was so big

so we just thought we'd call up really just to see, just in case.

But do you know you can get spiders that big?

Goliath bird-eaters, for instance,

so you can get big spiders like that.

They are kept as pets in Britain

so that's why I've come out, just in case it genuinely is something

that's been released or escaped so, you know, we need to qualify that.

We're really losing light, ladies.

Can you point out to me exactly where you've seen this spider?

It's, like, in their garden. That thing.

OK, that is...

If that's real, it's a huge spider

but I don't want you to worry because we don't even know

if this is a spider yet.

It could be a prank, it could be that somebody's thrown a skin there?

And, as I said, it's just after Halloween

so it may be that we've got a rubber spider.

We need to get eyes on it to have a look and see what we've got.

-Oh, my!

-Oh, lordy.

This really is a bit of a Nightmare On Elm Street for me.

Every bone in my body is screaming "fake plastic spider"!

But ironically, it's the rational scientist in me saying,

"A live exotic spider on a garage roof in Cardiff

"in November is not actually outside the realms of plausibility."

It might be cold and dark now but it's been unseasonably mild for

the last two weeks and spiders, both native and non native, are thriving.

Hence the false widow hysteria.

And in any case, Cardiff has previous

when it comes to exotic spiders on the run.

I was called in for this sensational story earlier in the year,

but not before the national press had spun a colourful yarn out of it.

So I've got little choice here. I'm going to have to call in the cops.

I've got a daylight picture here of what they've seen.

You see, if that was just thrown up there, Mark,

you wouldn't expect it to fall like that, would you?

Surely, if this was a biological specimen,

-wouldn't it have succumbed to the weather?

-Not quite yet.

It was quite warm earlier, so if you're an exothermic animal,

if you're an animal that requires the environment to regulate

the body temperature, I would have headed for a nice, warm metal roof.

'Do you know the more I talk about it,

'the more I persuade myself this could be real.

'Even the fact the spider doesn't appear to have moved

is perfectly normal. A spider such as the Goliath bird-eater

will spend a large portion of its day stock still

either warming up or, because it's too cold,

waiting patiently for passing prey,

or making sure its movements don't attract predators,

particularly aerial ones.

Because ironically,

the bird-eating Goliath is prey to being gobbled...by birds.

Nice to meet you. Hi.

'So are we dealing with an escaped pet Goliath?

'I need a fresh set of eyes on this one.'

Do you know, now I'm here I'm not actually convinced

that's a fake.

The last thing I want is a venomous spider on the roof

of a commercial premises.

'Enough talk. Time for some action.'

Mark, the closer I'm getting to this, it looks like a real spider.

'We need to get across to the commercial garage

'whose roof this spider is on.'

Right the way down there, and then you'll know where you are then,

you'll see the garage on the left.

-Thanks ever so much.

-No problem.

-Appreciate it. Thank you.

This is it, isn't it?

Yes, this is where we came over so it's got to be here.

Right here. Stay there, Mark, OK?

It's going to be difficult.

Right, hold on, Mark.

Rubber?

Hold on.

Is it rubber?

Brilliant!

Oh, man! I am really cheesed off.

It's twenty to six,

do you know how hard it is going to be to get out of Cardiff

on a Friday evening, with all this traffic, for a plastic spider?

I know.

'Oh, boy

'In fairness, this was a real rock and a hard place call.

'Mark and I could've waited until first light,

'but if the spider had been real it probably would have moved on

'or even died.

'And we also had the small matter of a member of the public

'whose arachnophobia was so pronounced...'

-Can we come in?

-No, I don't want to see it!

-It's safe!

-No, I don't want to see it!

..she even ran away from the plastic spider.

-I don't want to see it!

-It's there. It's plastic, I promise you.

'In fact, later in the series, we'll have a scary spider incident

'which shows why we take these call-outs so seriously.

'Meanwhile, I guess the one saving grace is,

'at least the media didn't get hold of the story.

'Earlier in the programme, PC Mark Goulding and I

'were called in to investigate a snowy owl brought to

'the Ebbw Vale Owl Sanctuary in a life-threatening condition.

'The owl had apparently been bought from a private bird trader

'by a naive member of the public.

'Whilst the owl responds slowly to treatment,

'PC Goulding and I have been investigating possible

'animal welfare violations,

'and we have travelled to the Rhondda Fach to meet Owen,

'the member of the public who bought the owl,

'to get a background statement on his version of events.'

I was looking on the internet and I come across a snowy owl.

So I phoned up because it was local and I went over and purchased it.

When you contacted this person, did he give his name?

-Did he give any details?

-No. He said if I go to Aberdare, phone him

and he'll sort of give me directions on the way.

-OK.

-So we went over and it was late at night,

-got to be about 11.30 in the night.

-So he gave you no address?

No address at first, no.

-And no name.

-No name, no.

OK. So what happened when you got there?

He was waiting in the car park, he was, waving.

We went in and he took us in to the metal tin shed

and she was on a perch about a foot off the floor

on gravel, and she was on a leash.

As we walked in she was thrashing about trying to get away from us.

How much did he want for it?

£200

OK. At that time,

did he mention anything about the condition of the bird?

Yes, he said she needed moulting and she was soiled at the back.

-Yeah.

-He said that's just because she'd been

sitting there on the perch and stuff like that.

'As a first-time buyer, Owen took the seller at his word,

'didn't question the snowy owl's condition any further

'and handed over the £200.

'But once he got the bird home

'to the aviary he'd prepared for it, he was in for a shock.'

-You brought the bird home...

-Right.

When you took it out of the box, it was at that point you noticed

-the wings were bleeding?

-Yes, once I got her off I noticed.

I knew it was her wings because she had hit me on my arm as well,

I had blood on my top.

OK, so you're saying that's blood there?

-Yeah.

-And you've got blood on your clothing?

-Yeah.

I think it's fair to say, wouldn't you say, Rhys,

-that there are some issues that we have to look at.

-Definitely.

It's just a matter of whether this goes to court

-and who will ultimately be responsible.

-Yeah.

Thanks very much for your time.

'There's no question of Owen being involved in any wrongdoing,

'he's just been naive.

'And, in truth, his prompt action in contacting the owl sanctuary

'might well have saved this snowy's life.

'On the other hand,

'the person he bought the owl from demands further investigation,

'particularly as Owen also revealed that he witnessed

'a number of other birds at the man's premises.

'This story is not over and we'll be back to conclude this case later.'

'As someone fortunate enough to make a living working with animals,

'I love and appreciate all wildlife.

'But since a close encounter with a grass snake as a young boy,

'I've been particularly fascinated with reptiles.

'And outside of work, my other great passion is ancient history.

'So when Dr Richard Johnson

'from Swansea University's College of Engineering, asked me

'would I like to try and identify the remains of a mummified snake

'from the university's Egyptian Centre,

'he most certainly didn't have to ASP twice!'

KNOCKS ON DOOR

-Hi, Rhys!

-Richard, good to see you.

So this is from the Egypt Centre at Swansea University.

This is a mummified animal.

We know it's a snake but we're not sure what it is.

We've seen it in two dimensions

and what we want to see then is three dimensions, try and work out

what we've got, using your expertise to tell us

potentially what type of snake this is,

with the data we can give you, and the visualisations, hopefully

you'll be able to look at that and give us an idea of maybe what it is.

'Blimey. There's a challenge.

'Thankfully my knowledge of Egyptian snakes is pretty good.

'I know that there are 36 different species,

'ranging from horned vipers to sand snakes,

'and it would have been the same number 4,000 years ago.

'I also know that the ancient Egyptians had a completely different

'attitude to the modern world when it comes to snakes.

'They venerated them and worshipped them as Gods.

'But which of the 36 species is in this mummified casing?

'I think I'm going to need Richard's magic machine.'

-So we're going to have a three-dimensional snake?

-Yes.

Are you going to be able to move that image around

and look in different places?

Yes, whatever you need to do to identify that snake.

You can fly through the vertebrae potentially, fly through the skull.

This is new, this has never been seen before,

and we're going to see the inside of that in detail

for the first ever time.

'The first image out of Richard's magic box

'is a low-resolution 3D scan,

'and he's warned me not to be too disappointed.'

Goodness me! That's incredible.

So you've literally peeled away the layers so all we've got now,

-we're just looking at bone, that's all we've got.

-Yes.

That's incredible.

If you look at the skull, it's almost smashed, isn't it?

There's sections missing. So we've only got sort of partial skull.

'Hmm. Even from this low-resolution image,

'I'm reasonably certain I know what this snake is

'and how it was killed

'but I'm hoping to see a clearer image before I make a final call.'

Oh, that's at a higher resolution!

That's our snake!

Wow! That's a totally different ball game now, isn't it?

Actually, I'd like to know how big the skull is.

We can measure the skull and we'll do that on the two-dimensional view

so if we tip to the back of the skull we're about

-16 or 17 millimetres.

-It's tiny!

-So about the size of the tip of my finger?

-Yeah.

That snake's going to be definitely under a metre long.

-OK.

-Are we able just to get further down the vertebrae here?

That is ridiculous.

This is the most incredible view.

I'm inside the spinal column of a 4,000 year old snake.

That's the skull, isn't it?

And I mean, even if I had the actual specimen in front of me here

-I wouldn't be able to do that.

-No.

That is incredible!

So is there information you can tell from this section

-away from the skull?

-There is indeed. This is a cobra.

-Really?

-And it looks to be an Egyptian cobra.

-OK.

If I explain, this is what we couldn't see last time.

Look at... You can see these ribs coming off now

and this is where the cobra will be able to inflate its hood,

so it inflates its lungs like this

and it can bring those ribs up to form that beautiful hood

because the hood is not up all the time.

They can inflate or deflate the hood.

Judging by the size of the skull,

I'd put it at just under a metre so it's a young one.

That would be consistent with the beliefs of ancient Egyptians,

they really revered these animals.

And they'd see these animals seemingly die and then when

they were shedding their skin they'd crawl out of that skin

and it would be as if they were reborn.

So what better animal to have

than a snake to help you get from this world to the afterlife?

'And for how the snake met its end?'

-You've identified damage before down on the vertebra.

-Here, look.

There there's a break, isn't there?

That's consistent with the way that they probably captured

and killed the snake to mummify it.

We saw some damage to the skull as well which looked like

an impact from the side so if you imagine if

you whip the snake, you break the backbone

and if the skull had hit a wall that would be consistent with

all of the injuries that we're seeing with this specimen.

'And one final mystery to solve...'

Is there any questions you've got about anything you're seeing there?

We're used to scanning bones and things like that but there was

something on here that stood out and it's this...

It's within the mouth.

This portion here, compared to bone, it is very different.

I may know what that is.

Several mummified jackals

and dogs have already been found with gemstones or stones placed

in the mouth, and the mouth closed before the animal was mummified.

Remember that these are not so much sacrifices, but they're offerings

to the gods, so they would put gemstones and stones around them.

-I've never, ever seen that in a snake.

-OK.

Only in mammals, so that is something special. OK.

That makes it really interesting from my point of view.

Now we've got a snake with something that's ritualistic

-within its mouth, which is...

-Certainly.

..potentially very interesting to the scientific community,

Egyptology as well.

Well, this is really something very special.

In the case of the bleeding snowy owl, we're close to the endgame,

with officers from the RSPCA, the Department for the Environment

and South Wales Police preparing for an early morning door knock.

This morning we're going to do a warrant.

It's an animal welfare warrant.

A member of the public reported to us that they bought

a snowy owl from the address in a very poor condition.

On top of that, when the witness went into the address,

when they went into the back garden the reported person identified

what he believed was a Harris hawk being kept in a small dog kennel.

It was also noted there was a leashed African spotted eagle owl

on the grass in the back garden in the pouring rain.

OK.

'I assist in up to a dozen police warrants a year.

'The majority are to do with animal welfare issues

'and most of these turn out to be cases of well-meaning ignorance

'rather than deliberate cruelty.

'I'm hoping that whatever we discover this morning

-'will be the former...'

-There is a bird in there.

-'..and not the latter.'

-Hello! Hello!

We've got a warrant here to search your address

in relation to birds of prey and animal welfare issues, OK?

That's fine.

'In the yard at the back of the house we find home-made sheds

'housing six Harris hawks and two barn owls.

'In a dog kennel on the yard floor is a European eagle owl.'

I will leave that there for now.

'Legally speaking, there are two issues to check.

'Firstly, under the Wildlife & Countryside Act,

'are the barn owls and the eagle owl captive bred

'or have they been illegally taken from the wild?

'We checked the paperwork and the rings.'

Yes, that's a completely sealed ring, so that's fine. Yes, closed ring.

'And all three are legally captive bred.

'So our attention now turns to the Animal Welfare Act.

'Are these birds being kept in a suitable environment?

'Do they have a suitable diet?

'Are they able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns?

'Are they being protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease?'

That's interesting, how did he only get one foot?

-How did he lose the foot? Yes.

-Yes.

Keith, what is your main concern around here?

The aviaries are OK, I don't particularly like them

all being wire. My main concern though is there's no water.

-Yes, that is the issue.

-A lot of falconers will say

-they don't need water.

-They don't need water...

Well, they do. Birds of prey love to bathe

so they so they should all be having access to water.

It's against the law anyway.

'The European eagle owl is also giving cause for concern.'

Fractured radius ulna, that's calloused over.

A stable fracture but, yeah...

And that's why she's obviously got a problem with her feathering.

-Right.

-Only thing wrong with that, I bought it with a broken wing.

-I had it given to me.

-So it had a broken wing when you got it?

-Yes.

I can give you the number and everything.

-Have you taken it to a vet at all? Has the vet seen it?

-No.

-How long have you had this bird?

-Two, three weeks, four weeks.

-Two to four weeks?

-About four weeks.

At the moment it's more animal welfare but

it is not ideal but it's not the worst.

And that eagle owl can get out, comes out and jumps on the lot,

so it can stretch its wings. Again, it's not ideal,

but under the Wildlife & Countryside Act we can't do anything about it.

It's got a broken wing but the wing is fused together.

-There's probably an advisory notice on water...

-Yes.

-..and probably some kind of notice to get it to a vet.

-Absolutely.

-I have seen far worse.

-Yes.

'Given the birds injuries, Ellie and Keith from the RSPCA

'could seize the eagle owl and Harris hawk and press charges,

'but the injuries are old

'and there's no way of knowing how they were caused.

'Also, the owner has been fully cooperative

'and so he's given the benefit of the doubt.

'Instead, RSPCA instructor Keith will issue him with a caution.'

I'm not taking any of your birds off you.

What I intend to do is give you a warning notice about the eagle owl

for you to put the offence right,

I want you to take the bird to the vet's.

Obviously if you don't take it...

My point is, right, what is he going to do? If I take it to the vet's?

Say the bird's got an infection, and needs antibiotics, job done.

If it hasn't, job done, but for peace of mind for you and for me,

otherwise I'll be taking the bird and I don't need that hassle,

-as you don't need that hassle.

-Good.

-So I am going to caution you, OK.

So the time now is 8.14. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you

do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on

-in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence, do you understand that?

-Yes.

For me it's the same old story.

I'm not saying that this is a bad man or that

his heart's not in the right place,

but year in, year out, I keep coming across these animals -

reptiles, primates, birds of prey -

being kept in far-from-ideal, in my opinion,

and it IS my opinion, far-from-ideal conditions.

I mean, an eagle owl, being kept in a kennel?

Really?

'In the case of the snowy owl, in spite of its obvious injuries,

'no charges were brought.

'It transpired that this poor bird had been through

'a number of owners in the weeks leading up to it being taken

'to the sanctuary and therefore, in law,

'those injuries couldn't be attributed to any one individual.'

Still, it's not all bad news.

After six months of veterinary treatment and lots of love and

attention from Malcolm, our snowy owl is finally out of the woods.

That is remarkable.

If you look at those wings now you can see where the damage was

but it's healing up nicely and that tail,

it's just going to be another moult and all done.

'So, a happy ending to this one story

'and, hopefully, we can all go back to enjoying Harry Potter on the page

'and not in the cage.'