:03:47. > :03:51.head is flicking from side to side. Odd behaviour. Louise asks, why was
:03:51. > :03:55.the adder moving her head really quickly from side to side? Adders
:03:55. > :04:00.live in a cloud of pheromones, so they can sense things we can't.
:04:00. > :04:05.There's all sorts of things going on. They are flicking out their
:04:05. > :04:08.tongue and bringing back fence from other adders or other creatures.
:04:08. > :04:14.What it was probably doing was transferring all these little
:04:14. > :04:21.chemical cues into its Jacobson 's organ in the roof of its mouth, and
:04:21. > :04:26.that processes the adder's world. It is a beast of sense. It wasn't
:04:26. > :04:29.flicking its tongue out, was it? I've made some enquiries and Sidney
:04:29. > :04:33.Sheldon, a friend of this programme, she has studied adders
:04:33. > :04:38.for years on the borders of Shropshire and Worcestershire. She
:04:38. > :04:43.thinks it could also be practising for slapping. We haven't seen milky
:04:43. > :04:48.eyes on this particular one. Shedding its skin. Their eyes go
:04:48. > :04:52.milky and then they clear. If this adder cleared its allies, it may
:04:52. > :05:01.just be loosening the skin in preparation. We don't know. It could
:05:01. > :05:05.be pheromones. What about the fact it hasn't got forward facing eyes?
:05:05. > :05:10.It can't judge distance between the distance between its two eyes. Maybe
:05:10. > :05:13.if it's got eyes on the side of its head, it's moving them from side to
:05:13. > :05:19.side like that, and that movement allows some parallax so would can
:05:19. > :05:29.judge distance by using only one eye at a time. Was all the herring doing
:05:29. > :05:29.
:05:29. > :05:34.that as well. It was on its way to each of and it was just practising!
:05:34. > :05:44.Nick, this is for you. These photographs were sent in by Dominic
:05:44. > :05:50.
:05:50. > :06:00.Greves. Can you see them? Wow, look at that! It's a spider and a wasp.
:06:00. > :06:02.
:06:02. > :06:09.Oh! What's going on? That is one of the spider hunting wasps. It is the
:06:09. > :06:14.dark banded spider hunting wasps. They hunt spiders. It's not very
:06:14. > :06:19.nice if you are a spider and you meet one of these things, because
:06:19. > :06:25.they paralyse the spider. The spider is alive but it can't do anything
:06:25. > :06:30.about it. I've watched these things, it's hours and hours of fun on the
:06:30. > :06:34.heath. They will then drag the spider paralysed, just twitching a
:06:34. > :06:40.little bit. Then, it's one of the wasps which doesn't dig a burrow
:06:40. > :06:45.first, it actually has to hang the spider up somewhere, in grasses or
:06:45. > :06:51.tufts of vegetation, then dig the Burrow, which is exciting enough.
:06:51. > :06:59.While they are digging the baroque, because they want to get the spider
:06:59. > :07:06.in the Burrow and lay an egg on it, but while they are doing that, other
:07:06. > :07:09.wasps will come in often and try and make the spider. You have a
:07:09. > :07:13.tug-of-war over spiders. There's all sorts of dastardly tactics.
:07:13. > :07:17.Eventually one of the wasps get fit and shoves it down into the Burrow.
:07:17. > :07:22.They did ten to 15 centimetres under the ground, lay an egg on the
:07:22. > :07:29.spider. You are lying there as a spider, paralysed, and something has
:07:29. > :07:33.laid an egg on your chest and then you are buried alive. You are in the
:07:33. > :07:36.dark and you have this thing eating you alive. Isn't that just perfect?
:07:36. > :07:40.The first-ever job I had for the BBC as a cameraman was to film that
:07:40. > :07:45.extraordinary like circle. It was on the south coast. I arrived, found
:07:45. > :07:52.the wasp and then found out it was a nudist beach. It was only populated
:07:52. > :07:58.by one sex. I spent two weeks there. Which sex was it? The male sex.
:07:58. > :08:03.didn't need to spend two weeks, though, did you? I met some
:08:03. > :08:11.interesting characters! A quick one for you. A fantastic photograph of a
:08:11. > :08:15.kestrel from Andy Astbury. Chris, take us through it. It's got these
:08:15. > :08:23.extraordinary bumps on the top of its wing. They must be there for a
:08:23. > :08:32.reason. What is going on? These feathers here were formally
:08:32. > :08:36.called... They are fixed to the birds thumb. There are two, three or
:08:36. > :08:40.four. The bird has the capacity to lift them up like this. It is
:08:40. > :08:45.lifting them so it can change the airflow over the top of the wing as
:08:45. > :08:48.the bird lands, or the wing is held at a steep angle. It prevents the
:08:48. > :08:56.bird from stalling. You will see these on some jets when you take
:08:56. > :09:04.off, certainly more vintage aircraft. Here is one.On the front
:09:04. > :09:10.of the wing is a panel which moves. It is an aviation alveolar. When it
:09:10. > :09:14.comes into land, you will see these out of the window, this thing will
:09:15. > :09:18.come up like this and this will enable the rake of the wing to be at
:09:19. > :09:23.a steep angle without it stalling. Birds use them all the time, you
:09:23. > :09:33.particularly see raptors doing it. All birds have them. Nature got it
:09:33. > :09:39.
:09:39. > :09:43.first. We have been sent some very interesting film from John Dollard.
:09:43. > :09:50.This is a video he took in the garden a few days ago of a wild
:09:50. > :10:00.duck. Look at this. Here comes a hen pheasant. It is not going to end
:10:00. > :10:06.
:10:06. > :10:15.happily. I wonder why the hen pheasant is coming in. Oh, deer.
:10:15. > :10:20.John says the duck is sitting on 12 eggs. 11 of the eggs were duck eggs
:10:20. > :10:28.and one was a small brown egg. Watch what the pheasant is doing. Did you
:10:28. > :10:33.see that? Yes!She's laid an egg. The incredible thing was that John
:10:33. > :10:43.says that egg was picked up by the duck and put back into the nest.
:10:43. > :10:47.
:10:47. > :10:54.What is that all about? I don't know. It's a natural instinct. The
:10:54. > :11:01.duck is thinking one of its own eggs has fallen out of the nest and it is
:11:01. > :11:10.retrieving it. Why the pheasant is laying the egg next to the duck is
:11:10. > :11:16.more of a mystery. She laid two.The pheasant has gone back to try and
:11:16. > :11:19.integrate it egg and got into a bit of a fracas with the duck. Why on
:11:19. > :11:24.earth wouldn't the pheasant just leave the dock as soon as it's being
:11:24. > :11:29.tacked? The reason is it needs to go and integrate its own eggs. Why
:11:29. > :11:36.don't they just share? Sit side-by-side! Now we are going to
:11:36. > :11:41.have a little visitor. Could we please bring in younger. Hello.
:11:41. > :11:46.Isn't she gorgeous? She is a little owl. Brett Westwood is going to tell
:11:46. > :11:52.us a little bit about the history. They are not indigenous, are they?
:11:52. > :12:00.No, they are not. There are various ways they've come in. I think you
:12:00. > :12:05.knew why they were introduced. guy who did it, he said, I wanted to
:12:05. > :12:09.bring them in to get rid of bats in Belfry 's. They were just sanitation
:12:09. > :12:13.devices for churches. But they did more than that because they then
:12:13. > :12:17.spread throughout most of the country. They are very rare in
:12:17. > :12:21.Scotland, but they've spread right through England and most of Wales.
:12:21. > :12:25.They've done very well. It's one of those introduced birds that we've
:12:25. > :12:30.taken to very well. It's a bird which everybody likes because it is
:12:31. > :12:39.rather fierce looking, it's got the glaring, yellow eyes. It will bob up
:12:39. > :12:43.and down at you. I'm going to tell you a story now. My neighbour,
:12:44. > :12:48.Denise, came up to me and said, Martin, I've seen an absolutely
:12:48. > :12:53.enormous burden on my back garden. I'm very frightened for all my
:12:53. > :12:58.animals. I thought, no, it must have been a buzzard. She said it wasn't a
:12:58. > :13:04.buzzard. She then came to me a couple of weeks ago and said, I've
:13:04. > :13:14.seen that bird. I went to a wildlife park and I know what it was. We've
:13:14. > :13:15.
:13:15. > :13:21.got one here. Please come in, Malcolm. Steady, steady. He's
:13:21. > :13:28.getting a bit excited. Once I realised what this was, I knew my
:13:28. > :13:31.neighbour was right. It is possible. This is an eagle owl full
:13:31. > :13:39.stop incredibly, the RSPB reckon that 63 escape every year from
:13:39. > :13:44.collections in the UK. They are now actually breeding in the UK. But
:13:44. > :13:50.we're doomed they come from? Is it possible they were here? Is it
:13:50. > :13:56.possible we had eagle owls here in the past? It's a big question. When
:13:56. > :13:59.you say 63, they obviously can't them. They are kept as pets and do
:13:59. > :14:05.get out very often, and they breed well in captivity. You will find
:14:05. > :14:09.people release them or they get away. Can breed in the wild in the
:14:09. > :14:12.UK and there are breeding pairs out there. What nobody has ever proved
:14:12. > :14:17.is that eagle owls have ever reached us from the continent. I think
:14:17. > :14:22.they've found bones or remains of them thousands of years ago, but
:14:23. > :14:27.there's no, as far as I know, definite records of eagle owls
:14:27. > :14:32.coming across the continent, because they don't like flying over water.
:14:33. > :14:38.If one did turn up here, it would be welcomed by hordes of twitchers.
:14:38. > :14:47.Tell us a bit about him. The female would be considerably bigger.
:14:47. > :14:53.We've got a female a lot bigger. How old is he? Between ten to 15.
:14:53. > :15:03.Anyway, it is possible you might just see in the UK and eagle owl. It
:15:03. > :15:06.
:15:06. > :15:12.could be even bigger than this one here. Michaela, can you introduce us
:15:12. > :15:18.to the film? This is from Finn Strong from Devon, one of our
:15:18. > :15:25.Strong from Devon, one of our younger viewers. Yoda would like to
:15:25. > :15:32.say, show the film, we will my name is thin, and I am seven, but when I
:15:32. > :15:38.made the film, I was six. I really like wildlife, so I decided to try
:15:38. > :15:43.to film some in the field near where I live. I thought I would go down
:15:43. > :15:53.and see if there was any wildlife around, and there was lots of birds.
:15:53. > :16:26.
:16:26. > :16:33.My favourite shot was when this swan them to think that they should care
:16:33. > :16:41.a lot about wildlife full top did he choose that music for the film?
:16:41. > :16:46.was his choice, yes. A budding cameraman. We have had a lot of
:16:46. > :16:56.questions about marine issues. Everyone is going to the seaside
:16:56. > :17:04.
:17:04. > :17:11.soon if we have a son. Here is our you. The first one is a picture of a
:17:11. > :17:17.blog. This is from Sue Chase Lee, and she found it in Mark Judge on a
:17:17. > :17:21.sheltered beach in Orkney. There were quite a few of them at
:17:21. > :17:28.intervals along the shore. They seemed to be attached into the sand.
:17:28. > :17:36.She has never seen them before or since. It looks like she might have
:17:36. > :17:44.had a cold and sneezed! Children often call these snotty balls. But
:17:44. > :17:54.they are a lovely green leaf worm. They tend to lay in the springtime.
:17:54. > :18:03.What will hatch out of that? Lots of little tiny worms. And we have this
:18:03. > :18:10.photo on twitter. This was from the beach in Kintyre. This is a rag
:18:10. > :18:18.worm. It is really interesting, because it does many incredible
:18:18. > :18:23.things. In polluted harbours, it takes heavy metals and puts them in
:18:23. > :18:32.capsules under its skin. That is a rapid evolution that has happened to
:18:32. > :18:41.cope with pollutants. The colour is lovely under a microscope. It is
:18:41. > :18:46.iridescent. Amazing what you can find. This is the next one. This was
:18:46. > :18:55.sent in by Louis being aged to sit sit, who is now seven, he wants you
:18:55. > :19:04.to know. He found this on holiday in Sardinia. He said there was a big
:19:04. > :19:12.one and a little one on the beach. You might assume this is a heart the
:19:12. > :19:16.chin, but you can see a few hints as to why it isn't. They are buried
:19:16. > :19:23.just underneath the sand, and have spines that all face in the same
:19:23. > :19:28.direction. But this is matted hair all over the place. And if you look
:19:28. > :19:37.on the underside of the urchin, you can see a little hole. That is where
:19:37. > :19:43.the food gets drawn down. So, you have told us what it's not. It looks
:19:43. > :19:52.like a donkey dollop or something. But I think it is probably some kind
:19:52. > :20:02.of sea bream. It has a funny texture. Shall we perform an
:20:02. > :20:04.
:20:04. > :20:10.autopsy? Hirwaun have a knife. looks like a giant cat furball.
:20:10. > :20:17.there something in their? I don't want to destroy what is inside.
:20:17. > :20:24.There is something in there. There is a seed in there. Without a shred
:20:24. > :20:28.of doubt. It is a seed of some kind. But this might have been in the sea
:20:28. > :20:32.for some time, which could have changed its appearance, and all of
:20:32. > :20:39.this matting could have been more structured originally. But this is
:20:39. > :20:45.plant material, not animal. It is probably highly toxic, perforating
:20:45. > :20:49.my skin, and I won't be here much longer!
:20:49. > :20:59.Are you sure it is not a lion that has eaten a furball and coughed it
:20:59. > :20:59.
:20:59. > :21:05.up? Into the sea? Meyer, thank you very much. We are
:21:05. > :21:10.about to do another autopsy. Let's have a look at why. A month ago,
:21:10. > :21:16.something was washed up on the beach very close to here. Sadly, it's a
:21:16. > :21:21.while. We all know about when they get stranded in people rushed down
:21:21. > :21:26.to help them back into the water, but in fact, just because it has
:21:26. > :21:35.died isn't the end of the story, and it is certainly not the end of the
:21:35. > :21:44.story for Rob Deaville. Here he comes. What on earth is that? What a
:21:44. > :21:54.fantastic thing. It is. That was a salvaged beach while. And that is
:21:54. > :22:04.its goal? Not that animal, I have to stress. This one was found in Kent.
:22:04. > :22:08.
:22:08. > :22:16.Only the males have teeth. There are suction feeders. They feed at debt,
:22:16. > :22:23.they hold their breath for half an hour, dive to a thousand metres, log
:22:23. > :22:33.onto a squid or fish and suck it up. So that fish we saw there was a deep
:22:33. > :22:36.
:22:36. > :22:44.sea Wael. Not a fish.Sorry! So once you come across the dead body, you
:22:44. > :22:52.go in. What are you trying to find out? We are trying to learn more
:22:52. > :22:57.about mortality in cetaceans. The threats are usually our activity,
:22:57. > :23:01.things like fishing nets, pollution that might cause disease, and so on.
:23:01. > :23:09.We are trying to preserve these animals in the wild if we can.
:23:09. > :23:17.have you any results about either of these? This is into room results,
:23:18. > :23:20.still carrying out small tests. The find was consistent with live
:23:21. > :23:26.stranding. It was in moderate condition but hadn't fed for some
:23:26. > :23:34.time. That is a common condition with these deep divers. They get
:23:34. > :23:37.close into sure where it is shallow, and they can't feed. They have a
:23:37. > :23:43.very specific feeding strategy, and when they get to coastal waters,
:23:43. > :23:50.they can't feed, and because they get their fluid from their diet,
:23:51. > :23:55.they get dehydrated and that can lead to the stranding. So that is
:23:55. > :24:01.the anywhere you could see a deep sea mammal like that. Shall we see a
:24:01. > :24:09.picture of what it looks like? That is what it should look like. It
:24:09. > :24:13.spends up to how long underwater? The interesting thing is that we
:24:13. > :24:22.don't know much about them. Some creatures we only know about through
:24:22. > :24:29.stranding. We think they might rest hold for half an hour or more. Some
:24:29. > :24:37.can dive for an hour and a half, sperm whale have been found in 3000
:24:37. > :24:47.metres depth of water. And if people do find one washed up, do you want
:24:47. > :24:48.
:24:48. > :24:55.to know about it? Absolutely. is alive, notify the rescue
:24:55. > :24:57.authorities, there are authorities who specifically deal with this. We
:24:57. > :25:04.depend on the public to report things to us so that we can learn
:25:04. > :25:09.more about them. There is a link on the website. If you ever do find
:25:09. > :25:19.them when you are out this summer, he wants to know. Thank you for
:25:19. > :25:27.
:25:27. > :25:37.the quiz right now. Let's carefully move this out of the way. Can we put
:25:37. > :25:42.
:25:42. > :25:47.that back up? Thank you. Let's try. The well isn't gone. That is because
:25:47. > :25:56.number four is fiendishly difficult. There are people who have got close,
:25:56. > :26:01.and we will accept their answer. Cathy W got very close. It is very
:26:01. > :26:11.difficult. Let's go through them. Number one, any ideas, Chris?
:26:11. > :26:11.
:26:11. > :26:19.Dormouse. Yes, they make their nest from Honeysuckle bark. Number two,
:26:19. > :26:23.an animal that uses shells and ground up vegetation. There are two
:26:23. > :26:29.of three species of mining bee. These are relatives of that, and
:26:29. > :26:38.they create little chambers inside an old snail shell and lug it with a
:26:38. > :26:45.mixture like pesto. And we have a picture of one. And watched you
:26:46. > :26:55.reckon makes its home in here? Come on! I thought this would be the
:26:55. > :27:05.easiest one. It's a hermit crab. what about the wall plugs? We can
:27:05. > :27:14.have a look at it here. And this last one here, that is a nest. Any
:27:14. > :27:24.ideas? Lots of birds use spiders web. We will accept longtailed Tate
:27:24. > :27:25.
:27:25. > :27:30.and Goldcrest. Thank you very much indeed, brilliant. We are going to
:27:30. > :27:38.stick on board these very quickly. Meld Timms says, I have got on board
:27:38. > :27:43.these in my garden. One of them killed another. Why was that?
:27:43. > :27:48.world changed the day I discovered cuckoo bumblebees, and I found they
:27:48. > :27:51.were up all sorts. They look very similar to, almost identical, and
:27:52. > :27:57.they don't really have queens. Females go into nests, lay their
:27:57. > :28:01.eggs and take over the nests of bobbies. And the bumblebee workers
:28:01. > :28:06.on that nests carry on rearing their young for them. Sometimes they will
:28:06. > :28:12.kill the Queen. Sometimes they will live alongside the Queen. Sometimes
:28:12. > :28:17.they just kick her out. This is all part of natural history, there is
:28:17. > :28:20.nothing to fear. There are wonderful creatures. They don't have pollen
:28:20. > :28:25.baskets all workers, they don't need them because somebody else does the
:28:25. > :28:32.work. There are about six species of cuckoo bees, and you can get one in
:28:32. > :28:37.your garden. So the Queen has hibernated all winter, and then she
:28:38. > :28:43.gets horribly predated? That's not fair. Marvellous strategy.It is
:28:43. > :28:48.appalling! Thank you very much indeed for joining us. Please keep
:28:48. > :28:53.all these questions coming in. And all these questions coming in. And