:00:19. > :00:27.APPLAUSE. Hello! Thank you very much indeed. Thank you for coming along.
:00:28. > :00:30.Welcome to Unsprung coming to you live from the Sherbourne Park estate
:00:31. > :00:33.in Gloucestershire run by the National Trust and this year home of
:00:34. > :00:36.Unsprung and Springwatch. On this programme it's all about you. We
:00:37. > :00:40.want to hear from you throughout the programme. Send us pictures, ask us
:00:41. > :00:44.any questions you possibly like the answers to. We will do our best to
:00:45. > :00:47.answer them. We have some wildlife, a little bit of science and guests
:00:48. > :00:58.too. I am pleased to welcome tonight Sara Cox.
:00:59. > :01:03.APPLAUSE. T Yes, I do a bit of pottering, I get in the way. We will
:01:04. > :01:09.be joining you later. Also Richard Jones.
:01:10. > :01:15.APPLAUSE. Richard has written this book, The
:01:16. > :01:19.Secret Life of Dung, if there is one thing we love here on Springwatch
:01:20. > :01:26.it's dung and we have some coming up. Isn't that right, Lindsey?
:01:27. > :01:30.Before we go on I have an extract. This is absolutely fantastic. It's
:01:31. > :01:34.about a species of beetle which dives into dung. They fold away
:01:35. > :01:39.their flight wings and literally dive in swimming is exactly what
:01:40. > :01:47.they do and they have broadened legs. They turn their limbs into
:01:48. > :01:54.oars. Swims through its own food and its food is dung. Brilliant! That is
:01:55. > :02:01.brilliant. Not sure how to get out of that one. I am going to follow
:02:02. > :02:08.with kingfishers. Lots of you got in touch about the wonderful footage we
:02:09. > :02:11.had. Have a look at this. This has been sent in by Denis Williams. Come
:02:12. > :02:16.on, Chris, what do you think of that? Well, yeah...
:02:17. > :02:20.The wings are in front of the face. Here we go! A twig over there in the
:02:21. > :02:26.background which is disturbing. I thought it was a stunner. Then I
:02:27. > :02:30.found this one, as well. This is from our Twitter account. From
:02:31. > :02:33.wildlifetog. Look at the timing. Time something good. I would like to
:02:34. > :02:39.see the fish facing me. LAUGHTER. I am looking at the fish's
:02:40. > :02:46.tail, I would rather see its face. I will keep trying. Lots of you have
:02:47. > :02:52.been enjoying our fantastical beasts. Some viewers got creative
:02:53. > :02:59.last night and sent this in. This is incredible. It's a screen shot. This
:03:00. > :03:12.is the Packham native. Did you know you were doing that? I did not. Had
:03:13. > :03:17.I known I would have been symetrically. Keep sending them in.
:03:18. > :03:21.It's easy to do. This is how. Now it's never been ease yir to get
:03:22. > :03:27.in touch with us here on You think sprun. Wherever you are, and whether
:03:28. > :03:31.you use a phone, a laptop or tablet. The easiest way to find us is go
:03:32. > :03:34.online and be our friend on social media. So, like us on Facebook. And
:03:35. > :03:39.you can post comments and pictures to our wall.
:03:40. > :03:44.Follow us on Instagram and tag us into your photographs.
:03:45. > :03:47.Or tweet us. Using hashtag Springwatch. Don't
:03:48. > :03:57.worry, if you can't remember all of this, it's explained on our website.
:03:58. > :04:04.Chris, what is brown and sounds like a bell? Dung! Yes, that's right,
:04:05. > :04:08.it's time for tonight's quiz I read that in the Beano before you were
:04:09. > :04:14.born! What a treat we have for you. It's a slif specimen. Well, it was.
:04:15. > :04:19.It came from a live specimen. There are maybe things living in it. It's
:04:20. > :04:23.a piece of ex-crept we found on the estate today. It's quite dry. It's
:04:24. > :04:30.not a fresh one. Not much of a smell to it. We want to know who produced
:04:31. > :04:34.this poo? Who pooed? Absolutely. Brilliant. Get in touch, you have
:04:35. > :04:39.about 20 minutes. 25 minutes to do that. Use the hashtag Springwatch. I
:04:40. > :04:45.will keep an eye on it. Get quizzing now. Top work. Thank you very much.
:04:46. > :04:50.I am going to move over to the first guest. Thank you very much for
:04:51. > :04:54.coming in, Sara. Nice to see you. I like the audience's reaction then
:04:55. > :05:01.when you sprung around with the poo. OK! I don't mind getting too close
:05:02. > :05:05.to poo. Not everyone is so keen, Richard will be. I have been with
:05:06. > :05:12.Richard all afternoon. A lot of poo chat. You grew up in a situation
:05:13. > :05:18.where you were relatively rustic. My dad is a farmer, still farms beef
:05:19. > :05:24.cattle, Hereford. Brown and white ones. He has a few acres, but
:05:25. > :05:30.housing is marching slowly to the edges of the field. Still there?
:05:31. > :05:35.Still there showing cattle. I will ring him up after. And the
:05:36. > :05:40.tractor... All right, darling... Did you get involved? I could drive a
:05:41. > :05:45.tractor when I was about 11. It was a really old one, to speed it up
:05:46. > :05:49.with the accelerator, it was like a stick there and the clutch. If it
:05:50. > :05:52.started to run away it was so slow that my dad would have been able to
:05:53. > :05:58.catch and stop it. You would jump off. Exactly. What about wildlife on
:05:59. > :06:04.the farm, was it a good place? Pretty much. We would have, I think
:06:05. > :06:09.we used to get barn owls when I was really little, I think. I think we
:06:10. > :06:13.used to get, what do they call it? Little birds that would come in and
:06:14. > :06:17.out of all the buildings. Swallows. Yeah, I think we had a few. What
:06:18. > :06:21.about cattle on the farm, lots of flies are attracted to the animals,
:06:22. > :06:29.swallows come to feed on them. Obviously the odd rat which you
:06:30. > :06:33.weren't as keen on. No? We like rats on Springwatch and Unsprung.
:06:34. > :06:37.Everything has a job. The pest word doesn't occur here. The pest word
:06:38. > :06:42.occurred and we would be short of 50% of our stars. Then you went on
:06:43. > :06:47.to other things. How did you get on to the radio doing 80s music that I
:06:48. > :06:51.used to listen to? It's bizarre journey really. I didn't really want
:06:52. > :06:57.to go to uni because my sister used to ring up from uni every week going
:06:58. > :07:00.there is 15 of us living on one potato and I have no shoes. That
:07:01. > :07:07.doesn't sound like fun, I need to get a job, so I modelled for a bit.
:07:08. > :07:12.In fact OMD. I was in a video. Yeah, I was wrapped in a a bed sheet
:07:13. > :07:18.against a wall like this. OK. Still got it. All these decades later!
:07:19. > :07:24.Eventually got into TV and into radio. Now I am on Friday nights at
:07:25. > :07:33.10pm on Radio 2. You have been out with other naturalists in the field.
:07:34. > :07:41.You went out with Gordon Buchanan. You are my favourite of course.
:07:42. > :07:57.Wow. That's the adult male. All of them...
:07:58. > :08:07.What an amazing way to end. APPLAUSE.
:08:08. > :08:11.It was so amazing. One of the best weekends ever. So lovely. The
:08:12. > :08:17.weather had turned beautiful by that point but we had a long, very wet
:08:18. > :08:21.weekend in Dartmoor and had gone looking for badgers and they didn't
:08:22. > :08:24.come out. You have to be careful not to be downwind of badgers because
:08:25. > :08:29.they'll sense. We looked for all this wildlife, couldn't find it but
:08:30. > :08:32.ended with that male beaver popping up, we weren't expecting it until
:08:33. > :08:35.dusk. It came out early. It was gorgeous. I discovered I was a
:08:36. > :08:40.screamer, I didn't realise I screamed so much and filming that,
:08:41. > :08:46.he showed me this frog and it jumped at me and I was like argh! Then a
:08:47. > :08:52.mouse was accidentally dropped, it was fine. They were like stand
:08:53. > :08:56.still. I was like argh! That beaver encounter was astonishing. Do you
:08:57. > :09:01.know how lucky you were? They were like we might not see it. We were
:09:02. > :09:05.going to hide and get night vision goggles, we would go around in -
:09:06. > :09:08.they created this beautiful habitat for it, it's a secret place to
:09:09. > :09:16.reintroduce them and we said we will do a bit of filming and walk around
:09:17. > :09:21.with the waders on and then I -- I spotted it. A question. How do
:09:22. > :09:24.beavers know where to start building, do they carry out surveys
:09:25. > :09:29.to know where to build? They do. One of the things they can do is sense
:09:30. > :09:33.the flow of water and they use their whiskers for that. They'll move up
:09:34. > :09:37.and down the stream. They'll find a place where the flow of water is
:09:38. > :09:41.perfect to start building. Obviously they start at the edges and move
:09:42. > :09:46.towards the centre. When it comes to starting the dam. The same probably
:09:47. > :09:50.when building lodges. Their lodges, where they live, they spend more
:09:51. > :09:55.time choosing those close to a food source. They were huge. These
:09:56. > :10:01.lodges, most are under the water. You are talking about a big animal.
:10:02. > :10:05.Incredible. OK. What about one thing you are passionate about are your
:10:06. > :10:11.horses and riding. Yes. That started young I presume? That started
:10:12. > :10:16.younger than that, about 14 then I think. That's Gus our lovely farm
:10:17. > :10:21.pony born on 1st August. Thanks last year at the Dartmoor Derby. I have
:10:22. > :10:28.done two of them now. You go out in big groups and ride around Dartmoor,
:10:29. > :10:32.like an enduresance ride. That is at Goodwood. Terrifying. Seven furlongs
:10:33. > :10:37.for charity. At that point I am thinking I have three kids and I am
:10:38. > :10:41.about to gallop this beast at 30mph, I must be mad. But the actual riding
:10:42. > :10:45.out and with the lads and lasses in Lambourne, which is the valley of
:10:46. > :10:50.the race horses, it's beautiful. That was the best thing going out
:10:51. > :10:54.and riding with, jockeys are incredible, they're so brave. It was
:10:55. > :11:00.a dream come true. I am very lucky. Thank you very much. We will have
:11:01. > :11:06.you back later for your fantastical beast. Lindsey. I always love an
:11:07. > :11:12.unusual moment. This is a fab picture of a Goldfinch and a wood
:11:13. > :11:16.pigeon on a bird bath. I thought it was fun. We had our own unusual
:11:17. > :11:23.encounter this week. Because this happened. We found a very tame
:11:24. > :11:28.pigeon hanging around the site. I caught her in a butterfly net. It
:11:29. > :11:33.was funny to watch. She was like... Now we noticed it had a ring on its
:11:34. > :11:37.leg. It's clearly a racing pigeon. We called the owner. It turned out
:11:38. > :11:44.it had gone off course on the way back from France and landed with us.
:11:45. > :11:49.There was a glorious reunion. It's a very happy story. There is never a
:11:50. > :11:54.usual day on Springwatch, they're all different. This is Unsprung
:11:55. > :11:58.Undressed. Every morning starts with a meeting
:11:59. > :12:05.to talk through the day ahead. Before the presenters run to the
:12:06. > :12:12.edit to view tonight's films. Cut that out! Everyone's favourite time.
:12:13. > :12:18.Lunch. Before heading to the studio floor for the first run-through of
:12:19. > :12:24.the show. This is where we get ready to do our trail. Join us at 8pm on
:12:25. > :12:31.BBC Two... Then we do a block of the whole programme and that's for tick
:12:32. > :12:35.nickical reasons. -- technical reasons. The Springwatch team are
:12:36. > :12:40.working to get everything ready for transmission. The presenters make
:12:41. > :12:49.their final notes. Honestly, they look like a five-year-old has done
:12:50. > :12:53.them, look! That's not good, is it? Dress rehearsal done, Gillian has a
:12:54. > :13:00.last-minute question about one of our newest nests. Are both parents
:13:01. > :13:06.coming in? Yeah. 8pm, the rain is falling but the cameras are rolling.
:13:07. > :13:09.Hello, welcome to Springwatch 2017! It's our second week... It is quite
:13:10. > :13:15.a challenge for those parents to feed those chicks. Just like that,
:13:16. > :13:20.it's all over. Until tomorrow. Join us then at 8pm on BBC Two. See
:13:21. > :13:28.you then, bye! APPLAUSE.
:13:29. > :13:35.Somehow they cut out all the hard work there! Richard, thank you for
:13:36. > :13:42.joining us, you are keen on insects but isn't afraid of this stuff, poo.
:13:43. > :13:48.Every time. These are more samples from the estate. Some nice rat poo,
:13:49. > :13:55.close to where our set-up is there. Rabbits, sheep, bat. Water foul
:13:56. > :14:00.here. The sheep is going to be the nicest, I think. A sweet smell. It's
:14:01. > :14:04.not a cheeseboard, you know! What have you got there? Sheep
:14:05. > :14:10.dissected with a couple of dung beetles live in there. Who is in
:14:11. > :14:18.there and what are they up to? Two species of dung beetles.
:14:19. > :14:30.They are tunnelers. Unfortunately, in Britain, we have not got the
:14:31. > :14:36.lovely sake read sacreb. They will dig a deep tunnel and take down
:14:37. > :14:40.morsels for offspring. Without these sort of animals we would be knee or
:14:41. > :14:44.neck deep in this stuff. Swamped in hours and our farm animals, yeah, we
:14:45. > :14:49.would, it would be a terrible mess, as happened in Australia for several
:14:50. > :14:53.hundreds of years. The stock animals that the European travellers took
:14:54. > :15:05.out there, the settlers, the native dung beetles were unable to cope, it
:15:06. > :15:10.was too wet. Unlike... The local dung beetles could not cope. For 200
:15:11. > :15:15.years it lay there until a programme of introducing African and Asian
:15:16. > :15:19.dung beetles to cope with the mess. A biological control there. In
:15:20. > :15:23.Britain we are lucky we don't see it because it is kept under control.
:15:24. > :15:28.There is a rolling programme of recycling going on by these beasts.
:15:29. > :15:36.What else, you have a box of tricks here. This is just a selection of
:15:37. > :15:42.different dung beetles from the biggest species, fantastic beast.
:15:43. > :15:46.Smaller dung beetles. Dung flies. The hornet robber fly. It doesn't
:15:47. > :15:52.eat the dung itself but uses the dried Pats as a launchpad to leap up
:15:53. > :15:57.and attack its pray. --
:15:58. > :16:06.The lesser earwig is not right, but you do not see it these days. It
:16:07. > :16:11.used to be so common in London, well into the 1940s, because there was so
:16:12. > :16:15.much for strong traffic in those days, and all strong carriages, the
:16:16. > :16:20.horses would drop dung in the streets of London, it would be
:16:21. > :16:25.cleared into heaps at the side of the road, and it would not get
:16:26. > :16:30.recycled. It would dry, it would go mouldy, so we would have wood lice
:16:31. > :16:35.eating the mould. What about that? Richard, these are some dung flies
:16:36. > :16:41.that we have seen, I used to see masses of these when I was a kid,
:16:42. > :16:45.they seem to have disappeared. They may well do. Unfortunately, farmers
:16:46. > :16:51.nowadays treat their stock animals with insecticidal injections to cope
:16:52. > :16:56.with the parasite load, the worms and flukes inside the animals. That
:16:57. > :17:01.gets passed out in the dung, and in fact to get in sector sidled dung.
:17:02. > :17:04.The flies lay their eggs, and the maggots are killed by the
:17:05. > :17:09.insecticide residue still in the dung. This is no good, because
:17:10. > :17:13.whilst the larvae are feeding on the dung, lots of animals then come to
:17:14. > :17:20.feed on the larvae. That is right, it is one of the nice things about
:17:21. > :17:28.dung - the dung is like a microcosm of mycology, the interconnectedness
:17:29. > :17:31.of all living things on this planet, you cannot possibly understand it
:17:32. > :17:35.all, which is why people focus. You can look at dung is a microcosm, get
:17:36. > :17:41.a feeling about what is happening, how things interact, the late
:17:42. > :17:45.comers, the newcomers, the fungus feeders, how they all interact with
:17:46. > :17:56.each other, how things can go wrong with insecticide in droppings. We
:17:57. > :18:01.have got a time-lapse here that one of our cameramen did, this is horse
:18:02. > :18:05.dung, just overnight, fungal spores that have germinated, and they are
:18:06. > :18:10.producing all of this, these other fruiting bodies emerging, incredibly
:18:11. > :18:13.rapidly. One of the things we have to stress, dung does not last long
:18:14. > :18:19.in the environment, a lot of stuff once this, Sara, it is after this
:18:20. > :18:25.valuable material. Yes, it is incredible, these different types.
:18:26. > :18:28.It was funny before, we were having a Capote earlier when the producer
:18:29. > :18:38.rang in, she came in with a big handful of sheep poo, only on
:18:39. > :18:44.Springwatch would you get that! Oh, we have got a bit of slippage, the
:18:45. > :18:55.sheep is slipping! The speed of turnover is for nominal. It is, and
:18:56. > :18:56.it changes, and especially herbivore dung, it is effectively just
:18:57. > :19:00.processed plant material conveniently chewed into a nice much
:19:01. > :19:03.for the dung beetles. But it quickly develops fungus, earthworms, long,
:19:04. > :19:09.there is a complete turnover from fresh droppings to effectively dust.
:19:10. > :19:15.It might take a few weeks, it might take a few years. All wrapped up so
:19:16. > :19:18.eloquently in your book, The Secret Life Of Dung, I have been honoured
:19:19. > :19:21.all day, I should have been rehearsing, but I have been reading
:19:22. > :19:28.your dung book! Thank you much, Richard. Sometimes I like to take my
:19:29. > :19:32.hide with me when I go out, and sometimes I coax someone else into
:19:33. > :19:37.it to see what we can spot. Who will it be today?
:19:38. > :19:48.This year, hideshare has gone mobile.
:19:49. > :20:03.It can pop up anywhere! And anyone could be hiding inside.
:20:04. > :20:15.So who is next? I am very relieved to say that my hideshare guests
:20:16. > :20:19.today won't be put off by this pouring rain, because she took like
:20:20. > :20:25.a duck to water at a very early age, and I can assure you that this will
:20:26. > :20:33.be a swimming success. I am at the London weapon centre with Olympic
:20:34. > :20:40.champion Ellie Simmonds, out of the pool and into the hide! On a very
:20:41. > :20:45.wet afternoon, I must say. To think we are in the middle of London! It
:20:46. > :20:49.is fantastic, and there are good birds here, not just, as people
:20:50. > :20:55.might imagine, pigeons and sparrows and starlings and crows. Look over
:20:56. > :21:01.there at that wall, loads of sand martin is coming in and out, because
:21:02. > :21:04.they are nesting in there. It is an artificial structure to represent a
:21:05. > :21:10.sandbank, each year the wardens and the volunteers fill it with sand so
:21:11. > :21:18.that the birds will take them out and think they are making their own
:21:19. > :21:19.burrows. What do they feed on? They are insectivores, they will be
:21:20. > :21:49.swooping over the war. -- water. Well, I am really sorry we have lost
:21:50. > :21:50.Springwatch Live, we will try to get back to the programme as soon as we
:21:51. > :22:31.can. Well, I'm really sorry we have is
:22:32. > :22:32.lost Springwatch Unsprung. I am pleased to say we can return right
:22:33. > :22:51.now. I think that is a hard question.
:22:52. > :23:02.Ferociously competitive? Not just in the pool, outside as well. Best off
:23:03. > :23:09.not playing Connect 4? Please, no matter! I don't cheat, but I like to
:23:10. > :23:13.get very competitive. Everything out here is competing as well, and as
:23:14. > :23:17.ferociously as you do. And here, it is about life and death, and the
:23:18. > :23:21.reason we have got so many different species living in this one place at
:23:22. > :23:27.the same time is that they have all found their own little niche. But
:23:28. > :23:36.here is a thing, what about out of the pool and into while swimming?
:23:37. > :23:42.You swam with dolphins, that had a big impression? It did. Such
:23:43. > :23:46.powerful animals. They look like they are hardly moving, and they are
:23:47. > :23:51.so intrigued by you, they are so intelligent, they want to come up to
:23:52. > :23:55.you, they use their echo to check you out. It was an exhilarating
:23:56. > :24:00.moment, a moment that has given me such an eye-opener, how incredible
:24:01. > :24:06.wildlife is, how incredible nature is. It has really opened my doors to
:24:07. > :24:11.ocean conservation, for sure, just protecting not just the ocean, and
:24:12. > :24:12.when nature and our wildlife. I am very passionate about it. Amazing.
:24:13. > :24:22.APPLAUSE Massive thanks Mark Rutte Ellie
:24:23. > :24:30.Simmonds for coming out in the wet and for the wetland trust and to you
:24:31. > :24:32.for sticking with us because we lost picture for a while!
:24:33. > :24:40.That fulfilment will be on the website. Poo has gone crazy on the
:24:41. > :24:48.internet, Debbie says, yeah, AP Jan poo I love it. There is a book about
:24:49. > :24:54.dung, yes! That is what people want. I am not alone, and nor is Richard!
:24:55. > :24:58.Back to the quiz, we ask you who this belonged to, who could have
:24:59. > :25:11.created something this wonderful? Many of you got in touch with the
:25:12. > :25:23.wrong answers, so we have got otter, fox, deer, caddisfly case. If that
:25:24. > :25:30.is from a caddisfly, I am not going down to the river! It is from a
:25:31. > :25:36.badger. Congratulations to Lily, who was nine years old! A number of you
:25:37. > :25:43.getting it right, please keep sending your comments and pictures,
:25:44. > :25:49.your nests, go unusual encounters. And here is a souvenir for you,
:25:50. > :25:59.lucky chap! Now we move our fantastical beasts. At this point we
:26:00. > :26:03.have got a fantastical beasts, we like to set a challenge to our
:26:04. > :26:07.guests, in the past we have let them do some drawings, take some
:26:08. > :26:10.photographs, but we have raised the bar, we want them to invent their
:26:11. > :26:14.own animal, an animal that could live at some stage in the future,
:26:15. > :26:18.but it needs to be realistic, it needs to have an ecology and proper
:26:19. > :26:26.behaviour. Richard, you are going first, what have you come up with? I
:26:27. > :26:30.have come up with the cherub scarab. The ancient Egyptians were right on
:26:31. > :26:34.when they revered and worshipped dung beetles, and we have forgotten
:26:35. > :26:41.about that. I thought that if there was such a thing as the cherub
:26:42. > :26:46.scarab, it would be a feature in every religious painting, it would
:26:47. > :26:50.be so familiar, so instead of the go to friendly beetle being the
:26:51. > :26:54.ladybird, it would be the cherub scarab. So you would like to
:26:55. > :27:01.supplement the one and only ladybird with a cherub scarab? Can you see us
:27:02. > :27:07.with a range of books starting in the late 1950s, teaching people to
:27:08. > :27:11.read, talking about the Ladybird books? I think Scarab books has got
:27:12. > :27:16.a certain ring to it, I could go with that. Interesting animal, what
:27:17. > :27:24.is it going to do? Hang around religious paintings? It is a genuine
:27:25. > :27:31.dung beetle, but it is very clean. OK! A clean dung beetle, then, from
:27:32. > :27:35.Richard, what have you got, Sara? I did work experience at a local
:27:36. > :27:40.kennels and cattery when I was 14, and I used to ride my pony to work,
:27:41. > :27:49.and I live in London now, in the megalopolis, so the dream is to
:27:50. > :27:54.write to work everyday, so this is the megalopony, a pony, although it
:27:55. > :27:59.is technically a pause, 15 hands, it has evolved so that it will replace
:28:00. > :28:05.the car in cities. It will save the world! It doesn't need any food, it
:28:06. > :28:11.breeds in harmful emissions, and it trumps out fresh oxygen. And it has
:28:12. > :28:18.sort of evolved... I like how it trumps it out! It has got flesh
:28:19. > :28:24.stirrups, it has evolved to have this saddle, have I gone too far?!
:28:25. > :28:30.Really into this! You have got 15 seconds! People will use it in the
:28:31. > :28:35.way that they used a city bike. I know it looks like a 12-year-old's
:28:36. > :28:42.homework! You would not need cars in city centres. Put-down glasses in a
:28:43. > :28:51.nice, they can rest when you park them up. The ladies and gentlemen!
:28:52. > :28:55.Straight to the top of the list with the megalopony, without doubt! Sara
:28:56. > :28:57.Cox, Richard, thank you for coming into night, thank you for joining
:28:58. > :29:05.us, see you later! I want to know...
:29:06. > :29:10...what will happen next. And I want to know...
:29:11. > :29:13...what it all means...