South Urban Jungle

Welcome to Urban Jungle. I'm here in Gosport in Hampshire, better known

for its naval history than its natural history, but stick with us,

because I'm going to show you there's a wealth of wildlife living

amongst the bricks, the mortar and the concrete. How about this?

look! On the grave there! Elusive muntjac deer in a Reading cemetery.

It looks like Bambi? It might be noisy, but it's just the ticket for

these birds from Africa. And in Gosport, people call it the badger

capital of the south of England. Jon Cuthill gets up close and personal

with some of nature's rough diamonds.

Pinch me. I can't believe what I've just seen.

On an allotment in Oxford, I get to eyeball some other slippery

characters. It's one of the most charming animals you can find in the

UK. I'm Chris Packham and this may not look like our natural habitat,

but trust me, because I'm going to show you that Britain's streets are

teaming with wild things. This is wildlife in urban areas, you'll find

a real variety, too. Take Reading in Berkshire, for example. If you're

prepared to get up early, there are Welcome to Reading Old Cemetery.

Built in Victorian times on what was then farmland, the surrounding area

has long been swallowed by roads and housing. But the cemetery has become

a refuge for wildlife and lovers of wildlife.

Well done. Congratulations for getting up so early.

This little group of Reading enthusiasts are here to listen to

the dawn chorus and hopefully spot other creatures lurking in the

wren, a small bird with a very loud voice. But there's another bird, the

UK's smallest, trying to get a word in edgeways.

Somewhere in one of these treetops is a goldcrest, and it's a very

high-pitched call. Oh, there it is again. I'm a fan of urban wildlife.

It's also nice we get a lot of people who come here because they

don't experience much wildlife. The gardens here are really tiny. It's a

very densely occupied part of Berkshire. And that area over there

is the most densely populated part. And this is one of the few places

they can come and see wildlife. It's called a garden cemetery, which

is quite unusual, and it's a Victorian cemetery. It's closed now,

so it's relatively undisturbed. And it's bordered by two major roads. So

it's this lovely island. It's a really special, tranquil place. It's

lovely. Disturbing the tranquillity is this

strange sound. That was the muntjac. Did you hear

it? People call it the barking deer. Most deer do bark, but muntjac is a

particularly loud bark. If you didn't know, you'd think that was a

dog, wouldn't you, really? No-one knows exactly when this

little group of eight deer arrived in the cemetery. They are from China

originally. They were brought here by the Duke of Marlborough who saw

them grazing out in the open on a trip to China and thought, "They'd

look nice outside my stately home." He had a few rounded up and brought

them back and let them go and they promptly vanished!

Stand there with your binoculars. It looks like Bambi? Look, look! Behind

the grave! Just over there. They escaped or disappeared and spread

all around the country, they're still spreading north. I think they

got as far as Sheffield. But all around southern Britain, they've

followed the railway embankment. Anywhere you've got a railway line,

you've got muntjac deer. We used to get a lot of complaints from people

who had their flowers eaten by muntjac deer. So we experimented

with what we could spray the flowers with to stop the muntjac eating

them. And we found hairspray. WD-40 worked, but we found the flowers

dissolved! There's a big mosaic of habitats in the urban area. This

area we've covered today could be one crop in the countryside. It

could be sprayed, but have no wildlife living there. It looks

green, but there's no wildlife there. You come into town and you've

got swifts in the rooftops, house martins under the eaves of some of

these houses. Lots of ducks and swans and grebes and stuff. We've

got sand martins on the riverside. So there's a lot more wildlife in

and around the town than you'd get In this Brunel railway bridge in

Reading, sand martins have migrated all the way from Africa to use

drainage pipes as nest chambers. As their name suggests, sand martins

usually nest in sandy banks or cliffs, but these have found

somewhere that suits them just as Back at the cemetery, there's

another delight awaiting the locals. The contents of a moth trap set in a

nearby garden last night. People think moths are just brown and

boring, hopefully we're going to dispel that myth. Often, moths are

beautiful colours and they've also got quite incredible names,

actually. This one's a small magpie. It's black and white with a yellow

nose. And this one is a buff ermine. It sort of sits in a tent shape.

It's got a little line of black dots there. Will it eat me? This moth is

called a peppered moth. It comes in two forms. This lovely mottled black

and white form and an all-black form. And back in the Industrial

Revolution, when it got to be very black and smoky, these moths rested

on treetops all day. And suddenly, all the white moths are getting

pecked off by the birds and the black ones were surviving. So in the

smoky industrial areas, there were a lot more black ones than black and

white ones. But now, in the clean air, the black ones are more

noticeable. And in Reading nowadays, you only get these black and white

ones. The black ones have just about gone. There's another lovely one

here, it's called a buff-tip. That looks just like a bit of birch twig.

This handsome elephant hawk moth is a great opportunity for budding

wildlife photographer Reese Tejani. I really enjoy coming here. It's

much more wild compared to other church cemeteries. Where would he

fly? In the sky, yeah. I think in a way, it's much more natural. It sort

of seems a bit more tranquil and peaceful almost. We were born here.

I've got generations of my family buried here. We've actually lived

around the corner for over 12, 13 years. It's quite nice. We've never

set foot in this cemetery until the last month, since it's been opened

up for more of the wildlife expeditions, walks and talks. So

it's been a good opportunity to see a part of Reading we haven't seen

before. I have a very hectic life. I have two kids and a business to run.

So for me to come here and just relax and find myself, who I am, it

really helps me a lot. Reading has plenty of places to

enjoy nature, but not always where you'd expect.

The industrial heritage that helped build the town is now providing

family homes for a remarkable range of wildlife.

You've probably heard that old expression that wherever you are in

the country, you're probably no more than six foot from a rat. Well, it

isn't true. Well, here in Gosport on the south coast, they say the same

thing about badgers. It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much

of one. We sent Jon Cuthill to investigate, and he also popped

along the coast at Chichester to check out the fastest animals on our

planet. Fred and Brian might not be the

fastest animals, but they don't hang around either. They love bikes and

badgers. We do get an awful lot of calls. I've had calls saying,

"Excuse me, Mr, there's a bear in the middle of the road." I get all

sorts of different calls. You can go out on an evening and come back and

quite often stumble across a badger walking down a pathway or a road.

There've always been lots of badgers in Gosport and Brian and Fred have

even filmed them. It's thought there's at least a hundred badger

setts in the town. The reason we think there's a lot of setts in

Gosport is basically because it's been a protected area, with the

MOD's presence. So a lot of the badger groups that were here have

been here for generations. First stop on our badger tour is

right next to the high street. Gosport's CAB.

There's a nice little entrance there. What do you think?

This might look like an innocuous hole. In fact, it's the entrance to

a huge void under the building which a family of badgers have made their

home. It's pretty evident there isn't a lot of spoil. So it doesn't

need to make the chambers, it doesn't need to make its home and

keep digging and digging. They're moving around the town quite readily

and they will find odd areas like this and occupy it and use it as a

sett. If these sticks are disturbed later

on, Brian will know if the sett's still active. If I was a badger with

a self-made home, that's the place I'd like to go to. I don't know if

they communicate with each other and tell each other which are the best

select areas of Gosport to live in. Fight our way through the jungle.

Many of the other badger setts are in tiny green spaces that were left

as houses were built around them. Urban badgers. Fantastic. There's

their carry-out from the Chinese. They regularly kick spoil out and

change their bedding or bring bedding out. Basically, it's good

housekeeping. I think we've found another sett entrance. A couple of

tunnels, another one other there. If you look around, we've actually got

the whole badger path and we have a vent here, so the whole system is

coming all the way across here. These badgers have probably occupied

this sett for generations. OK, so there's lots of badgers in

Gosport and they like to sample few tasty titbits. Maybe that's the key

to me getting to see them. We're in another part of Gosport and despite

being surrounded by houses and suburbs, there's another link with

nature and it's just over there. That tunnel links this part of the

housing estate with a nature reserve over the road. And the badgers come

through to see what food they can get every night. And tonight, we're

going to watch them. Pat Clipstone and her friend Jill

have been putting down food in Jill's front garden to tempt the

badgers in. Peanuts and dog biscuits, plus sometimes a special

treat, chicken bones. They've been feeding the badgers for a fortnight

now, but will they come out tonight? Yes! Just as it's getting dark, the

first brave visitor pops his head out.

Followed not long after by his slightly shyer friend. I don't think

I've ever, ever got this close to a badger. And to think we're right in

the middle of a housing estate in Gosport. It really does show how

nature adapts to its environment. I hoped my night vision camera would

catch one of the badgers having a drink, and that's exactly what it

did. Look at this. He's about five yards away and they've got braver as

we've just seen. That's what it's all about. Sit here quietly and

they'll do it for you. The first one came out, led the way. The other one

kind of came out, but a couple of times, straight back in the hedge.

don't know what he heard, actually. His nose went up in the air. He

smelt something. He may have just been smelling you. How rude!Sorry

about that. How rude.I wouldn't be surprised if they were this year's

and just learning. Really?Yeah. Because they are quite big when we

get to see them. You don't very often get to see them when they're

tiny. It was lovely. It's always lovely. Even if you only see one,

it's lovely. You've done this before. Why do you keep coming back?

What is it about badgers that you love? They're just adorable little

creatures, aren't they? How can anybody hurt them? They're lovely.

And they're so fascinating to watch, they get used to humans very quickly

and they make it easy for you, really.

Next stop, Chichester in West Sussex. Shops, cafes, historic

buildings and, yes, more wildlife. The thing about urban wildlife is

you can find it just about anywhere, including way up there at the top of

the cathedral. For at least 12 years, a pair of

peregrines have been nesting on the cathedral tower. And it's been the

same female all that time. In recent years, remote cameras have

been giving close-ups of peregrine family life. And on this day,

everyone's feeling very expectant. Don't be fooled be the tea and jam

surroundings. Up there, it's all happening. We've even had a dance

with Lauren from the RSPB. Why? Because? About two hours ago, the

first egg started to show signs of hatching, so we're really excited.

So two little openings in the first egg. Yes.How long have we been

waiting for this? We've been on anticipation for 32 days since her

last egg was laid. She's sitting on four eggs. Incubation can take

between 28 and 33 days, so she's not late, she's on time. And you are the

expectant mum and that's why we had the dance of excitement. I feel like

it. We have been watching these peregrines really closely for a

number of years. She has raised 42 chicks over the last 12 years. This

is her 13th year, but she has a new male, so it has thrown a spanner in

the works. We weren't sure what would happen this year, would the

eggs be viable. Under there, we have got four eggs, one ready to go.

The excitement two hours ago was faithfully recorded by Graham. The

moment when the female came off the eggs and revealed things were

starting to happen. When she gets off the nest, you'll see a hole in

one of the eggs. There it is! at that! Just there! It shows up

quite well. I love the way she's watching us watching her. She stares

at the cameras sometimes. She's such a tease! She's gone to sleep! As

long as you don't go to sleep. all right. I won't go to sleep,

don't worry about that. While they wait for the great event,

a husband and wife team are waiting for a great shot of the planet's

These are some of their cracking images from previous years. And

today, they've bagged another belter for their album. I don't think I can

take any more drama. You've got it, have you? Look. Look at the picture.

That is a stunning photograph. I've got to ask, who took that one?

did, I'm afraid. I'm really pleased with that. The female had just come

off the nest because the male had brought some food in. And she left

her food there and went off like a rocket after this buzzard.

buzzard made two mistakes. One, getting too close to the nest and

two, interrupting lunch. Absolutely. That's something you don't do with a

peregrine falcon. Look at the talon. That's absolutely extraordinary.

Several times, she had a go at him. Peregrines are a passion, even an

obsession. Is that fair? Unfortunately, you're absolutely

right. Tricky to photograph the fastest thing on the planet. Why not

a snail or a tortoise? Easier, surely! It would be easier, but not

so much fun. There he is.Yes! if that's not enough, good news from

maternity Chichester. We've seen the first chick hatching, which is

number 43 for this female. Have you tweeted yet? Been on Facebook, been

on Twitter. Not even a minute old and it's out there on the Internet

already! Bless him. In the end, three chicks hatched successfully.

So all in all, in the last 12 years, there've been 45 peregrine chicks

hatched at the cathedral. 45, what a magnificent total. And

just to think, peregrine falcons were a national rarity when I was a

kid and now they've bounced back and can be seen in cities all over the

UK. Talking of cities, Oxford is famed for its university life, but

it's not just a city of learning. It can also be a top spot to find

wildlife. The city is famous for its dreaming

spires and in the tower of the Natural History Museum, a colony of

swifts have been nesting every year since 1948. They've been monitored

all that time. These days, live nest cams give great close-up views. But

there's plenty more wildlife elsewhere.

This part of eastern Oxford is very built up. There's a huge housing

estate, no less than three hospitals and just over there is Cowley, where

they're still producing the Mini. But hidden behind all of this

suburban sprawl is an absolutely fantastic little piece of ancient

Hogley Bog, as was known in the 1600s. A surviving bit of ancient

wetland in the city of Oxford. at that. A red kite up there. You

wouldn't have seen that 20 years ago. That's spectacular.But, of

course, red kites would have been over this place before they became

almost extinct in England. It's fantastic. What's its richness?

What's so important about it? springs that have been running since

the last Ice Age, fed by water from the limestone. And the plants have

been here a very long time. We have rare orchids, marsh helleborine,

grass of parnassus, bog pimpernel, marsh pennywort and a host of rare

insects breeding in the wetland. enclosed in this tiny site, locked

in by all the housing. Houses up there, church and hospital, main

roads. You wouldn't know it, would you? Aside from the sounds, no, you

wouldn't. If we could switch our ears off, we could be lost in a

corner of old England. You could be back in the 1600s. This is what it

would've been like. You're standing on a plant described in the 1690s by

Bobart, this is Bobart's bottle sedge. Where's this?First described

in 1690. Where are we?They look like grasses. This is it. I'm going

to pick one because there are quite a lot. Each one looks like a brandy

bottle. This is the bottle sedge, first described as a British plant

from this very spot. What about that! Described in the 1690s by

Bobart. There are loads of rare and

beautiful flowers, like this marsh valerian. This is the female, which

has only stigmas, and this is the male, which has only anthers. This

plant has only come back in the last six years due to careful management

through increased cutting and raking. This is the orange tip, my

second favourite butterfly. And that's what makes this place so

special, the sheer amount of have a look at your flies. I'm

partial to a fly. I think they're a hugely underrated group of animals.

There are a large number of them and you're going to ask me how many

there are here. I haven't got a number, but I know there are more

than 7,000 species of fly in this country. And wetlands have the

highest number, especially ancient wetlands, like fens. These are

common spring hover flies. There's some solitary bees in there, as

well. Yes. Bees nesting in cut bramble stems or earth banks and

visiting the flowers for pollen. Wetlands produce so much bird food.

This is a huge producer of crane flies and the chicks at this time of

year depend on large amounts. of the warbler species go mad for

crane flies. They're easy to catch and super abundant.

Judy has been catching flies with a net and something called a pooter.

There's a glass tube which runs into the glass vessel and here is another

tube covered with a gauze which stops any insects passing through

it. And this tube here, you put into your mouth and suck out any insects

out of here. You need to spot the insect and with a sharp intake of

breath, suck it up so it can be examined clearly in the glass tubes.

One of these bungs is removable so you can release the insect. I can

tell you, you might have seen classic movies, listened to

brilliant rock music, but until you've pootered, you just haven't

lived. So some pretty groovy action in the

Lye Valley. But up at one end is of creatures. Look at this. It's one

of the most charming animals you can find in the UK. It's a slow worm.

Looking at its body, you might think it's a snake, but it's not, it's a

legless lizard. You can tell this if you look at its eyes because it has

eyelids. No snakes have eyelids, but lizards do. It's got a lovely tongue

it flicks out like that, sampling the air. Tasting it. This is an

animal which feeds on invertebrates, but does like eating slugs. So it's

going to be very welcome here in the allotment. W hen I was a kid I used

to love playing on the local allotments. I say playing, I wasn't

running around doing cowboys and Indians, I was looking for bugs,

beetles and all the slow worms I could find. You see, the thing about

allotments is they're terribly productive. People go there and grow

things like these blackcurrants. And they attract lots of wildlife.

Allotments can be quiet corners of our cities which act as oases for

allotments and sometimes they get larger species like deer and

badgers. And on some of those allotments, these things are not

quite so popular because they're The saying is, if you don't net it,

you don't get it. So you put nets over. We're creating an environment

animals like to live in. By digging here, we let the weeds come, which

would be otherwise choked by the grass. So we have more flowers than

other places. We've got compost bins the slow worms live in. If we

weren't here using compost bins, they wouldn't have them to live in.

We actively look after our ladybirds. It's warm in the sunshine

and it's sheltered here. That's just what we need for when the greenfly

come. We do share a bit with the nasties. The slugs. They've got a

role to play. Yes. They have some of it. We try and avoid it, mechanical

barriers and all sorts of things, but nothing's successful. I like

wildlife. Down here, you get all sorts. Slow worms, bugs, foxes. Lots

of birds eating the berries. It's good. I don't mind them pinching my

food. It's good for them to have something to eat, so I don't mind.

Another creature that loves places like this is the common lizard. It's

cold blooded and basking in the sunshine helps it keep the right

body temperature. And frogs like allotments, too. It's not

surprising. There's so much here to eat. There you are, proof that Great

Britain's urban areas are packed full of wildlife. And there's a