Episode 3 Animal Park

Last year, a pride of lions here was given 24-hour access to their large outdoor enclosure.

Now, the lions are settling in really well, but the keepers have no idea what they get up to at night.

In the wild, of course, lions would be very active after dark, but

in captivity, will they prowl around or will they stay tucked up in bed?

So, on today's programme, for the very first time,

the keepers are going to have night vision cameras to find out

what this lot get up to and do the lions really sleep tonight?

-Go on, girls.

-Go on.

Also on today's show...

Keeper Ian risks life and limb for the killer shot of Africa's

deadliest animal.

They wake up in the morning grumpy and they go to bed grumpy.

Jean meets Animal Adventure's strangest resident.

Wow! He's just completely turned into a little ball!

How amazing is that?

And what happens when an animal wants to explore outside

-their enclosure?

-I've got cars coming in,

so he knows that he's got a perfect opportunity. And there goes Dave.

Since our return to the park last summer,

we've been following the progress of Anne the elephant.

She has three keepers and it's been their job to rehabilitate her

after a long life in the circus.

When she arrived, Anne could barely lift her trunk above her head,

but thanks to daily games devised by her keepers, all that has changed.

Today, Jean is catching up with keepers Luke, Ross

and Kev to find out about their latest invention,

which should deliver her a special treat today.

-Hi, guys.

-Hi, Jean.

-How are you?

-We're good.

-What are you doing here?

I know you guys are always coming up with new games for her,

-so what's this?

-This is an enrichment that we call popcorn.

Basically, it's a steel tube, we've cooked some popcorn up for her,

and hopefully when we let Anne in, she can blow through the bottom and shower herself with it,

or she can put her trunk up and suck it through the top. So it's just a way of enriching her, feeding her,

in a different way. Elephants naturally browse anyway, they put their trunk in the air, and because

Anne has spent a lot of time in her life just eating off the floor,

a lot of the muscles kind of went a little bit weak in her trunk.

-And now we've exercised it, she's getting really good use of it.

-Excellent. That's great to see.

The plan is, feed the popcorn through the top and then

Anne's trunk is going to come and blow the popcorn through,

-so how much air does that take?

-It takes quite a lot.

-An elephant, when it sneezes, can actually knock out a dog. It's that powerful.

-Wow!

-So she's got a lot of volume in her lungs.

-That's amazing.

-Hopefully, we're going to see that work perfectly.

-Absolutely, yeah.

It's lovely to see her again. Come on over, Anne.

Always at her own pace.

-Moseying on over. How does she usually explore things?

-Usually, it's with the trunk.

-Their trunk is their main piece of equipment.

-Nice to see you.

The trunk does everything - smell, grab, pull, push.

And I can see those little fingers on the end.

She's an Asian elephant, so she just has the one,

whereas the Africans tend to have two. You can see she's got one.

-I can see that right there.

-It's sort of like a little lip.

-Hi, Anne. We've got a treat for you.

We've got a treat for you, Anne. So, what will make her decide whether she goes up high or

-down low?

-I think she'll get as much as she can from the top and then she

knows there's more in there that she can't reach.

Then she'll figure out about blowing the bottom, probably remember,

-as she goes up.

-Up she goes.

And that's great, because she swung right up there,

-so she's using muscles inside the trunk.

-Yeah, exactly.

Even though she's not using the device as intended yet,

we'd like her to blow from the bottom, it is lovely to see her be

able to get that trunk up there and use the control to get what she can.

Oh, she's enjoying that popcorn. She got a right good handful of popcorn there and then again,

just swung her trunk straight back up to get more. So that's great.

Yeah, it's a big win for us three when we see her being able to

control her trunk so high and for such a period of time.

So it's a muscle that you really trained.

Yeah, we just put things in place to promote her to just put that

exercise in cos she's an old girl.

If she can get away with not exercising, she will.

She's doing well. And she's so intelligent.

To remember that game, first of all, remember how it works.

An elephant never forgets and we like to make things as fun as

possible, so there's a memory of it, so hopefully all our devices,

she'll remember how to play it cos it was fun for her.

I can hear something being blown down the tube there.

What's she doing?

Well, she's blowing through the top cos now she's reached what

she can, so she's blowing down to bounce it off the mesh and up.

-Oh, very clever.

-Which works to a certain extent.

She's pushing a lot of air down there.

I've got some popcorn and some elephant snot on the end of my hand as well.

-She's so precise and controlled in her movements as well.

-Yeah, she is.

What we really want to see her doing is getting that trunk

-underneath and blowing some popcorn up in the air.

-Yeah.

And we'll stay here all day if we have to.

Fortunately, the wait wasn't too long and our cameras were

perfectly placed to capture the action.

Yeah, nice.

Well done, Anne.

-BEN:

-Anne is constantly amazing her keepers, and enrichment

devices like these are really improving her wellbeing.

But on the other side of the park,

there's another character who is just well annoying.

I would describe Dave as being mischievous,

at times a complete pain in the behind.

I think he's a very cheeky chappie. Very intelligent individual.

He can be a little bit of a tricky character, actually, at the moment.

It's causing us a few issues here and there.

Dave is being particularly persistent,

in terms of being a naughty chap.

So it's reaching the point where we do need to try and address it in some kind of way.

So, who is Dave?

He's not a wayward keeper...

but, in fact, one of the thousand or so animals that live at the park.

This is Dave.

He's one of the park's Canadian timber wolves.

In the wild, these iconic animals have seemingly endless stamina...

..hunting and roaming across hundreds of miles of territory,

surviving in complex pack structures.

There are just three at the park currently and they

enjoy 24-hour access to their large enclosure.

But this small pack has a black sheep. And that's Dave.

Here's Dave, just running along the road right now.

Rachel is one of the keepers responsible for maintaining

order in Wolf Wood. She knows Dave better than most.

Dave is brilliant. They're each characters,

but it's just Dave is the star up here, I would say.

He will test you.

He loves to play games with you at certain points where

he just makes you try and make that one mistake and he's just got you.

Dave's latest campaign is proving particularly problematic for Rachel.

Like clockwork, at 3pm, naturally inquisitive Dave tries to explore

the area outside his enclosure and thinks he's found a way to do it.

Dave waits for cars to come into the section to make his move.

He waits for his opportunity, he's so intelligent,

he knows it's going to happen.

If there's a gap, he's going to take it.

But this is no laughing matter.

The timber wolf enclosure is located at the southernmost tip of

the safari park, close to the lions.

Metal fences and strips of

no man's land called a safety lock separate these predators.

A skilfully manned system allows thousands of cars to pass

through on the busiest days.

Lock five to second section patrol.

Is it possible to get a guard up here?

I've got a couple of lions playing around.

It's safe for now,

but Tilly thinks Dave's getting a bit too close for comfort.

It's very important that he doesn't get actually into the lock system.

Dave in himself is dangerous,

but he will rile up the other animals and, worse-case scenario,

you can have them all converging on the same area,

all getting very angry.

Very, very serious.

It's three o'clock in the wolf enclosure and Rachel is

preparing herself for Dave's daily wander.

As you can see, Dave is up, he's about.

He's got the other two following him.

You can just see by Dave's posture at the moment that he's like,

"I'm thinking about it."

Cheeky Dave's been biding his time until the park gets busy.

I've got cars now coming into the section.

So he knows that he's got a perfect opportunity.

And this is where the fun begins, of trying to make sure you

reverse back to create no space whatsoever for Dave to sneak down.

I could drive at him,

but he may sort of, like, make me make a mistake, like so.

Getting in the wrong gear. Exactly what Dave's waiting for.

Just a constant, like, game of chess, and as soon as I can,

I will be trying to get him out of this little fence cos I'm

holding up traffic at the moment. Yes, Dave. I can see you.

And don't bat your eyelids at me cos you're not getting past. Please.

Keep going.

Drive.

And then, hopefully, guide him out.

He's again still adamant that he's getting down. Ooh.

It's not good.

I don't like this, Dave.

Don't want to keep doing this.

See, and then you've got members of the public and again,

I cannot manoeuvre cos I've got people...and Dave knows.

And I'm going to hit the fence, and there goes Dave.

He's going down in between the cars because

he knows that I can't stop him.

Dave has left his enclosure and entered the lock.

It's still a safe area, but it's one step closer to the lions.

With Rachel watching his back, Declan heads out on foot to

carefully coax Dave back into Wolf Wood.

Hold up a little bit, wait for him to get on the road.

I'm going to be driving across,

so that I don't stop him going that way.

And the only way he's going to go is up in through the slip fence,

so I'm just going to hold off and do it like so.

And chase him.

By working together, they get Dave home.

But one thing is for certain, Rachel and the team must come up with

a strategy to try and encourage him to stay there.

At the beginning of the week, we saw how a fatal disease,

avian malaria, devastated the penguin colony.

Treating the disease claimed even more lives.

Of a colony of 34 birds, just seven survived.

We've lost so many birds. It's so devastating.

The penguin keepers, they've hatched these birds out of eggs and

they're dying in their arms.

Keepers worked around the clock to nurse the remaining penguins

back to good health.

And, with help from other collections,

new birds started to arrive.

And the park is rebuilding the colony with old faces and

some new ones.

I'm here with keeper Lucy. Lucy, we've got some penguins around us.

-Yeah.

-We've got some food.

-Yeah, this is Pumpkin here.

-Hello, Pumpkin.

She's always one of the first to come over. So you can hand feed her.

There you go. How are they all doing now? How are they integrating?

They're doing brilliantly. They're not like your average mammal where you need to spend weeks

introducing, slowly getting them used to each other. They actually prefer the more, the better,

cos they feel safer in larger groups. In terms of the new ones, they snap at each other, they'll

shout at each other, tell each other off, but you don't really need to worry about it.

You guys grow very attached. Do you have a favourite?

-One of my favourites is probably this little one here. This is Princess.

-Hello, Princess.

She's got a little bandage on her foot. She's just hurt her foot and we just have to keep it clean.

She's one I've known since she was absolutely teeny tiny, so you do get very much attached.

And what are hopes and aspirations for the future? Presumably that they'll actually find mates?

Yeah, I would absolutely love for them to start bonding together, start showing

a little bit of flirtation. The new ones have tried, bless them.

You can tell which ones they are cos they're the ones hiding at the back a little bit.

So far, originals aren't having it and they are just snapping at them and telling them to go away.

We do however have this mated pair left. This is Readily and Peaches.

They've been mated for quite a while. They're two of our

originals, so we are hoping they'll start breeding in the future.

We did have a mated pair join us from the other collection and that

is Bruno, who is this one with the blue tag with the yellow bead on it.

He is our very greedy boy. I'm surprised he hasn't run over and

stolen all the fish already. His missus is quite far at the back.

In fact, I think that's her waddling towards us right now.

She's called Mars, and hopefully they'll be very good parents

because Readily and Peaches haven't been the greatest in the past.

They do like to leave their eggs unattended every so often.

And we'd love to have a few more and build our colony up again,

-so it looks a bit busier.

-Thank you, Lucy.

Well, after the devastating news from last year, I'm thrilled

to see that the future for the penguins here is looking so bright.

Lions were the first animal to arrive at the park when it

opened in 1966.

They were the key to a potentially dangerous but also pioneering

plan - semi-wild animals living in a drive through enclosure,

deep in the Wiltshire countryside.

Last year, we saw how the park was changing to create

a new super enclosure for its famous lions.

Two and a half kilometres of new fencing was installed at

a cost of over £500,000.

Lead keeper Caleb oversaw the lion move and

has been monitoring their behaviour ever since.

So, it's been roughly seven months since we've moved them across

into their brand-new enclosure.

They're still exploring it, to be honest.

They're still climbing different trees and, yeah,

they are absolutely loving it.

They each can find a bit of space in their new enclosure to kind

of do their own thing,

so we're seeing a lot of different behaviour in that section

compared to the other one, so, yeah, absolutely love it.

At the end of each day, most lions in captivity are put to bed in their

pens, but out in the wild, they would be highly active after dark.

Instead of being locked in at night,

these lions now have 24-hour access to a special night-time paddock.

They constantly explore their enormous daytime enclosure,

but the keepers have no idea if they venture out of their beds at night.

Very often we hear as we're driving in in the morning or driving home,

the lions roaring and things, so we kind of want to know what they get up to overnight.

So, tonight, we're going to set up some cameras into the paddock and, hopefully,

we're going to learn how much they actually use the paddock and

what areas they use and just see what they get up to overnight.

Cos it's sort of a burning question that we've always wanted to

know the answer to, how much and what they do outside.

Come, lions!

Night vision cameras could also help keepers get

a better understanding of pride dynamics.

During the day, the two adult males, Simba and Klaus,

rule over the pride.

Klaus is last.

So this is our big male. He's 210 kilos.

He normally is the last one in.

He just waits for the others to go in to make sure that they're

all in and if there is any threat, he's to deal with it outside.

At night, when their instincts are heightened,

this behaviour could be even more extreme.

With all the lions secured in their house,

Caleb and Eloise can start rigging the enclosure with cameras,

which they hope will also survive the night.

The cameras are going to be protected slightly because

they're in a metal box.

But you never know what the lions are going to do, do you?

Hopefully, we get something good, but...fingers crossed.

It's morning, and Caleb and Eloise have come in early to find

out if their cameras survived and if the lions left their beds.

It's pitch black in the lion enclosure and only with

infrared cameras can we see.

But not so for the lions.

So we've got all the lions running out.

Their eyes appear to be glowing because of

a layer of tissue at the back of the eye

which helps reflect all available light,

giving them superior night vision over us humans.

Enzi's there, just staring directly at us.

It is quite daunting to see a lion's face at night cos their eyes

are so illuminated.

Also clear is another clever lion adaptation.

The reason lions have those white patches under their eyes is to

reflect light back into their eyes so they can see even better

at night-time. So when she's night-time hunting, the pray probably won't be

able to see her because their vision's not as good.

Whereas she'll be able to see everything a lot clearer.

It's typically the lionesses that do the hunting in the pride,

-while the role of the male is to protect.

-That looks like Klaus.

Klaus in the pouring rain outside.

And true to form, as the biggest lion in the park,

Klaus lets everybody know who is in charge tonight.

HE ROARS

A lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away,

telling any potential rivals to keep out.

HE ROARS

He's definitely the most dominant thing around the park.

Definitely, yeah. It's nice to see him bellow,

see his whole body moving as he's roaring into it.

-It's great.

-It's great to see.

-Could watch these guys all day.

-Yeah.

-And all night.

-And all night now, yeah.

Just as they would be in the wild,

these lions are incredibly active after dark.

It means the keepers have a whole new challenge.

They now need to totally rethink how they enrich the lives of the

lions, not just in daylight hours, but 24 hours a day.

This is absolutely fantastic. The footage we've captured is brilliant.

We know what they're doing.

But we have a plan to try and get them more active overnight,

so we're going to put some enrichment out,

increase that activity and also see how they behave around feed

overnight too, cos during the day, we know what they're capable of,

we know what they do, so by putting some enrichment in overnight,

we might see a completely different hierarchy, we might see some different behaviour,

so we'll put something in for them to play with and then hopefully we'll get some results back.

Behind the magnificent Longleat House sits Animal Adventure.

Home to 52 different weird and wonderful species,

as Jean has been finding out.

When threatened,

some animals employ the most remarkable defence strategies.

And one of the more unusual ones comes from an animal just down here.

This is a southern three-banded armadillo and his name is Hansel.

So, Emily, show me what happens when you pick Hansel up.

-He should...

-Wow!

He's just completely turned into a little ball!

How amazing is that? What a fabulous structure!

-He's in there. Tell me about this.

-So, the shell's made up of keratin,

-which is exactly the same as our hair and our nails.

-Yes.

-So it's a really solid, solid shell.

-It is solid. It's quite hard.

These guys will curl up into a complete ball and nothing's going to get in there.

No, nothing's going to penetrate this and, obviously,

-this is something they do as a defence mechanism.

-Yeah.

What kind of animals would be preying on them?

So, in the wild, it's going to be big cats, like jaguars.

-I can't see even a jaguar penetrating him.

-No.

-I mean, he's very protected.

-It would be really, really tough.

-Tell me a bit more about his design.

So, he's got these really, really huge claws.

-Yes, I can see those there. So, is he a digger?

-He is a digger.

He does like to dig around.

What kind of things is he digging around for?

In the wild, these guys would eat lots of bugs and things

like that, so lots of things that are under the ground. These guys have an amazing sense of smell,

so they can smell things from really far away.

How does he know when it's safe to come out again?

It is their amazing hearing.

He'd be able to hear when there's nothing around.

So he'll wait for a while and then eventually, he'll uncurl,

ever so slowly. Double check and then off he goes.

Emily, this is one of the most amazing coats of armour I've

ever seen. It's just like a jigsaw.

Everything just fits together in this really perfect, impenetrable

ball, but I do wonder, does this get in the way of him walking around?

No. Not at all.

-Can I put him down? I'd love to see him walking.

-Yeah.

-If I go up this end, hopefully he'll run to you.

-OK.

Come on, Hansel.

Faster than I thought!

What an amazing little animal.

We see some huge predators in this park,

but that was a perfect little ball of defence.

With over 100 species of animal, there's

no shortage of characters in this park, but every now and then,

there's one animal in particular that stands out from the rest

of the pack.

Earlier, we met Dave, the Canadian timber wolf.

His daily attempts to head beyond the bounds of his enclosure

are tormenting his keepers.

Rachel and her team have come up with an ingenious plan to try

and deter Dave from going near the gates.

We're going to use his nose and sense of smell to see if we can

deter him from that by giving him a smell that he doesn't like that he's

going to associate with the fence and he will go, "You know what?

"I don't like that area any more, I'm going to avoid it."

In this experiment, Rachel's going to present Dave with smells that

she hopes will act as a deterrent - menthol oil and chilli powder.

Wolves have an incredible sense of smell,

capable of picking up an odour over two miles away.

The smells won't harm the wolves at all, but they may deter them.

Let's take them in and go and see what Dave does with them.

Three o'clock is fast approaching,

Dave's preferred time to head for the gates.

It's now a race against time

to prevent yet another of Dave's escapades.

The question is, will Rachel's deterrent actually work?

So, we're going to get our two, fingers crossed,

horrible smelling ones. I'm going to put them out first,

keeping an eye on Dave at the same time.

We're just waiting for the boys...

to see what they do.

It's no surprise that first on the scene is Dave.

Dave's the bravest. He's going in. He's going to have a look.

What is it? Is it safe to do so?

Dave's having a good sniff of chilli powder, making him sneeze.

Not 100% sure of that one.

But, no, doesn't like the old... Just saw his face then.

A bit of a reaction to that one.

Dave's sort of like, "No, don't like 'em, going away."

With Dave beating a retreat,

it seems Rachel may have found her suitable smell.

With the next wave of cars on their way and the gates about to open,

she must act fast.

Dave's heading this way. I'm heading back into the slip fence.

Going to get the menthol liquid out

and deter Dave from heading down, hopefully.

Now for the other side.

Got to be really quick. Bus is coming.

If this test works, the keepers will devise a more permanent solution.

By creating a temporary virtual blockade with the oil,

it should be immediately clear if it works or not.

As cars head into the enclosure, will Dave head down to the gates?

Dave got up and he was heading this way,

but he's now gone the opposite way.

He's just decided that he didn't want to come our way and he's

gone back to the others, as far away as possible from the slip fence.

I'm taking it as a win for myself.

Absolutely happy with that. Brilliant.

Since it was built in 2013, Ray Bay has bread many thornback rays,

which is good news because they're an endangered species native

to the British Isles.

Now, if, like me, you've ever found one of these washed up on

a UK beach, you may wonder what it is.

Well, I can tell you now

it's called a mermaid's purse, and this is an egg sack that belongs

to several species of shark and also ray found in British waters.

Now, I'm here with keeper Christopher to find out

a little bit more about these. So, these belong to ray. Is that right?

Yes, ray or skate.

Ray eggs are very similar, skates are also kind of this.

This is from the thornback ray.

Thornback rays is the ones that we have here. That's a few hours old.

-OK.

-It was laid in this pool over here by one of our large females.

So, first of all, why do you separate the egg sacs from there into here?

Just so that we can monitor them, keep an eye on them,

and then because the little babies will probably be

-a bit too vulnerable in there with the big ones.

-OK.

Now, you say you monitor them. How can you see what's going on inside?

-They're very dark.

-They're very dark, so here I've got a torch and basically,

if you grab one, and you light the torch underneath...

-Yeah, there we go.

-..you can see...

-We can see the silhouette.

There is the sort of...where the main organs are and then sometimes,

you can see it in very great detail.

How long is it then until these hatch?

-How long do they need for gestation?

-Between four and eight months.

And they're going to grow into pretty sizeable ray.

-How big will they grow?

-Between a metre and a metre and a half.

The female's a tiny bit bigger.

They take quite a long time to mature,

about eight years, they're sexually mature.

They're so beautiful, they're so peaceful, they're so gentle,

-and they're really lovely.

-If someone finds one of these on the beach, what should they do with it?

See if there is a little ray forming inside and if there is, you could put it back in the water,

but usually it means that it's an empty case.

Christopher, thank you so much. There you go.

Next time you find a mermaid's purse on the beach,

you'll know exactly what it is.

With 147 different species and over 1,000 mouths to feed,

what the animals eat can vary as much as the species themselves.

Jean is in the Batcave for the afternoon feed up.

-Hi, Perry.

-Hello.

-Wow! I can hear these bats making lots of noise.

-SQUEAKING

-What types of bats are they?

These are Egyptian fruit bats in here. We've got 42 boys.

Why do you only have boys in here?

Well, it's like a retirement home for them.

They're all getting on a little bit. They've come from other zoos.

And they're not endangered. So we don't need to breed them

and they get along a lot better in single sex groups.

I know that bats are frugivores and they can eat up to half of

the equivalent of their body weight every day,

so you must be continuously feeding them.

Yeah, they eat a lot of fruit and they need all that energy to

help them sustain flight, as flying does take a lot of energy.

So, what kind of things do they like to eat? What's their favourites?

Their favourites are bananas and mangos, but we're going to try something a bit different today.

Figs, plums and strawberries, so

it's going to be interesting to see how they react.

Should we do a little taste test, make them fruit kebabs?

-Would that go down well?

-Let's do it.

So are these some of the fruits that they would eat in the wild?

Figs, definitely.

Apricot as well, dates. They're not actually very fussy.

So we have figs here, plums here, and strawberries.

Which ones do you think they're going to go for?

I think figs. I don't think they're going to like strawberries.

And I'm not sure about plums.

We'll soon see. Plenty of food down here, guys.

BATS SQUEAK

Think he's sniffing out this strawberry.

Well, we've been joined by a couple more now and the figs and

strawberries seem to be popular.

-Yeah.

-He's just sniffing this out, thinking about trying a fig. Oh!

-No.

-Changed his mind.

-That's one he doesn't like.

This little guy is loving these strawberries,

but you weren't expecting that.

I was not expecting this at all, but he's really enjoying that.

When they're eating so much fruit,

there must be a bit of a mess in here.

Yeah, it's a constant clean-up job in here.

They produce guano,

which is actually a really important fertiliser.

It's actually used in some gunpowder as well,

so it's really special stuff.

So when you clean it up in here, can you make use of it?

Yeah, it's just used as fertiliser. It goes on fields.

What's he going to go for?

So he could be sniffing out this food,

deciding whether to go for strawberries or plum,

and there you go, he's gone for the strawberries again.

So that's why you do these taste tests, isn't it?

To find out which fruits they prefer.

Exactly, and it's teaching us as well.

Which is always good when it comes to working with animals.

Well, Perry, I think your taste test has been

a success because we all found out that bats love strawberries.

The park is home to many species that are deadly to humans.

But what many visitors don't realise

is that the most dangerous animals here

are the two hippos,

Spot and Sonya.

Despite weighing over a tonne and a half each,

these sisters are surprisingly fast and incredibly aggressive.

In their native Africa, the hippo is responsible for more human

fatalities than any other animal.

Our pair came here from Uganda in 1976.

Since then, everyone has kept well away.

Until now.

Today, keeper and animal park veteran Ian Turner is going

to try and photograph them like never before.

He's taken great shots of most of the animals on the park.

But there's one photo he still hasn't got.

Each winter, the hippos build a giant mud wallow.

They do it because mud helps stop their skin from drying out.

But for as long as anyone can remember,

they make their wallow deep in the bushes.

But this year, it's out in the open.

I've been here over four years and this is the first time I can

remember where we'll be able to see them clearly.

So this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity,

never to be seen again.

Normally, it's the place we can't see or get to.

You know they're there, cos you can just see the tops of them.

And you can usually see a bit of steam coming off of them.

But normally, it's right tucked away.

Having such a good vantage point is a rare opportunity.

But once inside the hippo enclosure, it's safety first.

Ian parks as close to the boat as he can.

One of the things about hippos - they look big and fat,

but they're fast.

They can probably run 30mph.

Which is faster than I can run, I'm afraid.

Ian wastes no time getting to the safety of the boat.

When he does get on deck, the view doesn't disappoint.

They're really good.

She's just getting up now, look.

Where we're looking now, you've got the two hippos,

perfect little mud wallow that they make themselves.

Normally, it's in the willow trees, so we can't see them.

So to see them in the mud wallow like this is absolutely fantastic.

And I'm pretty sure I've got some cracking shots already.

Normally, in the summertime,

they'll spend most of their time in the lake.

But in winter time, they spend a lot of time in the mud wallow.

And in the cold weather, it keeps them nice and warm.

So they will literally be covered from head to foot in mud.

At the moment, where they are now,

they've not buried themselves really deep.

They're just laying on the top cos it's a really mild day today.

I think they know we're in this boat, cos they can hear our voices.

They've done a bit of ear flicking and looking round and the hippo

has got up and changed position to get in a more comfy position.

So they know we're in here.

Hippos don't appreciate any invasion of their personal space.

If Ian was in a different spot,

he would almost certainly come under attack.

They're the most dangerous animal in Africa. Very territorial.

So this area is their area.

So they're very dominant. Definitely not to be trusted.

What hippos tend to do when they get frightened or aggressive,

they'll charge towards water, and they won't go round us,

they'll go straight through us.

So these two girls,

they wake up in the morning grumpy and they go to bed grumpy.

As a hippo should be. A grumpy hippo.

But today, these two grumpy animals have made Ian extremely happy.

It's over four years I've been waiting to get

a really good shot of the hippos in the mud.

And this is... They're right in the

middle of the open in this mud wallow. So, yeah, first for me.

Always amazing, always amazing, these animals.

Earlier, using special cameras, we were able to see for the

first time if the lions use their outdoor enclosure at night.

After seeing how naturally nocturnal the big cats are, senior keeper

Caleb has come up with a plan to keep the lions entertained

well into the early hours.

He's made a massive meaty treat for the lions.

But first, he must get it out of its container.

So we've created a massive ice lolly pop for the lions.

It's got two toys frozen into it,

and it's also got meat and other different things in there as

well to try and focus the lions' attention. And, obviously, with

it being ice, hopefully it won't melt too fast and it should

keep them in the same spot for hopefully six or seven hours.

With all the enrichment in place, night begins to fall on the park.

Yeah, as you can see, it's getting quite dark,

so it is imperative that we get out before it gets pitch black as well.

The animals are extremely dangerous at night and their behaviour

completely changes, so to get through the rest of the

reserve safely and out, we've got to time it just right.

Come in.

-ON RADIO:

-The lions are on their way out.

As the sun rises on another day, it's time to review the footage.

Last time, there was clear evidence Klaus ruled the pride despite

there being another male, Simba, in the group.

HE ROARS

During a feed, this should be even more clear.

I'm hoping to see some individual behaviour from some of the

characters that I'd expect during the day,

that we see them feed,

but also behaviours from some of the others that we don't see feed,

and just piece together a better understanding of the pride.

At night, we would struggle to see anything.

But this is what's happening under cover of darkness.

Oh, here comes Simba.

The lionesses are digging in, but surprisingly, it's Simba,

the less dominant male, who's the first male to investigate.

Oh, Jazeera just got... Yeah, just got it from Simba then.

ROARING

-Wow, that's incredible. Did you see her jump?

-Yeah.

While Simba has laid claim to the lollypop, Klaus,

who is normally dominant, is keeping his distance.

It is interesting to see just Simba left,

cos you'd expect Klaus to be, you know, just as involved if not...

He's slightly bigger than Simba as well.

It's just incredible how much of a space he's cleared around him.

They must all respect Simba quite a lot. That's what it goes to show.

SNARLING

-Oh, Klaus is...

-There he is.

SNARLING

Oh, that's a big fight between the two boys.

Simba...

-Oh.

-Oh, yeah.

-Simba's definitely...

He's actually hugging over the top of the whole ice block.

He's just like, "No, you can't have it. This is mine."

He uses his whole body to guard it from all the other lions.

That is incredible.

Klaus is kind of a bit confused, how he hasn't got what he wanted,

cos he normally gets what he wants.

Viewing the lions out of normal hours has given

a totally different dimension to pride dynamics.

It's interesting to see how they are when we're not there.

I honestly didn't expect Simba to be as controlling over it.

There was so many interactions between all the animals and

so much interaction around the ice block that I could watch it

ten times and still keep learning new things about individuals.

As we were watching it, we've learnt

a lot from it and it's given us ideas for the future as well.

It's almost time to end the show.

Ooh, this is a treat, to get this close to them, isn't it?

-It is a bit of a treat.

-Hello.

But before we do, I'm catching up with an old friend.

Now, there's one zebra that I am particularly fond of and her

name is Steph. And she has been here since I first started filming

in 1999, and she's still here.

-Isn't she, Dan?

-She is, yeah. Steph's still here.

But what age would she be now?

Steph's 24.

They wouldn't live that long in the wild, would they?

Probably not, due to natural predators and stuff, you know.

-I think our oldest one we've had here before was 30 years old.

-Wow.

-OK, so she's not the most vintage zebra you've ever had.

-Not here, no.

Now that she is a bit older,

is there sort of particular care that you have to take?

Yeah, so, as with most older animals...

Actually, this is Nola and this is Steph on your right,

so, Steph, come over and say hello.

Hello, Steph. Can I see if she'll take some nuts from me?

Yeah, of course you can. Just hold on tight.

-Good girl.

-She's quite keen for them.

So on that is some medication which is for arthritis.

OK, so she's getting a little bit creaky in her old age, is she?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Hello, Steph.

She's a bit slower than the rest.

Other than that, she's perfectly healthy.

She looks incredibly well.

-And she hasn't got any grey.

-No, no grey.

And she's had a number of foals over the years, hasn't she?

She has had a lot of foals, yes. She's still got some here now.

We've got Kabibi, who's her daughter,

and she's had foals as well, so she's got grandchildren as well.

So she's got grandchildren here.

As she is, you know, one of the great matriarchs of the park...

-She's one of our favourites.

-Do you think she'll live out her days here?

Yeah, yeah, as long as she's in good condition and good health,

then she'll be here for forever.

Well, Dan, it's always a real pleasure and

a real treat to be this close to them.

-You're very welcome.

-Thank you. Thank you very much.

Well, sadly, that's all we've got time for on today's programme,

but here's what's coming up on the next Animal Park.

It's the annual weigh-in for these mighty giants.

But how do you weigh a rhino?

I don't think he's too happy about having his weight taken today.

We discover the lengths keepers go to when they step in to raise

the animal orphans.

This isn't just a nine to five job, being a zookeeper, that's for sure.

And the vital TB testing continues across the park.

But what will be the outcome?

Obviously, we're hoping for a clear result and that TB's not an issue.

That's the hope.