Episode 5 Animal Park

The most nerve-racking moment for any cat owner is when their cat ventures through the cat-flap

and out into the big wide world for the very first time.

So just imagine how nervous the keepers are as these two beautiful

rare and endangered cheetah cubs head out into the safari park.

In a very short time they could be encountering 7,000 cars

over a weekend, so it's absolutely vital they instinctively know

what to do to stay out of trouble.

But no-one knows quite how these bundles of hair,

teeth and claws are going to react.

Clever girl.

Coming up on today's show,

more stories from right across the animal kingdom.

Including a medical emergency when keepers find a bat

with an unexplained injury.

Finding something that isn't then fixable

might actually mean a different ending for tomorrow for him.

The whole park pulled together to try and catch

one of the world's greatest long-distance runners.

We've got one wolf in the paddock

and then we've got one just running around.

One's broken through the line behind us.

Come on then, pop on the scale there.

And after a jam-packed week of animal antics...

Oh, who's that?

..Jean has mastered the art of animal keeping.

They are going mad for this food. They're loving it!

Coming up with great enrichment ideas

for the park's biggest carnivores requires patience,

creativity and positivity and today the tiger keepers are hoping

that they will get that all-important balance just right.

If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise.

That is amazing.

Keepers John and Hannah have dreamed up a giant cat toy for the tigers.

That's the ticket.

And have roped in the other keepers to help them build it.

One down, three to go.

With fire hoses donated by a local fire brigade...

It's actually looking a lot better than I even thought it would do.

..and a recycled wooden pallet,

it is, of course, a tiger sized wobble board.

The idea of the wobble board is that it will really utilise all their balance skills.

When they're chasing prey they'll always have to be twisting and turning,

leaping out of trees in the case of tigers, so this is a really good test of their abilities

and really gets them honing those skills.

To entice them on to the board

the team are suspending a rope ball right above it.

And while they might seem crazy, this type of invention

is actually something of a tradition here at the park.

Ever since the lions first arrived 50 years ago, the keepers have

been showing people exactly what these cats are capable of.

Starting with original keeper Mike Lockyer,

who wanted to demonstrate to the visitors

just how dangerous they could be should anyone get out of their car.

And then we set up a stunt with a dummy,

quite realistic looking in a fully dressed coat and everything,

leaning over his car.

And then just let the lions find it to see what they do.

And of course they grabbed the dummy and ran off with it.

It was really quite dramatic to watch.

Not only did it have the desired effect, but it also gave rise

to a long line of keeper inventions like this scratching post

built in 2003 by legendary keeper Bob Trollope.

If it all goes to pot then it goes to pot and we'll have to go back

to the drawing board and think of something else.

Unfortunately, no-one had told the lions how to use it.

Just coming over and trying to get their teeth in between the coils.

Instead of using it as a scratching post

they're using it as a gnawing post.

It's something new in their territory

that they've got to go and investigate.

And they tend to be investigating

with their teeth instead of their claws.

In 2005 the team tried a similar idea, this time adding a ball.

But the lions managed to destroy it.

So the 2006 model was somewhat sturdier.

The reason behind building contraptions like this one

is all in the name of what keepers call enrichment.

It's about finding different ways to challenge the animals,

getting them to stretch their mental muscles,

as well as keeping them physically active.

Which is exactly what the class of 2017 are attempting today

with their latest invention.

-Oop!

-Oh! Yeah, that's great.

Yeah, this is always a favourite part of the job,

building practical enrichment items for the animals.

You can't beat it. When we let the animals back out and hopefully they enjoy it,

really get a buzz out of it, it gives us a buzz as well.

With the wobble board finished, there's only one thing for it.

Amy, you can let the tigers out.

Ah, there's always this moment of suspense,

the excitement before the event. Will they react to it?

Will they not, or will they actually completely destroy it? Who knows?

We'll find out later what the tigers make of it.

Winter's coming to a close here in the park and the animals are

getting ready for a new season.

Some of them, however, take a little longer to get ready than others,

as Jean is about to find out.

I'm here at Butterfly Kingdom at the start of a new season

and there's not too many butterflies around, but not to worry,

because we have some new arrivals, don't we, James?

-Yeah, that is correct.

-What are we going to do today?

So, basically, we've had an order come in of all our pupa,

so we're basically just going to be sticking them on these sticks

-so they can emerge properly.

-You have to talk me through these,

because there's some weird and wonderful colours and camouflages here. I mean, I would've just

thought these were some old, dried-up leaves.

And that's the idea behind it, so they'll be on a lone stick,

just sitting there and no animal is going to want to eat a dead leaf.

It looks like a leaf on the outside, but what's going on on the inside?

They start off as the caterpillar,

they moult into this sort of shape, so this is underneath

the exoskeleton of the caterpillar as it moults.

So inside this at the moment, everything is changing,

so their digestive system, their circulatory system,

respiratory system, everything is completely different.

They're basically just having a full transformation,

becoming pretty much a brand-new animal.

Wow. That's pretty amazing to hear what's going on there.

So we're going to hang some of these up today. How are we going to do that?

-Right. So we're just going to place the stick on here.

-OK.

-I'll put a bit of glue just down the middle.

-Basically we're going to stick them on?

Basically stick them on, yeah.

So pop the glue on and you're in charge of that.

I'll stick them on. So where have these guys come from?

So these guys have come from sustainable butterfly farms

in South America

and it means that these guys aren't harvested from the wild.

-And can we mix species? Can I put some others on here?

-Yeah.

-Let's get this looking colourful.

-You go ahead. You go ahead.

But in the wild, how would they attach themselves?

In the wild, they'll have a tiny little bit of silk.

It'll stick itself to a stick or a leaf.

-So the silk kind of works as an adhesive in the wild.

-Yeah.

So we're going to wait for this to dry,

-but here's one you made earlier.

-Yeah.

-So what do we do with this?

-So we just pop them inside our pupa cupboards.

-OK.

-And just let the magic happen.

In they go and I can see we've got some beautiful butterflies already here.

Yes, so these are the blue morphos,

-so these are what were inside these.

-Oh, that's amazing.

So that's what should happen with this little chap here.

So we just leave them be, we keep the temperature correct,

we keep the humidity high and they do the rest themselves.

We'd better get them in there, because I'm leaving this door open.

So, hopefully, a couple of weeks' time we're going to see some beautiful butterflies.

-Fingers crossed.

-Just in time for the new season.

-Definitely.

-So exciting.

-It is.

-Can't wait.

-It's one of my favourite things.

Earlier, we were with the big cat team as they tried where so many

before them have failed - to create a successful enrichment device

tough enough for the big cats, but not just any big cats.

The tigers.

They're the strongest and most dangerous of all cats.

And with a body length of up to two metres,

Amur tigers are the largest subspecies.

They're built for the kill with an extended muscular body,

short legs and a long tail.

But these magnificent creatures were driven almost to the point of extinction.

Prized by big game hunters and poachers, by the 1940s,

there were fewer than 50 remaining in the wild.

Since then, conservation efforts have seen their numbers

increase to over 500, but they still remain under threat.

It's now time for these tigers to meet the wobble board.

So this is Soundari.

Having recently lost their sister, keepers are hoping this

enrichment device will help strengthen the bond between Shouri and Soundari.

So I think Shouri has spotted it,

but she's a little bit wary and doesn't want to go over.

You can see they're looking high up,

they think there's food been put in the trees, so you can see...

That's Soundari really looking interested.

You can see Shouri's quite laid-back, you know, she's quite inquisitive.

Soundari's gone straight for the fire hose already,

so they're actually going onto the board.

That is typical of Soundari's nature.

Anything new and she just wants to get straight involved,

whereas, you can see Shouri, she's holding back, she wants to see

if it's going to hurt Soundari, like, if it's any danger to her.

You can see she's trying to attack the fire hose again.

The instinct of, I want to kill. I want to, like, try and kill it.

I mean, you can really see how she's using her back legs just

to try and pull the actual wobble board.

I mean, you can imagine how much strength she has in those back legs.

You can see all those muscles are working.

It looks like Soundari's going to make a second attempt with the,

with the board in a minute, possibly.

One of the things that tigers do is they mark their territory.

They've got scent glands in their necks, so they especially rub

their necks across the trees as well.

So, this is Shouri. She's feeling a little braver. Now that Soundari's

moved out of the way slightly, it gives her a chance to come over.

I think she's spotted there's actually, you know,

there's a toy up there, which she's never seen before, so...

Oh. Come on. You want to go on there.

I'm happy that obviously they've seen it, you know, they came straight over.

A little bit annoyed that they haven't actually cottoned on to the idea of getting onto it first.

Oh, come on, Shouri. You know you want to.

There goes log cam.

Shouri's taken it down.

She's just got on there.

She's got both her legs on there.

And she's just gone for the ball.

You can see that she's trying to keep it steady

so that she can maybe try and get the rest of her body on.

I don't think she's quite figured out how to do it,

because it looks like she's going to pull back, but she's

hit the ball, so I'm really, really happy with that.

And hopefully, maybe next time, she'll get her full body on there.

Putting a new thing into an enclosure,

you never know how they're going to react and it's been really

nice to watch them, because this is brand-new. Just them

showing interest, like, I honestly thought they'd just ignore it.

I'm really, really happy. So happy.

We'll be back later in the year to update you on the wobble board,

but for now, it's safe to say that today's invention

has really brought the sisters together.

Living just below the large open spaces of the African safari

are the park's three Brazilian tapirs, Jessie, Eddie and Tallulah.

Tapirs can be extremely dangerous.

They have large, sharp teeth and thick muscular bodies,

but here in the park, thanks to regular contact with their keepers,

our trio are very friendly.

Ah, you like that, Eddie? Oh, I can see.

And like nothing more than a good belly scratch.

Today, Jean is back with them and this time she's helping keeper Jo

with a new invention designed to test their incredible noses.

-Now, Jo.

-Yes.

-I know you've got some food here for our tapirs.

-Yes, we do.

-So what should we do?

Right. So we've got the box here with lots of fruit in.

We've got bananas, cabbage, carrots, which they love.

-All the things they like.

-Yep.

So what special things do the tapirs use to get their food?

They use their prehensile snout.

The tapir snout does remind me of an elephant's trunk,

-but they're not used in the same way, are they?

-Not exactly, no.

They mainly use their snout for foraging,

looking round for food and it's really useful in that way,

and also as a snorkel, as and when they dive down into water.

-Right. So we've filled up this contraption.

-Yes, we have.

How are we going to see that snout in use?

Basically we're going to hang it up on the contraption we have here

and then they'll come in and then reach up and see if they

-can grab the food out of the box.

-So, let's do it.

-Right.

So not only is this good for enrichment,

we're also going to see how that snout really works in action.

-Yes, we really are.

-Come on, Eddie.

-Come on, tapirs.

-Just using his snout to sniff it out there.

-How's that?

You can really see that working.

-OK, Jo, so we've got all three of them here.

-Yes, we do.

So we've got Jessie, who's next to us here,

-and then you've got Tallulah there and Eddie at the end.

-And they're quite happy to share their food?

-Yes, they really, really are.

-They're not competitive over food?

Sometimes they can be, but this obviously is all-new,

so they're probably more interested in what they're doing with the

enrichment rather than each other at the minute.

So seeing them close-up,

-I can really see how this is different from an elephant's trunk.

-Oh, yes.

They're kind of getting their noses in there to sniff food out and

-draw it out more, rather than grabbing it.

-Yeah, definitely.

But what happens when it goes into the mouth?

-How are the teeth in there?

-They're really, really sharp.

They are quite dangerous normally, but these guys are quite friendly.

And I seem to remember them liking a little belly rub as well,

-while they eat.

-Yeah, they do.

I am just reminded how unusual they are,

-because they're closely related to rhinos and...

-And horses as well.

-..horses. Yeah, they've got the little horses' manes here as well.

-Yeah.

-You're liking that, aren't you?

-They love it.

Oh, Jo, all this feeding has made me hungry.

-Do you think it's time for lunch?

-Yes, definitely is.

-Let's leave them to it, come on.

All week we've been following the progress of our two new

cheetah cubs, the first to be born here in the park.

In the wild they face a multitude of threats, from the persecution

from farmers, predation from other big cats and susceptibility to disease.

In fact, nearly 70% don't reach the age of three months.

Sadly the park lost one cheetah in the first few days.

So the breeding programme now relies on Poppy and Winston.

Thankfully they are doing well and from their first taste of meat

to exploring the great outdoors, the keepers

and Animal Park have been with them every step of the way.

It's been stressful every single day because, you know,

it's always a worry that they might not make it past day one, day two

and you don't know what could happen, you have no idea what could happen.

Today, team leader Amy is anxiously getting ready for yet another

milestone in the cubs' lives.

This is the first day that our cheetah cubs will be

venturing out into their enclosures.

They've been in the smaller paddocks,

so we leave them quite a bit in there to gain their confidence.

They, I think, will be a bit nervous, they won't be sure exactly.

It's a big, wide, open space instead of what they're used to.

Whilst in their enclosure, the cubs are safe, but not if they get out.

Living right next-door is one of the park's prides of lions.

Having never had cubs before,

keepers Amy and John are checking every inch of the perimeter fence.

Just the smallest gap could have disastrous consequences.

Yeah, I think the fence looks fully secure, doesn't it?

So I don't think we've got the risk of them getting out.

With the final checks complete, the enclosure is ready for the cubs.

All Wilma ought to do is sort of come up towards the top of the

paddock with the cubs.

I don't want Wilma to go out on her own and the cubs sort of get

scared and don't follow.

You going to come out?

The new enclosure is around 20 times larger than what they're used to.

Oh, she's coming.

Wilma is straight out and into the enclosure...

Mum's run off.

..but without her cubs.

Will they find the courage to follow her?

The park is famous for its monkey drive-through,

where a troop of over 100 rhesus macaques lay in wait for cars

to enter their enclosure.

Once inside, these persistent primates set to work pulling

cars to pieces within a matter of minutes and there's nothing

anyone can do to stop them.

Or is there?

Jean has gone along to find out.

Since the park has been closed for a couple of months,

these guys are ready to wreak havoc on the cars that come into

their enclosure, so it's up to the keepers to come up with ways

of getting them to put their brains to good use.

-Rosie, how are you going to do that?

-OK.

So you can see behind us we've got a nice lorry of boxes here. They're

full of all kinds of really exciting things that the monkeys love,

-we're hoping that they're going to want to play with a lot of these.

-What have we got in here?

We've got a big mix. We've got some hay, so that's some stuff

for them to pull apart, to really tear to pieces, that kind of thing.

And then also, there's veg mainly and then fruit as well, just to excite them even more.

So hopefully they're going to use their brains to rummage

around in here, find a treat, rather than wrecking people's car,

which is what we know they love to do, right?

They do love to destroy things. They've got really dextrous hands, we love to get them to use

those as well, so that's why all of these have been sealed really

nice and tight, so they've actually really got to work for it.

And obviously, they're really clever, so they love a challenge,

so we're hoping these will be one for them.

Right, Rosie, let's put some of these boxes out. What's the plan?

Grab a box and we're just going to head over in this direction.

Pop them down, nice and far from the road so they can play with them.

-I notice how they've all gathered already.

-Yeah.

-They're so cheeky.

We'll just pop them down anywhere up here.

So as expected, Rosie, they're going mad for this food,

-they're loving it!

-They can smell it and also they love a new toy, it's really good.

Yeah, we're seeing some of them climbing up for the high boxes as well

-and when they grab the food, they sort of tend to take it off on their own.

-Yeah, they're just making sure

no-one else is going to steal that from them, especially the really good bit, so they're just

-going to take it off and eat it before anyone can take it from them.

-Macaques are so

intelligent, I'm not surprised that they've risen to this challenge,

but what other challengers have you seen them do?

Oh, wow. You see all sorts. When they've got the cars in here, they're so clever,

-they can take out parking sensors.

-Really?!

Yeah, all the trim from the top of the car.

They've even managed once to open someone's top box,

so they've been into people's clothes and things before,

because they are just so intelligent, they can really use

those hands and their mind is just so good, they're good at puzzles.

I'm happy to say that we're keeping them out of trouble for

a little while anyway.

Back in cheetah country, Mum Wilma is out in the enclosure.

All we need now is Poppy and Winston.

Looks like Winston's gone first.

Poppy's looking back towards the house.

So he's headed out. Here she comes, straight out, so that's great.

With the whole family in the open for the first time,

they begin to explore their new surroundings.

The cubs have actually gone in two completely different directions,

which is cute.

They're not worried about themselves either, having that

confidence of going around everywhere together, they've just completely separated.

She's just stalking along in the grass,

so she's just kept herself really low

and she was sort of crawling along.

I've never seen her do that behaviour before, that's really cute.

They love being up high,

they love to have a good view of everything that's going on.

It's incredible to see them like that.

Just on this mound that we've recently put in for the cubs and

it's amazing that they've gone on it and they're loving it.

Oh, hollow tree time.

They've just gone inside the hollow tree and climbing around.

Playing in the road, that's not something we want them to do!

With thousands of cars expected in the height of summer,

the cubs will need to learn the rules of the road.

If they're on there, we'll just move them off,

so the more and more times they come out,

we'll just get them used to the fact that they shouldn't be on the

road when there are cars about and hopefully they'll respect that.

It's surprising how quick they already are.

You don't really think it, they're so small,

but they are so fast already,

so it's going to be very nerve-racking, I think, patrolling in here

for the first time when we do have public go through and

we've got the gates opening and closing, because they're already

so fast that they could just shoot off in any direction at any time,

so we'll just have to plan for that and be aware of that at all times.

The cubs' first outing in the enclosure has been

a total success and we'll be back in the summer to see what

happens when they come face-to-face with the visitors' cars.

Absolutely chuffed with how this has gone today. Couldn't be happier at all.

The fact that they've been out,

they've explored nearly every part of the section and just have

that confidence not to be right next to Mum, just exploring everywhere.

It's a really positive thing that's happened so far,

and for us to see it, it's been amazing.

When the park's not open every day, it gives everybody an opportunity to

do the jobs that you can't do when there are hundreds of cars around.

One of those is the annual wolf round up, which is when the keepers

try to round up the Canadian timber wolves to give them an

all-important health check.

You've nearly finished that already.

But what do you do with an animal that can run 50 miles a day?

Well, it certainly tests the keepers' stamina.

Was that nice? Was it?

Good.

On a bright sunny morning a couple of months ago,

inside the wolf enclosure, a pack of keepers have gathered.

We're having to mobilise the whole park to come and give us

a hand, cos we have to form a line across their entire enclosure

and then sort of herd the wolves in,

but the house is not their favourite place.

Yeah, they're going to play up a little bit, I think.

Keeper Caleb is in charge of organising the troops.

If you try and keep an equal distance apart.

Obviously, the Canadian timber wolves,

when they're cornered or when they're threatened or feel

threatened, they become extremely dangerous,

but our strength is in numbers cos they don't like people,

but if you become isolated or something,

then just get to your next man and just let the wolf run past.

We don't want to create a situation

when you're in a stand-off with a wolf.

But if the wolf starts coming for you,

put the stick near it and it'll bite the closest thing to it,

and if it bites the stick,

just let go and it should run off with it.

The posse heads into the enclosure.

Some of the park's vehicles will be used to help block off the gaps.

It's always quite nerve-wracking,

cos obviously if they start to become isolated or they feel

threatened then they become a lot more unpredictable and

a lot harder to try and sort of encourage in.

The park has just three Canadian timber wolves.

Alf, Vic, and the notorious Dave.

Earlier in the week,

we saw how Dave has become famous for his bad behaviour...

Dave, I can see you, and don't bat your eyelids at me

cos you're not getting past. Please,

keep going.

..seeing keepers as his subordinates,

well below him in the pecking order.

I don't like this, Dave.

Don't want to keep doing this.

With the vehicles in position,

the keepers take their places in the line up.

Hold it. Hold your line.

The plan is to usher the wolves along the fence line and into

the wolf house.

This is the worst one. This is Dave.

It's vital that all the wolves are caught,

as they must have an annual health check.

-Dave's coming back this way. David!

-Hold the line.

Hey!

If you just want to push round nice and slowly on the right hand side.

He's coming straight at us down the middle.

An early victory.

Vic is first through the gate and into the paddock next to the house.

OK, thanks, Hannah.

The team push forward to encourage the other two to follow.

But Dave's going the wrong way.

We've got one wolf in the paddock and then we've got one just

running around. One's broken through the line behind us,

but we're just trying to position them off towards the fence line.

We'll go back for Dave.

Caleb decides to focus on Alf for now.

He's coming round now. Alf's on his way round towards the paddock.

He's figured out what we want him to do.

Good boy.

Is that two in the house, Hannah?

-ON RADIO:

-Got two in the house. We've got Alf and Vic.

OK, we've got two in.

-Try him again round the top.

-Now just Dave remains at large.

Caleb sends the team back to their starting positions.

So the plan is to try and encourage him round the fence line

again and then push him back towards the house.

Time for round two.

David.

He's coming up behind you, I think.

But Dave's giving them the run-around.

David!

ALL SHOUT

Oh, David.

Dave broke through the line again.

He doesn't want to go in, so we'll just have to play another round

of safari park versus Dave.

Could it be third time lucky?

-Dave's showing no sign of giving up.

-David!

The keepers are putting up a determined defensive line.

But dastardly Dave breaks through once again.

It becomes a game. Like, this is Dave's territory.

Like, he loves challenges. He loves things like this.

It's exhausting, chasing a wolf round. Go on, David!

Wolves are built for stamina.

Caleb knows they can't outrun him, but can they outsmart him?

This time, he wants to try a new formation,

a shorter line with smaller gaps, and hopefully less chance to escape.

Rargh!

-Rargh!

-Hey!

-Hey!

Success!

Round four and we did it.

So, yeah, it was good.

A lot of running around after a wolf.

The last patient, Dave,

is in the wolf house just in time for a check-up with Duncan the vet.

Come on, then, Dave.

There's a good boy. Good boy, well done.

As well as their annual inoculations,

this will be one of the few times that Duncan can get close

enough to carry out a health check.

Good boy.

Wolves often fight to help settle disputes,

but this can often lead to minor injuries which,

if left unchecked, could lead to bigger problems.

You're all done.

Good boy.

The wolves are quickly released back into their enclosure.

I'm really happy with that.

They were all calm, they all came through. It was just nice...

Nice to see them.

And it's also nice that we can get them straight back outside,

so it's really painless and it's not a massive negative experience,

cos they've only been in a matter of minutes.

And then they're straight back outside, so...

Free for another year, so it's really good.

Now we're heading out of the park.

A fruit bat has a small but potentially life-threatening

condition.

And keeper Shelly is taking it straight to vet Kate

for an emergency appointment.

-Hello.

-Hiya. You all right?

-You've got a little bat for me.

-Yes, I have.

-Lovely, so we've got a wound on it, is that right?

-Yes.

It looks like skin's just come off

-from the body.

-So it's like a flap on the body.

-Yeah.

The skin's actually been removed, it looks like.

-See all the skin has just sort of gone?

-Yeah.

It was during a feed that Shelly first noticed the bat's injury.

You can see the swelling all the way along the bone,

but he's almost got this kind of tissue fluid all the way

round the bone there, so I'm wondering...

Either he's knocked it, or there might actually be something

going on in the shoulder joint there that's affecting the drainage.

Yeah.

He's one of the 42 Egyptian fruit bats who hang out in the

darkest corner of the park, the Bat Cave.

These fruit bats rely almost entirely on their wings for

mobility.

If Kate finds a bone is fractured, she'd have

no choice but to put him to sleep.

I think certainly something like x-ray wouldn't be a bad idea, so

that we can actually have a really good look about what's going on,

cos all the way along the bone to be affected that much is quite...

..is quite unusual-looking, there.

With no obvious diagnosis,

Kate arranges an x-ray for first thing tomorrow morning.

Until then, he'll be kept pain-free back at the park.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

As the keepers return the bat to the park for an uncertain night,

Kate the vet has concerns about what tomorrow's x-ray might reveal.

Worse case scenario is finding things like fractures or,

at worst, like little bony tumours and things might be able to

cause that sort of swelling.

I suppose finding something that isn't then fixable might

actually sort of mean a different ending for tomorrow for him.

There are thought to be around 100 million species of animal on Earth.

But each year, at least 10,000 go extinct.

In an effort to halt this terrifying decline,

parks like Longleat take part in international breeding programmes

designed to breed babies which could one day return to the wild.

Over in animal adventure,

keepers Graeme and John are unloading a new arrival from

a park in the Netherlands.

It's a bird, but unlike anything you've seen before.

Hello, chappie.

It's a secretary bird,

and they've recently become endangered in the wild.

It's quite an exciting time for us.

We've been allocated through the stud book a male, at the moment,

and he is basically the start of our breeding programme here.

Graeme is what's known as the stud book keeper for secretary birds.

It's his job to decide which birds mate with which,

and he knows just how difficult that can be.

What's really interesting about the secretary birds is there's

only about 100 individuals in captivity in the zoo community.

And of that, only about six birds hatched out last year,

so it's not the strongest of breeding programmes.

In spite of the odds,

Graeme and his team are doing all they can to save the species.

Obviously, I'm hoping that Graeme's got a female lined up,

being the stud book keeper.

I'd like to think that he's got a lady friend lined up for him,

so hopefully it won't be too long and we'll have two secretary birds.

Well, that was three days ago, and I'm here to meet Graeme. Hi, Graeme.

-Good morning.

-I'd love to see your new arrival.

-That's it.

He's all settling in nicely, so we can head on in and see him,

-if you like.

-Let's go and meet him.

-Wow. What do we have here?

-So this is a secretary bird.

-A secretary bird.

-Which is a really, really unusual type of bird of prey.

It's a ground-dwelling species, so normally you'd see them up,

flying around in the skies.

But this species spends most of its time in the grasslands of the

-sort of open savannahs.

-Let's go round here and have a better look.

I mean, it's such an unusual bird, from here.

Kind of looks like a bit of a bird of prey on top of the body

and then these kind of stork-flamingo legs.

-It's so unusual.

-Yeah, a little bit of an oddity, really,

but those legs form a special purpose,

and that's because they're predominantly eating snakes

in the wild, so obviously snakes do strike and they have venom,

a lot of the African ones,

so being nice and tall protects them from that,

stops the strike hitting his body, but also uses it as a killing tool.

So if he finds a prey item,

rather than having to bend down and sort of attack it, he can just stomp

and stomp and stomp and stomp until it...until it's dead, in essence.

-That explains...

-And then it's a nice easy meal for him.

Yeah, the design is really made for it.

And tell us more about him in the wild, then. Where's he from?

So they're from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Their population in the wild is really fragmented and that's

because of habitat loss.

So actually they're now classed as vulnerable,

which is one of the reasons we really have to sort of get

them in and breed them in captivity.

It's really important that we have that fall-back population in

captivity.

You are very lucky to have one here and breeding it might be

something that you work on later.

Yeah, I mean, it's part of what we do here,

it's what we're setting out to do is to really input back into

conservation and make sure that we have a nice,

healthy population in captivity.

I hear how enthusiastic you are. I think you two have bonded already.

Yeah, he's definitely I think hit me as one of my favourites this

year so far. Yeah, he's real charmer.

Congratulations. You're lucky to have him,

and I know that the visitors are going to love him.

Amazing-looking bird.

Earlier, we saw how a bat's life was hanging in the balance after

he had an injured wing.

A bat without full use of its wings can't survive,

so the only chance to save him is to get to the bottom of the problem.

We're trying to make sure that there's no problems with the

bones, cos that would change how we would manage the bat.

It's very difficult to stabilise a broken bone,

and often they don't get on very well at all,

so unfortunately that would have a lot worse outcome.

Before they can x-ray the bat, they need to keep it still,

and that requires a potentially life-threatening anaesthetic.

So he's just getting a bit of oxygen and anaesthetic gas at the moment.

Yeah, I know. That's a bit odd, isn't it?

Small animals present a higher risk when it comes to anaesthetic.

This bat weighs in at 150gm, so the margin for error is miniscule.

There's a lot less information out there on dosing and safety,

so we're having to use our knowledge from other animals.

It makes the monitoring a little bit more difficult and changes can

happen a lot quicker because they're smaller,

so they'll metabolise drugs a lot quicker.

With the bat under anaesthetic, it's a race against time.

They need to keep it unconscious for as small amount of time as

possible to avoid any complications.

We're changing

his ability to look after himself and for his body functions to

perform normally, so the stress is

on us to maintain his body functions.

X-rays.

The bat's been unconscious for 20 minutes.

With the x-rays complete, they now have to try and wake it up.

He's just becoming more awake now,

so we've just got him safely in the tail so that he can't flap

around, become distressed, or cause any further damage to himself.

With the bat awake,

it's time to examine the x-rays that will determine its fate.

Despite looking completely alien,

its anatomy is surprisingly familiar.

This here is like the wrist. These are like the fingers.

This is the forearm.

And the top of the arm here.

So the wounds that we're looking at are over this side.

You can see all the grey around each side of the bone.

That's all the soft tissue,

and it's certainly looking a bit swollen around that region.

I'm making sure the bone density looks nice and even.

I'm looking at the joints to make sure that the bones are

fitting together nicely, and they look nice and smooth.

I can't see any fractures of the bone.

Some cancers you are able to see on an x-ray.

That's something that I'm not worried about in this case.

With breakages and tumours ruled out,

the team can breathe a sigh of relief.

I suspect most likely he's caught himself on something and it's

just caused a bit of swelling of the soft tissues.

We're hoping that we can just manage him medically and hopefully

with time his injuries will heal and he'll be back to normal.

Last summer, we witnessed the arrival of twin red panda cubs.

At less than a week old, the cubs were

no bigger than the palm of my hand.

And with the help of an infra-red camera,

we captured intimate moments between mother and cubs.

Well, it's been nine months since we took those shots, and today, Ben

is joining keeper Sam to help make a few alterations to their enclosure.

What are we going to do today, then? What's the plan?

Well, I've got a little new toy for them,

so we've got this little platform, covered in some grass and things,

which is a bit different for them, so we're going to hang it up, cover

it with some food, and hopefully they'll come over and have a look.

And this is all about keeping their

brains and bodies stimulated, is that right?

Yes, exactly, and these are actually one of our harder animals to enrich.

They're very, very lazy.

So we do anything we can to kind of get them a little bit more active.

-OK, should we get...?

-Yes.

-Where are we going to put it?

Maybe just hook it on here, and I'll hook it up this side.

And what kind of characters have they got?

You've already said that they're a little bit lazy.

Dad is a bit more wary.

He's actually not joining us at the moment.

But this one right in front of me is one of our cubs,

-who is...

-Have they got names?

This is Tika, and she is one of the boldest.

So she'll probably be very interested in what we're doing.

-I expect she'll be fast over.

-And you've put some food down as well.

Yes, so we've got a few little bits of fruit here,

so we can cover this in a few little bits and hopefully...

Do they have favourite foods?

Yeah, definitely, so fruit is a real treat,

which is what we've got today.

A little bit of pear on there, a little bit of apple.

-Yeah, there's banana, so we can smoosh that in.

-Oh, hello.

-..and get it nice and messy.

-Hello, Tika.

-Hello, darling.

-They are beautiful, and who have we got down here?

So this is mum that's come straight over for a little bit of pear.

They're a great little family, they get on really well,

they all play together,

all sleep together in a big pile as well, which is really sweet.

Obviously, you've only got a finite amount of space here,

so is it about maximising what you can do here?

-Changing the textures, changing where things are?

-Yeah, definitely.

It's great to provide them with different textures.

This artificial grass is something they haven't seen before

and this platform obviously is made to be mobile, so we can change

it round every day, so it's just a little bit different,

something to help stimulate them a little bit more.

Well, Sam, thank you very much.

Let's leave the red pandas to the new addition to their enclosure.

Sadly, we've reached the end of our

jam-packed week of Easter entertainment.

We've had an absolute blast..

..catching up with friends both new...

Oh, look at them with their little Mohicans!

..and old.

I've got a treat for you.

And our cameras have got you closer than ever before.

SNARLING

Oh, it's been lovely to see the park spring into life for another

season, hasn't it?

-It hasn't been bad seeing you, Kate, as well.

-Oh, you old softie.

-We should do it again.

-Well, the good news is, Ben, we are.

Our cameras are going to be sticking around and we'll bring you

a whole load of new stories and new shows in the summer.

-We might even have some sunshine for you, Kate.

-That would be lovely!

So join us for the next Animal Park.