Episode 14 Animal Park


Episode 14

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LION ROARS

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Hello and welcome to Animal Park. I'm Ben Fogle.

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And I'm Kate Humble. We're at the East Africa Reserve with the pygmy goats.

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Earlier this year some of the females had a liaison with a rather frisky billy goat.

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This is just one of the results.

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There were three kids born this year.

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The first time there's been any babies here at Longleat for seven years. It's a great success story.

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And we've got lots of other stories for you coming from the safari park and the estate including...

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There hasn't been a baby eland in the park for eight years,

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but could that be about to change?

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Oh, my word! Goodness me!

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'I'll be meeting the world's largest rat,

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'who can grow up to a whopping 2.5 ft long.'

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-That's about the size of a cat.

-Yeah, big tom cat!

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And visiting Kenyan ranger Patrick gets up close and personal with the parks' big cats.

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Feeding a tiger, hand feeding.

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That's unusual.

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But first...

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In the same section as the Ankole cattle and Bactrian camels,

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live Longleat's seven female eland.

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Eland are the largest and most aggressive antelopes in the world.

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Standing almost two metres high at the shoulder,

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they can weigh up to a ton,

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and are armed with fearsomely sharp horns to protect themselves from predators.

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There hadn't been a male eland in the park for eight years.

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So, nine months ago, head of section Tim Yeo

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decided it was time to bring in a new bull.

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He's only a young fellow at the moment.

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But...it's yet to be seen

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how quickly he will start to breed with the cows.

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Certainly, this is going to be very interesting,

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letting them out together.

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TIM WHISTLES Come on, good lad. Come on.

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The bull, named Zambezi, is just coming out of adolescence.

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With seven older and more experienced females around him,

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Tim could only hope that he wouldn't be overwhelmed and that love would blossom.

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# The moon above is shining bright

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# Come on boy the time is right

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# Here I am

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# Take me in your arms and love me... #

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It's lovely to see him out. I think he is very happy to be out.

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I think we can just start to see that now.

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He's running along with them,

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eager to join in with them.

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From a human point of view, you feel he's enjoying himself.

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Zambezi seemed to be getting on well.

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But the eland's gestation period is a long one,

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so Tim had to wait patiently to find out

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if his labours would bear fruit.

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Today, nine months on, Tim's spotted something remarkable.

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One of the elands seems to be ready to calve.

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Most animals do their best to conceal themselves when giving birth,

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so it's very rare for keepers to see the actual delivery.

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But today we're incredibly fortunate.

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The eland goes into labour in sight of our cameras.

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Enclosed in its amniotic sac, the calf,

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which can weigh up to 25 kilograms, emerges head first into the world.

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After cleaning the calf, the mother eland and her baby lie low,

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just as they would in the wild to avoid predators.

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We've actually not had any births

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for about eight years now.

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It's wonderful to see them.

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It looks a really healthy calf.

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It's a bit wobbly on its pegs

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but it's trying to find Mum's teat to feed.

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She's very attentive

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and licking a lot.

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That's wonderful.

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So far, so good.

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But Tim must keep a watchful eye on the calf,

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as the first days of life are always tricky for young animals.

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This baby's next big hurdle is to be accepted by the rest of the herd.

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Earlier this year, deputy head warden Ian Turner took a group of staff to Kenya,

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a wildlife hotspot, where many of the species kept at Longleat

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roam free in their natural habitat.

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The keepers visited the Kigio Conservancy,

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a wildlife reserve covering 3,500 acres.

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One of their hosts was Patrick Lengilili,

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a park ranger and tracker from the local Samburu tribe.

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-Here we go.

-Ah!

-We've got some tracks here.

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Patrick's worked at Kigio for eight years.

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There's not a lot he doesn't know about African wildlife.

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-Is that him?

-That's him there.

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To strengthen the links between Longleat and Kigio,

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the park has invited Patrick to pay them a return visit.

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-Nice view of the whole area.

-Nice view, yeah.

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Now Patrick has come to Wiltshire, on his first ever trip abroad.

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The park's most famous animals are the lions.

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Although there are plenty of lions in Kenya, there are none on the Kigio reserve.

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So today, Bob Trollope is taking Patrick on his feeding round

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to give him a privileged view of Africa's greatest predator.

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The lions should be waiting.

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-What we do is simulate a hunt.

-Yeah.

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So the lions have to work for their food, as they would in the wild.

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They've got to chase the feed wagon a good distance

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-before they get their reward, which is this...

-I see.

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It's to try and mimic as much as we can the wild.

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Because we're not allowed to put live prey in here for them, this is the nearest we can get to it.

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-So, Patrick...

-Yeah.

-If you want to start picking this meat up...

-Yeah.

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..and chuck it out through there, then they will grab it.

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-And that's it. Up through there.

-Shall I now?

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Yes, please, yeah.

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How much do you normally feed these guys?

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We work it out to be about 60lbs in weight per lion.

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-So it's not every day.

-Not every day, no.

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-It's so they don't get used to it and wait for it.

-Yeah.

-We can surprise them when we feed.

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The feeding truck also allows the keepers to get a close look at the lions' condition.

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-Good boy.

-Happy.

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Now we can check him quite closely, all his claws, his mouth.

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And he has a good look.

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-He's very greedy, he tries to get more than one.

-Wow!

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THEY LAUGH

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WOLVES HOWL AND BARK

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Next stop on Patrick's tour takes him up to Wolf Wood

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to feed the park's pack of Canadian timber wolves.

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Though they're less dangerous than the lions,

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Bob's keen not to get between the pack and its dinner.

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-If we get back in here, Patrick, then we'll just move away.

-Yeah.

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They will come in and feed.

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Bob is an expert in the complicated social dynamics of the wolf pack.

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You can see there's a bit of a frenzy at the moment.

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They're all eating together.

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-But it's a very complex pecking order.

-Yeah.

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You normally find that the alpha male, which is the top dog,

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-is the one who will get the best place on the food.

-Yeah.

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You normally find that some of the younger ones

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will stay on the outskirts,

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cos they're not high enough up the order to be able to get in there and feed straight away.

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Earlier this year, alpha female Frieda

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gave birth to a new litter of cubs.

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Luckily for Patrick, they have recently emerged from their den into the open,

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as they are gradually weaned from their mothers' milk onto meat.

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The whole pack will eat as much as they can.

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They'll go back to the den.

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As they approach the den site, the pups will run out to meet them.

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-They will sort of beg for food.

-Yeah.

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Every one of them will regurgitate a little bit of food for them,

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-so that they can feed on that.

-Wow.

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Then when they're a little bit older

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they will come closer to the meat and be eating the meat themselves.

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There's one coming over now.

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It's been a fascinating experience for Patrick,

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to see how Bob's careful feeding regime

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encourages the animals to display their natural behaviour.

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All over the park, keepers strive to make meal times as natural as possible for each species.

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For the giraffes, that means replicating the thorny acacia trees

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they browse on in Africa, by hanging bundles of tasty leaves high off the ground.

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I'm out in the East Africa Reserve with head of section Andy Hayton and warden Ryan Hockley.

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Earlier on we put out some browse. Who do we have eating now?

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We've got Teresa, Imogen and Chikoola,

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and Caroline the camel waiting for anything to drop.

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It's a perfect opportunity to see just how a giraffe eats.

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What's the process that they go through?

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This is quite a thorny bundle of browse up here.

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What they're doing, you can see the ends of their tongue coming out

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and gently wrapping around the few leaves they are taking each time.

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That's presumably why they're so very long,

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so that they can strip as many leaves as possible.

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They need to be able to wrap round a whole branch sometimes if necessary.

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Bearing in mind the size of a giraffe, how much does one have to eat per day?

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I think they need to eat about 35 kilograms of food a day.

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-Which must be a huge number of leaves, seeing how slowly the process takes.

-That's what they do.

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They spend the majority of their day eating because it takes so long

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to work through the acacia, because it's monstrous thorns on there.

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They have to constantly eat and eat.

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I think females feed for about nine hours a day

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and bulls for about 12 hours.

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Acacia has a lot of water in it as well,

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so they don't have to drink that often.

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Presumably, it's the same with their neck - they have such long necks,

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so they can reach the places other animals can't.

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Yeah, originally everyone used to think that was the reason for developing such a long neck.

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Nowadays, the line of thinking is it all stems from the males.

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The males use their head and neck to spar,

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to find out some sort of hierarchy as to who's going to mate with who.

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Hundreds of thousands of years ago the males were the bigger neck,

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and therefore being able to swing harder, were winning fights,

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mating and passing their genes on.

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So over thousands of years, these longer necks were developing,

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not necessarily for browsing, there's plenty of browsers in Africa without necks like that,

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but more to do with the genetics of bigger,

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longer-necked bulls winning fights and passing their genes on.

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Ryan, what about the youngsters? There's a little one behind you.

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Obviously far too small to reach that sort of browse now.

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Do the parents ever help, do they rip bits off and drop them down?

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Not that I've seen, Ben.

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What will happen is the younger ones will act almost like the camels in a similar way.

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They'll stand there. Anything that falls, they'll bend down and pick it up.

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When we first hang it, obviously, it's fairly low to start with.

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They might come in and take the first few low hanging bits.

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The adults work so fast on it, that within minutes, you're way up on the browse line

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and the youngsters can't reach it.

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Andy, they really do seem to love this browse.

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How often do you bring some of these out?

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We do this daily in the summer.

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It's a lot of hard work going out collecting it and getting it but...

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-Satisfying to see.

-Yeah, you see the animals out here doing what they should do.

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It's what it's all about. It's nice to see.

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Andy, Ryan, thank you very much.

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We'll leave the giraffes to enjoy their browse.

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Back in Big Cat Country,

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Bob Trollope is taking visiting Kenyan ranger, Patrick Lengilili,

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to fulfil one of his lifelong ambitions.

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They're going in to meet the tigers.

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-Here we are. Do you want to come along here?

-Safe to get inside?

-Yeah, fine.

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-This is a male tiger.

-Yeah.

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-He's slightly bigger than the female.

-Wow!

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This is how tigers are expected to look.

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-They're big, man! They're big.

-Oh, yeah, much bigger.

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-A full grown male is much bigger than a male lion.

-Yeah.

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Sona has an albino mutation.

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Both he and Kadu are Bengal-Siberian cross-breeds, and over 20 years old.

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You see how soft she is.

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-Do you want to touch her?

-Yeah, she's coming to meet you.

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-Yeah, she comes to me. She was hand reared.

-Yeah.

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She loves having a fuss. A bit of a tickle.

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-Very soft.

-Very soft.

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I've never these animals before.

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-She wants to sit down. She likes you, Patrick. She likes you.

-Look at the legs!

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Massive paws, very big paws.

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She's very friendly inside the cage but if she was outside,

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-she'd kill you.

-Right.

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I'm surprised how he walks around and then just comes around to Bob

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and "Urrgh, urrgh, urrgh." HE LAUGHS

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Yeah, really surprised how tame they are.

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Bob has worked with big cats for 25 years.

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He's just the man to teach Patrick about their habits.

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She makes this noise called a chuffle,

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which is like a "fff-fff-fff-fff".

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Fff-fff-fff.

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Yeah, very similar to "fff-fff-fff".

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-That's to gauge what mood they're in.

-Yeah.

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-To avoid conflict...

-TIGER BANGS OFF THE CAGE

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-Oh, dear! ..to avoid conflict they will chuffle to each other.

-Chuffle to each other.

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If Sona didn't chuffle back to Kadu,

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-she knows he's in a bad mood.

-OK. Wow!

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Hello, darling. Fff-fff-fff.

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PATRICK GROWLS

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BOB LAUGHS

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She looks happy.

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She's very - you know, she's very mischievous, very mischievous.

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You have to be careful because she does pee on...

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She scents against the cage. There's nothing to stop the scent coming...

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-Whoa, out of the way, Patrick!

-THEY LAUGH

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-You've got to be quick.

-HE LAUGHS

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I like her, I wish I could take her back to Kenya.

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To Kigio!

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He can't take them home, but Patrick does get a chance to give the tigers a little treat.

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-Do you want to feed him, Patrick?

-Yes.

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Just put it through there and he will take it off the stick.

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There you go. Just there.

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TIGER GROWLS

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Good boy! Bit dribbly.

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Feeding a tiger, hand-feeding, that's unusual.

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The visit isn't over yet, and Bob has saved the best till last.

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Back over in Tim Yeo's section,

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the only eland calf born here in eight years

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has survived its critical first 24 hours.

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Now the mother has brought the baby out into the open

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to meet the rest of the herd.

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Proud father, Zambezi, is first to greet them.

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They've obviously moved from the birthing area there.

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They've moved much closer to the other eland.

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Also, Zambezi, the father, has been showing

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a bit of interest in the calf.

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He's staying very close by.

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It's interesting to see that.

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For him, he's never seen anything like that before

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so it's a first for him.

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For the first few days of life,

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eland calves are not afraid of humans.

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This gives Tim a window of opportunity to get close enough

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to find out what sex the baby is

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and to mark it with an identity tag.

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But while the mother's close by,

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it's too dangerous to approach.

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Like any mother, protection of the young one is what they do.

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They'll put their own life in danger to protect the calf,

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so you can't go anywhere near the calf without...

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You're going to get some aggression on the part of the mother.

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In the wild, eland calves are vulnerable to predators,

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so when the mother does leave her baby

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she makes sure it's well hidden.

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But Tim has been watching carefully, waiting for his chance.

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Yeah. That's OK.

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She's actually down in the bottom of the valley there.

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Eland are capable of killing a man with their long spiky horns,

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so Tim has to work fast.

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The tagging stings a bit, but it's all over in seconds.

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It's necessary to identify the year of birth and sex,

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so that keepers can tell who's who from a distance.

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This little eland turns out to be a boy, so his tag is green.

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The baby antelope is not alone for long,

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as one week on he's joined by a second eland calf,

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also a boy.

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Tim's delighted with the result.

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We really are fortunate after such a long break.

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We've got two wonderful calves

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that are very happy out here in the park,

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and spend all their time together, so it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

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We'll be keeping track of the little eland calves throughout the series.

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Over at Pets Corner live some of the park's cutest and cuddliest residents.

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It's also home to a host of species who are not so immediately lovable.

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The latest arrivals are from a family of rodents

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with an unfairly bad reputation.

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I'm up at Pets Corner with head of section, Darren Beasley,

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-and the mystery cage!

-THEY LAUGH

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-It's exciting, isn't it?

-It's like a lucky dip in here.

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I can see movement under the newspaper, but what is it?

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It's my brand new babies, Kate. Shall I move the newspaper?

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-I think so.

-You're dying to see.

-I am!

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-My God! Goodness me!

-THEY LAUGH

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It looks like a cross between a rat and a kangaroo, it's enormous!

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They're Giant African pouch rats,

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or Gambian pouch rats, from Africa obviously.

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-They're just about the biggest rats you'll ever come across.

-Wow!

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They're still youngsters.

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-Would you believe they're about 17 weeks old now.

-No way!

0:20:530:20:56

-Isn't it just incredible!

-How big will they grow when they're adults?

0:20:560:21:00

Easily over 2 ft, 45 centimetres, perhaps a bit more than that.

0:21:000:21:04

-That's about the size of a cat.

-Yes, a big tomcat!

0:21:040:21:07

-All feet, ears, teeth... and fantastic animals.

-Amazing.

0:21:070:21:12

These two are brand new to us.

0:21:120:21:14

They're still very timid animals,

0:21:140:21:16

they're fairly nocturnal animals as well.

0:21:160:21:18

This one looks a bit sleepy,

0:21:180:21:20

and the other one has got his back resolutely to us.

0:21:200:21:23

I'm putting on my gloves here because I'm going in.

0:21:230:21:27

They still bite and nip at the moment, they're a bit nervous, but shall I get one out?

0:21:270:21:32

Oh yes. I'll pop my gloves on.

0:21:320:21:35

Let's have a little look. Hello, mate.

0:21:350:21:37

Come on, honey.

0:21:370:21:39

I'm just going for your friend here.

0:21:390:21:41

Let's go for the sleepiest one of the two. Look at the size of that!

0:21:410:21:44

Can I ask you to support it by the base of its tail, in case...

0:21:440:21:48

You don't have to squeeze but in case he does run off,

0:21:480:21:51

and put your hand on the other side, and away we go. Look at that.

0:21:510:21:54

-He's so heavy.

-Are you all right?

-Ooh, yeah!

0:21:540:21:58

I feel bad about holding him on the base of the tail,

0:21:580:22:02

-because with normal rats, you wouldn't.

-No, he's a big...

0:22:020:22:06

-I'll hold him now. He's a big powerful animal.

-He's incredibly powerful.

0:22:060:22:10

You've got to support him in the best way he feels comfortable, so I've got him there now.

0:22:100:22:15

If you think actually in Africa these guys are eaten.

0:22:150:22:19

I'm afraid to say they can be farmed but there is good news.

0:22:190:22:23

They have found that they can also - because they have a fantastic sense of smell... This is Phil, by the way.

0:22:230:22:29

Phil wants to get back in with his mates.

0:22:290:22:32

Because they have such a fantastic sense of smell,

0:22:320:22:35

they're being trained to find landmines.

0:22:350:22:38

-Absolutely amazing, isn't it?

-That's incredible!

0:22:380:22:40

They put haltis on them and they teach them to recognise explosives, and away they go.

0:22:400:22:45

They find these grotty landmines that rotten human beings have left lying around.

0:22:450:22:49

-You said they were called pouch rats.

-Yes.

0:22:490:22:52

They haven't got a marsupial-style pouch, have they?

0:22:520:22:55

No, the pouch is under their jaws.

0:22:550:22:58

It's like extended cheek pouches.

0:22:580:23:01

-So it would work like a hamster?

-Just like a hamster, and they can put huge amounts of food.

0:23:010:23:05

Shall we put him back in because I know you're a bit new and this is scary,

0:23:050:23:10

but you wait, you'll be a TV star before you know it!

0:23:100:23:13

They will take food,

0:23:130:23:15

lots of different types of cereals and fruit and nuts they find.

0:23:150:23:18

Also a bit of meat product.

0:23:180:23:20

They'll catch and eat bugs and things, and a lot of it is stored in these massive pouches.

0:23:200:23:24

So they'll end up with these great big...

0:23:240:23:27

There you are, he has taken a grape.

0:23:270:23:30

If he doesn't eat it straight away, it will go in his pouch for later on.

0:23:300:23:34

I love it. Just holding it in his...

0:23:340:23:38

That's similar to your normal rats that I'm used to,

0:23:380:23:42

very much the holding with hands.

0:23:420:23:45

They're very dextrous, aren't they?

0:23:450:23:46

They are quite amazing creatures.

0:23:460:23:48

The fact now that animals from Africa are helping putting right the mess

0:23:480:23:53

that humans have done with the landmines, if they can be taught...

0:23:530:23:56

Because all rats are intelligent and these have size on their side too.

0:23:560:24:00

You get them on a halti, that's their next step.

0:24:000:24:03

If we get them friendlier and tamer, which is happening, this is new to them,

0:24:030:24:07

we can get them out and start walking them around on their leads

0:24:070:24:10

and show our visitors what wonderful animals these really are.

0:24:100:24:14

They really are, they're fantastic.

0:24:140:24:16

Thank you very much for introducing us.

0:24:160:24:18

Back up in Big Cat Country, there are also some new arrivals.

0:24:260:24:31

Keeper, Bob Trollope, has brought visiting Kenyan ranger, Patrick Lengilili, to see them.

0:24:310:24:37

-Right, Patrick, shall we go and see the lions?

-Yeah, sure.

0:24:370:24:40

Yendi, one of the females in Kabir's pride,

0:24:420:24:45

recently gave birth to a new litter.

0:24:450:24:48

In the wild, cubs would normally stay hidden for weeks,

0:24:480:24:51

so it's amazingly rare to see lions this young.

0:24:510:24:56

-Be very careful because she's very temperamental.

-Yeah.

0:24:560:25:00

-There she is. You can see there's one suckling.

-Yes.

0:25:010:25:06

You have to be a bit careful because she's very protective,

0:25:060:25:09

so she most probably sort of... If you get too close she will whoa.

0:25:090:25:14

-They are protective when they have babies.

-Yeah.

0:25:140:25:18

-These are three weeks old.

-Three weeks old.

0:25:180:25:21

They're quite chubby so they're getting plenty of milk.

0:25:210:25:24

That's tiny cute babies.

0:25:240:25:27

-Very cute. Then think that they will grow into this!

-Yeah, imagine!

0:25:270:25:30

They grow very quick, very quick.

0:25:300:25:34

They almost double in size every week.

0:25:340:25:38

Sadly, Patrick's visit has come to an end.

0:25:380:25:42

He's strengthened the bonds between Longleat and his own Kigio reserve,

0:25:420:25:46

and has a host of memories to take home with him.

0:25:460:25:50

Now his only regret is that he'll have to leave the lions behind.

0:25:500:25:54

I'm really impressed about Longleat.

0:25:540:25:57

I'm so interested, I wish we could have some of these cats and take them back to Kigio.

0:25:570:26:03

At the end of a hot day, there's no better way to relax,

0:26:170:26:20

than with a nice spoonful of ice-cream,

0:26:200:26:22

in the company of keeper, Rob Savin, and Nelson the Malaccan cockatoo.

0:26:220:26:28

I don't actually like ice-cream,

0:26:280:26:30

but Nelson, who has been snuggling up to me

0:26:300:26:32

in a terribly flirtatious way...

0:26:320:26:34

-She's very soppy.

-..I think she might be after this ice-cream.

0:26:340:26:37

-She would try it.

-Is she allowed a bit?

0:26:370:26:40

Normal ice cream wouldn't be good for parrots.

0:26:400:26:43

This has been specially made, hopefully, with a splodge of banana on top, for them to have a little go.

0:26:430:26:48

-She's trying it. It's a bit fruity, this one.

-Oh, no!

0:26:480:26:52

-She definitely doesn't like that! She says...

-No!

-Off the other way!

0:26:520:26:56

-Hello! Where are you going?

-Nelson, you're so ungrateful.

0:26:560:26:59

What do you do in hot weather with the birds?

0:26:590:27:01

They're quite used to the hot weather,

0:27:010:27:03

it's part of their normal environment anyway.

0:27:030:27:06

Plenty of fresh water, plenty of drinks available,

0:27:060:27:09

and a good spray sometimes as well. She likes being misted. Do you want a go?

0:27:090:27:13

If I take this ice-cream.

0:27:130:27:14

PARROT SQUAWKS

0:27:140:27:16

-Where shall I spray her?

-Just spray over. Hopefully it's on a nice general spray.

0:27:160:27:20

A bit more of a mist.

0:27:200:27:22

We'll go the other way. If you take your arm back a little bit.

0:27:220:27:27

A bit like it's rain, so it's more natural.

0:27:270:27:30

THEY LAUGH

0:27:300:27:31

-That cools her down.

-Is that good?!

0:27:310:27:34

It's a success.

0:27:340:27:36

The best part about it, Kate, is that I get two ice-creams.

0:27:360:27:39

PARROT SQUAWKS

0:27:390:27:41

THEY LAUGH

0:27:410:27:44

Nelson, do you want to say goodbye?

0:27:440:27:46

PARROT SQUAWKS

0:27:460:27:48

That's all we have time for on today's Animal Park, but here's what's on the next programme...

0:27:480:27:53

PARROT SQUAWKS LOUDLY

0:27:530:27:55

THEY LAUGH

0:27:550:27:57

Up at Wolf Wood, these fearsome hunters try their paw at a spot of fishing.

0:27:570:28:03

The park has ordered two new safari boats for Half-Mile Lake,

0:28:040:28:09

but unless it rains soon, they'll be left high and dry.

0:28:090:28:14

And at Pets Corner, keeper John Ovens is making his stage debut.

0:28:140:28:19

-Give her a round of applause!

-But his co-stars are acting up.

0:28:190:28:23

Get a piece of rubbish for me, Arch. No, don't look at them. Archie!

0:28:230:28:27

Archie! I want a piece of rubbish, please.

0:28:270:28:29

PARROT SQUAWKS

0:28:290:28:31

That's all coming up on the next Animal Park.

0:28:310:28:34

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2007

0:28:420:28:44

Email [email protected]

0:28:440:28:47

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