Episode 20 Animal Park

LION ROARS

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

And I'm Kate Humble and we're out in new area with Africa's biggest antelope, the Eland.

This is a very special year for these beautiful creatures,

because it's the first time in eight years they've had some youngsters here at Longleat.

-And very enchanting, they are too. I love their little stripes.

-So sweet.

They are absolutely beautiful.

We've got lots of stories coming up for you today from the safari park, including...

The lions loved their rope toy so much, they wrecked it in a week, but will the new one last any longer?

Mayhem has broken out in the aviary.

The spoonbills are at war and the casualties are mounting.

They're definitely not giving it any time at all,

and if they keep hounding it like that, they'll kill it.

And we pay a visit to some of the smartest rats in the world.

They've been trained to find land mines, absolutely amazing isn't it?

But first, we're off to lion country.

LION ROARS

Despite being the most fearsome predators in the park, the lions of Longleat are surprisingly playful.

For cubs Malaika and Jasira, it's a way of learning the crucial skills of hunting and fighting.

For the adults, its practise.

The scratching post is a favourite of Charlie's pride.

And last week, Kate helped put up some brand new rope toys for the cubs to play with.

-That's quite tough.

-Both Malaika and Jasira loved their new playground, as did their father.

-LAUGHTER

-Awwww!

But male lions are incredibly powerful animals

and over the last few days,

Kabir and Mfue have given the playground a bit of a beating.

This is the remnants of some of the playthings

Kate helped keeper Bob Trollope make for the lions here in their enclosure.

Bob, basically they've trashed the place.

Yes, unfortunately it is no more.

-It lasted less than a week?

-Less than a week.

But it shows they obviously enjoyed everything.

They did, the cubs were playing on it all the time.

So that's obviously Jasira and Malaika,

-but they surely couldn't have done all this damage themselves?

-No, Dad helped.

-Right, so that's Kabir?

-Yes.

But the one who did most of the damage was Mfue.

Mfue is from the other pride who is here.

Most probably because of the scent of Kabir and the cubs on there,

he has trashed it and tried to kill that.

-The plan today is we are trying to make this male lion-proof.

-Parent proof, I suppose.

-What have we got?

We have these solid wooden blocks.

This is silver birch and we will dangle some of these so they can still bite and claw.

We've actually got some that we were halfway through doing.

Shall we have a look at what we made earlier?

-Presumably this is part of the enrichment, keep them busy and just to keep them entertained?

-It is.

What have we got here? This is a very heavy ball.

Yes, this is like a trawler net float.

Presumably, the idea of this is it's supposed to be indestructible.

These are the only things we've found that resemble a ball of any sort that they cannot break.

They can scratch it and bite it.

But not actually pop it, obviously?

We're still working on this, so we've taken the tape off so it is completely lion-friendly as well.

What else have we got here?

We've got one we are dangling.

Hopefully they will swing on this.

Then we have one of the fenders here,

we saw Jasira climb up and jump on to it.

So it's obviously something to amuse them.

Obviously Jasira and Malaika love all of this, but mum and Kabir are also going to come up?

They all play with it. Obviously the two youngsters play with it mostly,

but they all play with it. That's what we wanted.

The big question is, do you think this is going to survive the dad test, the parent test?

I'm pretty sure the ball and the wood will, but whether the rope does?

There's only one way to find out.

Join us later in the programme when we find out whether this is indeed lion- and parent-proof.

The park's aviary is one of the largest of its kind in Europe.

It's home to a wide variety of exotic birds,

including Chilean flamingos, sacred ibis and four species of duck.

Longleat's four spoonbills arrived here 18 months ago.

Since then they've lived happily together...until today.

Suddenly, two of them have declared war,

relentlessly hounding one of the other spoonbills to within an inch of its life.

Keeper Michelle Stephens has rounded up the bullied bird and brought it inside the house.

Now, she's called the safari park vet, Duncan Williams, to make sure it's OK.

It's got a few bashes around its face.

He has been bullied a little bit by the others.

I will listen to his chest.

'Luckily, the spoonbill has no serious injuries, but he has been terrified by his ordeal.'

His heart's going so fast, he's so stressed.

'Duncan decides the best thing is to keep him inside to recover.'

Meanwhile, back outside, the pair of bullies have found a new victim.

They've turned on the fourth spoonbill.

-Where's the other one at the moment?

-At the back.

Neither Duncan nor the keepers have ever seen this kind of behaviour before.

They're at a loss to know how to control the spoonbill pair's aggression.

I don't really know why because it's only happened in the last day and a half,

that these two, this pair have been picking on it.

They're definitely not giving it any time at all,

and if they keep hounding it like that, they'll kill it.

There is nothing for it, but bring the other bullied spoonbill into the safety of the house.

Desperate for a solution, keepers call in the man who set up the aviary, bird expert Mike Curzon.

Steady, steady, steady, steady.

This is the one we've caught so far.

'Mike has worked with spoonbills for over 40 years.'

How long do you think we should keep him in for?

I'd keep them in now until the middle of the summer.

'Spoonbills are monomorphic, which means boys and girls look exactly the same.

'DNA testing when these four arrived indicated they were all male.

'Nevertheless, Mike thinks he knows what the problem is.

'Even if they are both boys, it's possible that the two bullies

'have formed a pair bond, which will explain their aggressive behaviour.'

With no females around, those two males will take the part of a pair

and behave as a pair and be aggressive.

Mike thinks the size of the spoonbill group is also contributing to the problem.

Anything that lives in a colony whether its people, birds,, you always get bickering.

They shout across the garden fence to each other and neighbours fall out with each other.

The problem is with the spoonbills, there are only four.

If there is any aggression from two, it is on to the other two.

If you have a complete colony, a larger number,

bickering isn't taken out on individuals, they can't be singled out.

It's spread through the group.

If you watch the flamingos, there is constant bickering going on.

It doesn't become aggressive because something else happens

or another one walks by and walks between them.

It doesn't usually become violent.

And the more there are in the colony, then it spreads the load.

Thankfully, the two bullied spoonbills have recovered well from their ordeal.

For now, they will be kept safely apart until some spoonbill girls can be brought in to calm the boys down.

I think the important thing now is to find probably one of the continental zoos who are breeding them

and bring in four females.

And then hopefully everything in the garden will be rosy.

A lot of activity, then a lot of noise and then hopefully a lot of little spoonbills.

The park is home to a number of primate species,

from western lowland gorillas Samba and Nico

to around 80 rhesus macaque monkeys

and the Geoffrey's marmosets, Mike, Michelle and baby Mandu.

Geoffrey's marmosets come from the rainforests of Brazil.

Sadly, due to disappearing habitat, they are now classed as vulnerable in the wild.

At Pets Corner, keeper Jo Hawthorne has looked after the marmosets since they arrived four years ago

and designed their open enclosure herself.

These highly intelligent monkeys are some of her favourite animals.

I absolutely love primates anyway, and these guys because they are so small,

I find it amazing that they're so clever.

The chimpanzees and the orang-utans, and the bigger primates,

these guys are as every bit as clever but just in a small package.

Just to watch them, I think the visitors get a thrill out of seeing the little human things they do.

Recently, Jo has been studying animal management at college,

learning about how to enrich animals' lives in captivity.

Now, to give the marmosets a stimulating mealtime experience,

Jo is going to encourage them to feed as they would in the wild.

This is actually very exciting.

Look, it's three broom heads actually turned the odd way up.

And basically this is going to be something for the marmosets to forage in and find food.

I have some lovely wax worms which are their favourite,

I will drop those down into the brush head.

Obviously in the wild, these guys would do what we call a visual glean,

so they will see these little things squiggling around in the undergrowth

and by dropping them in here, they will have to dive in and have a look and forage for them.

In their native habitat, marmosets live in tall trees

and rely on their excellent eyesight to find food.

Straightaway, Jo's new feeding method attracts their attention.

As soon as obviously I put them in, they are down to have a look.

Wax worms and meal worms and things like that, they absolutely love.

Any squiggly movement in that brush, they will be there.

If they can't get it from the top, they will look round the sides and grab it

while it's falling down in between the brushes. They are onto it so it's great.

It works superbly this, really well.

There's certainly nothing wrong with their eyesight

so next, Jo wants to encourage the marmosets to find hidden food using their sense of smell.

What we've got here is actually a jelly which we make up for them every day.

It's like you and me making a jelly at home, you make up the mixture and you put it in the fridge

and it sets, nice and hard, so you get it out and it doesn't wibble-wobble like ours at home.

But it's basically got lots of protein in there for them.

What's this? What's this?

They're watching me and thinking, "What's she got for me now?"

They're very inquisitive. So come and have a look, check it out.

The marmosets are clearly interested,

but first they want to establish the coconut isn't dangerous.

They're used to seeing coconuts hanging up the right away around with the food in.

But seeing on hanging up that way, it's like, what is going on?

We will be back to see if the marmosets pluck up their courage or if they shy away.

Up in lion country,

the adult males have been trashing the old rope toys.

Earlier today, keeper, Bob Trollope and I fixed up some new ones.

Now the time has come to put the new toys to the test.

Bob, we're hoping this is all now completely parent proof.

Hopefully, fingers crossed.

Now, just talk us through who we've got. We've got the two young cubs?

We've got Malaika and Jasira.

Is that Malaika in the front?

Malaika is the one following Luna.

Jasira is in front of dad and that is obviously Kabir.

So it's mum that's leading the way?

Yeah, I'd have thought Kabir would have been the first one in there, but obviously not.

So obviously, we've left a lot of our own kind of scent around there.

Is that what they're going to be sniffing out in the first instance?

I think Luna will be a bit more cautious.

But the others are playing with that ball.

-And obviously Malaika and Jasira are still getting on fantastically well?

-Yeah, brilliantly.

Yeah, they're good for each other because there's only a couple of months difference in their age.

Are they getting more aggressive as they get older?

Not towards each other. They just play harder, let's say.

And have they both got very distinguishable personalities now?

Oh, without a doubt. Jasira, the one just wandering off there, she's very much like her mum, Luna.

A bit more mischievous, a bit more adventurous.

You say "adventurous". She's kind of prowling around on her own now

while her half-sister is definitely more interested

in the toys.

Mum's having a little sniff there as well.

I think the names reflect their character as well because Malaika means "angel".

She's a bit more angelic than Jasira.

And Jasira means "courageous".

Bob, obviously, we've made all of these play things here.

Would they find natural play things in the wild?

They would come across things, especially the youngsters would play with.

You know, everyday things...

elephant dung, rhino dung they would play with.

I suppose tortoises to a certain extent if they ever came across them.

It is amazing how inquisitive they are and how kind of cat-like, as in domestic cat-like.

Jasira now is not quite sure what to make of the hanging rope.

If you were to sit here for hours and hours, you would see so many things that your own cat would do.

Obviously, it's instilled in them to play.

Although is that playing, or is that a sort of "I'm not quite sure what this is"?

Not quite sure. Never seen anything like that before, so she's being a little bit cautious.

And you see how the tail... Oh, look, there she goes. She's going to go up to the top, is she?

She's having a look from the top. Bit safer there.

So here comes dad now.

He wants to come and see what we're doing.

He's more concerned with the Land Rover than toys. That's for the kids.

And is he just going to circle us and check that we aren't a threat, or does he already know that?

He sees vehicles every day. He's just most probably more interested where we've been walking around.

It's a little bit of scent enrichment just by us walking around.

So he'll just be investigating things like that, going off and checking his territory.

Found a bit of poo to roll in.

Having a little roll over there.

And mum's not too concerned about them being off on their own and getting into trouble?

She keeps an eye on them.

But she's a very good mum.

Jasira playing with mum.

Stealing it from her, saying, "I want it!"

She's trying to drag it off and kill it.

That's interesting with the back foot on there.

If that was a bit of prey or whatever, she would be disembowelling it with her back leg.

So they are kind of replicating what they would do if they actually had prey out in the wild.

Well, Bob, thank you very much.

Let's hope, anyway, that this lasts longer than the seven days that the last one lasted for.

Recently, I went up to Pets Corner to meet head of section Darren Beasley's newest arrivals.

-What's it?

-It's my brand new babies, Kate.

Shall I move the newspaper? You're dying to see, aren't you?

I am. Oh! Goodness me!

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

In fact, these two giant African pouched rats are still just juveniles.

As they mature, they can grow to be over two feet long.

They're far too big to be kept in a hamster cage, so Darren has given them their own enclosure.

I'm in the rat house of Pets Corner with head of section Darren Beasley

and the two very handsome, although not terribly friendly at the moment, pouched rats.

This is the first time I've seen them in here,

cos the first time I met them, you'd only really just got them and they were living in your office.

How have they done with moving to a much bigger space in here?

Obviously, it's better for them. They've got more enrichment stuff now.

They've got more logs to climb and chew and generally please themselves.

Slightly more difficult for me, though, because I don't have so much control over them.

I physically have come in with them and get into the rat tank, as it were,

which is not a bad thing, but you've got to remember this is their home.

If ever you're working with an animal, they need space to get away.

They may not be very approachable at the moment, but Darren has high hopes for these giant rats.

He's planning to train them.

Now, tell me about why you're bothering to train them.

These are very, very intelligent creatures and the more we can fill and enrich their brain, the better.

But also, I do know that these animals

are trained in Africa, their country of origin,

and they're trained cos they've got such an intelligence

and a great sense of smell, to find land mines.

It's an incredible, incredible thing.

It's using its full ability.

He's using every gram of his sense of smell,

as he would to find all his food and danger in the wild and we want to bring him out of this environment.

Can you imagine if I can walk him around Pets Corner - I've got a little halter.

If I can walk him around Pets Corner and let him sniff out all the wonderful things.

-It would be fantastic.

-It's great for them and, hopefully, great for us as well.

How do you begin training an animal like a giant pouched rat?

Nearly every single animal learns by association or a connection of things.

What I want to do is, by using this - I put a little bit of orange scent on here...

-Can you see that?

-Yes.

-That's nice and smelly.

He'll come and smell that and I'm going to make a silly little noise, like a click noise.

The idea is that, every time he smells this orange scent,

he knows there'll be a food reward or something nice for him at the end,

and eventually he should get confident enough to follow me and my target anywhere we go.

If I put it over here, you should see he'll come and sniff it. There we go.

Actually grabbed it. Look at that.

DARREN "CLICKS"

Come this way with it.

DARREN "CLICKS"

And you see his whiskers going as well. Really sensitive whiskers.

His ears are going. He's all over the place there.

So all his senses, as you say, are absolutely on full alert.

Working doubly overtime. They are very, very aware of their surroundings.

They've got to look after themselves in the wild. They need those key senses - hearing and sense of smell -

to be on tip-top form. This is encouraging that, not letting it lie dormant. He'll not be a big fat rat

laying in a cage watching the world go by. He'll be a fighting fit and very aware rat.

Eventually, I should be able to hide objects around Pets Corner

as little mini rat challenges, put a bit of orange scent on them and they should find them.

They'll go and find them and get some enjoyment out of that.

At first it'll be, "Hey, we're getting food," but then it will be just, "Let's go and explore."

-It'll be rat hide-and-seek.

-Exactly.

Dog chases a ball or a stick.

We'll have rats chasing little smelly orange foam balls, I hope.

Well, Darren, very, very good luck with them.

I look forward to coming back to Pets Corner one day and seeing hunting rats out and about.

-They are magnificent animals and I hope the training goes well.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Darren.

Back at the marmoset enclosure, Jo Hawthorn is setting them a dinner-time challenge.

In their natural rain-forest habitat in Brazil, these highly intelligent

little monkeys have to use all their senses to survive.

Jo has already encouraged the marmosets to use their eyesight to find food.

Now, to encourage them to use their sense of smell,

she's hidden a special protein jelly inside an upturned coconut.

Neither Mike, Michelle nor baby Mandu has ever seen an upside-down

coconut before, so at first they're naturally wary of it.

They're very inquisitive but very cagey, so anything new...

It's a bit like when they come out of the morning in their natural habitat and they see something

that's not quite right, that's out of place.

It's a good thing to be very kind of cagey about something out of the ordinary.

Each marmoset has their own personality suited to their role within the family.

Dad is always very level-headed.

He's always the one that will come at first, who will pave the way.

So he'll think, "Oh, actually, that's OK."

I wouldn't say he's really nosy, but he'll sensibly go out and have a look

and the others follow from that. So second to that you'll get Mandu come straight out after her dad.

"Well, if he can do it, I'm going to do it." Mum has always been the very fearful one.

She's kind of, "Well, you know, I'm not sure."

She always sits back, always has done.

After the marmosets have had their protein, it's time for dessert.

Having encouraged them to use their eyesight and sense of smell,

Jo now wants to stimulate their sense of touch.

Basically, we've got a tray here of chippings

and I'm going to bury and half scatter this fruit

in amongst the chippings, and we've got this grid

which we're going to place over the top

so they have to feel through and work for their dinner.

I'm going to put this in here now.

We'll turn it over a bit, make it a bit more difficult.

We've got some nice blueberries here.

Greens are very important, so we've got some green beans there,

some apple, mango, and we're going to put this grid over the top here.

Here we are, guys.

What's this?

Come on, then, guys, you've got to work for your dinner today.

You've got to imagine, if you've got big bits of fruit and they have to go

and find the fruit and have to get it in an awkward position,

this makes it much more realistic for them.

And it gets harder, the less fruit.

It's getting like a needle in a haystack now.

They have very big brains for any kind of primate.

You think how small they are.

They have a larger brain capacity than most other primates.

So, although they're very small, it does make them extremely intelligent.

Some of them, I'd say, are as intelligent as us. He's really working to get a piece out here now.

So they'll keep going. It's like you and me.

If we really want something to eat at the bottom of the freezer and we have to look for it, then we'll do it.

I think these guys are kind of pretty much the same.

The marmosets seem to be enjoying the hunt for the tasty fruit.

Jo is delighted to see them showing some of the natural behaviour they would use to survive in the wild.

It's good to know that although we have them in this environment,

where there are people around - they know me -

they've still got some of that kind of fearful element,

so they're always very careful still, which is nice to know.

They're in a free-ranging enclosure

amongst all these hundreds of visitors that we get in every day

and it's nice to know that they'll still hold back and they'll still

kind of take the time to suss something out.

So that's really good. They're so clever.

Every day they do something, I think, "Cor, how did you know to do that?!"

So they might be very small but they're very clever.

We're up at the tapir enclosure with dad Jethro and mum Jessie.

Sadly, we've come to the end of this current series of Animal Park,

-but we've had some amazing memories.

-We really have.

There were the wolf cubs born and of course the lion cubs,

which took everyone by surprise cos nobody was expecting that.

I know. And of course it was the 40th anniversary here,

and we even found out that these guys, the tapirs, are Lord Bath's favourite, and I can see why.

I can, too. You are a big, soppy date, aren't you, Jethro? Sadly, that's all we've got time for today.

We've really enjoyed being here.

-Thank you so much for watching and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Bye.

-Bye-bye.

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