Episode 5 Animal Park

-Hello and welcome to Animal Park. I'm Kate Humble.

-And I'm Ben Fogle.

And we've just come out of the great doors of Longleat House.

Longleat first opened to the public in 1949, one of the very first stately homes to do so, and now

a quarter of a million visitors take the house tour every year.

We'll be bringing you stories from the entire estate,

and of course the safari park. Here's what's coming up today.

We'll be catching up with the safari park's most decorated new arrival -

a baby named Gomez.

There's an army trying to eat Longleat's treasures.

We'll be reporting on the latest battle in the war on bugs.

And up in Wolf Wood, everyone's getting ready for the next litter of cubs.

The pack are getting frisky, and the keepers have built a new nursery.

It looks very cosy.

But first, we're going up to the giraffery where it has been a bumpy year for new arrivals.

The season started when Jolly gave birth

to Longleat's one hundredth baby giraffe - a male named Century.

Then, over a month ago, Becky had Gertrude, also called Gertie for short.

And finally, just last week, Jemima had Gloria.

Today, I've come up to the giraffery with head of section Andy Hayton to get my first look at little Gloria.

Though it's a bit tricky to tell her from Gertrude

because despite the age difference they're both the same size.

Gertrude is a bit of a midget, to give her her due, but Gloria is a big giraffe.

She's enormous! How old is she?

She's about 2½ weeks. And she is nose-to-nose with dear old Gertie.

She really is. Her neck looks so thick you'd think that she was a male.

Oh, yeah, she's all there, and the second day she was born we went in to spray the navel and sex her

and check her over, and she came flying at us.

Me and Ryan went in there, yeah, hooves flying, growling, trying to savage us and kick us to bits.

Mind you, you said Gertie was quite a sassy little thing when she was born.

It's great, actually, because you start seeing things...

Instinctively anything that's tall and spotty is OK, anything dressed

in green and walks in on two legs is an immediate threat,

so it's just a defence mechanism.

Anything that isn't a giraffe gets it, basically.

And it's normally us that are the first ones to introduce ourselves, and we cop it.

Do you find that they take on characteristics of their mother?

For sure. Gertrude's quite cool, calm and collected, Century is, but this one, she's a real nutcase.

She's already run into a brick wall and a gate,

and fallen over and chucked herself around, so she's just an accident waiting to happen, she really is.

Look at her looking at the zebra, that's very funny.

Looking down. She's very imperious already.

But she looks so confident, and so part of the group,

or tower to give it the proper name.

I mean, she looks very much

a confident, happy giraffe, not the baby of the group at all.

No, we normally give them about three or four days of just keeping them up at the house.

The first day they stay in, we make sure that the calf's suckling and everything's fine, then we start

introducing them to the yard, and then out into the paddock.

As soon as we can get them running with the group, and normal,

just a normal routine, we do it.

So this is what they do, we get them doing it.

Just because they're two, three, four days old, it doesn't mean

they can't follow the group. They would do in the wild.

Presumably having other young in the group like Century and Gertie, she's got peers, immediate peers there.

Yeah, there's other people the same size as her, so she's got somebody to play around with.

You do see them playing around a little bit.

Look at her, she's wonderful.

It's lovely. When the sun's shining, and they're out at the far end

and all moving around nicely, it looks really, really impressive.

You've got the zebra in with them, and sometimes the whole group will run the length of the park,

which is a really good distance, and they get up to speed and you see them all running across here...

It's fantastic. As long you're not stood in front of them.

She's showing off for us beautifully.

Andy, thank you very much for introducing us,

and welcome, Gloria, you are a beautiful addition to your family.

It's been a busy year in Wolf Wood.

Last spring, Freda, the alpha female, gave birth to a bumper litter of seven cubs.

They emerged at about four weeks old from a den dug under one of the trees.

Needless to say, we were soon on the spot to follow their progress.

We had a feeling it was going to be a big litter, but not quite this big.

At that age, the cubs' diet is a mixture of their mother's milk

and some regurgitated meat from other members of the pack.

But one bold cub was keen to start eating with the grown-ups.

-Look, they got a bit.

-Yes, look at that.

Will it know what to do? Could it eat that?

He will eat this, but how beneficial that is at the moment, I don't know.

The pack was clearly as happy as the keepers to have some youngsters running around.

It's amazing to see the pack dynamics change when there's cubs about.

It's a very tight-knit family anyway, even though you obviously

have your quarrels and that, but as soon as there's pups, that all seems to change.

WOLVES HOWLING

But now things are changing again because the cubs are almost fully grown.

As they become adults, there's a danger that the hierarchy of the pack could be thrown into confusion.

Bob Trollope has been observing the group dynamics.

Last year's pups are now getting to that age where they will be integrating into the bigger pack,

and they would obviously have to find their place, their ranking.

So you get a little bit of turmoil there.

In a well-adjusted wolf pack, there should be a strict hierarchy,

with the alpha couple at the top - that's Freda and a male called Two Tips -

and then a series of ranks beneath them.

There's always a single animal at the very bottom - the omega wolf.

The gap between alpha and omega, you have a rank where

it fluctuates.

So obviously - it's like in a workplace, you know, there's room for promotion,

and some people would do anything to get promoted - it happens in the wild as well.

The social order is most clear to see when there's a meal that must be shared.

You normally find that the alpha members -

Freda and Two Tips, would normally be the first ones in on the food.

As you can see, they're very nervous of the meat at the moment

because the one thing that they haven't done is killed it.

So they're not sure themselves if it's going to get up and run at them, or see them off.

So they're all waiting around until they're sure that it's dead.

Lesser ranking ones will come in

at a time when it's appropriate for them to get in there.

You sometimes find that they all frenzy feed,

but these are a well-fed pack.

As the youngsters begin to find their places in the hierarchy,

Bob's trying to pick out the future leaders of the pack.

The pups are very, very hard to tell apart because they're all very similar looking.

But you do get one or two that are very up front...

..which would be in future maybe an alpha male or an alpha female.

And then you have the other end of the scale where one or two

are a little bit more frightened about coming up to the vehicles, coming up to the food straight away,

because, as you can see, half of them aren't here. They're still dilly-dallying around the section.

But that's to be expected.

We're very, very pleased at how it has gone on.

We have got a very nice sized pack at the moment.

But the pack could soon become larger still because Freda's now thought to be pregnant again.

And this year the keepers have been working on a new project that will not only keep the cubs

as safe as possible, but will also give us the opportunity to see them actually being born.

We'll be back later to investigate.

Raising a family seems to be a lot more straightforward

for Longleat's pair of South American tapirs Jethro and Jess.

They have just one baby at a time almost every year, regular as clockwork.

Little Gomez is number five.

I'm out in the tapir paddock with senior warden Bev Evans

and the tapirs, including a very large looking Gomez.

-He was so much smaller when I last saw him.

-Yes, he's shot up.

-Can we go and see him?

-Yes.

We've got some food here for mum and dad, so that they don't mind us coming and saying hello to everyone.

-He's still got his stripes.

-Yes, quite strikingly, he's still got his spots and stripes.

And how is he with people?

-He's letting us come quite close to him.

-Yes, he's a little bit shy.

He's actually one of our more nervous babies. But no, he's fine.

He's starting to eat a few more solids, so maybe he'll come over.

And how long will these amazing stripes stay on him for?

Probably round about six months.

OK, and then he will look exactly like mum and dad?

Exactly like Dad, but probably just a third of the size, but he'll get really big really quickly.

And obviously he's had only cold weather until now,

-but we've got the sun out - is he enjoying it?

-Yes, definitely.

Yes, getting very active in fact.

And of course, Bev, he's got the whole little pond over there.

Mum and dad go in there when it's hot. Has he been in yet?

No, he hasn't yet, but I'm thinking maybe he's just too small.

Jess will encourage him in when she's happy with his size,

but at the moment she's not taking him in the pond at all.

And in terms of eating, I can't tell if he's actually eating some of the fruit we've put down. He is?

He'll go for the banana, which is a lot softer.

So he's going for the softer fruit rather than necessarily what he enjoys more.

I think banana is a favourite of tapirs anyway, but as it's soft, yes, he's definitely aiming for that.

-And how have mum and dad been here?

-Absolutely brilliant, actually.

We've already gone through mating already, so they're getting straight back into the swing of things.

And, yeah, the family's getting on really well.

I'm amazed that they can have gone through a mating

-this soon when he is still so young and they're still looking after him.

-Yes, she comes into season quickly.

-And that's typical behaviour out in the wild as well.

-Yes, definitely.

-They're always going to be pregnant out in the wild.

-Really?

-Just continual.

-And does that mean, then, that more baby tapirs could potentially be born here?

-Yes, more than likely.

13 months' time, hopefully we'll have another baby, yes.

13 months, is that the gestation period for a tapir?

And I know that in the wild the babies do tend to hide

-for the first few months to kind of protect them from predators. Is he showing any of that behaviour?

-Yes.

Mum will go and lay him up somewhere, and carry on doing her normal thing,

-and he'll be absolutely fine for a couple of hours even.

-Really?

Just hiding. And in here, does that mean behind a tree, in a bush?

Unfortunately in here it means right the other side by the fence, and getting lost.

So we've had a few problems in him getting the wrong side of fences and things like that, but he's generally

getting the idea of it now, but, yes, he's quite small so we lose him quite a few times throughout the day.

I'm sure. Well, Bev, thank you very much for letting me come in again,

and I'm so glad that he's doing as well as he is.

For more than four centuries, Lord Bath's family has been filling Longleat House with treasures,

so now the 114 official rooms are furnished with valuable antiques

while the walls are hung with irreplaceable paintings.

There are seven separate libraries that contain 44,000 books and manuscripts,

almost all of them rare with some bordering on priceless.

In its long history, Longleat House has survived civil war, fire, and the attention of thieves.

But now a hidden enemy threatens the very existence of the place.

Inside the wood, the fabric and the paper lurk armies of insects -

woodworm, clothes moths, and now the latest invader, Ptinus tectus -

the Australian spider beetle.

The curator of Longleat's historic collections is Kate Harris.

It's up to her to stop them from turning all this history into dust.

We're fighting, not just the battle at Longleat,

but a war or several campaigns

against small creatures that destroy important things,

mostly a beetle called Ptinus tectus,

Australian spider beetle, and also, of course, wood worm,

which affects all historic furniture.

We've used a fumigation of methyl bromide in the past, years ago,

for a whole library, and now we're using CO2 fumigation

on objects that are in the south-west corner of the house,

where we've seen a lot of evidence of a lot of Ptinus tectus about for some time,

and this is really another battle, another skirmish with them.

We don't think we'll win, but we're getting closer all the time.

Using CO2, that's carbon dioxide, to kill insect infestations

is quite a new technique, and it's never been done at Longleat before.

First, the objects that need to be done are collected into neat piles,

so that they can be sealed into giant airtight bubbles,

made from a special packaging material.

Ken Windess, who is now the house conservator,

has prepared several of these infested piles.

The next step now is to actually seal the bubbles.

And what they actually do is they create a bubble, literally,

with this sort of material,

so they need to seal the base, go over,

so it is literally like a tent.

What happens then is they literally suck out all the oxygen,

or as much air as they possibly can, out of the bubble,

and then replace it with CO2,

and then, of course, anything that normally breathes oxygen would die.

With everything in place, it's time to hand over to the professionals.

They're going to start with the piles of infested books and antiques

that have been assembled in the old Victorian kitchen.

As technical director of the pest control company,

Colin Smith is only too aware of the first rule of combat -

know your enemy.

This is a typical example.

This is wool, and what's very interesting about this

is that this is the sort of damage the insects will cause,

and this is the type of material they love to go for,

because this is a protein.

They are behind the scenes in the dark,

in storerooms that people don't know that they're there at all,

slowly chomping away, and when you realise there's a problem,

then that's what you get, you get holes in everything.

But now the fumigators swing into action,

deploying their secret weapon - specially designed tents.

We now have to form a gas-tight structure,

and that is very difficult to do indeed.

This material is very similar to the material that you'd have at home,

that you'd keep your coffee in.

So when you go to the supermarket,

you buy your aluminium pack of coffee,

it's almost the same material,

except here, of course, we're making a huge structure.

The infested piles have been placed on top of sheets of the packaging material,

so the tents can be made gas-tight around the bottom edge,

using a heat-sealing machine.

And this is where the carbon dioxide is introduced,

and it takes about 10 minutes to fill a bubble up like this.

Carbon dioxide is the gas we all breathe out.

It's harmless in small amounts, but inside the bubble tents,

it will be at a concentration of 60%,

and that's lethal not only to insects, but also to people.

The only risk, really,

is if there was to be an accidental puncturing of the bubble,

or if somebody was silly enough to put their head inside it,

then that would be very serious,

that person would be affected very quickly indeed.

So safety procedures must be observed when the bubble tents are being filled with CO2.

The room is cleared,

and the fumigators must wear breathing apparatus.

We'll be back later, when it's time for the bubbles to be opened.

When the wolf cubs were born last year,

we didn't see them until they were about four weeks old,

and ready to emerge from their den under the roots of a tree.

This year, there's a plan to change all that.

I'm with head of section Brian Kent and keeper Bob Trollope

in a place that we don't come into very often,

because this is the wolf house.

-They have access to this house all the time...?

-Yeah, all day.

But if we come in, they leave?

If you poke your head through the walls, they just scatter and go off.

Right, OK. So they would use this, what, when the weather's bad?

When do they tend to use it?

A windbreak. They've obviously got drinkers in here,

and some lovely bedding.

Yeah, they will come in and out throughout the day.

Do they tend to sleep in here, do you know, or again, does it sort of...?

Yeah, because you notice...

In the straw, you find little nests, where they've made at night-time.

So you know they have been in there,

and they do leave other little messages.

That you have to clear up.

Absolutely. Now, quite a different approach this year,

we're coming up to breeding season, and this building has gone up.

-Our little box.

-Tell me about this.

Well, what it is is hoping to get the alpha female to come and have her pups in the box.

Right, because in previous years,

they have always built dens under the trees out in the reserve.

Yes, they have. There's a natural way outside, admittedly,

but we need her to come in here, and have them in here,

so we can keep a check on them better than outside,

because once they're under the tree,

there's no way of knowing how the pups are getting on, we just can't.

We can't go near it, because obviously other wolves are around,

you can't go down and look under the tree,

unless you've got a long camera or something,

but this is a better way, hopefully,

that she will come in here, have them in here,

and we can keep an eye on her and the pups.

Can I have a little peek in there?

It looks very cosy indeed. It looks lovely.

And of course, we are going to be taking massive advantage of this.

Bob, stay there a second. Brian, come with me.

I'm going to use Bob as my wolf double.

What we've done is basically rigged up a little camera,

which is here,

and it's got infra-red lights, so that when the light levels drop,

those infra-red lights will kick on,

and it will still be able to get pictures inside here.

So what we are hoping, we're all hoping is that we will get footage

which will be an absolute first for us on Animal Park,

of wolf cubs actually being born,

but without disturbing them, or the adults in any way, shape or form.

And what we'll be able to do...

Bob, can you go into the den, please?

And we'll just show you how this works. In he goes.

Now you see that flicker, and it went to black and white,

that's actually going to infra-red,

because Bob blocked off the light there.

You look very comfortable. Is it comfortable in there?

-I think I might stay here!

-Yeah, it looks really warm.

It's gone back to colour now, because there's enough daylight.

So for you, Brian, will this be a bit of a first?

Will this be really interesting?

This is going to be really interesting,

because obviously we've never seen pups close up,

so it's going to be great to be able to view them.

-It's going to be...

-Apart from the one in there at the moment!

Yes. Do you want to come out now, Bob? Crawl out.

So Freda is still alpha female, as far as you know,

she's going to be the one that's breeding.

And do you have a rough idea...?

I mean, are there signs that males are looking interested?

Are there are definite signs that the breeding season is on its way?

-They've been very persistent with...

-With Freda.

-With Freda.

They're chasing her around, are they?

We haven't actually seen them do the business,

but it's pretty certain that they have.

She's done everything that she should do.

Obviously, we've got other females in here that do come into season,

-and she's been...

-She's been fighting them off.

She's been intimidating them,

and stopping them from coming into season, and stopping suitors.

Well, let's hope that she chooses this beautiful new den

as the place to give birth to her cubs,

and keep us posted, won't you, on what happens,

and we will be able to bring you, hopefully, fingers crossed,

first ever Animal Park footage of wolf cubs being born.

Up in Longleat House,

it's been four weeks since the latest battle began

against the invading army of insects that are threatening to devour

some of the most precious art, antiques and books.

The worst affected items were sealed in purpose-built, gas-proof bubble tents,

which have been filled with lethal concentrations of carbon dioxide.

For safety's sake, the rooms where the tents were set up have also been sealed for 28 days.

But now, the fumigators have returned, because it's time to open the bubbles.

CO2 is not normally toxic,

but it's being used in a concentration high enough to kill,

so the technicians must wear breathing apparatus.

There's no guarantee that the process has done the job.

And, as we're not allowed in while they're working,

we just have to wait until the fumigators have finished.

When everything was cleaned up,

service manager Mike Davies reported back.

It was brilliant. Yeah, everything's gone. Absolutely fine.

All the insects are dead, and we've taken the covers off,

and they are ready now for the house people to come in and empty the bubbles for us.

It's always great when we've finished,

and we can get on to the next one.

This was the first time that the new CO2 technique was used here,

so it's a relief that it has worked.

But this isn't the end of the problem,

as the curator of Longleat historic collections, Kate Harris, knows only too well.

Of course, it's only one step in an ongoing process.

It's not an instant, total cure for all time,

so we have to make sure that everything goes back into a clean environment

that's been treated with insecticides,

and that we keep up the housekeeping for the future.

So they've won this battle with the bugs, but the war continues.

Next winter, it'll be the old library's turn again,

to make a start on cleaning and vacuuming,

and our usual programme of work.

If there should be anything going on, that's where we'll spot it.

We've come down to Pets' Corner with Alexa Fairburn and two of...

I just don't know how anyone cannot like rats, Alexa,

they are so adorable.

-These are new ones, and very small.

-They are only about eight weeks.

It's a really good age to get them from.

You can really start handling them, and get to bond with them.

-They make brilliant pets.

-Do they?

Friendly, really intelligent,

and you can train them to do things, as well.

What sort of things can you train them to do?

They can pick things up, bring them back to you.

Obviously not the newspaper!

And what about feeding, and that sort of thing?

-Do they need a complicated diet?

-Not really, no.

You can buy commercial pet food, same as hamsters and rabbits.

They're garbage bins, they eat anything.

-Really?

-Yep.

-Is there anything that you should avoid them eating?

A lot of green foods can cause them to get a bit of an upset stomach.

-Lettuce leaves?

-Yeah, too much moisture.

-You'd think those would be good for them.

-Of course, yeah.

You can tell if a rat's healthy,

their teeth should be orange rather than white.

Show us your pegs!

A lot of rodents have...

I think all rodents have teeth that continually grow,

is that the same with them?

It is, yeah. They all need gnawing materials - bits of wood.

-Very wriggly.

-There's no way...

-I'll have a little...

-You see if you can...

No, "I'm not going to Ben, no way!"

I'll definitely leave that one with you, Kate.

Let me have a... Has it got a name yet?

This one's Squeak, and the one up Kate's sleeve is Bubble.

-I like what you've done there.

-Bubble's going to stay with me.

And are they happy alone?

-They like company.

-So it's best to get two, perhaps...

-Yes.

-..if you were going to have one.

-Yeah.

-You are quite sweet, actually.

Oh, look, you see, Ben.

You don't need a dog at all,

you can just stick with rats, they're much more fun.

Call me old-fashioned, Kate...

Alexa, thank you very much. Sadly, we're out of time,

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

With cubs on the way, there are dramatic developments in Wolf Wood.

I'll be getting friendly with one of the biggest creepy crawlies I've ever seen.

-I'm supposed to hold this, aren't I?

-You are.

And when we try to help Alema with her spring makeover,

I'll discover why Bactrian camels are famous for their bad manners.

So don't miss the next Animal Park.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2007

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