Episode 1 Animal Park

Hello, and welcome to a brand-new series of Animal Park.

-I'm Kate Humble.

-And I'm Ben Fogle.

It's a momentous year here at Longleat, as the safari park is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

We'll be getting close up, not just to the giraffes but to the 40 other species of animal who live here.

Telling stories from all parts of the estate both on land and on water.

And of course we'll be meeting Lord Bath

and exploring his magnificent house and its extraordinary contents.

Here's what's coming up on today's programme.

A life and death struggle when things go very wrong for Imogen the pregnant giraffe.

There's monkey mischief afoot after we hide their breakfast.

And there are new babies in the lions' den.

We'll be there to capture rare footage of ther latest cubs

as they're actually being born.

First, we're going up to the giraffe house where, recently, there were some dramatic events.

When babies arrive, it's not always good news

because sometimes the miracle of birth can go horribly wrong.

Imogen's ten-years-old, everyone was pleased for her

because, after several years of trying, she finally managed to carry a baby to term.

With giraffes, that's 15 months.

When it looked like her time had come, one of the first there was keeper Bev Evans.

It was really exciting when we came in

and she was starting to go into labour,

but obviously with that came the complications.

From really exciting to really worrying in quite a short space of time, actually.

When Imogen's labour went on for over a day,

it was clear to Andy Hayton, the keeper in charge of the giraffes, that something was wrong.

Sunday morning, a vet came out, looked at her

and the decision was taken - we would probably have to pull the calf.

The calf was badly presented. We thought possibly it could have been a breach birth,

or the head was tilted back so she just couldn't push it out.

Pulling the calf out by hand would be the only way to help,

but to do that, Imogen would have to be sedated with an anaesthetic.

And that's always a risky business, as vet Duncan Williams knows.

Anaesthetic-wise, I think giraffes are the most dangerous.

The literature of reports are, basically,

one in three anaesthetics with giraffes ended in fatalities.

But if they didn't do something, Imogen and the baby would certainly die.

Nevertheless, deputy head warden Ian Turner didn't like the odds.

The last thing you want to do is knock out a giraffe.

Even worse is knock out a giraffe that's got a baby inside.

So it was a last resort. We hadn't got any choice in the matter.

We'd waited until the last minute and it was just fingers crossed from then on.

A whole team of vets and staff has been urgently summoned to help.

Nothing like this has ever been done here before, and Ian is concerned to record every detail,

so he and his keepers are going to film whatever happens.

The anaesthetic is administered using a syringe on the end of a pole.

Andy's dreading what will happen next.

When they go, sometimes what they'll do is force themselves into a corner and try to prop themselves up.

What can happen is they'll flip themselves straight back over

where they just can't fight any more and are out on their feet, almost, and just collapse.

The big worry for us is if she goes over straight backwards, she could break her spine.

Um...

The boxes are all lined out with large bales of hay to soften it as much as we can do.

The straw on the floor has also been piled up to cushion the impact.

The next minutes will be critical,

and we'll be back very soon to find out if Imogen and her baby survive.

Longleat is home to a troop of over 80 rhesus macaque monkeys.

The species is found all across Asia, from the tropics right up to the chilly foothills of the Himalayas.

So they're quite happy to live outside in Wiltshire all year round,

just as long as they've got something to keep them occupied and plenty to eat.

I'm up at Monkey Jungle with keeper Kevin Knibbs,

and we're trying a bit of an experiment this morning, Kev?

Yes. We've come here this morning with the dry food.

I was looking at this, because don't you usually feed them fruit and vegetables and things?

Yep, they get the fruit and veg in the afternoons. We feed this in the mornings.

-We've got primate pellets here.

-OK.

It's pretty much like Weetabix, muesli, that we have in the mornings.

-It gets them going for the rest of the day.

-OK, so what's the experiment?

We've noticed a lot of birds around this time of year.

They tend to steal all the monkeys' food, so we're feeding them twice as much food as what we need to.

This winter has been cold.

We've moved the buffalo out of the jungle, where they needed a bit more shelter.

-We've got a spare shelter here now.

-This is where the buffalo hang out when they want shelter?

We've put loads of straw in here. Wewant to put the food in the straw and the bedding,

-kick fresh straw over the top and let the monkeys help themselves.

-So they can forage for it?

-Absolutely.

-Brilliant idea. So shall I just put handfuls out?

-Yeah, throw it anywhere you want.

-Throw it around in the straw.

-Yes, that's it.

-We'll just come over afterwards and kick fresh straw over the top so it's hidden.

-OK.

So we can literally... I suppose hiding it quite well

-is better for the monkeys, makes them work harder for it.

-Exactly.

It's very good enrichment for them and it's like a natural behaviour.

In the wild they'd forage through leaf mould and leaf litter, for bugs

and bits of fruit and veg. This is just recreating that, really.

Lucky monkeys.

Right. We're nearly done here.

We'll get out of the way. Shall we kick that over there like that?

Yep.

Join us later to see if the monkeys like their new experiment.

Last year, new blood arrived at Longleat -

Kabir the Barbary lion.

He was brought from Port Lympne animal park in Kent

to try to establish a new pride.

The hope was that this would, in time, a real family with cubs to raise.

Kabir's intended mates were a couple of young sisters - Luna

and Yendi. They settled down straightaway

and it seemed to be a match made in heaven.

In fact encouraging behaviour was soon spotted

but would it lead to anything?

We just had to wait and see.

Now keeper Brian Kent has some wonderful news.

We've got a lion cub born

so that's really exciting cos it's Kabir's.

There's a new lion here and he's been here, what, seven months?

So he's produced some goods.

The new cub is a little girl.

She's Yendi's first baby

but that's a worry because sometimes new lion mothers don't know how to look after their young.

But, so far, Yendi's been doing all the right things.

Basically we've noticed her caring for her and licking her,

making sure she's clean.

The cub's now seven weeks old so she's still on milk

and also starting to eat food, as well,

so she's doing well.

And, hopefully, her sister - who's on the other side -

is due as well for some cubs.

I thought she was going to have them last week

but no such luck.

So it's just a matter of waiting at the moment.

While her sister Yendi had one cub,

Luna is looking large.

They think she may be carrying more.

Lions normally have between two and four at a time.

But lions are secretive and only have their cubs

when they're alone - usually the middle of the night.

It's a rare event that's almost never been seen. Certainly no-one here has ever been lucky enough.

So we've called in Andy Milk. He's a specialist cameraman.

He's had a lot of experience finding ways to film the unfilmable.

We're hoping he'll help us to witness the miracle of birth for the very first time.

I've just fitted the brackets up and got all that ready.

I'm just now doing the final connection

and, hopefully, it's in the right place

and we're not going to be obscured by the wire on the cage.

What I've done is installed everything outside

and there's nothing in the cage at all so the lion can't get to it,

can't touch anything and it's all quite safe.

The spy camera works like a CCTV system

so it won't disturb Luna at all.

And it can get pictures in complete darkness

by using infra-red lamps.

Infra-red is just basically light of a different wavelength to what the human eye can respond to.

Um, I don't think a lion will see it

although they're not actually that concerned about light at all so it wouldn't matter.

But if we were to come in at night,

the picture on here would be fine but we wouldn't be able to see anything in the cage itself.

The system can record continuously for up to ten hours.

So, as night approaches, it's turned on.

We'll be back later to find out

if our spy camera really can capture these precious moments -

the very first minutes of life.

Back in the giraffe house,

the process of giving birth seems more like a nightmare.

Vet Duncan Williams has just given Imogen an injection of anaesthetic.

The trouble is, with giraffes, the anaesthetic itself can be the most dangerous thing.

I think the big problem is, you know, a massive animal,

when they fall down, you've got the risk of regurgitation of stomach contents -

it can go up the oesophagus and get swallowed into the lungs.

So, as quickly as possible, an air tube needs to be inserted

all the way down that long throat, to the top of the lungs.

That's the most important thing to do.

That didn't quite go according to plan.

Just as we were getting the tube down, she regurgitated, but luckily the tube was just down in time.

One of the four vets on the team is an anaesthetist

from Bristol University's veterinary school - Pamela Murison.

She's responsible for the air tube and life support.

They're so big!

I'm used to anaesthetising large animals,

but they're very long with long legs, long necks,

and you know in the back of your mind all the time that it is such a risky procedure.

With Imogen anaesthetised, Duncan can start his examination.

He needs to find out what state the calf is in, and how it's lying, just by feel.

The ropes are essential for everyone's safety, and it takes a lot of hands to hold them secure.

Ian's called in staff from all over the safari park to help.

There's 30 odd people around, so if the giraffe kicks,

somebody's going to end up seriously injured or even worse.

If they kicked a lion, for instance, it would be dead.

I've actually been trampled on by a giraffe and it's not really pleasant.

They've got really big hooves.

You've got that big swing from a distance,

and they don't know they're doing it.

If you imagine a leg going like that back and you're just in the wrong place, it sends you flying.

Not recommended.

Duncan's internal examination has revealed some sad news.

The calf inside is already dead.

It may have been dead for some time.

Keeper Bev Evans had been looking forward to having a new baby in the giraffe house.

It was quite sad to lose the calf.

The vets and everybody couldn't do anything about that.

We couldn't have done anything, so there's no point worrying too much about that

but, yeah, it's such a shame that we lost him. It was a little boy.

Now all their efforts are concentrated just on trying to save Imogen.

They have to get the dead calf out

but there's been a complication.

Unfortunately, the drug that we gave her

to relax the uterus

has made her body think that she's stopped being in labour,

so she's actually closing her cervix down.

So a cervix that's capable of holding in a baby giraffe

is obviously quite a strong muscle, so that's closed down.

What we're trying to do is pull something this big

out of something that big, which isn't happening.

You can see the amount of effort that the guys are putting in trying to pull the calf.

There was no way that it was going to come,

because everything had closed down again.

We did quite a major pull on it and it just wasn't shifting, unfortunately.

Duncan and the team must come up with a new plan, and fast,

because now Imogen's life is balanced on a knife-edge.

We'll return to the giraffe house very soon.

I'm back in Monkey Jungle with keeper Kevin Knibbs.

Earlier we spread food out, hidden in the straw in that shelter.

The monkeys are just starting to come around, Kev.

They've obviously...

Do you think they knew what we were up to?

Do they smell it? How do you think they know that there's food around?

They're very curious as a species,

so anything we do, they're there straightaway.

As soon as they find food they'll make little noises to each other,

communicating that they've found some food.

So all the rest of the troupe? There are monkeys scattered around in the dead wood up there,

and they are beginning to head over this way.

They pick up these signals.

"Oi, there's food over here!"

Yes. This is great.

This is perfect natural behaviour.

This big guy at the front is Timmy, our dominant male.

-He's there straightaway.

-Right.

As he would be in the wild.

Obviously that food, we buried it quite well, and the little maize pellets are tiny.

How are they finding it? Are they using smell or sight or everything?

Mostly, it's sight. They'll dig through it with their hands.

If they see something they can eat, they'll put it into their mouth,

bite it. If they can eat it, great, if they can't they'll throw it away.

They sniff things well. They've got a very good sense of smell.

They're just going to fill up their cheek pouches.

They get bigger cheeks on them, and off they go.

That's brilliant, that one, sliding down the pole!

They are just fantastic to watch, aren't they?

They've blown it. I was going to say I'm quite surprised how calm they all are.

-There's no fighting, presumably that's because there's enough to go round.

-Yeah, definitely.

They all know their role as well.

Occasionally you get a very brave little one coming in to try and steal some food,

and that's not acceptable in monkey society, and they get told very quickly it's not acceptable.

But it is amazing. If you just saw that scene,

it would be very difficult to tell which one is dominant.

We've got some very small ones in there,

and it seems to be they've got the society quite well worked out.

Exactly.

The males are the big dominant ones and the females come after that.

-Normally the females rule it. They're very clever.

-Are they?

They make sure nothing happens, and the males lay back and do their bit.

MONKEY SQUEAKS

When you get a squeak like that, is that a warning?

"Just be careful." Look at that.

Is this Timmy at the front?

This one's called Maggie, a female.

She's always on the lookout for people and likes to make faces at people. This is a threat.

So she's pulling a face at our cameraman?

Yeah, because we're looking at her - she's threatening us to stay away from the food.

Do you think, now, this might be something you repeat?

-Has this been a successful experiment?

-Yes. I'd like to do this every day, if we can.

Every morning we'll do this until they get bored. If they do, we'll think of something else.

Come up with another idea. Kev, thank you very, very much.

It's just a fantastic sight.

Monkeys everywhere!

With Imogen's baby not only dead but also hopelessly stuck,

there's only one way left to try to save her life,

despite the fact that, as senior keeper Andy Hayton knows, there's little chance of success.

We're gonna attempt a Caesarean, just to give her a go.

We can't just decide we're going to put her down and quit here.

We've got to... Like I say, even if it doesn't come out

the right decision or the right outcome that we want,

we've got to at least try it.

So we're going to attempt a Caesarean now and see how we go.

This will be the first Caesarean that's ever been performed on a giraffe at Longleat.

Duncan Williams is the vet in charge of the team.

'We do Caesareans in cattle all the time.

'The actual operation itself is very much similar to a cow.'

But it is different... She was lying down, cows are normally standing up.

'We don't normally have quite so many people helping.'

I've never done anything like that in a giraffe at all. No.

Imogen has now been under anaesthetic for over two hours.

For a giraffe, that's a dangerously long time.

It's up to Pam Murison, the veterinary anaesthetist, to monitor her condition.

'We monitored her blood-pressure, making sure

'that that was within normal range and not too high, not too low.

'Also trying to make sure she's adequately anaesthetised,

'so that she is not either very, very deeply anaesthetised,

'which is going to cause problems for her organs'

and reduce the amount of blood getting to them,

or very, very lightly anaesthetised

and liable to move or be aware of what's going on.

Meanwhile, the other three vets are desperately trying to get the dead calf out.

Even deputy head warden Ian Turner is losing hope.

I've never seen a Caesarean on a giraffe.

Literally, if the giraffe survived it would be a miracle.

Here it comes. Towards me.

Go on. It should come now. Pull.

We've just taken a baby giraffe out of her stomach,

which, as you know, is a 6ft-odd baby, so that's removed.

So the actual wound, the stitches, we're talking that sort of size stitching.

She's got two lots of internal stitching plus the external stitching.

You know, it's going to be touch-and-go whether she survives this operation

but to go through that time and all this...

She's been prodded around, poked,

stitches here and the rigmarole of what's gone on -

it's quite a traumatic time for her.

The stitches need to be made very strong, because giraffes

must always stand up, even when they've got such a massive wound.

The moment of truth will come when the job is finished and they try to revive Imogen.

We'll be back to see what happens later on.

I'm down in Pets Corner with keeper Bev Alan and two very sweet little guinea pigs.

They're young. How old are they?

-About nine weeks old now. Two females.

-OK.

This is Tia and that's Maria.

I like those names.

Do guinea pigs of this age take a lot of care?

They do. You've got to make sure that you feed them the correct diet,

lots of hay in their diet.

Also a dry mix as well, and lots of fruit we give ours as well.

They're obviously very popular pets with children.

Would you recommend them?

For younger children I recommend guinea pigs because they're fun.

Also long-haired, you must groom them often.

-Do you have to run a brush, a comb, through their hair?

-We do, yeah.

Haircuts as well now and then.

Wow. They are very sweet, aren't they?

-They are.

-How long will they live for?

-About four to five years, average.

-OK.

Bev, thank you. Don't go away, because here's what's still to come on today's programme.

'Ben and I take on a challenge to see if we can become Longleat guides

'in just one day!'

Yendi's got her new baby

but how will it go when Luna gives birth?

And we'll find out what happens to Imogen.

But, now, up in Longleat House,

kate and I are about to face a test that will try us to the limits.

Every year, a quarter of a million visitors enjoy a tour

of the magnificent state rooms

and it's up to the house guides to make sure they go away

both enlightened and enthralled.

If you worked in the court of Henry VIII

you didn't just acquire a few acres of land...

It's a challenging job

but then we like a challenge.

Kate and I have come up into the great house here at Longleat

with guide Sarah Bartlett and head guide Clare Mound,

to learn how to become a guide in just one day.

-Claire, how long have you been a guide at Longleat?

-I've been here for 12 years.

-OK. We are going to try and absorb 12 years' worth of information in just a day.

-Possibly.

OK. We're gonna start in this room. Is that right? You and I.

You and I are going to start here,

and Ben and Sarah are going to go next door and try and absorb that room.

OK. We'll get going.

If somebody wants to be a guide at Longleat, what's the process?

You start with an interview, we see if we like each other

and then you start training with other guides

and you gradually absorb information

from lots of reference books and lots of hands-on.

So, how many rooms are open to the public?

How many rooms do you have to get to know intimately?

You get to know, we usually say, about a third of the house,

-sort of 16, 17 rooms.

-Wow.

-That will keep you going.

Looking at this room, they're just so packed full of things.

Presumably, the public can ask you about anything.

They can ask you about anything, but you will start

by telling them that this is the lower family dining room,

a little bit about their porcelain, the portraits

and the wonderful ceilings.

So we would get to the ceiling, as you say, and it is staggering.

You can't miss it.

What sort of information would you give about this?

Lord Bath's great-grandfather fell in love with Italy.

He employs a London firm, John Dibblee Crace,

to put in very dramatic ceilings.

They're largely copied from the Ducal Palace in Venice.

-Wow.

-They were put in in the 1870s and early 1880s.

-Yeah.

OK. There's an awful lot to remember.

-A lot to learn, but one or two things in each room.

-OK.

-That'll see you through.

I'll carry on swotting up. Go and see how Ben's getting on.

While Kate learns about the lower dining room,

I'm in the breakfast room with Sarah. We've got the type of room right.

What are the features in here that I need to learn about?

You need to know the table. That's the important feature.

It was laid out for the opening of the house on 1st April 1949.

-So, this is as it was laid on that date?

-Correct.

What's the significance of that?

That is the date that the house opened to the general public.

That was because Lord Bath's grandfather, Thomas...

-Who's in the portrait above the fireplace, is he?

-Yes.

That's right. He had died in 1946.

The family had had to sell vast quantities of the estate

-to pay the death duties.

-OK.

The table is all original, is it?

-Is that the original paper?

-That's the original.

-The eggshells are the same?

-Probably.

-Highly probably. Yes.

-What else in this room?

The ceiling strikes me as amazing.

-The ceiling is 24 carat gold leaf.

-Is it really?

There's so much to take in, isn't there?

How long have you been guiding for?

-I've been guiding for four years now.

-Right.

Did you used to take books home, homework, notes and things

to study for the next day?

You did, yes. But as you went round the house, you learnt things.

People asked you questions

which helps because you have to think what the answer is.

I think I have a lot to learn. So the ceiling is 24 carat gold.

-Table 19...

-49.

-49.

I really do have a lot to take in.

Join us later when we'll be put through our paces.

Back at the lion house, we've set up a spy camera

to try to capture a secret and rarely seen event -

the moment when a lioness gives birth.

But, so far, Luna, the lioness in question, is keeping everyone on tenterhooks.

Still no cubs.

Keeper Brian Kent has been expecting to find new cubs every morning for the last week.

She does look very big now so she's going to have them soon.

It's just a matter of waiting.

Four days later, in the dead of night, it finally happened.

Our spy camera was able to get this unique footage.

Two cubs are out,

and here's the third.

Immediately, Luna starts to clean the baby.

In all the years they've been looking after the lions,

this is the first time Brian Kent and Bob Trollope have ever witnessed these precious moments.

The time limit was getting on a bit.

It was, "Oh, it'll be next week." Never happened.

No, nature takes its course and eventually, out they come.

It was great. It was good to see them.

And to see what I've seen on here now, which is nice.

All the years I've worked here, not to be able to see...

and to be able to see something that close up is great.

Good detail as well.

Now, with daylight, the camera can get

better-quality pictures, in colour, of the cubs' first few hours.

It would normally be impossible to watch this natural behaviour

because of the way Mum reacts when anyone comes in,

as Bob and Brian saw first thing this morning.

She was very protective of them.

As soon as we walked in you knew that she'd had them

because, apart from the noises they were making,

she was up at the front of the cage trying to see us off.

When we went in first of all,

you couldn't quite see how many there was, because she was obviously out there trying to protect them.

We didn't want to spend an awful lot of time in there.

It's best just to keep away.

As long as you've checked them twice a day,

you don't really need to stay there all day, there's just no need because you can make things worse.

It's better to stay away and let her get on with it.

It is amazing to see, because quite often when we go in there

and find the cubs there, they've either been cleaned or have just been born.

To actually see how quick it is that they go to the nipple

and how quick it is between each cub being born...

And how strong they are.

-Yeah, amazing.

-You can see them hammering around straightaway.

That's really great to see.

Luna's babies are very vulnerable, each weighs little more than a kilo,

and at this stage they're still blind.

In the wild, only one in five cubs make it to adulthood,

and even in captivity the future of these little ones is far from certain.

You know, you can lose cubs.

Mum may sit on them by accident. It can happen.

So you've just got to wait and hope things go well.

You can't do nothing about it. That's how it goes.

And hopefully she'll do fine.

See how it goes.

Now, with everything looking good,

we'll leave Luna's cubs on their very first day of life.

But, of course, we'll be following all developments in the Lion House

right through the series.

The emergency Caesarean to try to save Imogen's life

has taken three and a half hours.

Her calf was dead inside and it took all the efforts of four vets

and a whole team of keepers to get it out.

Now the time has come to try to wake Imogen up,

and the stress is starting to show.

'It feels like we've been doing this for about a week.

'It has been a long day.

'We've been stood around.

'It's the vets and anaesthetists that have done all the hard work.'

The Caesarean was done,

unfortunately a dead baby, but we were pretty much sure of that.

Surprisingly, for two days of the calf being dead

it started to decompose already.

The big worry is if the calf has decomposed so far,

that she's infected.

'Once we'd finished all the operation,

'Duncan had stitched it all back up and got the stitches done

'and cleaned the wound up and give it all the antibiotics and stuff,

'they give it a Revivon. What we do is -'

Andy, Ryan and a couple of others

'stayed in there and we moved out with just Ryan and Andy in there.

'You sit on its neck

'and wait for it to come round.

'At the last minute, once it's up, you get off its neck

'and it sits up.'

It's an anxious time for Pam, the veterinary anaesthetist.

To a certain extent, I think you are relieved

that one part has gone well,

but still nervous about the part that still has to go.

It's not completely finished until she's up standing and well.

For me, particularly, I find that period very nerve-racking,

because beyond... We've got very little control

of how she gets up and she could easily injure herself.

Get out, lads. Get out.

They were expecting Imogen to at least try to stand up

as soon as she came round.

Something is wrong, because lying down is unnatural to a giraffe.

It's dangerous to their health and can lead them to just give up

and lose the will to live.

The longer the anaesthetic, the more likely you are

to have some of the other problems

associated with anaesthesia in large animals.

For example, there's pressure on the muscles

which have been lying in an awkward position

with 600 kilos of giraffe lying on top of certain areas.

'It's a difficult situation. How much do you intervene? Do you let her do it herself?'

You always worry that you don't do enough

and something bad happens and you'll be blaming yourselves.

But a few minutes later, Imogen finds the strength to sit up.

And then, finally, to stand.

The big step is she didn't die in the operation.

The next big step is she got up, or woke up and got up.

If we can... We'll slowly get her eating again.

It is just tiny little steps all the way.

It's a miracle that Imogen has come this far,

but after major surgery on the stable floor,

infection is a very real danger.

If she makes it through tonight, tomorrow, and days on after that,

if she gets to two weeks then we can breathe out.

We'll return later to find out whether or not Imogen makes it

through the hours and days ahead.

I think my brain's going to explode. Ben and I have spent the entire day

trying to learn how to be guides at Longleat House.

There is so much to remember I can't tell you. But now is test time.

I have a willing group. Please come in.

I shall tell you about the lower dining room.

I know that this looks like the most fabulously luxurious room,

but actually this was the day-to-day dining room.

The family would have eaten here every day.

The first thing you notice in this room, if you look up,

is the amazing ceiling.

This ceiling was put in by the fourth Marquess,

the present Lord Bath's grandfather.

He loved Italian - the Italian style.

This ceiling is actually copied from the Ducal Palace in Venice.

-How do they clean it?

-Painstakingly. You know your blusher brushes?

That's what they do.

They'll stand up on ladders and get into the... It's so delicate, and obviously it's all gilt.

They will get in and brush it away literally with blusher brushes.

It's not something you want to do too often.

How often do they have to repaint it?

It's done roughly every ten years or so,

but because it's kept in very good condition and is cleaned,

it's kept very well so things do stay preserved

-in this magnificent state.

-It's a good job.

If you want to go through into this room, my colleague Ben will meet you in there.

(What a swot!) Follow me in here.

Now, I would like to welcome you into the breakfast room.

Please come along, everyone.

Very impressive.

Lots of paintings of various Baths along the ceilings,

all sorts in fact.

The table is laid still originally from the 1st April 1949,

believe it or not. All totally original.

The original newspaper, even the original egg that was left there at that time.

That was when the fourth Marquess, maybe the fifth,

in the painting above the fireplace passed away.

There were incredible death duties that had to be paid,

so the house had to open to the public

so that you lucky people could have a look around and see what went on in here.

Very impressive ceiling.

In terms of the painting on the ceiling,

would that have been painted and then set into the ceiling?

It would very likely have been painted and then put up there, yes.

Absolutely.

Any questions from anybody?

I hope you enjoyed the room. Please join Sarah this way. Thank you very much for coming, everybody.

(I think I did rather well.)

-Well done, Ben.

-SHE LAUGHS

It's been a month now since Imogen underwent an emergency Caesarean.

The baby was already dead,

and no-one really thought that Mum had much chance either.

But here she is, and she's doing fine.

We had hardly any infection to speak of.

In fact it was so little infection

it's not even really worth mentioning.

Yeah, she's just fantastic.

I think, the kind of animal she is,

she's very, very quiet, very laid back.

I think that stood well in her stead

because obviously the stress level from the pain and the darting

and the hassle was very low.

Obviously she didn't know anything about the op

because she was completely out,

but stress will get them in a lot of other ways.

That didn't affect her.

Yeah, really, really pleased.

It's unlikely that Imogen will be allowed to get pregnant again -

the risks are just too high.

But with her steady nature, she still has an important role to play.

She's got a great future in the herd

because she'll be central to a lot of things.

Unfortunately, the one thing she possibly isn't going to do

is have calves of her own.

But she's got two sisters here.

So there are going to be offspring from that family,

and she can just be everybody's dear old maiden aunt

being a bit dotty in the corner, I suppose.

Hello, girls.

Imogen has been getting a lot of visits

from all the staff that helped that day.

It's an experience Head Warden Keith Harris won't forget in a hurry.

I've been involved with giraffes for 30 years ever since I've been here,

but we've sedated them for foot trimming and lameness,

that type of problem, but never a Caesarean.

So for it to actually be successful as well

is quite something, so we're quietly quite chuffed.

The operation what she went through,

fantastic, an absolute miracle of nature that she would recover so well.

Fantastic it is.

Makes her extra-special now to have gone through all she's gone through.

We thought we'd lose her

in the bottom of our hearts - even though you've got to try these things -

we thought she was going to die.

Back up in the house, it's time to find out who's won the guide's challenge -

Ben or me?

The judge is Head Guide Claire Mound,

and I don't know what Ben's been up to,

but I'm beginning to suspect a hint of bias.

I think you did brilliantly, Ben. You didn't lose anybody, did you?

-I hope not!

-No-one's still hidden under the table.

-Your answered spontaneous questions that might have floored you, and got them right.

-Thank you.

-It's all sounding very good. What about Kate?

-Kate did all right, too, didn't you?

-I thought I did.

-You got the grandfathers muddled.

-I did. There are too many grandfathers in this family.

There are too many Thomases and Johns and things.

-It was great-grandfather, wasn't it?

-It was. Otherwise...

No, you were getting there but, by a small whisker,

I think that Ben got slightly better,

-and we'll give you a badge.

-No!

-It does mean we might ask you to do some work now.

-Oh, really? Does that mean bigger groups?

-Yes.

I've got 30 small children waiting downstairs.

I'm going to wear that with... What?!

-How many more rooms do I have to learn about?

-Oh, about 10 more. Yes.

-Oh, dear. I have my work cut out. Do you want the badge, Kate?

-No, no, no. See you next year.

Sadly that's all we've got time for on today's programme.

Here's what's coming up on the next Animal Park.

There are dramatic developments when Babs the rhino

takes a turn for the worse.

Back with the lions,

it's time to give the youngest cub her injections.

And down in Pets Corner,

we'll meet two new bouncing babies -

the first otter cubs born at Longleat in over 30 years.

So don't miss the next Animal Park.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2006

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