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 drama when things go very wrong for Imogen the pregnant giraffe.

If the giraffe survived, it would be a miracle.

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

That one's sliding down a pole!

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

And the vet may soon have to face a difficult decision about Babs, the elderly rhino.

Well, Babs is looking her age. She's not looking great at all.

But first, we're going up to Lion Country where there's been a dramatic development.

Last year new blood arrived at Longleat - Kabir the Barbary lion.

He was brought from Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent to try to establish a new pride.

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

Kabir's intended mates were a couple of young sisters - Lunar and Yendi.

They settled down straight away, 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 it's really exciting, cos it's Kabir's...

There's a new lion here and has been here seven months, so he's produced some goods.

The new cub is a little girl.

She's Yendi's first baby, and that's a worry, because sometimes

new lion mothers don't seem to know how to look after their young.

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

Basically, just 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, 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.

Just a matter of waiting at the moment.

While her sister Yendi had one cub, Lunar is looking large.

They think she may be carrying more.

Lions usually 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.

So we've called in Andy Milk.

He's a specialist cameraman who'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.

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

Just now doing the final connection.

Hopefully it's in the right place

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

We've installed everything outside

and there's actually nothing in the cage at all

so the lion can't get to it, can't touch anything.

-It's all quite safe.

-The spy camera works like a CCTV system, so it won't disturb Lunar at all.

And it can get pictures in complete darkness by using infrared lamps.

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

I don't think a lion will see it,

although they're not 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.

The lion house isn't the only place that's been blessed with new arrivals.

There are a number of others elsewhere at Longleat.

But not all of them have been born here. Some have come from other animal parks and zoos.

I'm here in Pets Corner with head of section Darren Beasley,

who's set me a task to try and find his latest addition to the area.

Darren, how on earth am I supposed to find it?

I'll give you a clue - we're heading in the right direction

and it's a freezing cold day today and this animal likes it warm.

OK. So, presumably it's somewhere around here.

It's not as easy as that, though. There's basking spots of nearly 100 degrees in there in places.

Can you see it?

No, is it...?

Come round and actually look through the door.

Let's see if we can...

Can you see it?

-Feel the heat.

-Yeah, I can.

-It's one of my favourite animals.

Am I still very cold over here?

Yeah. You have to lean in and have a look. It's not venomous.

It's obviously very small, isn't it?

I can't see anything!

There you are, Ben, have a look under here in these rocks.

This animal loves... It's got a special defence.

It wedges itself in rocks.

-Look in this area.

-Can I move the rocks?

-Just go very gently.

Are you sure it doesn't bite?

No, you're fine.

Can you see that?

-Yeah, I can. Oh, look!

-I promise I haven't hid that in there.

That's where it was?

Yep. You can gently pick him up.

Why don't you do it, just so I don't...

-Presumably we have a tortoise here.

-It is.

It's Popadom. And he's a pancake tortoise. Look at that.

Really flat, much flatter than the conventional tortoise.

Basically, they've found a little niche in life, and that is to defend themselves.

Tortoises have a dome which they soak up the sunshine.

These guys have developed to be very flat.

What they do is wedge themselves in tiny cracks and crevices in rocky outcrops in Africa.

Then the big birds of prey and jackals and things have great difficulty getting them out.

They have this amazing colour.

If we just put him down, you can see he could almost be a rock already.

-What would predate them out in the wild?

-Most of the carnivores.

They are pretty much bottom of the food chain.

These guys will eat vegetation, eat the grasses and things.

But unlike our normal Mediterranean tortoises with big dome shells,

these have got spaces in between their bones and ligaments,

so they're actually very soft to touch.

-Can I have a quick hold?

-Feel that.

It does. Especially under here, it's very soft, isn't it?

The best thing is, if they think there's a danger, they run really fast.

Honestly, that is one of the fastest land tortoises anywhere in the world.

I never think of a tortoise as going fast.

Shall we see how fast he might move now?

Maybe to get away from us.

No, he's not sprinting, but when they find themselves

a nice wedge or crevice, they go head-first in.

People used to think they'd swell their bodies to stop them being pulled out...

These legs are actually like little anchors,

and they will turn and twist them and they literally catch...

-To anchor them in to the spot.

-So you can't pull them out.

I'm hoping now in here he'll soon be joined by some more.

I was going to say, are you going to try and find him a girlfriend?

He is a little boy so we're gonna get him a couple of girlfriends.

Hopefully they'll learn as well.

We'll give them lots of nooks and crannies to hide in.

He should perform his natural behaviour.

-He's going straight back!

-I think we should leave him to it.

Darren, thank you very much.

When babies arrive, it's not always good news

because sometimes the miracle of birth can go horribly wrong.

Recently, the giraffe house was the scene of dramatic events,

a life and death struggle that no-one who was there will ever forget.

Imogen is 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 senior warden 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.

Is it full of the right vitamins and things that they need?

These are specially made for primates, so they're perfect.

We've got little bits of whole maize there, which is just a good filler.

Dog biscuits as well, which is good for their teeth.

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?

What we've done is put loads of straw in here.

What we want to do is put the food in the straw and the bedding,

kick some 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.

We'll just come up over afterwards and kick some 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, looking for bugs and bits of fruit and veg.

This is just recreating that, really.

Lucky monkeys. Obviously, maybe help keep them warm as well!

Absolutely, yeah. They can have a good play in the straw.

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.

Back in the giraffe house, vet Duncan Williams and the team

have 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 a massive animal,

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

it can go up at 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 it 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.

Senior warden 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, 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 just 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.

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 get the hint that there's food around?

They're very curious as a species,

so anything we do, they're always there straight away.

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

communicating that they've found some food.

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!"

This is great.

This is perfect natural behaviour.

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

-He's there straight away.

-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,

give it a bite and 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.

It's...

Look, they're all coming in now, aren't they? It's amazing to see them.

As you say, this is a new way of feeding them, but it looks entirely natural to them.

The best thing is, there's no birds stealing their food.

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 then the females come after that.

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

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.

This is 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 doesn't like it,

she's threatening us to stay away from the food.

Do you think now this might be something you repeat?

Do you think this has 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 with it.

If they do, we'll have to 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.

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.

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 were monitoring 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.

She's now been under for four hours plus.

Um...

You want to keep it to the minimum time.

She's now had all this operation going on,

going through her. It's going to be touch-and-go

whether she actually survives this operation anyhow,

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.

The question is, will she ever wake up again?

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 good fun.

Also long-haired, you've got to make sure you 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 very much.

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

We'll find out whether or not Imogen survives.

Can the meerkats work out how to make an omelette?

And then up in the great house,

Ben and I take on a challenge to see if we can become Longleat guides in just one day.

I would like to welcome you into the breakfast room.

Please come along, everyone.

But now we're going back to the lion house, where 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 Lunar, 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, Lunar 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.

Now 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,

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

Good detail as well.

Now in daylight, the camera can get better-quality pictures of the cubs' first few hours.

It's revealing more natural behaviour that would normally be impossible to observe.

For example, when Brian and Bob first went into the lion house this morning,

Lunar was acting quite differently.

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 quite 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 straight away.

That's really great to see.

Lunar'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.

And of course, we'll be following developments in the Lion House closely.

Later in the series we'll be back to find out

what happens to the new born cubs.

As Kate saw earlier with the monkeys,

the keepers all across Longleat are constantly trying

to find ways to make life more interesting for the residents.

It's called enrichment,

and the idea is to encourage the animals' natural behaviour,

and to stimulate their senses.

I'm down at Meerkat Mound with keeper Val McGruther,

and we're about to feed them.

-But this isn't a normal feed, is that right, Val?

-Yes. That's right.

Meerkats will eat all sorts of things, especially in the wild

it will be invertebrates a lot of the time, maybe scorpions -

they bite the sting off the tail - small snakes.

But they also eat eggs. We're having a bit of an 'eggs-periment' here.

Ah, very good! I like that.

Because we've got two unboiled eggs and one hard-boiled egg.

We're just going to have a look and see which one they break into first,

see if it does make a difference or whether they like them all the same.

-I've noticed the...

-Yellow mongoose.

The mongoose. Exactly. They obviously all get along together.

Yes, they do. They get on very well.

In the evening when we give them their main feed we actually do separate them for feeding.

Just for safety purposes really.

-Where shall we do this experiment?

-If we put them a bit near a rock...

because what they do is roll the eggs along and perhaps...

-Yes, you can.

-These are the two normal eggs.

Where shall I put them?

Yeah, that's fine.

This is the hard-boiled one. Shall I pop it just over there?

Hopefully, we've got to try and attract them over.

I'll throw a few mealworms there.

That's the way to a meerkat's heart, is it?

Yes, that's right.

Come on, then. Meerkats!

You've got three meerkats here now.

Yes, we do. We've got one male and two females.

It would be really nice if we heard the patter of tiny feet.

That would be great.

Have you any idea which one is likely to come over to the eggs first?

-It could actually be any of them.

-Right.

Presumably in the wild they would find eggs from nesting birds.

That's right. Any ground-nesting bird they would go for, the right sort of size.

Look, here we go.

-Go on then, have a go.

-Having a little feel of it.

That's the hard-boiled one.

Go on then, have a dig at it.

It seems to be digging at the ground around it.

They will dig around things.

It's a sort of instinct for them to dig around anyway.

They could be looking for a stone

or perhaps just rolling it against something hard.

This is proving they still have some of their natural instincts?

-Oh, yes, they do.

-Even though... Were these guys born in captivity?

Yes, they were, yes.

Yet they still know exactly what they should try and do with an egg.

Although having said that, this one just seems to be trying to bury it.

No, he's not trying to bury it but he's trying to get into it.

-He's still perplexed. But you think they should actually crack it against the rocks.

-They should do.

We do give them to them...

-Look, we've got the mongoose creeping in there.

-Here we go.

They're coming to this one now.

This is all part of your enrichment

that you like to do here to keep them occupied.

Yes. It is really good to give them different things.

-Oh, he's got it there!

-Wow!

-That was good!

We've just worked out the mongoose definitely knows how to do it.

It's very clever how they knew how to just crack it,

and they're obviously happy sharing the egg together.

They are at the moment.

At the moment! Is that because there's enough...

Oh, look, the meerkat is, "It's mine, get away."

Generally speaking, the mongoose will be more aggressive

when they've got food than the meerkats.

Look, the other mongoose is coming up

to try and work on the hard-boiled egg.

This in theory should be easier to get into.

It should do. Also...

-There we go.

-He's just run off with it.

I think we call that a thief.

I think so, a thief in the night.

-Oh this one, look.

-He's got into it. The other meerkat's got into it.

Would you deem that a success, Val?

I think so. I think that was really good

because both the unboiled ones got cracked and eaten.

The boiled one got whipped away, didn't it?

That was really good. They got into them and broke them on a stone

just like we thought they would.

Thank you very much, Val. I think we have three contented meerkats there.

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.

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 one of these difficult situations -

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 try 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.

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 staterooms.

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 acquire just a few acres of land.

Of the time this gentleman died...

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 Claire 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.

-Right.

-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 probably start

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

a little bit about their porcelain, the portraits

and of course 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.

So that changes the whole feel of the house.

It ceases to be Elizabethan inside.

And becomes more Italian.

So you said it's Lord Bath's great-grandfather,

-so which marquess was that?

-The fourth Marquess.

-OK.

There's an awful lot to remember.

-There's a lot to learn, but one or two things in each room.

-OK.

That'll see you through for quite a long way.

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.

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 from the date?

-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.

Eventually you begin to learn it and know the answers.

Presumably they still catch you out every now and then?

Every so often you get somebody who asks you something you don't know.

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.

There are five Southern White Rhino at Longleat -

three youngsters, and two veterans, Winston and Babs.

Of them, Babs is the oldest.

She recently turned 37, and for a rhino that's a grand old age.

Right from when she arrived back in 1993,

Babs has always been a big character,

loved for her even temper and friendly nature.

So when three youngsters came from South Africa a couple of years ago,

everyone hoped that Babs would take on the role of grandma

to help them settle in.

She didn't disappoint.

But now the years are finally catching up with Babs.

She's been suffering from arthritis and skin problems,

and now Deputy Head Warden, Ian Turner is quite worried her.

You're feeling old, aren't you, sweetheart?

That's the trouble. She's got tender bits on her skin.

It's where she's getting a bit...

Senior citizen age is coming in, I'm afraid.

Gets to us all, all of us.

Normally, all this stuff she likes. She's flinching there. Aren't you?

Normally as soon as you call her, she'll come over.

There's been a couple of days when she's not bothered to come over.

That's the signs that keepers look for which the vet can't see.

You can see if she's looking ill by signs of illness,

but it's when she's not being her normal self.

But vet Duncan Williams has been called

to meet keeper Adie Lanfear to see if anything can be done for Babs.

Are you gonna come and say hello?

She's eating well, isn't she?

Oh, she's got a very good appetite.

She's a ripe old age as well.

-There you go, darling.

-She doesn't look very steady at all.

She looks very weak.

When she turns and twists...

In the middle of the week she was actually collapsing.

She was actually - bang, she was hitting the deck.

Babs is looking her age actually. She's not looking great at all.

This time of year, it's the middle of winter,

and you can see her skin is just so crusty and scabby and dry.

But that's true to all of them.

They've all got skin problems.

It tends to go away in the spring when they start wallowing again.

We're doing everything we can. We're nursing her through it, looking after her as best we can.

We're making life as comfortable as possible.

Supplementing her, try and prevent the arthritis becoming too serious.

Just keeping a close eye on her.

I think her quality of life's OK.

She's had a bit of a bad week, but her appetite is excellent still

so that's a pretty good indicator that she's not too seriously ill.

Come on, Babs.

Come on.

White Rhinos have been known to reach 40 years in captivity,

but few live past their mid-thirties.

For now, everyone is doing all they can to relieve Babs' suffering.

She needs nursing through the winter,

it's a difficult time for them.

So she needs the extra care,

so yeah, we've all got a soft spot for her.

She's a big character.

That's the painkiller to take the edge off of things for her.

Obviously she's got her hay which you see her eating now.

It's high-fibre, high-fibre nuts.

There's linseed and barley.

We also given her some copper salts and some vitamin extracts

and some supplements.

There you go, darling.

But the hard truth is that Babs probably needs more

than a spoonful of medicine if she's to survive the winter.

If her quality of life deteriorates much more, the time will come

when the vet and the keepers will have to face a difficult decision.

Will it be kinder to keep her going, or to put her to sleep?

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 dinner here every day.

Just have a look at this china on the table.

Every single one of these plates is unique. They're hand-painted.

They were bought when George III came to visit the house in 1789.

Each one is absolutely unique.

Probably not to put in the dishwasher, I would have thought!

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. And there's a little hidden door below the painting.

That was incorporated in 1820,

so that the servants could come along and lay the table.

Any questions from anybody?

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the room.

Please join Sarah through this way. Thank you very much for coming.

I think I did rather well.

Well done, Ben.

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 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 - 4½ hours under anaesthetic

and then all that, fantastic.

An absolute miracle of nature.

She will 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 Mounde,

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 got your people through.

-You didn't lose anybody, did you?

-I hope not!

No-one's still hidden under the table.

Your answered spontaneous questions that I think might have floored you, and you 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.

But you got the grandfathers muddled up a bit.

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, 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 as well?

-Yes.

I've got 30 small children waiting for you downstairs.

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

Presumably, 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.

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

Up in Wolf Wood, the cubs born last year are getting big.

We'll find out if they're now eating with the grown-ups.

Back with the lions,

Mum goes ballistic when 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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