Episode 13 Animal Park

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

-And I'm Kate Humble.

We're in Longleat House, standing on the small gallery

that was built especially for the visit of King Charles II

and his wife, Queen Catherine, when they came to stay in the house for a night in 1663.

This is where they would have stood to survey the guests gathered below to honour their presence.

We'll be bringing you stories from the house, the estate and the safari park. Here's what's coming up.

It is time to declare The Venue...

open!

The vultures are gathering at Longleat.

We'll see how they settle in to their new home.

Lion cub Jasira has developed a limp.

Oh, yeah. Good girl.

We'll find out if her treatment is working.

We'll be let in on some of Longleat's hidden secrets by retiring house steward Ken Windess.

So don't use that as a fire escape.

And two park staff go to extraordinary heights to help save the endangered mountain gorilla.

But first, the park boasts many colourful birds among its residents

including Chilean flamingos,

sacred ibis and African spoonbill.

But now a new species with a heavyweight reputation has come to the park.

These African white-backed vultures are nature's ultimate airborne scavengers.

But, sadly, they are now classed as vulnerable in the wild.

There are five males and five females, which the team hope will breed.

For now, they're being kept in temporary winter quarters

while, outside, feverish work is going on to finish their enclosure.

Head of section Mark Tye is in charge of the birds.

He wants to make sure they have enough space to fly freely.

For ten birds with wingspans of up to ten feet, that's a lot of space.

In just over a week, we've managed to put up all the line wires

that will hold up the roof and the supports for the main nets.

We've put all the nets up around the back of the enclosure and now we're finishing off along the front.

The only thing after that is the roof.

The roof is one big section that has to be pulled up and over,

which will be quite tedious and time-consuming.

The new enclosure is going to be the size of six tennis courts and as tall as a three-storey building.

With the sides finished, it's time to heave the roof into place.

Keepers from all sections of the park have come together to help.

The netting weighs almost a tonne - more than all the construction team put together.

It's made using heavy-duty fishing net,

heavy enough, Mark hopes, to resist the vultures' sharp beaks.

Until we let them out, we won't know what's going to happen.

The net's thicker than the flamingo net.

But they've got a big, hooked beak - if they want to chew through it, they will.

So it's going to be a bit of an experiment.

If they want out, they'll get out.

So we'll just hope they'll be happy enough in there and they won't attempt it.

One of the challenges for Mark is to provide the vultures with a home that's as close

to their natural habitat as possible and full of interesting features to keep them occupied.

Trees in there, with perches. We're going to put a lot more up.

This is not the finished product as regards perching just yet.

A pond for them to bathe in. They like washing and sunning themselves afterwards.

And the only other thing, really, is a house we're going to have built over there

which will double up as a winter quarters.

If weather gets bad, we can hopefully get them into there.

Also, when we first bring them up, we'll be able to put them in there

and let them out a couple at a time.

I'm looking forward to seeing them out in a big enclosure like this.

I just hope they use it and fly around a lot in it.

We'll be back to see what the vultures make of their new home.

The last few weeks in Lion Country

have been full of fun for the two young cubs, Malaika and Jasira.

With the warmer weather, they've been out exploring the enclosure

and testing their own limits. They learn the key skills

of hunting and fighting by playing with each other

and with their parents.

But sometimes the playful rough and tumble takes its toll.

A few days ago, the keepers noticed something wrong.

Young Jasira had developed a limp and everyone was worried that she might be badly hurt.

Oh, shush!

Safari park vet Duncan Williams was called out to see if she'd broken any bones.

She's pretty lame on her left fore.

I think it is probably just a soft-tissue injury, as opposed to a fractured leg or anything like that.

To stop the limp becoming worse, Duncan prescribed a course

of anti-inflammatory medicine for the little cub.

Come on. Oh, yeah. Good girl.

That's it. Way-hey!

Now the injury has had time to heal, I wanted to see how Jasira is getting on.

And when better than at feeding time?

So, this is Kabir, just out here. I'm also with keeper Bob Trollope.

We've come to check up, mainly, on the the cubs, Bob.

-I can see one cub behind us, pattering along.

-They're both there.

There they are, they're both there, tearing along!

Well, that really answers my question.

Just remind me what happened. One of them had a problem with a paw.

Jasira, running alongside us now, had some soft-tissue damage.

As you can see, she's a lot better now.

-It was most probably through a bit of boisterous play.

-Right.

-Look!

-Wa-hey!

Kabir trying to get at the camera tied to the top.

You don't think that it could have been him that caused the damage to Jasira, the cub, do you?

It's possible.

They are extremely boisterous, as cubs.

I would have thought it was more so tumbling about with Malaika. Because they do have some little scraps.

-But it's all playful.

-Typical cub play?

Yeah, just playing. And it's all to do with learning, I suppose.

Here you are, mate. There you go.

-Are the cubs taking any meat at the moment?

-Oh, yeah.

They've got quite a voracious appetite.

Going after Dad, look.

-Look at that!

-Hooray!

That is something, presumably, Dad wouldn't tolerate -

-a young whippersnapper taking his meat?

-No, he's very much a foodie, is Kabir.

He'll normally grab something and run off with it, as you can see.

I'm quite surprised... That's Malaika, isn't it, the bigger cub?

She's got her piece before this adult female here.

Yeah. They tend to sort of...

Mum will go and grab a piece and if cubby's run up, they'll relinquish it to them quite often.

Really and truly, they can't be bothered with cubby pestering them.

So they let them have it, get another piece and go off and peacefully eat it.

I suppose the difference here from in the wild is that they know there's plenty to go round.

Yeah, we're lucky in the way that we can cut it into chunks

so that Kabir or one of the females doesn't sit on it and not let any of the others have it.

That's why we do it like this.

-Look at him running across.

-He is a foodie.

-He looks like...

That is the absolute epitome of a happy lion, isn't it?

-He's a bit of a hoarder, this one.

-And so what happens now, Bob?

You've got two healthy cubs,

two obviously successful mothers - will they breed again this year?

They shouldn't do. But it's not impossible.

Really and truly, the female shouldn't come into season

-much before the cubs are about 18 months old.

-So nature, basically, prevents

having too many young cubs at once?

Yeah. At 18 months, though, young males or young females

may be pushed out of the pride and then you get the next generation coming up.

Well, I'm delighted that Jasira is obviously doing so well and that both the cubs are thriving.

Great to see them, Bob. Thank you very much indeed.

It's the end of an era for Longleat.

House steward Ken Windess is hanging up his hat after 24 years.

He started working here as a cabinet maker and furniture restorer

but took on the role of running the place 14 years ago.

Everybody that...

spends any sort of length of time at Longleat

gets attached to it and then it almost becomes theirs.

It's just one of those things that rubs off on you.

The man who will follow in Ken's footsteps is deputy house steward Steve Blyth.

This house, there's just so much involved with it.

It's a multi-task job, which I like.

I couldn't do a job where I just went in day after day and did the same thing.

Every day's different, er...

and there's just so much going on.

I like the challenge of that.

The steward of Longleat is in overall charge of one of the largest historic houses in the country.

Costing a million pounds a year to run, it has 114 official rooms,

including seven libraries.

Of course, this is only part of the collection, Steve. There's over 40,000 books in the house, totally.

-And you've read how many?

-I've read just about half now.

Mind you, I'll have a lot more time now to read the rest.

Ken has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the house built up over the last quarter-century.

This is where the clock tower actually comes to.

This is where the actual weights drop down, behind there.

With just a month to go before the handover, this is Steve's

last chance to pick Ken's brains about running the house.

We have had quite a lot of trouble with leaks over the years in this particular area,

because of the complexity of the roof, really, at that point.

We've been preparing for this day for some time.

'With a place like Longleat, that's so intense as far as different things that are going on...'

You've got security, you've got the maintenance,

you've got the guiding - all sorts of weird and wonderful things you wouldn't have in a factory job.

Every five seconds you've got a different hat on, really.

The house was built in the late 16th century and has many hidden secrets.

Originally, there was an open-air inner courtyard, where the grand staircase is now.

The stairway was added by Sir James Thynne in the 17th century.

This is over the top of the dome and the grand staircase.

This is the first time Steve's been up here.

At one time, all this used to be outside the house. This was the original outside wall.

The steward of Longleat is responsible for everything that goes on in the house.

It's a big job, but one that Steve is looking forward to.

The house is beautiful, the grounds are beautiful and you know you've got all that history.

You've got 425 years of the one family owning it, living here.

It's just lovely.

We'll come back as Ken reveals more of Longleat's hidden places.

The great house isn't the only home that needs constant care and attention.

All around the safari park are animal quarters which also need looking after.

I'm down at Pets' Corner with keeper Rob Saving, helping out

-with a changeover of the perches for the parrots.

-Absolutely.

-SQUAWK!

-The very noisy parrots!

-Yes, we are re-perching.

-So, why are we doing this?

-Couple of reasons we do this, really.

When they get worn, we need to replace them for the birds' sake, for many reasons.

Basically, their beaks and their claws are always growing,

a bit like our fingernails, very slightly.

So the birds need to rough them and wear them down on bark.

That's why it's ideal to get really rough bark - usually oak's quite a good one.

-This one's been redone, has it?

-We've done all of these. We've got two left here.

And what parrot have we got here?

Bobby, getting quite excited because his perch desperately needs doing.

So, all that bark that's been taken off, has he taken that off with his beak?

That's all him.

And it didn't take him long to do. We are constantly doing this.

Before we put the next one on, I just want...

-It's important to keep it clean, so we just want to give that a scrub.

-So how often would you do this?

As often as needed, really.

It's very good for them, not only for their beaks, but also for enrichment.

They love chewing it, Bobby especially. He rips his up in probably the space of a week.

Ideally, if I can, I'll do it every couple of weeks.

-Presumably, you get all the wood from the estate.

-Yeah.

If we hear something's fallen down, an old tree, ideally we want to find some nice rough oak,

or even things like apple.

The rougher the better. That bark, if it's really rough

and they can get their claws right into it, it's like a nail file.

Unfortunately, some of these perches... We'll scrub these as well.

-Are we going to scrub the wood?

-Just lightly. Because, when we get them from the woods,

it might have a little bit of muck and a little bit of bird poo on it.

We want to make sure they're not going to get anything off the wood.

We'll move on to Bobby now. If I just move him out the way, because he's a bit grumpy this morning.

-Do you want to just try and get that one off for me?

-Yeah.

The thing with Bobby, part of his show - you'll see in a moment if I can show you -

he likes perches with a nice long, thin piece.

I was talking about the different sizes and the different shapes we can get.

Because he does this little thing where he hangs upside down.

-Can we see that?

-We'll see it in a minute. He started doing it on his own.

I was doing a show once and I looked behind me and all of a sudden, Bobby was upside down.

-Right.

-It was quite funny. It got such a reaction, such a laugh, I encouraged him to do it.

-Just come over here.

-Is he a little bit...?

-He's all right.

But he's a bit grumpy this morning.

Bobby, do your bat impression. Will you show us your bat?

That's it. So he always loves a perch where he's able to do it.

-Brilliant!

-Well done, boy.

He's always able to do that and he likes a perch he can do that on.

I know what we're looking for now.

Bobby, I will try to do the same again with some proper wood.

We haven't got the best here, but we'll have a go.

-Excellent.

-There is a thin piece.

-Rob, thank you very much. Let's crack on with this.

Gorilla Island residents Nico and Samba are even smarter than the parrots.

They're two of the park's most popular animals,

drawing thousands of visitors every year to Half-Mile Lake.

Gorillas are very, very intelligent.

They're one of the few creatures in the world that can recognise their own reflections.

Western lowland gorillas are endangered in the wild, but their near relatives,

the mountain gorillas, are in an even more desperate plight.

A combination of poaching, habitat loss and war have decimated their numbers.

There are only about 650 mountain gorillas left in the world,

spread between Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Pioneering conservationist Diane Fossey

founded a charity to study and protect these magnificent creatures.

Veteran park guide Bill Lord is passionate about carrying on her work.

Diane Fossey, before her demise, actually established a gorilla fund.

She was involved with the Gorillas In The Mist film and was famous for her care for gorillas.

We want to maintain and increase the fund. We've been collecting with our gorillas for a few years,

but particularly the mountain gorillas this year.

95% of everybody coming off the boat gives us a subscription, large or small.

They're all well behind us on saving gorillas. So we're very pleased with it.

The plight of gorillas in the wild

has inspired two of the guides here, Stuart Clewley and Luke McGruther,

to make a parachute jump.

We decided that we wanted to do something

for the Diane Fossey Fund to raise awareness, raise some money - something a bit spectacular.

So we thought we'd try jumping out of a plane, which seemed like a good idea at the time.

I'm not nervous at the minute.

I imagine, as soon as we turn up, I will start.

On the morning, we'll be a bit, "Hang on, are we sure about this?"

But no matter how scared they are, it's too late to back down.

The boys have already raised over £10,000 for the Diane Fossey Fund

from generous visitors to the park.

In order to strengthen their resolve, Luke and Stuart have come

to visit Nico and Samba, along with keeper Michelle Stevens.

-How's Nic today, then?

-He's very well. Not too bad at all.

-Do you want to give him some breakfast?

-Why not?

A banana. Just hold it right at the end, though, because they can get their hands through.

Give one to Samba, as well.

Here you go. Straight in his mouth?

Yeah. He'll take it. He'll eat the whole thing, as well, apart from the very end.

Great table manners(!)

Hello, Sam.

'They are one of our closest living relatives. They share 98% of our genes, more or less.'

They're very, very similar. They have all the same senses as we do.

-We see the same fingers, the same opposable thumbs.

-When you see a gorilla up close,

you see how human-like they are. Their eyes are exactly the same. It's the details that you notice.

You just realise that we're not that much different.

Inspired by Nico and Samba, the sky's the limit for Luke and Stuart.

But first, they'll have to conquer their fear and we'll be back to see how they get on.

Longleat's ten African white-backed vultures are waiting to be transferred

to their brand-new enclosure, which has finally been completed.

But first, they have to be rounded up. It could be a dangerous job.

The enclosure's all finished. Nothing more needs to be done.

It's just now the dodgy task of catching hold of them and putting them in boxes.

So it's look out for your fingers time.

Once the birds are released into the enclosure, it won't be easy to get hold of them,

so Mark has asked vet Duncan Williams to give them a final health check.

We'd just like Duncan to give them a visual check -

check their feet, because they are prone to feet problems, through perching for too long.

We're also going to leg-band them and worm them at the same time.

They're tetchy things and they don't like being grabbed hold of.

So, you know, we do have to be a bit careful.

The task of catching them falls to keeper Luke Priddle,

using a net and special lightproof bag.

He takes a nip for his trouble.

In the dark, they tend to just stay still.

That's the main reason we use the black net.

Trying to keep their head in it isn't always easy!

It's hard to tell a male vulture from a female vulture.

One of the only ways to know for sure is to test a feather sample.

Vet Duncan also administers the worming injection and takes a close look at the birds' condition.

We've had a couple of problems with their feet.

So I'm making sure their feet are nice and healthy - there's no bumblefoot infections

or anything going on before they're released into the big pen.

When the birds are out and flying free,

Mark will need to know who's who, so they fit each with a leg band.

It's important for us to be able to identify which bird's which,

particularly out in a big enclosure.

If you saw one that perhaps was a bit off-colour, without that kind of identification, it's going to be

very difficult the next day, maybe, to see which one it was or whatever.

It's always useful to be able to positively ID your animals.

Next, it's into the crate and ready for transport.

One down, nine to go.

The vulture's beak is powerful enough to rip into any African animal carcass it finds.

With so many birds to handle, the team must not let their guard down.

As you can see, one wrong move and the beak's out

and you're going to lose a finger.

If they grab hold of you, they won't let go.

He's caught on the net.

Hang on, don't put your hand in there.

I've got the tail up here.

Thankfully, the staff survive with all their fingers intact.

Now the birds are taken to the vulture house inside the new enclosure.

They'll be kept there for a little while to calm down, before being allowed out into the open.

They've been comfortable in the house and now they've been

shoved in a box and unceremoniously driven up the road and pushed out in a new environment.

Initially they're going to be very stressed, very unaware of what's going on.

We just want to get them out of the box and come away and let them take

their surroundings in in their own time without any disturbance.

This is just going to be pretty much a sick bay and a shelter in case of bad weather.

The majority of the time, they're going to actually be out in the enclosure.

This is purely just somewhere we can segregate birds if they're ill,

or if we need to get them in through adverse weather, then that's where they'll go.

Soon, these mighty birds will be ready to take flight.

We'll come back to see what they make of their new home.

Part of the park's mission is to educate the public about the whole animal kingdom.

At Pets' Corner, staff encourage visitors to get as close as possible

to the residents, even some of the more scary-looking ones.

I tell you, this is the thing to do on a cold day.

You have to hold a snake, you have to have a hot-water bottle to keep it warm

-and it's keeping me beautifully warm! I'm here with Jo Hawthorn. Who's this?

-This is Khan.

-Khan.

-He's a royal python.

-And he's one of your Meet The Creatures, isn't he?

-Yes, he is.

How does Meet The Creatures work?

Basically, what we do, Kate, when the weather's nice and sunny, we bring him outside and we kind of,

we use him for the children and the adults to meet them and let them have an opportunity to have a stroke,

you know, have a touch, have a hold and learn that, really, these guys are not out to get you.

They're beautiful to touch, as you can probably feel.

-Yeah.

-And they're not scary at all.

-No. And do you find that it works?

Do people come here who really are very scared of snakes?

Definitely. Everyone has this preconceived idea that they're slimy,

you know, they're wet and cold and they're horrible, you know.

When they touch them, they're really surprised and shocked at how they feel.

-They are incredibly silky and smooth...

-They are.

..and not at all slimy. Totally dry.

-Beautiful feel.

-That's right.

And what about snakes as pets? Does it then encourage people to think, "I'd really like a snake as a pet"?

Well, hopefully, what we're trying to do is we're trying to let people

have the opportunity to get a feel for them

-but, at the same time, making them realise that this is going to grow to about 5ft long.

-Wow!

They do need the correct heating, lighting, correct food.

They're a big maintenance, you know.

So we're trying to give them the opportunity of having a touch and a hold without...

and maybe realising that they do need specialist care.

-So not the ideal pet to have.

-Well, Jo,

it's a huge privilege to be this close to such a gorgeous animal,

and we've got lots more gorgeous animals coming up on today's programme.

Beautiful they may be, but these white rhino have a case of the trots.

Maybe a lump of charcoal will help.

We'll take to the skies with these grim reapers in the brand-new vulture venue.

And we'll plunge to earth with two brave Longleat guides on their fund-raising adventure.

But first, Longleat's house steward, Ken Windess, is about to retire after 24 years.

He's going back to his first love - furniture restoration.

Succeeding him in overall charge of the house,

as well as the 40,000 rare books and 500 valuable paintings inside it,

will be Steve Blyth.

The house was built in the late 16th century and is full of secrets.

No-one alive knows the house as well as Ken.

There's a lot of things in the house, Steve, that are not quite what they seem.

A good example are these doors.

One actually leads into the...saloon.

That's a straightforward doorway there.

And this one actually leads...

-..nowhere.

-A brick wall.

-A brick wall.

So don't use that as a fire escape.

I'll try to remember that one, yeah.

-All right?

-Quite embarrassing.

-Yeah.

-They've gone to a lot of expense just for the finish.

-Yeah.

That's right. It's just really to make it symmetrical.

You never stop learning here,

whether it's about the structure of the house, or the furniture, the paintings - what's in the house.

That's the sort of thing you get.

There's a light on in there if you need to...go in.

There we go.

There's quite a lot of this behind the scenes.

There's a lot more behind the walls than there is in front of it, really.

The vast roof is the size of four football fields and even up here, there are hidden passages.

That little patch in the dome is a doorway into the winch

-that lowers the chandelier over the grand staircase.

-Yeah.

25 years ago, Steve, I used to be able to get into that trap, no problem at all, for that winch.

But the trap's got smaller over the years.

-It's shrunk.

-Yeah.

The role of steward requires an eagle eye for detail - a quality which Steve shares with Ken.

Now, I walk through the house going from A to B.

But I'll be looking and I'll get a guide say to me, "What are you looking for?

"You're always looking." I'll say, "You know, you just do it."

You walk through and you're always looking

if something's wrong, if something's good, if something needs doing.

'I mean, I've got total confidence in Steve.'

I don't think I could have done better.

It's probably one of the best days' work I ever did when I first took him on.

We'll be following Steve as he takes on his challenging new role.

I'm up at the rhino house with keepers Kevin Nibbs

and Adrian Lanfear and, er, well, I'm a little bit confused.

We've got a barrow full of charcoal and three rhinos. What has this, Kevin, got to do with them?

This time of year, we're coming from giving them hay throughout the day to let the grass come through.

The new grass tends to upset their tummies a little bit.

-Yeah.

-They get a little bit... poor digestion, really.

-OK.

-A lot of wind and stuff.

-They get a slightly... All this rich grass coming through. A bit of diarrhoea?

Diarrhoea, yeah. It's not very good in rhinos, because there's a lot to shovel up.

-We want to contain it as much as we can.

-So, why charcoal?

Well, actually, the idea came from my dad.

He used to farm the land here and he used to give it to the cows.

-The ground's very poor in the elements...

-Right.

-..charcoal being one of the natural elements.

So there's not really good nutrients in this land.

No, it's very clay-ey and so it's very poor.

-We've checked with Duncan and he said it's very good...

-Duncan the vet.

-Duncan the vet, yes.

And he says it can't do no harm and it's good for absorbing toxins

in the body and good for the digestion.

-So, a bit of a rhino detox.

-Exactly. The thing is, we've never done it before, so this is a first.

-All right. What do you think we should do?

-Just post it through and see what happens.

-Have you been busily making this charcoal?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

All winter, we've had lots of fires.

All the boys have been really happy, standing around.

Would white rhinos like these normally eat wood anyway?

Would they chew at wood and kind of...?

A lot of the trees in Africa, when they rot down, they'll take some of the bark off and eat the rotten pulp.

-Now, who's this coming up here?

-This is the bull...

-Right.

-..showing some interest.

Having a sniff there. He's sort of suspicious of it, isn't he?

It's a new thing for him.

He's maybe not seen it before. He's a bit curious.

He'll give it a good sniff and then, hopefully, he'll start chewing on it.

The girls are coming up.

Do they tend to follow his lead?

Do you see them kind of working like that?

With these three, it's normally the other way round.

-So the girls will lead him, will they?

-In this situation, yeah.

Normally, the boys are solitary.

They're very suspicious of it.

When you put something new in a rhino enclosure, do you find that they are naturally curious, Adie?

Do they tend to kind of explore things?

They are naturally curious but I expected them to be a bit more stand-offish to start with.

-But they've come straight over. I think the throwing of it in freaked them a little bit.

-Freaked them out.

-They've come right in.

-We did expect the girls to come over.

Especially Razina, she's the most curious and playful and inquisitive.

But Njanu was the first one over. That was a surprise.

-It seems to be going down well, doesn't it?

-Yes.

They're eating it quite nice.

That's really good, really positive.

So, I suppose, really,

we've got to wait and see if it has the desired result for you.

We'll check in the morning and see what they leave with us.

But hopefully, that'll settle their tummies.

As spring progresses and more grass comes through, does that mean

you feed them less hay and less of the hard food?

Exactly. We'll knock the hard food down by maybe half and maybe cut out

a lot of the hay during the day and they'll rely mainly on the grass.

But this time of year, it's nice and green, very lush, and it's going to really upset their tummies.

They're just loving this.

I think your dad might have come up with a great solution here.

-I think he has, yes.

-They're really enjoying it.

This is great. This is really good.

-This is what we wanted.

-Well, I'm delighted that it's been such a...

Well, we'll keep our fingers crossed that it's a successful experiment.

Kev, Adie, thank you. You've got three extremely happy rhinos,

hopefully with more settled stomachs.

Hopefully.

The safari park is home to more than 400 animals, but that's not all.

It also has its very own narrow-gauge steam railway.

And today, I'm going to fulfil a boyhood dream.

I've come down to Longleat Central for a lesson in steam train driving

from railway manager John Hayton. Morning, John, can I step aboard?

You can indeed. Hello, Ben.

OK. Now, I've got all my gear.

I've got my hat, I've got my top.

So, how do we drive a steam train?

Right, OK. Well, briefly, we've got a nice big boiler full of water, which gives us all the steam we want.

-Right.

-That's our gauge to tell us how much water's in the boiler at any one time.

-We mustn't let that get down, otherwise, big problems.

-We'll run out of steam.

Er, fairly simple to get going.

We put it into forward gear, we open that gently, making sure the brakes are off, and away we go.

OK. And do we need to stoke her up?

-Is that the furnace in there?

-Yeah, you can chuck a couple of rounds on there.

OK. So this is just coal, is it?

-It's coal, yeah.

-OK. I'll pop a few of those on there so that we, um, can pick up some speed.

We'll need that for a bit more steam.

And to pull all these carriages.

-Yeah, we've got eight coaches and 150 people on.

-OK.

-Right,

-we're almost ready to go.

-All set. I'll put my hat on.

-That was a bit

of a quicker lesson than you would normally have had. But never mind. Let's see if we're ready.

OK, off we go, then.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Pull that gently towards you.

How much? All the way?

Not all the way, no. No.

-A bit more?

-That's enough.

So, basically, the heat from the furnace heats up the water to create steam.

How does steam then move the train?

Well, the steam... Once you open this regulator, the steam collects.

When you open the valve, the steam then goes down to the cylinders which then move the wheels back and forth.

-It pumps the wheels so they go back and forth.

-Exactly that.

-It's quite a simple technique.

Very simple. Yeah. You can't get anything more simple than steam.

Fantastic. Is this the sort of speed we do?

We're going downhill now. We don't want to go too fast.

Give a whistle - we're coming to a crossing.

-Do I pull it?

-No, just turn it over.

-Turn it.

WHISTLE BLOWS TWICE

Is it two whistles for a...?

-Just a gentle rub on the brake, just to about there.

-Is that enough?

Yes. You can feel us slowing down now.

That's when we go downhill, just to slow us down a little bit.

-That's right, yeah.

-What's her top speed?

-I don't know. We've never tried.

-You've never opened her up totally.

-I should imagine it would do 30-40 miles an hour.

-Really?

-Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

John, what is it about steam trains that is so romantic to people?

-Well, you're giving it life, aren't you?

-Yeah.

When you light the fire in the morning,

you're giving it life.

-A couple of toots on the whistle as we go into the tunnel.

-OK.

TOOT! TOOT!

That's fantastic, isn't it?

-Yeah, you're enjoying this.

-I am.

John, how many more rides today?

Er, we'll be very busy today.

Probably another 20, something like that.

-Yeah.

-20 more, wow!

-Not for me. I've got some paper to push around.

-OK. Not for you.

I think I could be quite busy.

At Pets' Corner there's a slippery puzzle facing head of section Darren Beasley.

Several weeks ago, he was given a corn snake by an owner who could no longer look after it.

The snake is seven years old, in good health, and has been well looked after.

But Darren is missing one crucial piece of information.

This particular corn snake, it's got a pet name of MC.

MC has come to us with a day-by-day diary of when it's eaten, when it's sloughed, when it's escaped,

when its temperature's been wrong - everything. With this snake,

we've got all the information other than whether it's a boy or a girl.

With things like snakes, boys and girls look very similar.

Some animals have a size difference.

Snakes can be difficult, especially if they're not fully grown.

We actually have plans for getting more of this species of snake - more corn snakes.

We want to keep boys and girls separate at the moment.

If we house several corn snakes together, we need to know they're all boys or they're all girls.

The most common way to sex a snake is with a probe.

It's a reliable method, but it is invasive.

Sarah Clayson is Pets' Corner's resident expert.

You do have to be careful, because it is quite a delicate area

and you don't want to cause any damage inside the snake.

Darren is always on the look-out for other methods that are less stressful for the animals.

We're going to try a theory out. We've got this lovely skin here.

I don't know if you can see, on the underside of the snakeskin here, there's ridges.

These are a bit like a caterpillar track on a digger.

When we get down to this area, this is where the vent area is.

You see, the scales are no longer single scales - they form pairs.

They're in pairs all the way down to the tip of the tail.

Supposedly, because the boys have got very long tails, if you count the scales,

if it's under about 130 scales, it's going to be a girl, because it's got a short tail.

Above 140, it's going to be a boy. Anywhere in the middle, you're not really going to know.

Um, so, we've had a quick count of these ourselves.

And, um... I've made it slightly under 130, so I think it's going to be a girl.

We're going to find out if this is a secure way of sexing a snake.

So if we get the results now with Sarah probing

and it turns out to be a girl, we know this is a good way of doing it.

Though the corn snake is a constrictor and therefore not venomous, it still has a nasty bite.

It's a little bit feisty.

We've been handling it regularly to try to get it used to being handled.

But I think it is going to be a bit wriggly with the probing.

It hasn't had anything like that done before.

It will probably be a bit unsure.

It's beautiful. These are captive-bred.

There are lots of different colour phases.

They come from North America, or southern North America.

The body comes rather fat and muscly down here.

All of a sudden, it narrows here to the tail. This is the tail here.

That area there. We're going in to the vent just in here.

Don't look, Mr Snake, don't look.

-Ready?

-Yeah.

You OK there?

What Sarah's doing, she's inserting the vent down one side.

There are two holes there, two openings.

She's inserting it and counting how many scales it goes down.

If it goes down a long way, it's a boy, because that's where all his bits are stored.

If it only goes down a very short way, it means there isn't a big hole there.

You see how far that went in.

-Sarah's now going to say whether it's a boy or a girl.

-Well,

going on that, I was a little bit surprised.

It went down a lot further than I thought.

So I'm going to say...boy.

The probe doesn't give the result Darren was expecting.

There was a small problem here.

Sarah counted the scales and got a boy or a girl - somewhere in between.

I counted the scales and actually made it a female.

I think Sarah's quite right, I think this is a boy.

And I think the snake scale-counting theory will have to be put on the shelf for another day.

We'll try perhaps in future ones.

But we think this is a little boy.

Happily for Darren and Sarah, this little boy doesn't seem too traumatised by the probe.

When these snakes...

When any of our constrictors get a bit agitated or a bit chuffed off with being handled, they tense up.

They go rigid. He's quite relaxed.

Bearing in mind what procedure's just happened to him, he seems quite happy, actually.

The corn snake may be calm, but safari boat guides Stuart and Luke are getting a little nervous.

The day of their sponsored parachute jump has arrived.

They've come to the Joint Services Parachute Centre at Netheravon to take the plunge.

They are raising money for the Diane Fossey Fund, which is trying

to preserve the critically endangered mountain gorilla.

There are just 650 of these magnificent creatures left in the wild, so every penny counts.

They'll be jumping in tandem with the Red Devils, Britain's most famous parachute display team.

While Luke and Stuart are fearful first-timers...

Just hold your hands open.

..for Corporal Billy Blanchard, it's jump number 1,086!

The first 100 were quite scary, actually.

Then the next 400 after that I was a bit nervous.

Now it's like getting off a bus.

The most important bit of equipment

is the actual tandem parachute itself,

situated in the bottom half of the container is the main parachute.

It's about 365 square foot.

It's massive. It's designed to bring two people safely down to the ground.

In the unlikely event that the main parachute doesn't work,

we have a reserve parachute situated in the top half of the container.

The Red Devils are part of the Parachute Regiment,

which was originally formed to drop soldiers deep into enemy territory during the Second World War.

The display team was set up 40 years ago, in the 1960s, and Luke feels safe in their hands.

I thought I'd be nervous, but I'm actually not at the minute.

I'm quite excited. I imagine when I get in the plane, it will change.

But at the minute, I'm quite relaxed, actually - surprisingly.

Hearing the safety brief's starting to make it feel a bit real. A little bit apprehensive, but...

Stu may be. I'm fine.

I'm just honest.

Not that comfortable, really. It's all right. It's a bit warm, though.

I'm getting a little bit nervous now.

Luke will be strapped to Corporal Mark Scobie for his tandem jump.

You're going to be in freefall for 40-45 seconds, but with the whole sensory overload

of actually jumping out an aircraft, it is over really quickly and will probably feel about 10 or 15.

Relax, breathe as normal, don't try and hold your breath,

and try to absorb as much of the experience as you can, because it's over really quickly.

OK? And breathe as normal. A lot of people hold their breath for 50 seconds!

You can breathe perfectly.

Although the jump itself should be fun, deputy head warden Ian Turner

knows it's a serious business for the lads.

'It's not a stepping off the bus job.'

It's jumping out of a plane, and they're doing it for the gorillas. They've raised loads of money so far.

I'm proud of them.

We'll be there when Luke and Stuart face the 12,000ft drop and find out

if they have the courage to step out of the plane or not.

Back at Longleat, the big day has arrived for the park's ten new African white-backed vultures.

They're about to be released into their purpose-built aviary.

Well, we're really chuffed to say that the enclosure's ready and it's the big release day.

We're all really looking forward to it.

The birds have been kept indoors for a while now.

We have to let them out and see what happens.

We're a little bit concerned, because when they've been kept in a confined area, if you like,

and all of a sudden they're going to go out the door and see freedom,

they may well crash into the fence, which we don't know how it's going to stand up to a vulture hitting it.

It's quite strong, but they've got sharp beaks, as well, and we're worried they might chew through it.

To mark the occasion, a distinguished guest has come down

to help with the release - Lord Bath himself.

Hello.

-Do they like each other or hate being put in together?

-They bicker and squabble.

-They have their spots on the perches, and if someone moves too close, they're a bit...

-Quite human!

They do flap about a bit.

I've been to places where vultures are flapping around the road, in Colombia and Venezuela and things,

so I have seen, but whether they were this kind, that I'm not sure.

Building the enclosure was a team effort, so keepers from different sections

have come to take part in Lord Bath's grand opening.

The special thing about this one is it was conceived by

those who actually work here, and constructed by, so it's a home-made product.

The official name for the aviary will be The Venue.

So it is time it to declare The Venue...

open.

That's a relief! I thought it wasn't going to open.

The vultures need no encouragement to take to the air.

Happily for Mark, they head straight for the perches he's built.

So which part of Africa do these come from? Is it Africa?

Yes, they are an African species. Mainly a plains bird.

Will you find a mass of them, or...?

Yeah, probably. They're nature's scavenger.

They're the cleaner, if you like.

Wherever there's dead animals, there'll be vultures in their hundreds.

When I was in South America, I remember seeing a dead donkey,

and driving by, suddenly a flock of these great big vultures were taking to the air.

What about an amorous vulture? How do they behave?

That's something I know nothing about, because they're new to us.

Until they establish themselves and we see some sort of mating and pairing up,

I don't really know what to expect for that.

Despite their fearsome looks, Lord Bath hopes they'll be an asset to the park.

We want to give everyone nice dreams at night.

I'm not sure if this is the right way but, anyway, we must do this as an experiment to see.

And there's plenty of things to have nice dreams about, so a little blend of both -

the spice of excitement as well as the cuddly ones.

Mark Tye helped design the enclosure and supervised the build.

Now he can enjoy watching the vultures settle in.

It's been nice to see them actually get up and get control of their wings and see them moving around.

They look so much bigger when they're actually out flying around than when they're up on the perch.

They've got a very nice character.

They're not just a bird that sits there and looks a bit bland.

They have got a facial expression, if you like. They do look different.

They're enjoyable to watch, especially when they feed.

It's quite something else.

We'll be back later in the series to see what happens when the vultures are given their first full feed.

At the Joint Services Parachute Centre in Netheravon,

safari boat guides Stuart and Luke are about to take the plunge.

They've raised over £10,000 and pledged to complete a parachute jump

in aid of endangered gorillas in Africa.

Despite their fears, there's no going back now.

The freefall takes them to a speed of 120mph, straight down.

Once the parachute opens, they can breathe a sigh of relief.

But there's still the tricky business of landing in one piece.

Nice and high, nice and high.

Stop, stop.

That was absolutely brilliant. Honestly.

I feel sick now.

-Did a good job. Superb.

-The best bit was the skydiving at the beginning.

When you first go out, you are so scared it is unbelievable, but within about a second or so,

you realise you're not going to die, or maybe not yet, so you sort of chill out.

It's really, really good fun.

The other bit of fun is when you open up the parachute.

You just suddenly stop, and cos it's tandem, I'm not expecting it, and all of a sudden you just stop.

Yeah.

-Well done.

-Absolutely fantastic!

-Jump up, mate.

Fortunately, there were no broken bones.

Stuart, too, has got down safely.

The freefall was really, really quick.

I didn't realise how quickly it was going to go. That was...

I enjoyed that bit.

-Job's a good 'un.

-We did it.

Excellent job there. Well done, Stu.

I like this man a lot. He took good care of me there.

Scared me half to death, spinning around and stuff, but it was OK.

Luke and Stuart have successfully landed more than £10,000 to help save gorillas in the wild.

It's all in a day's work for a Longleat keeper.

Kate and I have come up to the giraffe house

to meet two of Longleat's dromedary camels, Vera and Caroline.

Not forgetting head of section Andy Hayton. Andy, they're fantastic, these camels.

What are we feeding them now?

This is just their evening feed - bran and some nuts that we feed the majority of the hoof stock here.

-How are you getting on over there, Kate?

-I've got a very hungry camel. Which one's this?

-This is Vera.

-Dromedaries differ from the Bactrian camels because they've got one hump.

-That's right.

What are the other differences?

Basically, where they live.

-The Bactrians will come from Asia, really cold climes.

-Yeah.

These - Arabia, North Africa.

These are the ones that are used for racing and things like that.

Am I right in thinking there are actually no camels left in their indigenous places?

No, all the dromedaries are pretty much domesticated now,

apart from the Australian ones that were taken out there when they were trekking around Australia.

These were the best things to take around there.

Animals escaped or were released, and now there's a good wild population out in Australia.

-But they wouldn't have occurred in Australia naturally?

-No, no.

They're just one of those things that gets dumped on Australia.

Cane toads and camels!

They're clearly incredibly adaptable and cope amazingly well with very, very dry conditions.

Yeah, absolutely. And they do really well here.

You don't want them having too much food because,

like most of our animals, they're designed to live on not a lot.

But these two are a real couple of characters.

Vera is pretty soppy, and Caroline's like the bully out of the two.

I love their eyelashes.

-Huge!

-Yeah. They're just totally adapted for sand.

They've got a third eyelid.

These things can live out in sandstorms and stuff like that.

These eyelashes would protect the eye from getting any sand in them if there was sand blowing about?

Yeah, there's a third eyelid, as well, which acts a bit like your windscreen wiper.

You're about to be invaded by a rogue llama.

I'm sorry, this isn't for you. Andy, thank you very much indeed.

We shall leave these two girls to their dinner.

That's all we've got time for today, but here's what's coming up on the next Animal Park.

White rhino bull Winston becomes a sperm donor.

Will artificial insemination allow him to become a father at last?

The Pere David deer are hovering on the edge of extinction. Can Longleat help save the species?

The bat cave needs a make-over, but first Darren and his troops must round up the bats.

Oh! Dropped it!

And we'll go on a stake-out to see the lions tucking in to a special midnight feast.

Now Kabir is trying to take it away.

There's going to be a tug-of-war, by the looks of things here.

So don't miss the next Animal Park.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2006

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