Episode 2 Animal Park

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

And I'm Kate Humble and we're on the grand staircase here at Longleat House.

Last year over 300,000 visitors came to visit the ancestral home

of the Marquess of Bath and to see the fabulous treasures it contains.

We'll bring you stories from the house, the safari park and the estate in the series.

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

Mum goes ballistic

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

Down in Pets Corner the otters have had babies, and Darren is bursting to spread the news.

You can tell by the grin. It means I've won the lottery or there's something better.

But it's a different story for Babs, the elderly rhino.

She's taken a turn for the worse.

She's lost a lot of strength in her back legs.

So much so that she collapses, does that frequently.

That's got to be pretty painful and pretty distressing for her.

But now we're going up to the lion house where last month Luna gave birth to three cubs.

Sadly, two of them were found dead within the first couple of days.

It's not unusual. In the wild only one in five cubs survive

into adulthood and this was Luna's first litter.

But she still has one.

It's a little girl and this was always the strongest cub.

She's now six weeks old, and keeper Bob Trollope is delighted with her progress.

As you can see, cubby, which we haven't got a name for yet,

is, er, getting bigger.

Mum's as grumpy as ever.

Which is really good, because that is what you want her to be doing.

You want her to see us off every time we come in.

Which is really good, she is doing everything

we would expect her to do.

CUB MEWLS

She is getting fond of her voice a little bit more now.

To tell you the truth, to start with she was a little bit slow

on the uptake.

When we were moving them from pen to pen, just so we could tidy up,

she has this problem with following Mum.

She doesn't want to do it.

On a few occasions we've had to go in there and pick her up and put her in.

Which is fine when they're small,

but when they start to get a bit more adventurous

and their teeth and claws are getting a bit sharper, it's not so nice.

It may not be nice, but today it's got to be done.

The time has come for the cub to be given the first round of her inoculations.

Just like our domestic cats, these lions need protection against a number of killer diseases.

Vet Duncan Williams is here to give the injection, while Craig Faggeter

is the keeper who's been volunteered to go in first. He knows what to do.

Basically you just go in there, don't hesitate, and just grab it.

And you just make sure you don't get your hands caught.

Hands away from the sharp end!

CUB MEWLS

CUB GRUNTS

They can turn on you quite quickly.

You must make sure you've got a good grip - if not you'll get hurt.

Now Duncan can give the injection.

This one's for cat flu, which is particularly dangerous to the very young.

We will have to repeat it in a couple of weeks' time,

just the same as you do with an ordinary kitten,

so that it boosts their immunity.

The cub also needs a dose of worming solution.

The cub doesn't seem too upset, but Mum is furious!

However, the whole operation is over in less than a minute, so Luna can be let back with her baby in no time.

Brian Kent, the keeper in charge, is very happy with how she's behaved.

Luna's a very good mum, yeah. Doing everything well, looking after the cub brilliantly.

No problem.

She's bound to be stressed because you split her up from her cub.

So it's going to be like that. But we do it as quick as we can.

At the moment, the whole family is being kept separately

but in adjacent pens.

With the cub so young it could be dangerous to let Kabir,

the father, get too close.

Brian reckons this arrangement is fine with him.

Dad is a bit of a wuss, I think.

Cub comes running up and he'll run off.

I don't know why, but I don't know.

Typical male, I suppose.

On the other side of Kabir is the other female of his pride,

Yendi, who is Luna's sister.

She also has a new cub, though this one is two months older.

She's another girl and has been named Malaika - which means angel in Swahili.

Soon the time will come to unite the whole family,

though Bob knows that could be a difficult day.

Really and truly, the first time they go out

is the worst time for us because you don't know what's going to happen.

There's always that possibility that they might get in a bit of a scuffle, or whatever, and get hurt.

That's always the worst time.

Once they have been out for a few times and they know their little escape routes

and where they have got to run to, they'll be fine.

It's all part of the learning process, isn't it?

I should imagine Mum, Luna, will be very good at protecting.

Later in the series we'll be there to see what happens

when the family meet for the first time out in the open.

But for now Bob is in no rush for his new babies to grow up too fast.

This is great fun, yeah. I love coming in here and just watching the cubs.

And to have a nice little family unit, this is a new pride starting.

What we set out to do.

Kabir has come in, he's done his stuff, he's proven himself.

KABIR ROARS

Let's hope we can have many more cubs.

It's been a number of years since Longleat's herd of pygmy goats had any kids.

The problem is that there's no red-blooded male here.

So a few months ago arrangements were made to borrow a billy.

His name was Jonjo, he came from Glamorgan and he's every inch a stud.

After two short weeks of unbridled passion it was time for Jonjo to move on to pastures new.

Now I've come to meet senior keeper Bev Evans to find out about the consequences.

So, obviously, you're looking for distended bellies, which a few of them, especially that one...

Yes, Ali is slightly, yeah, round.

Are there any other signs that you can have a look for?

Change in behaviour, eating more, quietening down a little bit more.

The udder teats get a little bit more enlarged, that kind of thing.

So are they all girls in here?

No, we've seven girls, but we've our three boys as well.

Poppadom just here, Charlie and Cracker just behind us.

-This one behind us.

-They're castrated males.

About six years ago we decided to stop breeding here at Longleat

just because our numbers were getting too much.

But since then we've decided, we've only got 10,

and they are getting older, so we'll just increase the numbers a bit.

Potentially, how many could each goat have if they were pregnant?

Normally it's a single one, but twins is not uncommon and sometimes triplets as well.

So say, we've got seven females, we could have 14 kids here.

Which, added to the 10 you've already got could bring you up to 24, or so.

-That's a lot of pygmy goats!

-It's a lot of goats!

And, I have to ask you about the colours, obviously there's complete mix here.

We've got white ones, darker ones and speckled ones,

-will you have a complete variety of colours again?

-We hope so.

The billy goat, Jonjo, he's a tri-coloured and hopefully

genetically, he'll throw us a few colours. Yeah, definitely.

So, if you haven't done this for six years, is this a whole new thing for you?

Yeah, sure, it is. But I'm hoping it will go fine.

They normally have a very good natural birth.

In the past, you know, emergency caesareans are needed,

just because of their small frame, really.

We've tried to do is keep their weight off so the baby's quite small, so it should go fine.

Will you have to adapt their diet at all?

Will you have to do things when we find out if they really are pregnant or not?

We will hopefully find out soon if they are really pregnant or not

and up their diet just before. Some concentrated nuts and things

and also certainly afterwards when they are lactating as well.

-What is the gestation period for a goat?

-Five months, so not long at all.

D'you think there's any likelihood that you may have to hand-rear any?

If one has triplets we might have to supplement the third baby.

-Possibly, but we would like not to, to be honest.

-Leave it natural.

-Very true.

Fingers crossed it all goes well and we'll keep you posted on the progress of the pygmy goats.

Last year in Pets Corner,

Romeo was brought in as a mate for Rosie the Asian short-clawed otter.

Now something wonderful has happened

and the keeper in charge, Darren Beasley, is over the moon.

Some great news at Pets Corner, you can tell by the cheesy grin, can't you?

Either I've won the lottery or there's something even better.

After, I don't know, over 30 years of waiting

we've at last got some baby otters again in Pets Corner.

Mum and Dad have poked their heads out, I bet you can't see.

They've just come out to see, they've heard a voice. This is great news,

because what's happening, little Romeo's been taking the food to Mum.

She's been looking after the babies - nursing them, giving them milk - and now, I'm so excited,

they've started coming out for some food,

which means that the babies are hopefully developing nicely

and they feel brave enough to leave them.

Despite Darren's excitement,

the truth is that no-one has actually seen the otter pups yet.

They don't even know how many there are.

Otters are born blind, and the parents keep them

safely tucked away inside the den for the first few weeks of life.

The keepers mustn't disturb the babies,

because if they're contaminated with human scents,

it could cause the parents to abandon or even kill the pups.

So Rob Savin needs to be very careful when he cleans the house.

We think there might be three

because it's just really an educated guess.

They're supposed to have between two and six young.

It has been known for them to have seven at one time.

But it's normal for them to have three or four.

In the hope of getting a first peek at the new babies,

Darren strapped his camcorder to a beam over-looking the den.

He turned it on, and then left it to record to the end of the tape.

It's a hit-and-miss method, and the red colour is from the heat lamp that keeps the place cosy.

The problem is, we don't want to go in there and disturb them because they're so precious.

We don't want Mum and Dad running off and leaving them and not giving them any milk.

This is a big breakthrough.

We've waited 30 years to have baby otters here again.

I'm so proud and chuffed that it's happened, but I would love to know how many are down in there.

Not a great deal of movement going on. We might have to let the camera carry on running and put it in.

But I'll have to watch it on fast forward because

four hours of a board and a nice warm night house is not exactly prime-time evening viewing for me!

In fact, Darren's spy camera never did catch any sneak previews

and everyone just had to wait.

We'll be back later when Rosie and Romeo

are ready to show us the first baby otters at Longleat in over 30 years.

While Longleat is famous for its exotic species,

there are also plenty of more familiar animals here.

The estate includes a number of working farms,

and for centuries the open parkland has been grazed by sheep.

Right now the farmers are getting ready for the lambing season.

We're out in the park with sheep farmers Simon Baggs and Steve Crossman and you've gathered

all the sheep in here, Simon, what's the plan?

The plan is, we're going to take the triplets out and take them back down

to the other farm and leave the singles and the twins here.

But they're all adults, what d'you mean triplets?

We had them scanned in January and the triplets are marked green

on their backs, the twins are blue and the singles are red.

So these are all expectant ewes, you know exactly what's in all of them.

So, what do we need to do now to help?

If Steve and Ben go down the bottom...

-OK.

-..to the other pen and bring them up, we'll sort them out.

-OK.

-So we're going to basically herd them.

-Yeah, bring them back up.

-Go and be like a sheepdog!

OK. So, Steve, presumably we're going to use

all of the different gates that are here to shuffle them through.

-Yeah. We'll go through into this gate.

-OK, have you any idea how many? A couple of hundred?

-I'd say there's a couple of hundred at least.

-OK, they've all been scanned,

That basically involves...? It's like a woman that's pregnant, is it?

Exactly the same as an ultrascan.

They come in, they've got a specialist crate set up that they run through.

The chap sits in there and he scans the sheep and he then marks them according to what's inside them.

So that's the colours, the sheep that have triplets are coloured...

-Green. Blue is twins and red are singles.

-Right.

Presumably they're expecting relatively soon.

-We don't want to put them under stress, we'll walk round nice and quiet.

-Yeah.

And then hopefully that gate will be up there nicely and we'll just....

The others will be waiting to separate them.

-All we've got to do is quietly move up behind them.

-Right.

-And make sure they go up in.

Fantastic.

-OK, Simon, so this one's going back out into the park.

-In the park.

-And that one.

All the reds and blues go out there, because the blues are the twins and the reds are the singles.

OK, so why is it only the triplets that you're taking out? Oh, here's a green coming!

-Yeah.

-Sorry, I've got to change the gate quickly!

-And back again. And again.

-Cos that one's a black and and that one's not in lamb.

-OK.

-So basically....

-It's quite stressful.

Yeah, basically we are bringing them in, the triplets, because obviously

we lamb outside so it's better to have them in so we can foster on to ewes that have only got one.

OK, so you won't allow one sheep to look after three. There's a green.

You can do, but it's better, you know, if you've got some singles

-it's better to let the ewe have another lamb and have twins on her.

-Right.

And presumably it's better for the lambs, too, is it?

-That's right, because the ewe's only got two udders.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-So it's better to... Hang on.

-That's a blue.

-It's better....

There's a green coming, green coming!

Go on, ah! Well caught!

-Go on, go on.

-That's it, well done.

-Yeah.

Can't see any more greens.

-Here's one coming now.

-OK.

That's it. Here you go.

-That's the lot.

-That's the lot.

-Wow.

Good bit of sorting, so now all we've got to do is load them into the trailer...

-Yeah, into the trailer and take them to the other farm.

-Simon, thank you very much for letting us help.

-Good job, Steve and Ben.

-Thank you.

Thank you for filtering them through and let's hope that the lambing season goes very well.

-Thank you very much.

-Thanks very much.

-Thanks.

While for many of the animals of Longleat, new life is on the way,

for others, it's a different story.

Babs the white rhino is getting on.

In fact, at 37 she's one of the oldest rhinos in the country.

The years have caught up with her, and as well as suffering from

an uncomfortable skin complaint, she's also plagued by arthritis.

It's getting worse and is now causing great pain.

Vet Duncan Williams has been monitoring her condition

and what he saw a couple of weeks ago was not encouraging.

Is she going to come and say hello?

There you go, darling.

She doesn't look very steady at all, she looks very weak.

-It's when she turns.

-Yeah.

When she twists, certainly in the middle of the week,

she was actually collapsing, she was actually, bang, hitting the deck.

We're doing everything we can, nursing her through it, aren't we?

We're not, you know... We're making life as comfortable as possible.

Supplement her, prevent the arthritis from becoming too serious,

just keeping a close eye on her.

It's been a long road for Babs.

She was born in 1969 out in the open bush of South Africa.

She came to Britain as a youngster and arrived here at Longleat

13 years ago.

She was always even-tempered and good-natured,

so in recent times when the three new youngsters arrived from Africa,

she fell in to the role of protective grandma to help them settle in

But the most unique thing about Babs is how much she enjoys contact with her keepers.

For deputy head warden Ian Turner that's something really special.

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

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

It's just where she's getting a bit of a senior citizen. Age is coming in, I'm afraid.

Normally all this sort of stuff, you see... She is flinching there, aren't you?

Normally as soon as you call her she will come over,

there's a couple of days where she's not bothered to.

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

He can see if she's looking ill by the signs of illness. But it's when she's not being her normal self.

But now Babs has taken a turn for the worse.

Today Duncan the vet was called and he's found her condition badly deteriorated.

She just basically hasn't been herself.

She's been very dull, very slow.

Her skin - she's got lots of multiple infections, but the main thing we've found is she's lost

a lot of strength in her back legs, so much so that she kind of collapses.

She does that frequently, especially if she's turning sharp.

It's the sort of thing - we can't let her go on and on because

we don't want to come in and find her collapsed totally and suffering.

There's now only one way to free Babs from pain.

Duncan has just left head warden Keith Harris.

They had a very difficult decision to make.

It's at the stage where it's difficult to walk and she's struggles to get up in the morning.

So she can't go out with the other rhinos,

and you can see she gets upset when the others go out without her.

And we've been able to control the pain up till now, but we don't feel

that we can keep doing this because the pain seems to be outstripping the painkillers.

Each day, through the keepers, we've been monitoring her closely, and then

on Duncan's visits, we've been again watching her closely,

and we've just had a meeting together.

I think it's collectively thought that really she's had enough now.

We've had to take the decision to euthanase her today.

At the end the day, we can't treat old age, I'm afraid - it comes to us all.

So, I think one of the biggest criteria we try to take is quality of life.

We could be selfish and keep her going for our wants and needs,

and we have to try and banish those thoughts.

And it is very hard but I think, at the end the day,

you know, we can say that we have given her a very good life.

Duncan has been the safari park vet for eight years,

and in that time, he's made many visits to the rhino house.

Today will be the last call he will make on Babs.

Earlier this week, I popped in and she had two massive grazes on her flank,

where I think she had fallen in the night - fallen against the bars.

That has got to be pretty painful and pretty distressing for her.

The bottom line is we don't want her to suffer, and that is why we've made the decision.

So now, to carry out that decision, Babs will be sedated with a dart.

Then Duncan will be able to administer a painless overdose of anaesthetic.

Well, the main danger really is using the Immobilon because it is very dangerous to humans.

Rhino skin is, in parts, almost two inches thick, and it is very difficult to inject and dart.

We should have no trouble getting it into her with a dart gun -

it will be powerful enough to fire through, but we just need a very long needle.

But the hardest job falls to Tim Yeo, the keeper in charge of the rhinos.

He has been caring for Babs for the last 13 years.

Now he must fire the sedative dart that will send her off to sleep.

It's not a very nice thing to be doing, but it's...

but it's, um... You know, it's got to be done, I think.

You have got to go and do something positively,

and as professionally as you can. But you don't want to do it, you know.

You don't want to do this at all.

However much you as a person dislike - this is the worst bit of the job.

The team can't put it off any longer.

They must do what is best for Babs.

We'll be back in the rhino house a little later on.

Of all the world's mammals almost half of the species are nocturnal.

Bats for example, come out mainly at night.

So, to keep Longleat's 15 Egyptian fruit bats happy, they live in an artificial cave that's usually nice

and dark, except when it's time for us to do some work in there.

-I've come down to the bat cave with an important delivery for keeper Jo Hawthorne. Hi, Jo.

-Hi, Ben.

-Now, you're doing an experiment with the bats, is that right?

-I am.

I'm doing an experiment as part of my coursework at college to identify exactly which foods bats prefer.

And the simplest way to do that is to put it up?

-It is. Exactly. On here we've got all their favourite food.

-Right.

Which is a mixture of apples...

Cantaloupe melon, we've got banana...

-Just slide them on here?

-Just slide them on the hooks.

So, what's your course - what does it involve?

It's basically coursework over two years,

studying different species. And of course bats are my favourites.

I know! You have a bit of a weakness, don't you?

-I do. So any excuse to do anything on the bat side, that's what I've been doing.

-Do we just leave this here?

Yes, we leave that here and we need to actually pull it up a little bit.

OK. Shall I do that?

-Yeah, if you keep going...

-Yeah.

-Keep going.

Yes, about there. That's fine.

-OK. I noticed there was actually a big piece of melon there.

-A lovely piece here of honeydew melon.

Ooh, I have a weakness for honeydew! Where are we going to put that?

If we go and put it on the platform over here...

-Right. Shall I take that?

-Yeah, you can take that.

Then, hopefully, we have some very keen members that actually prefer this to anything else.

-Just on here?

-Put it here, yes.

-OK.

-And the idea is...

-We'll just let them do their thing.

Step back, and hopefully the ones that have got this passion for it will come down and have a feed.

So they're obviously hanging back a little bit.

-Are we scaring them off?

-No, they'll take a while. There you go.

They're just waiting to see if we've finished hanging it up.

You can see the tongue - the one with the little face.

That's for extracting nectar in the wild. They use their tongue.

-They've got very sweet little faces!

-They are, they're lovely. They really are gorgeous.

They are the nicest-looking of all the bats.

It's why they're called flying foxes -

they are foxy with the long nose and muzzle. Little round eyes.

And these incredible wings. That bat's using its wing

to clasp onto that fruit.

They've got two hooks on the fore bit of their wing,

and you can see that they're really rather long.

-They'll use those for climbing.

-Right.

And for attaching on precarious positions like that.

-They don't mind eating together, do they?

-No, no. Not at all.

It is a bit of who gets to the canteen first and helps themselves.

It's great. Oh, look, we've got one over here now.

-Ah, there you go.

-Look at how he's holding his wing around the whole thing.

Yes, once they've found something they really like, it is mine, you know. You see his ears going.

They're moving all over the place.

Listening out for all the other sounds.

Bat's rely on hearing more than anything so he's listening for the others

to see if they're coming to get his piece of melon.

No matter what they're doing, hanging up, eating, feeding, wherever they are, their ears are going constantly.

-Absolutely fascinating. Jo, thank you very much.

-That's all right.

We'll leave them to their fruit salad.

For over four centuries, Lord Bath's family has been filling Longleat House with all kinds of treasure.

Amongst the lavish trappings of great wealth there's fine art, and exquisite antiques.

Many of these are not only priceless, but also quite extraordinary.

When we left Longleat last year, this display case was empty, waiting for its display.

I'm here with Claire Mound, head guide at Longleat.

It is a magnificent display, Claire.

-Isn't it wonderful?

-It really is. Tell me about these pieces.

These pieces were made for Augustus the Strong of Saxony,

and they were part of a big menagerie that Meissen made -

big animals for his menagerie, and these are just a few of them.

So Meissen was a sort of master porcelain...

They were the first factory that could make white porcelain in Europe.

Augustus actually wanted the man who was doing it to make gold,

but he managed to come up with white porcelain instead.

And they're white, very dramatic, but they're cracked

because they hadn't mastered the art of firing huge pieces, so they're not because we dropped them!

Wow. They are huge. What on earth would you have done with them?

You usually get nice little bits of porcelain and put them on a mantelpiece,

but there's no way you could get one of those on.

Possibly not in this house.

No, we used to display them until quite recently in the very long room upstairs, the saloon.

Then a few years ago they were put away, and they've been out of sight for some years.

Now we've got them on display here.

-They cause a few problems, I gather, because they are so heavy.

-They are very heavy.

Fortunately they tested the shelves for weight before they started, because...

They put big sacks of sand on them and the shelves bent.

So if they hadn't tested them, this lot would have just... Oh, it doesn't bear thinking about!

We are now, we hope, reasonably safe.

Well, it's great to see them here.

They are absolutely magnificent.

Although I have to say, the elephant -

a little odd anatomy.

A little strange - rather short legs.

And a strange sort of watering can for a trunk.

Yes, you could use him for dual purpose.

-Claire, thank you.

-Thank you, Kate.

-We've lots more coming on the programme.

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.

Keelan the python is a living mystery.

He hasn't eaten a thing in over a year.

And we'll be there for the historic moment when Romeo

and Rosie finally bring their new babies out for the very first time.

But now we're going back to the rhino house, where the time has come to do what everyone has been dreading.

Babs has been suffering terribly from arthritis.

She's in pain, she can't go out, and now she keeps falling over.

There's nothing more that vet Duncan Williams can do, so the decision has been taken to put Babs to sleep.

As the head keeper for the rhinos it's up to Tim Yeo to fire the sedative dart.

Once the sedative has taken effect, Duncan will administer an overdose of anaesthetic that will stop her heart.

Tim covers her eyes to keep her calm.

After 13 years, this is the last thing he can do for her.

And a moment later, Babs is asleep.

Duncan has the anaesthetics ready.

It will all be over in just a few seconds.

Here, Ade, just hold these two.

It's a peaceful end to her suffering.

Staff from all over the park have silently slipped in to pay their last respects.

Her breathing stopped when we put in the third injection.

I'm, just making sure there's no heartbeat.

I think it's safe to say that she's...

she's no longer with us.

This is probably the worst part of the whole job.

The only thing you can think in the back of your mind is it's for her own good.

You still don't want to do it because we've looked after her for 13 years.

She's 37 years old.

She was in so much pain, and the thing is with Babs, she likes company.

She liked to be stroked and she was finding that a pain.

Every time you touched her, she was flinching and jumping.

She wasn't happy and you've got to put that at the back of your mind and think what's best for her.

A lot's gone on the last few seasons up in Wolf Wood.

In a well-structured wolf pack, it's only the alpha male and the alpha female who are supposed to breed.

But, for two years, a power struggle raged to determine who would be the top dog,

and it was only after that issue was finally resolved that the pack became stable enough to raise young.

There were eight cubs last year, born in a den dug under a tree.

We enjoyed watching their progress through spring and summer.

But now, as they approach adulthood, what's happened to status quo?

Pack behaviour is most clear when there's food about.

I'm out in the wolf enclosure,

with keeper Bob Trollope, and it's feed time, as you can probably gather.

-Where shall I put this, Bob?

-Just up here a bit, Kate.

I think that'll be fine just there.

-About there?

-Yeah.

-OK.

So they get a whole carcass, rather than chunks?

They do. It's all to do with the structure of feed.

-Right.

-So the pack can maintain that structure.

-OK. So we need to get back in now, do we?

-We do, yes.

-Right.

Let them come towards us.

And the van - we'll pull this back a little bit, will we?

-We'll pull away a little bit and then we can stop and watch them.

-OK.

Now, looking at them,

you can't really tell which were last year's cubs.

No, it's very difficult. They grow so quickly.

-They're about 10 months old now.

-Yes.

All right, Craig.

Really big, proper wolf pack, isn't it?

It is, yeah.

-So...

-All right, mate!

..when they come in to feed...

No-one's come in yet.

..you'd expect the dominant male in first?

Well, you'd expect so, but often Zeva, the omega animal does get in there first.

-So the omega animal is the lowest in the pack.

-Yes, the very lowest.

I sometimes think she gets in there quickly to get as much as she can before she gets chased off.

-Right.

-But then the dominant animals will come in.

There she is, just walking by it.

-She's the one with the floppy ear?

-Yup.

-Yeah, OK.

-Just having a sniff.

They always seem to check it out before they go in there, just in case it suddenly jumps up,

-fights with them or runs off.

-Right.

-Because they didn't kill it...

-No, no.

-Just to be careful.

-So, when you're watching, how has the dynamic changed in the pack

since the cubs came along, and obviously now are, to all intents and purposes, adults?

Well, it's changed a bit because they've had to integrate into the older pack.

-Right.

-So they've had to find their place.

-Yes.

-And you do get a bit of squabbling.

You'll notice in a minute, when they all get tucked in, there'll be a lot of noise.

A lot of biting, a lot of scrapping.

But it's intimidation, more than anything.

-The dominant male last year was...?

-Two Tips.

-Two Tips.

Yes, and he still is the alpha male.

Right, OK. And how can you tell that?

Can you tell that from looking at the feed?

Quite often in a huddle like that, you can tell - look for the tails.

If the tail's high, then that's quite a high-ranking animal.

You can see his tail's right up compared to the others.

And also, he will go over and intimidate them - he'll jump on them, stand over the top of them...

-Right.

-And if he's doing his job properly,

-then they will submit to him - they will cower.

-Right, OK.

And the way that the pack works is that there is always one dominant male and one dominant female?

Yes, always. And then it works down the ladder to the lowest.

Right. Last year, Freda was your top female dog...

Yes.

Again, is there a sign of change this year, or do you think she's still hanging in there?

-No, she's still top dog.

-Right.

We've come out of their breeding season when they've been mating. She's been doing everything right.

She's been intimidating the other females, like Zeva, of breeding age,

and she's been going round now - if there's any interest by the males in these other ones,

she's getting in there and she's actually, you know, laying down the law.

"Go away. If you're going to breed, you're going to breed with me," sort of thing.

Absolutely. I mean, this is a great opportunity, presumably,

for you to really study any changing dynamics within the pack.

The ideal time is on feed-up because you actually see them all in one go, and also to see how well they are.

Absolutely, absolutely. Presumably, if a wolf isn't feeding...

I mean, you can see if they're injured or limping at this particular...

Yes, very true.

We know that those two youngsters are subordinates, so they won't come in

-until we're right out of the way.

-Yes.

They all get something to eat. It doesn't mean that they're going to starve.

But in the hierarchy of things, you know, they're not willing to go in there yet.

It's fantastic to see them. It's amazing that they're all tussling over one small bit.

Zeva, clever girl - she may be the omega dog, but here she is with a whole bit to herself!

Great. Well, Bob, thank you very much indeed.

It's great to see them flourishing.

It's been over 30 years since there were last otter pups in Pets Corner.

Then, seven weeks ago, Rosie gave birth deep inside her den.

And there the babies stayed, hidden away, until now.

This is the very first footage, taken by the keepers,

when Rosie and Romeo brought their new family out of the den

for the very first time.

The head of Pets Corner, Darren Beasley is delighted.

We've seen them at last.

I know exactly how many there are.

In here behind me, there are two baby otters.

Look at the mess... They've put all the shavings in the water bowl, it's disgusting!

They're two very playful otters as well.

They look very healthy.

They're like perfect little miniatures of Mum and Dad.

They've got pink noses, just like Mum.

I don't know if they're boys or girls, I'm just getting excited.

But they're just so wonderful, and they look really healthy.

So we know there's two.

I've had a bit of a rummage - I know there's no brothers or sisters

squashed or anything horrible under there, so it's all gone well.

Two babies born, two babies being reared, perfectly healthy and one happy keeper.

But it was a week before the proud parents went completely public

and brought their babies all the way into the outdoor enclosure.

Luckily, keeper Rob Savin was there with his camcorder to get these shots.

Mum and Dad were doing their job. Mum was dragging them by the neck, it looked a bit brutal!

Mum was dragging them by the neck, bringing them out.

And they were having a little explore.

We were here for hours, just in amazement, really, it was fantastic.

And then she dragged them back in again!

It was almost like,- "You've had your time outside now children, time to go in!"

And they went back in again, but since then, they've been able

to leap up themselves, we've helped them out a little bit, and they've been coming out as and when.

These are Asian short-clawed otters - one of the few species of otter

that will naturally live in extended family groups.

So, there's no reason why the youngsters shouldn't stay here indefinitely.

Although both pups appear to be growing normally, Darren has spotted a problem.

It could be serious.

We've got a little bit of concern about one of our two brand spanking new baby otters.

We've been delighted to see them out over the last couple of days, but when you look really close at them,

the back end of one of the babies, where the bottom joins the tail,

there's quite a bit of hair loss, or parting of the hair.

It might be nothing, but I think it's worth the vet having a look -

certainly, all the keepers have had a look, and we all agree it doesn't look right.

It could be Mum over grooming. It could be an over-attentive mum.

I've seen her, she grabs them by the back of the neck, and off she goes.

Perhaps she picked it up by the back end by mistake.

But it could be a tick or a parasite, an internal parasite.

It could be something annoying the baby down there.

We've got to investigate.

We've waited so long, we wanna get it right, we don't want it to go wrong now.

We might be new parents, worrying about something that is nothing, really.

But I think it's best to get a second opinion. We'll get the vet, and let him have a look.

They may be in captivity,

but the otters are kept as though they're wild, so it will be difficult to get a closer look.

They are not tame animals. They are in fact very, very dangerous.

Their teeth and their bite is designed for going through shell and bone, so it is very powerful.

They could do a human being a lot of damage.

There is the safety of the keepers, but with the babies, if we handle them now,

it might ruin it all our good work, it might be that they'll smell of humans

that Mum and Dad will get distressed or upset.

It might even be that they accept humans too much, and become very tame. We don't want any of that.

Like every animal, if need must, it doesn't matter if it's a rhinoceros or an otter, or a little cockroach,

sometimes you do have to handle them. And we have the system in place

that we will grab them and handle them if we have to.

We'll be back when the vet arrives to find out if Darren is being over-protective,

or if the little pup's problem is something far more serious.

Elsewhere in Pets Corner is a creature with a rather surprising problem.

In fact, it's amazing he's still alive.

This is Keelan, the royal python, and he hasn't eaten a single thing in over a year!

I'm with Sarah Clayson, we're in the hot house at Pets Corner.

Sarah, is this normal behaviour for a royal python?

It can happen quite often, actually, yeah.

Especially cos he was donated to us by someone,

and when they first get into a new environment, they can take time to adjust to it...

-And it was a year ago, was it, that he came?

-It was roughly about a year ago now, yeah.

So, it is almost like extreme homesickness, where you just haven't adapted to your new environment?

Yeah, basically, he's getting used to the new kind of heat,

and the new lighting, and he was in with a new group of snakes as well.

So all those factors contribute to the fact

that he was just a little bit put off of his food.

And then, it does take a while to get back into it.

It amazes me that a snake can actually survive for that long without food.

Actually, the royal pythons only have to eat once a week.

They don't eat that often at all.

Because they don't need to eat that often... We do, because we have to burn food to keep ourselves warm.

Snakes are cold-blooded, so they move around their environment to heat themselves up.

They don't actually have to have food that often.

If you've got a large snake, they can actually afford to lose

a bit of body fat that they've stored.

It's when they are a bit smaller that it is a bit worrying,

because obviously, they haven't got the reserves there to use up.

Of course. Now, has he got his appetite back?

He has, yeah, we offered him some food as we normally do every week, about three weeks ago,

and what happened was, he struck for the food, but actually missed, and got one of our keeper's hands.

-He bit someone?

-Yeah.

-Did he draw blood?

-A little bit. I don't think he meant it, though.

Basically, royals are really non-aggressive snakes, they are very laid-back and very docile.

And the keeper put the food down and tried to move him back into his tank, cos he was coming out of it.

He got a bit confused. He sensed the heat from the hand, and movement.

They haven't got great eyesight. He just went and caught her hand.

-You really think it was just an accident, do you?

-I do. I don't think it was calculated at all!

But perhaps that was what kind of instigated the return of his appetite?

It could very well have done. But I think the fact that he struck for it

in the first place meant that he was ready to have some food.

So, if you really do think he was an accident, can I...?

Yeah, you can, yeah. He's quite good. He's just wrapped himself into a little ball, so...

I am sort of used to your snakes here in Pets Corner, but...

there is something a little bit unnerving about them even now.

A lot of people share that thought.

I think, basically, snakes and other animals -

a lot of them only bite if they feel threatened or afraid.

Because royals are very laid back, and they don't mind being handled,

they have really got no need to bite unless they are really provoked.

They don't tend to bite anything that's too big for them to eat because it's just a waste of energy.

And I think I'm probably just a little bit too large for Keelan to eat me.

Absolutely fascinating.

-Sarah, shall I pass him back to you?

-You want me to take him?

You are quite sweet, really, I suppose - in a snaky sort of way!

-Yeah, he's all right, actually, this one.

-Sarah, thank you very much.

-That's all right.

It's been a couple of days since Babs had to be put to sleep.

Up at the rhino house, the routine has to go on, though everyone

is finding it hard to adjust to the fact that she's no longer here.

In the house, she was always...

She took up the whole pen, she was quite a large rhino.

And now, it's a big empty space.

I was just doing their feeds and I was looking for Babs' food bucket, thinking, "What are you doing?"

If something kicked off, Babs was pretty quiet, she would calm it down pretty quick.

She wouldn't let the others go too far.

It'll take time for it to sink in and realise she won't be there when you open the door.

You could never replace Babs, no, you can't replace her.

She's had an extremely good innings.

In the wild, between 15 and 20, they say, is a good age for a rhino.

Cos they live quite a rough life out and about.

She's done exceptionally well, so we're very pleased on that front, that she's had a good, long...

on the whole, a very good life here at Longleat.

But this isn't the end of everything in the rhino house.

For Ian Turner, it's time to look forward.

What we've got to do now is put our minds on to something in the future.

Focus on something different so that it cheers us up, in a way.

And now, the outlook is that hopefully, the young ones will start mating this year -

because they're at the right age, and two years down the line,

there's no reason why we shouldn't have baby rhinos.

Amongst the treasures of Longleat House there are many precious objects of historical interest.

In fact, almost every item has a story to tell.

I'm in the Great Hall with house steward Ken Windess,

and we're looking at this absolutely magnificent table.

-Ken, it's the most extraordinary piece of furniture.

-It certainly is.

It's a shuffle board table.

-They used to play the old game of shove ha'penny on it.

-Right...

-It's 33ft long.

-Wow!

Originally the planks were one, from one end to the other.

So, there would have been no joins in the planks at all?

No joins at all. There are joins now because, over the years, it has been repaired, etc etc.

Why was it important not to have any joins?

Obviously, if you hit the coin, it needed to go as far as possible, which was the object of the game.

-OK...

-If there was a join,

it would have jumped the coin or stopped it and ruined the game.

-So, that was one tree, top-to-bottom?

-Yes, it came from the estate. It was built from estate timber.

-What sort of wood?

-It is oak wood.

-Right.

It was built in the hall because it was too long to get through the doors.

I was going to say. How on earth could you have got it in?

-So, it was built in here?

-Yeah.

Presumably, it is a permanent fixture. You could never get it out.

We are stuck with it being there, which is a good thing because it means that it gets preserved.

Absolutely. And the design, looking down at these parts here,

I would have thought looking at it, that it was a banqueting table, not a games table.

-Does this give it away, this design?

-It does. If you sat at it,

you couldn't get your knees underneath because of the rails.

These arches are actually an addition, they were put in probably 200 years ago, but the actual...

-A bit modern, then!

-That's right, but the legs and the rails themselves are original.

It's just an amazing piece of craftsmanship as well, isn't it?

-It certainly is.

-And these here...

These were the actual coins. They were not coins you would have spent,

they were actually made for the game.

-Sort of like posh tiddlywinks!

-If you like, yeah!

-But they are silver.

-Yeah.

And you can see, underneath, they are actually made aerodynamic.

So the rim is the only part that actually touches the table.

-So they could skim like a hovercraft.

-That's right, yeah.

You've seen games at the fair, you can play that hover across the table top.

You can see they are numbered. This one has a different number.

Also, there are different designs, so that each player knew which piece was theirs.

-Did you flick them like tiddlywinks or...?

-I can show you here.

-You would place them on the end of the table here.

-Yeah.

-And you would have hit the coin.

-Yeah.

-And that would have projected a coin up the table.

-Can I have a quick go?

I'm afraid not, no.

-Too valuable?

-It is, yeah.

-All right.

-It's very tempting, I must admit!

-It is, isn't it?

But, no, the object of the game was to get the coin as far as it could possibly go.

-Right.

-Without it actually falling off the table.

-I can imagine it being quite an addictive game.

Yes, a lot of money was lost and won on it.

People would bet on it, it would be like playing poker or something like that?

-I do believe that Henry VIII was into it.

-Oh, really?

-So it was very much a kind of aristocratic game?

-Yeah.

I think there was a law brought out to stop the playing of it

because a lot of people spent too much time playing it, rather than working.

I can see why. I'm desperate to have a go. You're gonna have to take me out of here, Ken, before I do.

-Thank you very, very much indeed. That is fascinating.

-You're welcome.

OTTER'S BIRDLIKE CHIRRING

Back in Pets Corner, one of the two baby otters has a mysterious problem.

The pup is losing hair from the base of its tail,

so now Darren Beasley has called in the vet, Duncan Williams, to take a look.

-How safe is it to pick them up?

-Not really, no.

-They're quite feisty.

-Are they?

-You haven't handled them?

-No, not at all.

It looks like the outer hair loss, to be honest, has just been

over-groomed or rubbed on something. But it's weird because it's localised - just at the back end -

and that we don't see them do it.

Catching and handling the baby would be extremely stressful for the youngster,

and Duncan doesn't want to rush in to drastic action.

The first remedy to try is the simplest...

-When they're out next time, is it possible to clean it all?

-Yeah.

If we can do that. Give it a really good clean out.

So, a little later, when the family is out,

Bev Allen moves in for a spring clean to get rid of anything that might be irritating the baby's skin.

It's important to keep this nice and clean.

Just in case - if they had lice, or fleas or anything like that, we have to disinfect it out.

Bev's been watching the youngsters closely,

and the baby's skin problem hasn't affected its behaviour at all.

It'll come out with Mum and Dad.

Usually talk for food, to us, then once they've had enough, they go back in.

When they want to come back out again, they go back out.

They're getting quite mobile. They haven't been in the water, we've still to wait for that.

A couple of days later, it looks like the spring clean may well have done the trick.

We've basically been monitoring the tail now for several days.

And we had all the hair loss at the base of the tail.

And we were going to grab the poor little baby and do skin scrapes and things.

And in fact, it's got no worse, which is all good news.

The baby's looking very healthy, eating, following Mum and Dad,

doing everything the other baby does.

And we now actually think it's probably just a scruffy baby.

They've got to be the most wonderful animals on the planet - always active, so cute.

Hello. Have you come to say hello?

Hello! How are you?

Kate and I have come down to Pets Corner with keeper Rob Savin to meet

three of Longleat's seven parrots. Who have we got here?

We've got Jake with you, I've got cheeky Archie on my shoulder, and we've got Mathilda with Kate there.

The one-legged Mathilda. She's showing off.

I mean, is that...?

-They do a sort of performance here, don't they?

-They do, yeah.

-They are known for being incredibly intelligent, is that right?

-Very intelligent. They like to show off.

They've all got characters.

This one is particularly cheeky, and naughty. He likes to get into everything and break everything.

Mathilda is a bit of a boffin. She's very intelligent bird.

She's particularly quiet. I mean, parrots are very noisy,

but as far as a parrot goes, she's one of the quiet ones!

-And this one?

-Jake? He's very thoughtful, intelligent. I think they're all very intelligent.

They've just got different characters. And they do different things within the show.

Mathilda was showing off. I don't know if she'll give a little wave...

Aw...

-Does he say anything?

-He does.

They can all copy and mimic different noises, and it can be actions as well.

They mimic all sorts of things. Archie has a nice hello, I don't know if we'll hear it...

-Hello!

-Oh, he has.

-Sometimes we get a chuckle.

-Ha-ha-ha...

-Ha-ha-ha.

-Good boy!

There we go. Mathilda? Well, not really anything vocal, we might get a little wave.

Try another wave, Mathilda.

-Good girl, there we go.

-And Jake? He's just very intelligent.

-He's got a nice goodbye. Are you going to try?

-Bye-bye.

-Very well timed, Jake.

-Well done, Jake.

They are brilliant. Rob, thank you very much.

-You're welcome.

-On Jake's goodbye, that is all we've got time for.

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

His real mother rejected him, so this little baby wallaby needs round-the-clock care,

and a substitute pouch.

Samba the gorilla is in her twilight years, and now she's fallen dangerously ill.

And Lord Bath dishes the dirt on his great, great, great, great, great grandfather.

It's a tragic tale of skulduggery, murder, and a ghost with a broken heart.

So don't miss the next Animal Park.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2006

E-mail [email protected]

Goodbye.