Episode 9 Animal Park

It's a tense day in Tiger territory

because one of the oldest and most loved animals in the park

is due for an operation.

Kadu has a severely ingrown claw

which needs to be operated on immediately.

It's an operation she's had before, but at 22 years old,

the risks from the anaesthetic are greater than ever.

We'll be bringing you all of the news on today's show.

Also coming up today - there are some new arrivals at the park,

but these have got faces that surely only a mother could love.

And we find out why deputy head warden, Ian Turner,

also assumes the role of park paparazzo.

But the big news today is in tiger territory.

A few months ago three young sisters arrived from France,

and while they might have grabbed the headlines,

in no way have they replaced Longleat's most loved tiger, dear Kadu.

Tigers in the wild would rarely live over 15 years, so at 22,

Kadu's doing remarkably well, but as she's aged, her health has faltered.

I've come up to the Tiger House

to meet up with deputy head of section, Bob Trollope.

Bob, I gather that there's some not great news

about Kadu this morning?

No, I was in here earlier on and I was giving her some chunks,

and I got her to stand up just to check her nails,

and there's one grown into the pad again.

This isn't the first time that Kadu has suffered from this problem.

Three years ago, she had to be put under anaesthetic

in order to sort it out.

Oh, this is really deeply embedded. That's real nasty.

I was there when it all went horribly wrong.

Is she breathing?

She isn't breathing, is she?

Kadu had a bad reaction to the drug and she stopped breathing.

Right, just keep doing that every five seconds, all right?

Luckily, she did survive, but you can see why it's such a worry now.

Why are these claws going into the pads?

What it is, cos she's so old now, she's not scratching on things.

We've got logs in there for her to do it,

but she doesn't scratch on there as a younger tiger would,

and clean the shoes off, and they're not getting any shorter -

they're just growing.

Unfortunately, because she's old, she doesn't bother,

and they just grow into the pad.

Duncan, the vet, is preparing outside.

Is he going to have to go down the general anaesthetic route again?

I think so, cos from what I can see,

you want to be able to get to it properly and trim it up.

Now, she is 22 years old, she doesn't have a great history

under general anaesthetic, she worried us all sick last time.

The thing we're all worried about now,

is the fact she's getting older now

and she isn't in the best of health.

She's got problems with her kidneys,

so it's going to be a bit of a problem.

We keep our fingers crossed, we honestly do.

Well, we are going to stay up at the Tiger House today

and we will be following the progress of Kadu's operation,

and of course we'll bring you any news as soon as we get it.

With almost 750,000 visitors every year,

Longleat is home to some of the country's most photographed animals.

And the person who's taken more pictures than anyone else

is the safari park's deputy head warden, Ian Turner.

He's got thousands and thousands.

I've been doing photography since about 15,

and since I've been at Longleat, I've been here 32 years,

it's been a hobby, which has now grown into part of the job,

and now it's a quite big part of the job.

Taking photographs is probably what I love best.

I'm very, very lucky to be able to do

what I love doing as part of a job.

I think it's excitement of actually taking the picture,

having the skill to realise that the bird is going to fly off

or the animal's going to do this, or waiting for the big yawn,

and at getting that photograph.

You can tell, once you've pressed the button,

if it's worked or not straightaway, and that's the exciting bit.

With so many pictures going back so far,

there are some extraordinary shots here,

amongst them, some of Ian himself.

We've got 30 years of coverage of the whole safari park here.

Babies being born and whatever.

We just keep records of what's going on in the park.

Ian has now officially assumed the role of park paparazzo,

covering everything from glossy publicity shots for the brochure,

to individual ID photos for all the tortoises.

-Yep, superb.

-That's brilliant, yeah.

But this morning, he's out to shoot zebras.

I'm gonna get left-hand side, right-hand side, front and back.

If a zebra goes away, it's got to have, like, a passport photograph.

In the days gone by, the vet used to have to fill out this form here.

It's an outline of a horse, and what the vet's got to do,

he's got to put all the black-and-white stripes here

cos no two zebras look the same.

It's got to be exactly right, so he can look at that picture

and see that he's getting the right zebra.

And to draw all these lines exactly right

would take absolutely hours cos most vets are not good drawers.

So, obviously a good set off photos is a much better idea.

If only Ian could get them to pose nicely and say "cheese".

The hiccup comes is if the zebras don't stay still,

cos they don't always do what they're supposed to do.

And there's one shot, but, you see, that's the first shot gone

and he's going off.

So we've got to wait to see where he's going to go to.

You know what they say - "never work with animals."

-There he is. Just right.

-CAMERA CLICKS

You've got to be quick cos the click makes them jump away.

That's the other side. All we need now is the head-on shot.

In wildlife photography, patience is not just a virtue, it's essential.

Wherever you seem to be, you seem to get bottom shots,

so getting a picture of a bottom's never any trouble.

If you do get a head shot, their head's to the floor,

so you've got wait till they lift it up.

And a lot of times they look round to either side for predators,

but you need them to be looking straight at you.

I can pick up signs.

It's like when they're eating,

you can tell when they're going to lift their head up,

so you can be ready for that second.

He's looking straight at us. Yeah, well, that's that ready. Done.

One zebra in the bag. And that went reasonably well.

Sometimes, I've spent a lot longer. That's one.

We've got two more to do. All we need to do now is move around.

We'll be back with Ian, later,

when he goes after something with much bigger teeth.

Back up at the Tiger House, safari park vet, Duncan Williams,

is standing by to administer Kadu's sedative for her operation.

Duncan, about three years ago,

I was with you when you operated on her before to remove this claw.

The big worry with Kadu

is that she doesn't ever react well to general anaesthetic.

Yeah. I think the problem was when she was actually very ill,

because her claw was infected where it had been growing in.

The pad was infected.

And this time we're doing it a bit earlier.

She's nice and healthy, she's eating well, she's not sick,

and also because of her age, we haven't given her a lot...

We've reduced the dose of the anaesthetic quite a bit.

Is it literary just a matter of clipping the claw,

making sure the wound's clean?

I want to take a blood sample,

cos we're worried about kidney function.

She's lost a lot of weight,

she's on medication which reduces her blood pressure

so that she can absorb more protein out of the bloodstream

when it goes through her kidneys,

and I want to see what her levels are at.

She's 22 years old.

I hate to say it, but could things go wrong?

Well, possibly things could go wrong,

but if we reduce the time of the anaesthesia as much as possible,

she's not gonna become dehydrated.

I mean, if it was a long procedure,

-we'd put her on fluids and give her stuff like that.

-Right.

But it's going to be as quick as possible.

Hopefully she'll be back up on her feet within an hour, I would hope.

Great. Duncan, we'll let you carry on, and we will keep you posted.

Out in the safari park,

it's been a bit of a rough year for the keepers

who look after the animals down by Half Mile Lake.

It's now been a while since their treasured female gorilla Samba died,

and the mourning period has been very difficult for all the staff,

but particularly head of section, Mark Tye.

They were definitely in need of some good news,

and it may have finally arrived,

courtesy of these pink-backed pelicans.

Ben has gone to get the latest.

-Hi, Mark.

-Hi, Ben.

-So, what's the news?

The news is, Ben, brilliant.

We have now five pelican eggs,

pink-backed pelican eggs, in the incubators. Brilliant!

Look at the smile on your face. I mean, that says it all, really.

I'm really pleased, cos we had no success last year at all,

and the last time we had any was the year previous.

And we did successfully rear three chicks out of that batch.

And we've learnt an awful lot with different things we've tried,

so we're really hopeful these little babies

are going to do something for us this year.

I really haven't seen you looking so excited for a long time.

Now, first of all, why are they in incubators here?

Mainly because the parents are not very good

at looking after them themselves.

-OK.

-We've left them with eggs in the past, and they've fought over them,

kicked them off the nests, stood on them, broken them.

And because they are such a valuable commodity to us,

we take them away and do them ourselves, cos it's a lot safer.

Basically, an incubator keeps it at the right temperature,

moves them around slightly.

Yeah, it keeps them at the correct temperature, the humidity level,

and they get turned automatically,

so it is pretty much put them in, forget about them.

And are you monitoring them? Are you keeping an eye on them?

Yeah, we do a lot of monitoring, we weigh them every day,

and also we measure the vein growth, which is the external blood supply

spreading around the inside of the shell.

And we take all these,

so that we know we're doing everything correctly.

And I've got lots of graphs

from good and bad eggs so I know when we're going right.

OK. So, how on earth can you look at the veins within the egg?

Well, the easiest way is we candle them with this candling lamp,

and we hold the egg in front of the light.

And so it shines a light into the egg and you can then look in.

-Can we look at it now, then?

-We have to turn the light off.

OK. Can I have a quick look at the egg, as well. Could I see that?

I won't touch it just cos I don't want to break it.

So it's almost like a goose egg size.

I actually thought it might be a bit larger.

Yeah, it's slightly smaller than a goose egg, really.

Very chalky, chalky shell.

-So first thing you look at, is what the shell looks like.

-Yeah.

From my experience, that's a really nice quality egg shell, you know?

That one there is not so good,

a bit calcified, a bit lumpy, but this is a nice quality egg.

-OK, so I turn the light off, do I?

-Yeah.

OK, there we go, a bit dark,

-and then you're going to hold that up to the lamp.

-Yeah.

-What are you looking for, then?

-I'm looking for these veins here.

I can see them there, the red veins.

-Yeah, quite thick, and you can see this big shadow here.

-Yes.

You might be able to see it move. There's a pretty good picture.

You should see it moving.

That is the embryo, developing embryo, inside the egg.

Isn't that incredible?! Now, what's that up at the top of the egg?

I can see a sort of area, a much lighter area.

That is the air cell.

And when you first get the egg,

it's just a tiny little bubble at the end,

but as the egg progresses through the incubation period,

the air cell gets larger.

And just before the chick is due to hatch,

it breaks through into the air cell and breathes with its own lungs.

And then, a day after it's done that,

it breaks a hole through the shell to get more oxygen in,

so it can breathe, and then it chips its way all the way round,

-and hopefully pops out.

-Wow!

-Shall I turn the light back on?

-Yep.

So, basically, how much longer do you estimate that egg will take

before potentially it hatches?

Well, he's on day 15 at the moment,

-so he's got about another 13 days to go.

-Right. So, 28 days...

Between 28 and 30 days normally. Well, Mark, listen, best of luck.

And, of course, we'll have our fingers crossed that this year

we'll see some new pelicans here at Longleat.

Meanwhile, out in the park, Ian Turner and his camera

are out on the prowl for some great shots of lion country.

We're in Kabir's pride.

I'm going to try and take some photographs

of the two dominant females and the older females.

I've done a similar thing to the second section, Charlie's pride,

and it's sort of an idiot sheet for new members of staff,

so they can recognise them when they see them.

This is the one I've done for Charlie's pride.

And it's literally just a small write-up about the animal

and then, obviously, a photograph,

so new members of staff can have this in their vehicle with them,

and they look at this as they're watching the lions at the same time.

And it makes the job more interesting

if they know the names of the lions they're looking at.

As you can see, if I wanted to take the male,

it'd be no trouble whatsoever.

And, obviously, I don't need to take a picture of the male,

cos if they can't distinguish between the male

and the female, they shouldn't be here.

One of the ones I want is just here,

but she's got her head down just licking off that bit of meat.

What I need to do is just wait for her to lift her head up.

It's the facial marks you need more than anything else.

The other reason to keep a record

is because some animals are constantly changing.

Kabir's pride, for example, is full of youngsters.

I just need them to turn. She's looking at me.

I reckon that's the one.

Once he's got the shots, Ian heads back to his office

to put them on his computer and print off the best ones.

Well, hopefully, we've got four different lionesses here.

As you can see, three of them look completely different.

Those two are very similar.

Luckily, big cat keeper, Bob, is on hand

to help Ian identify exactly who is who.

-Hi, Bob.

-Hiya.

We've got some pictures here.

-Right.

-Have a look and tell me if you recognise who's who.

That's Malaika.

-Those two are the same.

-Right.

And that's Luna.

You're missing Jasira.

That's her. That's Jasi.

So, we need to print off another one of those, then.

And how do you know those two are the same?

The easiest thing is the nose.

Oh, right, the little bit on the end of the nose?

Dots on her nose. On there.

-Hers is quite pale.

-That's clear.

Look at Luna. She's got a lot of dots and darker.

So, in some ways, that's a good way

-of spotting the difference, by the noses?

-Yeah.

All we've got to do is get them copied together,

and that's that done.

-Thanks for that then, Bob.

-That's quite all right.

So far, we've seen the photographs Ian takes for business.

We'll catch up with him later for the pictures he takes for pleasure.

Back up at the Tiger House, Kadu is ready for her operation.

But time is of the essence.

She's only been given the low dose of anaesthetic,

so won't be under sedation for long.

The drug has just taken effect, so the team must work fast.

This is the high-tech way of checking that she's asleep.

Just tap her on the head with a broom handle!

I think we can crack on, then.

-Are you happy for us to come in, Duncan?

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

-Just make sure she's fully asleep.

-OK.

Do you want me to take that, Brian?

Do you want to go there so me and Chris can do the blood?

OK, so Duncan's just having a look here.

This is the problem one, look.

-It has grown.

-Use that swab, Chris.

-Cor, that's nasty.

-Is it in there deep?

-Do they have a quick...?

-Yeah, they have, us can't really see them now.

I've just taken quite a chunk.

It's come out.

There it is.

It's just starting to get a bit infected. That's pretty bad.

It's amazing she wasn't showing more signs of that.

I know, she hadn't really been lame.

I want to try and take as much as possible off.

And will you clip all the others while you're here?

Yeah. That one hasn't got a claw. That's totally lost.

Right. Is that a sign of old age?

I dunno, really. I think she's probably lost that

through the years at some stage or another.

They're astonishingly thick.

These look like the things you would use to trim horse's hooves.

Yeah, that's what they are.

I think you can just about see the quick in that one.

Oh, just a little bit, yeah.

We can see her teeth while we're here.

Quite worn down. She is an old cat.

She's not got a lot of them missing there.

Premolars. That canine's been missing for years. Incisors.

These canines are all right.

That's right.

I might just give her the Antisedan now.

-And that's the thing that will bring her round, is it?

-Yeah.

Cos I'm pretty sure we've got enough time

to get the blood sample and get out!

I'm going to give her antibiotics, as well.

This is a long-acting penicillin

to help clear up the infection in her pad.

She's just starting to show a few twitches and stuff.

She's blinking. I think we probably need to leave her alone soon.

I've got a nice collection of darts and matted hair.

-Do you want a toenail, Bob?

-Oh, thank you.

-As a souvenir.

I'll treasure that for the rest of my days.

Well, we will be keeping a close eye on Kadu

for the rest of the day,

and hope that we will be able to come back and see her

when she comes round. But Bob, Brian, thank you very much indeed.

Kadu, sleep it off and we look forward to seeing you later.

It's the end of Ian Turner's working day.

But, before he heads home,

he takes his camera for a final lap of the park.

Because even after working here for over 30 years,

there's always something new to capture.

This is a great opportunity.

Just as you're driving round, we've just got a wolf pop out.

They've been born a few weeks ago

and they don't come out very often.

Just as we are coming out,

there's just one over by the tree there.

You've just got to take the opportunity when you can.

They'll just go to ground again,

you won't see them for two weeks or more.

This is just a great time to take shots.

-Come on, then!

-HE WHISTLES

One of the things we do is taking shots of babies,

and if you can see in the distance down there,

that little stripy thing is a baby tapir.

And what Mum does is, she hides it up in this pen.

So for two days, I'd come down on the trot

and not been hidden so well.

But I can't take a photograph if I can't see it.

HE WHISTLES

It's being patient and waiting for something to happen.

I've got some shots of it today. This is quite nice.

We'll put it on to our website so people can see

we've got a new baby tapir and they can come and visit.

Unlike fellow tiger Kadu,

the three young sister tigers have huge amounts of energy,

providing great photo opportunities for Ian.

We're in the tiger section at the moment.

They're brand new, they've literally just come out of quarantine.

This is my favourite section to take photographs.

Cos they're so lively, you get some action shots.

Climbing the trees, moving about.

She's looking round now.

That's the sort of thing you've got to watch out for.

You study the tiger, so you actually watch what the tiger's doing,

when its ears are pricked up,

so you're ready for if it's going to run off,

and what it's going to do.

So, you just got to be alert all the time of what's going on.

This is quite good of her here.

You've got the tree as a background for her head.

If I was being really fussy now, what I would like her to do is yawn.

And, some days, you just get lucky.

That's quite a nice one.

That's half an hour sitting here,

and I've managed to get one good shot. That's good.

This is probably my favourite part of the whole job.

I will definitely never be bored taking photographs, that's for sure.

Earlier, I caught up with Mark Tye,

who is incubating eggs from the pink-backed pelicans.

These are notoriously difficult to care for,

but we were all hoping they'd hatch.

The incubation period is now over, and there's some great news.

Four of the eggs hatched successfully,

leaving Mark with his hands full.

We're feeding currently every three hours,

between eight in the morning and eight at night.

We're feeding them on whole trout and whole sprats.

It's quite alarming how many they'll pack away in one go.

They can hold an awful lot.

If you look at their neck, it's extremely elastic.

As you can see, there's a whole sprat in that neck there.

They're gaining weight by between 10 and 15% every day,

so that's quite a growth.

When you consider that this bird here is 11 days old,

and this one's 18 days old,

there's quite a vast difference in size, isn't there?

As you can imagine,

to come from that to that in 18 days is a pretty phenomenal growth rate.

But they've still got a lot of growing to do.

These adult birds have a wingspan of up to two metres,

making them one of the world's largest flying birds.

With such prehistoric looks,

it's no surprise that pelicans have lived on earth for millions of years.

But the destruction of their nesting sites in Africa

now threatens their existence.

They're just all really important to us,

and really important to the captive population.

Obviously, it means no birds get taken from the wild.

These birds live an extremely long time,

anything between 30 and 40 years.

So there's an awful lot, provided they grow up to maturity,

there's an awful lot of breeding that can come from these birds

and continue to keep the captive population going.

While they may not be the prettiest of babies,

for Mark, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

And the safe arrival of these pelicans

-is one of the best parts of his job.

-This is what we like doing.

You know, it's a very positive thing for us all to do.

This is new life,

and this is what we have to hopefully nurture up to adulthood.

But I can't stand smelling of fish.

And believe you me, when you hand rear pelicans,

you just stink of fish permanently.

No matter how many times you wash your hands, you stink!

And there's nothing worse than going out to the pub in the evening,

after you've had a shower and washed your hands five times,

and still getting a waft of sprat.

Earlier we were all extremely worried,

as Kadu had to undergo an operation to remove an ingrown claw.

We've come up to see keeper Bob Trollope and Kadu. Look at this!

Oh, Bob. She's completely come round. That's fantastic.

Yep, she's completely around.

She's been out having a fuss before you came over.

Oh, really? So, is she fully up on her feet and moving around?

Yeah, she's much more agile than she was.

There's been no kind of bad effects after the anaesthetic?

No, no. She was a bit wobbly, which is understandable.

But I think she's looking forward to something to eat now.

-That's fantastic news.

-So, a really quick recovery?

I know you were worried, she's how old? 23, 22?

She's 22, yeah. So, we're happy that she come round reasonably quick.

I wonder if she'll come over and see.

What do you think? Come on, Bob.

You're the tiger whisperer here. See if you can get her over here.

Is this something that would happen often out in the wild,

that they might get something like that, an ingrowing claw?

No, because they wouldn't live this long out in the wild.

It's probably age related because of her arthritis.

She doesn't like scratching on the trees

or the wood that we put in with her, and they're not being cleaned.

So, it's just age, I'm afraid.

It's great news that she has come round. Look at that.

It's hard to believe that they are,

you know, big, very dangerous cats, when you see her like that.

I know we were all very worried, Bob,

but we are delighted that she has made such a good recovery.

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

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

This man is known for working with African legend George Adamson

and the Born Free lions.

Now, he's come to Longleat.

But what will he make of their pride?

It's strange not to be able to sort of go in there

and play with them, and stuff, which is what I always do.

Up at the feeding station,

the monkeys are getting a trifle picky about their food.

And, there's a disaster in the great house

as one of the ceilings has started to show signs of collapse.

So, don't miss the next Animal Park.

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