Episode 11 Animal Park

Today, we're loading up the feed truck because the three new tigers here are about to get a meat feast.

And four keepers from Longleat are heading over to Tanzania to work with a living legend of conservation.

All that and more on today's programme.

Today on Animal Park, deep in the African bush,

there's a race against time to save a pack of wild dogs.

Back at Longleat, we'll find out if Royce the iguana

has recovered from her radical surgery.

And when it's feeding time for the tigers, you'd think they'd go for the meat, not our vehicle.

He's trying to go for the tyres. Hey!

But now, four keepers are about to set out on the adventure of a lifetime.

Ryan Hockley from the giraffery, Bev Allen who works in Pets Corner

and Michelle Stevens who helps look after the lake animals,

are going on a mission led by the safari park's head warden, Keith Harris.

They're going to go to Africa.

It's very nice that the keepers go over and see things in the wild.

We deal with captive animals and they do react different and you can get to know them.

And it would be very, very good for the staff to see things in the wild,

see how they live,

see how they struggle for life sometimes.

In some ways, the staff and the animals are pampered here.

But in the wild, every day is a struggle so it would be good for them to see that.

And this is where they're headed.

The Mkomazi game reserve in Tanzania,

1,600 square miles of pure wilderness.

The Longleat keepers aren't coming here just to go on safari.

They'll be working on wildlife projects

alongside the renowned conservationist Tony Fitzjohn,

known to one and all as Fitz.

Fitz has played a major role in preventing the local elephant populations

from being wiped out by poachers.

He's built a sanctuary for the critically endangered black rhino.

And he's running a captive breeding programme

to preserve the desperately rare African hunting dog.

He also cleared a runway and learnt to fly in order to track animals from the air.

I'm really looking forward to them coming.

Longleat, I mean, it was one of the first and I understand

some people that have been there for decades coming out.

It would be lovely to meet them and hear what they have to say and their call on it.

But I just know it's going to be great because all animal people that I meet are good people.

Back at Longleat, Ryan Hockley's giving his giraffes a final feed before he sets off.

I'm really hoping to see some carnivores,

because as a kid, I was fascinated with the whole Africa thing.

And lions are always a bit part of that.

My main objective when I'm out there is just to try and soak up as much as I can, really.

For Bev Allen, Mkomazi is going to feel a long way from home.

I've never been that far away from home before.

The furthest I've been is Greece. So I'm a little bit anxious about it.

But it's also a dream come true.

Michelle can hardly wait.

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved animals. It's been my passion ever since I was a toddler, really.

I've always known what I wanted to do.

It's always been very clear in my mind that I wanted to work with animals.

It's just a great opportunity to see other animals in their natural wild habitat, really.

It's going to be an interesting experience all round.

Their host got his training as a conservationist from the best.

40 years ago, Fitz was the apprentice of George Adamson,

the man made famous by the book and Oscar-winning film, Born Free.

Adamson was one of the founding fathers of wildlife conservation,

working from his camp in Kenya.

He was the man, George. He was just...

When I saw George and got to know him for a few days, I thought,

you know, "I want some of that."

Fitz became involved in the work Adamson was doing

to care for rescued and orphaned lions,

return them to the wild and then protect them from hunters.

He gave me the chance to be anything I wanted to be.

There we were, sharing the lives of these incredible predators,

you know, once again, with that big MGM reputation.

In fact, the lion in the MGM thing is yawning, he's not roaring, did you know that?

It was extraordinary. They were just such an integral part of us.

It's like saying, "How do you feel about your kids?"

They're great, I love them dearly and they're part of me.

But it took a wild lion to remind Fitz exactly how dangerous these animals really are.

I'd just come back from the supplies trip and I got out to say hello to the lions

and they jump on my shoulders to say hello and rub heads.

No-one saw this lion coming out the bush.

He came for me, probably as the biggest threat, and he whacked me across the head,

a bit like Mike Tyson with six-inch nails in his fist.

I stuffed my fist in his mouth and he started to bite harder on my head.

Then he sort of took a big chunk, all this muscle out of my neck

and shoulder and sort of ate it.

And you become this sort of silent spectator of your own death.

And I went down that tunnel.

There's nothing at the end of it, it just went black.

George came running out, he shouted at this lion

and the lion dropped me and ran off for about 40 yards, 50 yards

and then crouched and growled at George, who didn't stop running, just with a stick in his hand.

Was just going for him.

And it was enough bluff, bless him, just to see the lion off.

And I said, "George, am I dying?" And George said,

"I think you probably are, but we'll have a look at you first."

It was a close call.

But after weeks in hospital, Fitz pulled through.

George Adamson died in 1989

and Fitz moved to Mkomazi to continue his conservation work.

Now four keepers from Longleat are in the air.

We'll be back in Tanzania later when they arrive.

Luckily, the big cats of Longleat have never managed to savage anyone.

But that doesn't mean they wouldn't.

The three young tigers who arrived just a few months ago

are particularly feisty and unpredictable.

So the keepers need to keep their wits about them, especially at feeding time.

Kate and I are out in the feed truck in the tiger enclosure

with deputy head warden Ian Turner and we're about to feed the new tigers.

Look, look! One of them's absolutely chasing the truck here.

-That's Soundari, the braver one.

-Right, now this is a first.

They are used to being fed in a completely different way from this.

Yeah, we've fed them inside for the last nine months for quarantine.

This is a good time, because this will stimulate what they do in the wild which is chase prey.

When are we going to start feeding them, Ian?

You can chuck one bit out now.

Kate, you can do the first.

Let's see if she goes for it. Down the hatch.

And we feed them separately, yes?

Yeah, we do a bit of a distance so they get in between. Oi!

What's she doing?

She trying to go for the tyres. Hey!

Now she's realised that this meat there, look.

The other one's coming over. That's a good sign as well.

So who is that second one coming over now?

You've got Soundari who's just gone off. The next one coming over is Svetli, coming over now.

The one out the back is the one we've always been worried about.

There we go. So they've taken them off.

That is absolutely brilliant for what we wanted.

The other two have hung back a little bit, which is fine.

And one's chased us. Little bit having a go at the tyres, which we might have to rectify.

But she doesn't know the feed's coming out, so it's just a chase, which we wanted to do.

You say tyres, I think sound man crouching down here.

-But you're happy that they eventually saw the meat?

-Yeah.

-And they've gone off and they're eating quietly.

-Now, she is coming back towards us to have a look.

-We need to move off, presumably.

-She's just on the chase again.

Is she coming over for our tyre again? So she's the inquisitive one.

She's the one in the house who's always the confident one.

She's semi... I wouldn't call her friendly, but she would come over, was quite aggressive.

She's more mischievous.

Interesting that there's meat out there

and yet she's more interested in the tractor.

How often will you feed like this?

Because they're getting quite a lot of meat, quite big chunks and two each.

We'll probably do this about three times a week.

-She's going for the tyre again.

-Oi!

-Soundari!

-Behave yourself.

Otherwise you'll be put on starvation rations.

Rubber tyres aren't tasty.

Out of curiosity, could those teeth penetrate our tyres?

-Easy.

-So we could break down in here.

We'd just have to go out on a flat.

She's still there, she's still going.

-She's determined to get that tyre.

-The patrol man's coming in here, chasing her off. There she goes.

She's absolutely determined to get at us.

Well, Ian, although we may not get out of here in one piece,

it seems like a very good first feed truck feed.

Apart from this last bit, where she just seems to be interested in the tyres.

And this is something you don't want to get her doing this every time you come in here.

This is the first time she's ever been fed this way.

-She's gotta learn that once she's been fed, that's it.

-She's running.

She's out-running the patrol man.

The trouble is, she can turn on a sixpence.

She does look like this glorious, kind of playful kitten,

just unfortunately an absolutely lethal one, as far as our tyres are concerned.

I'm quite pleased we're in this cage, aren't you?

I'm still worried about those tyres.

Let's hope we get out of here.

Well, Ian, thank you very, very much for a great experience.

Soundari, carry on playing.

Meanwhile, almost 5,000 miles away at the other end of the world,

four keepers from Longleat are just coming into land on a dirt strip deep in the African bush.

They will be spending a week in the Mkomazi game reserve to learn more

about the animals they care for and to help with some ground-breaking conservation projects.

Their host is the legendary conservationist, Tony Fitzjohn, known as Fitz.

Since I was a kid, I've heard about Longleat.

I've never been there, but welcome to the Mkomazi.

We're looking forward to showing you what goes on and looking forward to hearing from you.

For many years, Longleat has supported the work of a British-based conservation charity

called The Tusk Trust,

an organisation that's done much to help save endangered African wildlife.

And there's certainly been a lot to do here in Mkomazi.

When Fitz first arrived, poachers had almost wiped out the wildlife.

The elephant population was in a very bad way.

The elephant count before I came here was 11 individuals,

so the elephants have gone from 4,000 to 11 individuals

in five, six, seven years.

There'd been this massive slaughter of the elephants

and it's all happened in the incredibly short period of time

that I've been in Africa.

Fitz has taken every opportunity to boost the numbers.

When a zoo here closed a few years ago, he managed

to rehabilitate their elephant and then return her to the wild.

But ever since, she's been a frequent visitor to the game reserve's headquarters.

I'd like you to meet someone rather special to us.

Now, the workshop doesn't really seem the place to do it, but come down and have a look anyway.

Meet Nina, the zoo elephant, the ex-zoo elephant and her baby.

Nina has adapted quite well to life in the wild. Her baby is a little boy called Johnny.

How old is the calf, Fitz?

-Nearly four.

-Cool. He looks really healthy.

Doesn't he, doesn't he?

She was locked up in a place that wasn't much bigger than where the machines are here.

She was right next to a main road and that was home from when she was tiny.

So do you think she could be pregnant again?

She should be, but she started off life quite socially disadvantaged.

And you know how tight elephant are.

And she hasn't had any of that upbringing and everything with them is memories.

And she's only got,

you know, just those four little walls that confined her.

And here she is, behaving like a completely wild elephant, making all the right moves.

They're incomparable with anything else.

Lions are basically your housecat, zebra are horses and all the rest of it.

But there's nothing, nothing that can stand up with an elephant.

I agree with you totally, but I have known a few lions

that might take offence at that remark of yours about housecats.

I'm really sad I don't have a couple around at the moment to hear those things.

That was a just amazing experience.

It's the best thing for me to sort of be allowed into their world.

They're coming here, which means they're comfortable here.

And they're allowing me to stand there and watch them.

It's a real privilege to be able to do that.

I've never been to Africa before. It's quite moving.

I don't know if I'll get to experience it again.

So I'm really pleased. It's just wonderful.

If I didn't see anything else for the rest of my time here,

I would be happy because it's wonderful to see her doing so well.

When Fitz came to Mkomazi, there were just 11 elephants in the reserve.

Now there are almost 1,000.

We'll be back in Africa later, when the keepers take a walk on the wild side.

Back in Pets Corner, Royce the iguana needs some veterinary attention.

Earlier in the series, we followed the action when vet Paul Higgs had to amputate the end of her tail.

The problem was that an infection had taken hold and necrosis set in.

The tissue was dead and if nothing was done,

the infection could have spread up her tail until it killed her.

That was the first time that Paul had ever amputated an iguana's tail

and the surgery seemed to go pretty well.

But today, I've come to check up how she's doing.

Inside is vet Paul Higgs and keeper Sarah Clayson.

Hi, guys.

Ah, this is Royce.

So what are you here to do today, Paul?

I'm just here checking up on Royce after she had her tail amputated a few weeks ago.

So we're checking to see that everything's healed up nicely and is looking healthy.

What is your prognosis then so far?

It's all looking pretty good. These are still

the stitches in there. Obviously, there's some dead tissue here.

But hopefully, that will drop off to reveal healthy tissue underneath.

It was quite a while ago that we did the op,

and there's no infection there,

so I'm quite happy with how that's going.

Cos Paul, this was a first for you, the amputation of a reptile's tale.

-You'd never done that before in your day job.

-Absolutely not, no.

It certainly was a big step into the dark for me at times.

It went really, really very well. And for me, it looks great.

And how have you found Royce since the operation?

Has she returned to normal?

Yeah, she's back to her normal feisty self now.

Is she? You've got a bit of a grip there.

Obviously, you're just holding on to her while Paul here checks up on the tail.

How will her life be affected without the same tail length

she had before?

In this kind of protected environment,

it won't be too different.

In the wild, perhaps they wouldn't get on that well

without their length of tail

to help them balance and climb trees and things.

Here, they're so protected,

I don't think there's going to be any problem,

any change for her at all.

Sarah, how has Royce got on with the other iguanas?

I can see one up here lazing under the heat lamp.

How has she been welcomed back into the group?

Absolutely fine. She's come in with no problems whatsoever.

She was always quite a strong one of the group.

She's basically slipped back into how she always has been.

-Full appetite and all that?

-Yes, she's eating really well.

-Really happy with her.

-Good.

Can we see her on the ground now? Are you happy that you've had a look, Paul?

Yes, I'm happy with how she's doing.

Not happy.

She recognises you, Paul. "I don't want you coming near me."

She always was a grumpy one.

Paul, Sarah, thank you very much.

What fantastic news that Royce has made such a good recovery.

Up in the East Africa Reserve, the newest arrivals that keeper Ryan Hotley helps care for

are the three warthogs who came from Colchester Zoo, the ones they named Vlad,

Attila,

and Genghis.

These three brothers are the first warthogs they've ever had here

and it's been a challenge to learn how best to look after them.

But today, Ryan isn't in the East Africa Reserve,

he's in East Africa. And now, he's about to get the chance to find out

a little more about warthogs,

because ranger Semu has just spotted one of the Mkomazi camp's regular visitors.

-Does he have a name?

-Yeah, it's Kaburu.

-Kaburu?

-Kaburu, yeah. I think it's now 10 years he's been...in here.

10 years? So he's a big old boy.

A wild warthog would not normally come anywhere near people.

Kaburu, Kaburu, Kaburu!

But Kaburu lost one eye in a fight with another male,

which makes him an easy target for predators, mainly lions.

Kaburu, Kaburu, Kaburu.

But lions won't venture too close to the camp, so Kaburu knows he's safe here.

However, while he may have got used to people, he's clearly not at ease.

I think he's just a little bit scared, the warthog, Kaburu.

He's just being careful, he's being cautious.

Straight away, just heading into the slightly thicker brush there.

He wants the food, otherwise he'd be long gone.

But I think he's got to do it on his terms.

After a while, Kaburu circles round and comes out in the open,

but he's still very nervous.

They can be dangerous.

But as with a lot of what we call prey animals, basically,

it's more defence than aggression.

All they want to do is make you go away.

There's no benefit in them killing you...

because they're not going to eat you.

A moment later and Kaburu takes flight and is gone.

For a disabled warthog, life in the wild is no picnic.

Meanwhile, back in Wiltshire, the situation couldn't be more different.

I'm out in the warthog closure with head of section Andy Hayton

and we've got three extremely contented looking warthogs, Andy.

They've clearly settled in beautifully.

They're fantastic. Kate, to be perfectly frank with you, they love it here.

They're so chilled.

You can see them...

well, there you go, he's just flopped down

to go and have a little sleep.

Which one's which? Can you literally tell from them lying down here?

We tell them by their tusks, actually, Kate, because Vlad's got one of his upper tusks missing.

His left-hand upper tusk is actually missing, hence Vlad the Impaler.

Aha, of course.

Genghis is the real smart one, he's the brains of the outfit.

-Yeah.

-He's got a lower left-hand task missing.

Right.

And Attila is the smaller one with all four tusks. A kind of follower.

So they do have, they've developed or you've realised,

they've got very distinct personalities,

they're not just pigs in a field?

Absolutely, Genghis, we could have posted him back to Colchester

very quickly, because he tested everything.

If anyone was going to break the electric fence, or test a fence, it was him.

You could see him just standing there, looking at things and working them out.

And it was just, oh, he was a nightmare.

It was a real battle of brains. And we've got them now.

They're really good, they're happy, we're happy.

And, well, obviously it's an idyllic lifestyle for warthogs here.

Completely fantastic. Well, Andy, it's a huge privilege

to be so close to three obviously very happy, very content warthogs, so thank you very much.

And we've got lots more coming up on today's programme.

Out in Africa, the Longleat keepers join a mercy mission to save a whole pack of ferocious killers.

Back home, the pygmy goats have had a baby boom.

We'll be meeting the new kids on the block.

And from the bygone past, there's a dance to the music of time.

But first, back in Tanzania,

a tricky and dangerous mission is about to start.

One of the most endangered species in the world is the African hunting dog.

They once roamed in packs across most of the continent.

Now, they're on the very brink of extinction.

To try to save the species, Fitz began a captive breeding programme in the Mkomazi game reserve.

He now has six and closures, called bomas, that house nearly 70 hunting dogs

and today, he's about to take the first vital step towards returning a whole pack back to the wild.

We're going to dart this group of nine male dogs and move them

to this new holding compound we have on the Kenyan border.

We've got too many here so I have to move them.

We've just got permission to do this.

Longleat's head warden, Keith Harris, is going to help.

He's had lots of experience moving wild animals

though he's never done anything quite like this.

It's quite nerve-racking.

You've got to sedate them so there's the worry of sedation.

I think we're planning on flying them down.

It's going to be quite interesting, I think.

It's conservation at work.

If we can be a little part of that, and it is a little part, that's what really appeals to me,

just being able to put something back.

Wild dogs or hunting dogs are, in one way, Africa's most successful predator.

Lions make a kill in only about every five chases they begin.

But when these guys start running, the prey doesn't stand a chance.

These dogs, they just go and go and go.

They can run forever and eventually the prey gives up and they pull it down.

They just rip at everything until there's absolutely nothing left whatsoever.

Being such efficient hunters has given them an evil reputation

and so they've been massacred by people.

They say in the whole of Africa there's 3,000 left.

They are very, very rare.

They have this incredibly undeserved reputation.

They've never, ever been known to harm a human being, ever...ever.

To save them from extinction, Fitz plans to release packs

into protected areas in Tanzania and Kenya.

But just moving them is a high-risk operation.

Fitz and Keith are going to use anaesthetic darts to put them to sleep for about an hour.

Just enough time to load them into a plane and fly them to the release camp 40 miles away.

So, once these darts start flying, the clock starts ticking.

The darts are pressurised and the anaesthetic is supposed to be injected on impact.

It's not going in.

One of the dogs has been sedated, but the other darts don't seem to be working.

This one's not going in either.

Even that one didn't go, Keith.

So, no, I don't know what's happening. We're losing pressure.

I think it's just because the darts are so old.

The more stressed the dogs get, the more difficult it is to dart them.

With 30 years' experience of sedating animals to draw on,

Keith won't lose his head now.

At the moment, we're out in the field. We're not doing a clinical trial or anything.

The job got to be done, you've got to do it.

So, whatever happens, you just work round it.

At last, the darts start working and the drugs can begin to take effect.

That's quite something. All the noise just now, it's a bit peaceful.

So we'll try and move them before they start coming round.

It's a race against time,

but the danger of the dogs waking up is not the only deadline.

Get them in the car to the airstrip. We're going to move fast.

The anaesthetic drug has a dangerous side-effect.

It can cause animals to lose control of their body temperature.

And now, the heat of the day is building up.

It's over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

If they get too hot, the dogs will die.

Meanwhile, 40 miles away on the Kenyan border,

Longleat keeper Ryan Hotley and ranger Semu have arrived

on the landing strip, ready to receive the dogs.

It's a stressful time for everyone, but the dogs in particular.

Obviously, you only got a certain amount of time to travel them while they're still under.

Obviously, you don't want them to wake up in transit.

Last thing the dog knew, he fell asleep in his home and today wakes up in a plane.

That's quite a shock for an animal.

So I think it's very, very important that everything runs to the minute.

The flight to the release compound should take less than 10 minutes.

But what state will the dogs be in when they arrive?

We'll be back shortly to find out.

I'm in the great hall with head cleaner June Windess.

And we have just listened to one of the fantastic clocks in this house.

-They can't all do that, surely?

-No, not all of them.

This one is the oldest clock in the house.

It's the original clock.

And it is still able to do all the functions it has always been carried out to do.

And this dates back to practically when this house was first built.

It's hundreds and hundreds of years old.

Yes, a 17th-century clock, beautiful.

I assume this isn't the only clock in the house.

No, we've got lots more. Lots more. All different shapes and sizes.

-OK, shall we go and see some of those ones?

-Yeah.

-Lead the way.

-First one's in the ante-library.

-OK, down this way.

In fact, there are nearly 30 antique clocks in Longleat's 128 rooms,

many of them very rare and precious.

Now this looks slightly more manageable, a slightly smaller clock here.

Now, I'm assuming you have a number of different keys

-for all the different clocks in the house?

-Yes.

That's the one that does this one.

Do you have a special collection for all the other ones?

-Oh, yes.

-Is this the key bag?

Oh, yes. The biggest one of the collection is this one.

Look at that!

That is quite a key. And how do you know how far you can wind?

I wind them just so much, just enough to know that

the clock will work but not to overwind it and bust the springs.

So we just go very carefully. Then we check the time.

That is a little but fast, but I'll leave it as is.

Now, June, I know you've been working here for nearly 25 years.

I have to whisper it. You obviously must have your favourite parts of the house,

favourite rooms, favourite clocks. Where is your favourite then?

My favourite room is the drawing room, the state drawing room.

It is so opulent, it's beautiful.

-And my clock's in there, too.

-Is it?

-Yes.

-Can we go?

-Yes, we can.

I'll follow you.

CLOCKS TICK

CLOCKS CHIME

I can hear the clock before I can actually see it.

This is fantastically ornate.

It is, it's gorgeous.

-This is your favourite of the clocks you have to wind up.

-Yes.

-And this is what the enormous key is for.

-That's right.

I'll let you do the winding of this one.

Now, while you're doing that, who, before you came along in the house,

who would have done this in days of old?

Well, there used to be a chap, Eddie, his name was,

and he used to come round and do all the clocks for us.

And when he retired, it was handed down to me.

And we take care of them as much as we can.

We don't wind them any more than we feel is necessary.

Once it starts becoming tight, we stop.

With so many clocks to look after, you must be a very good timekeeper.

-I'm always late.

-Are you?

Speaking of late, June, we've got a lot more clocks to do.

-Yes.

-You'd better leave us to that.

Just look at the number of keys still left to go!

Earlier in the series, we saw what happened when Sour, the nanny goat, had triplets.

Unfortunately, she just couldn't cope with three and so rejected the smallest one.

The little kid would certainly have died if Senior Warden Bev Evans

hadn't intervened, and for a while there, it was still touch and go.

Luckily, the baby did survive, was named Bubble,

and has had to be bottle-fed ever since.

But that was just the start of this year's birthing season, so now I've come to meet Bev

and catch up with developments.

There seems, Bev, suddenly, to be thousands of them.

Yes, we've got quite a lot at the moment. We've got about 21.

-Right.

-We had a bit of a prosperous year this year on breeding, we had nine kids born.

-That's fantastic!

Because, although you would think that goats could breed very easily,

pygmy goats are difficult to breed, is that right?

They can be. They conceive quite well,

but the breed does have quite a high a stillborn and mortality rate with youngsters.

So it can be quite a difficult birth for them, because they are so small.

-And all of them doing well, all the parents doing the things they should do?

-Kind of.

We do have two hand-reared females.

-Right.

-Basically, two of our girls had triplets.

One didn't have enough milk so we took one of the females off

and the other just abandoned one of the little ones.

Oh, really. So, thought that...?

Cos quite often with sheep, they'll take a third away and give it to another mother?

So why did you hand rear? Why not give it to another adult?

We didn't have anyone, really, who could take one on.

They all had enough babies of their own.

So we were able to hand rear from powdered milk instead.

So, which two need feeding and how on earth do you manage to feed them and not all the others?

-Well, there are two, the two keenest.

-These two!

This is Dora and this is Bubble.

Bubble was the one who was abandoned by her mum, Sour.

We don't really know why.

-She just was. So we had to intervene quite dramatically.

-Well, now, I heard that really,

you were key in saving Bubble's life. She wasn't going to make it.

Yes, Andy and I kept an eye on her throughout the day, but she went downhill.

She got a little bit cold and generally, she was kind of death's door, to be perfectly blunt.

But we just kept rubbing her with a towel, things like that,

syringed some colostrum, which we milked off Sour,

and just tried to keep her spirits up.

It didn't take long, a few hours, till she stood on her own.

Shall we try giving them food now and see what they want to do?

I don't think I've ever hand fed a goat.

-Lambs, yes.

-This is Bubble.

Bubble has less milk, she's a bit smaller.

OK, so is there a knack to it?

Just head it towards her mouth and lift up slightly.

She kind of does the rest,

but she's incredibly strong for her size, as you can see.

Crikey, it must be quite hard being a mother goat, actually.

They really do push to get the milk out, don't they?

Yeah, as you can see, it doesn't take very long for them to drink most of the milk.

They're absolutely adorable.

It must be very rewarding for you to get them to this stage, get them

to the stage where they can almost go off and be completely independent?

They've done very well the whole way through. We haven't had any problems with them at all.

So it's been really, really good.

You're getting it all over your head!

That's it, crikey! Absolutely done and dusted.

Bubble, you can keep sucking on that

but I don't think you're going to find any more.

Bev, they're a complete credit to you.

Very, very well done.

You're not going to give up, are you, little one?

And we look forward to seeing her out and grazing on the grass soon.

Well done, you two. Aren't you brilliant? Yes.

At a bush airstrip on the Tanzania/Kenya border,

Longleat keeper Ryan Hotley and ranger Semu are anxiously waiting for Fitz's plane.

He's bringing nine African hunting dogs to a release compound here,

ready for them to be returned to the wild.

Flying with him is Longleat's head warden, Keith Harris.

Now, as the African heat climbs well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit,

the plane seems to be taking forever.

Until finally, they arrive.

Here he is.

But, the race against time is far from over.

In order to make the move, the dogs had to be put under anaesthetic.

And that could be very dangerous because the drug can cause animals to overheat, with fatal results.

They won't know if the dogs are all still breathing until after

they take them out of the boxes inside the holding compound.

There's always a risk when you're sedating any animal,

whether it's a wild dog or a domestic dog.

And, of course, the heat is not going to help us, because they can very quickly overheat.

So we want to move as quickly as we can.

The holding compound is a quarter of a mile away.

Let's just get them out, because, as I say, they're very hot.

There's not a second to lose.

Apart from anything else, they could start to wake up at any moment.

It's now midday and incredibly hot.

As they're taken out, the dogs are put in the shade to give them the best chance of survival.

This is the last one.

And they are all still breathing.

For me, this is like phew, because I have waited so long to get them, to start moving them.

The pack will stay here in the compound for one month,

while they acclimatise to their new surroundings.

Then, they'll be released into thousands of square miles

of protected bushland, where they can hunt and breed in safety.

I would love to be a wild dog here.

There's a lot of game out there

and it's a wonderful place for a dog to be.

There's no tourist camps. It's just perfect for them.

I think these dogs are at a critical stage of their evolutionary history.

I think if we don't help them now, they will disappear.

-Here they come.

-Yeah, even the little ones.

This one's coming round now nicely.

-That one, he's up now.

-Steadier than the others were, at the same time.

They've all come round really nicely.

They're beautiful. Aren't they wonderful?

It's not until you get this close you realise how delicate they are. Everything I knew as a kid was

they're a ferocious pack, they are the more successful hunter.

But extremely delicate.

It's been an interesting day for Ryan and Keith.

Animal moves in Wiltshire are nothing like this.

Being able to be part of a release programme,

we talk about it a lot...

in Longleat in captivity,

but a lot of the time, it's talk.

We try to do our bit, obviously, but coming out here now

and being part of a scheme to put these dogs back out there,

I think is absolutely wonderful.

And I'm very privileged to have done it.

So I'm going home with a lot of memories from this trip.

And now, deep in the wilds of Wiltshire,

the rainy season has begun.

The natives have a name for it, they call it summer.

Well, it's a very rainy, wet, windy end of the day, but Kate and I have

come up to Wallaby Wood with a very wet head of section, Andy Hayton.

Andy, the wallabies don't mind this weather too much?

They're not too bad, actually, they're really tough little animals.

Which is fortunate, really. But there are actually wild populations of wallabies in this country.

There's some in the Peak District, in Derbyshire, and there's some on an island in Loch Lomond.

So they've adapted to our climate pretty well?

Really well. These guys are really good.

They've got their breeding cycle going

so all the babies come in spring for the really good weather.

Like this, yeah.

Now, they're obviously scattered around.

In weather like this, do they tend to take shelter?

-Do they hide under trees or go into the house here?

-Yeah, you will see a lot of that.

Plus, with this wind, you can hear yourself, the noise of it is quite ferocious.

If you've got really good hearing like a lot of our animals, it spooks them out a little bit.

It plays havoc on their senses,

because they're being buffeted around and can't hear possible threats and things like that.

So a lot of animals get spooked in this weather. Rhinos get a bit tripped out in this weather.

If it's raining and windy, they don't really like it.

In the years I've been here, I've figured out it's not solely

because it's wet, miserable and horrible.

They're actually quite clever, because if we just go around

the corner here, sheltered from the wind, is a very clever wallaby.

And that's where I want to be.

Exactly! Andy, thank you very much indeed for bring us up to a wet, wild Wallaby Wood.

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.

We'll be back in Africa to get close to a pair of wild rhinos.

One false move, and they'll charge.

While the rhinos of Longleat are getting pretty frisky.

This might make a few cars move.

And how do you measure a cat with paws the size of a Frisbee,

apart from very carefully?

Wow, look at those teeth!

We'll have all that and more next time on Animal Park.

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