Episode 3 Animal Park

Today, we've got big plans for Monkey Jungle.

A way of keeping the monkeys happy, busy and off the cars.

It's a fun food source and a puzzle all wrapped up into one.

Join us to find out what the monkeys make of their new treat.

Coming up on today's Animal Park, it's a tense time for everyone

as the keepers take a shot at the cubs.

And there's a battle brewing in Pets Corner.

I'm so going to be the winner. There's no competition in there.

That's complete rubbish!

But first, we're going to Monkey Jungle,

a very perilous place for cars.

Of all the species in the park,

the troop of over 70 rhesus macaque monkeys

must be the most inquisitive.

You could also call them cheeky, even mischievous, or possibly

something untransmittable.

So, while he's patrolling Monkey Jungle,

the keeper, Ross Ellis, has to stay on his toes.

The monkeys are probably the most active animals in the safari park.

So we've always got to look for ideas to keep them occupied.

Otherwise they'll just keep ripping cars apart.

Anything that can keep them occupied, keep them stimulated is a plus.

Windscreen wipers is a popular one. They come off all the time.

There's a monkey on top of that one there, after an aerial.

One on a wing mirror here.

Just checking it out.

The monkeys are always ripping stuff off,

we're forever picking bits up. There's a bit here.

It's off a Ford Mondeo.

This lot has taken Ross only about a day to collect,

so you see the monkeys really are right little vandals.

The only way to curb their wicked ways is to distract them,

and deputy head warden Ian Turner is always trying to come up

with new things to keep them busy.

What we want to do is enrich the monkeys' lives.

There's 70 to 80 monkeys in here, plus babies.

They're always playing on trees and stuff,

so I'm hoping that if I can get a couple of good logs

for them to play on, it's really gonna be good for them.

We need something to keep them active,

so hopefully that's what's gonna happen with these logs.

The other idea I had is to drill holes in and put food inside.

We could put the mix in in the mornings,

which hopefully will stop the seagulls pinching it,

and in the afternoon, put fruit in there.

Once we've found the logs, it should be no trouble.

It's just a matter of digging a hole and putting two logs in.

So it should be easy.

There are over a million trees on Longleat estate,

managed by the forestry department.

Their yard is piled up with likely logs and tree trunks.

Right, these are the two I picked out.

Slightly different to your normal logs.

-Yeah.

-The other thing I was gonna do is drill some holes in.

-I see.

-So you can put food in.

You know, a bit of apple, a bit of orange.

-Whatever.

-So they can sit there, help themselves from all different areas.

It's perfect. It's really good.

And we'll do both of them. I've got another one here.

We'll probably bury them

that deep into the ground, so you've got six to seven feet out.

-That's cool then.

-Yeah.

All we need now is to get John up

with his big digger and put them on there.

It's supposed to be softwood, so hopefully

the drilling's not gonna be too hard and they're not too heavy.

So, soon, the monkeys will have something to distract them

from their delinquent behaviour.

Ian reckons building it is going to be a very straightforward job.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

There's over 900 animals at the safari park.

Many animals within a species look alike.

So it's very important that the keepers know each one individually.

For some residents, that's obvious.

But with others, it's much more difficult.

We're up at Pets Corner with head of section Darren Beasley and I gather,

Darren, that you've got a challenge for us.

Yeah, we know you both like a bit of fun

and think you can recognise your animals.

We're gonna set you a little challenge today.

We have to be able to tell all our animals apart. Parrots.

Up top, they do lions. Down here, tortoises.

Easy, they've got numbers on their shells!

It's not gonna be as easy as that!

We have different species and sub-species here.

They're all individual, with their own pet names and characters.

We number them for ease,

but we're gonna show you some differences in the shell patterns,

and hopefully you guys are gonna go away and come back

and learn their names and what type of tortoise they are.

I'm so going to be the winner. There's no competition in there.

That's complete rubbish!

-Who's my tutor?

-Sarah, and she's pretty hot on tortoises,

so she'll give you good coaching.

But we are gonna win, because I'm going to coach Kate.

-I'm going to go and swot up.

-No way will you win, Fogle.

Right, OK, so each tortoise has an individual shell, is that right?

Yeah, it's really just like our thumbprint.

Lots of animals have individual markings.

The shells on the back of the tortoise have a different pattern.

Colouring, shape, size.

It's the way we identify them.

We take special photographs of them

and it's a good way of knowing who's who.

So there's an awful lot of tortoises in here.

Am I going to have to learn all... I can't even count them.

Some keepers have been here years and still can't do it.

That's why we put a Tippex number on the shell.

That helps them tell them apart. Some of them are very similar.

Is it a bit like wearing nail varnish?

It doesn't stop them breathing out of the shell or anything like that?

You hit the nail on the head there, really.

That is living tissue, that shell.

We put the little bit of Tippex there and it does block a few holes.

This has got thousands of little holes,

which is for heat regulation. They soak up the sun.

I don't know if you can see, on this one,

there are some very faint lines down here.

-Can you see these?

-Oh, yeah. Almost like rings on a tree.

That's really what they are, but they don't get a ring every year.

It depends on food availability, temperature, if they've hibernated.

It's not an accurate way of ageing a tortoise,

but for every season or growth spurt,

they usually get another layer of growth around that shell.

But will size be an indication of how old a tortoise is?

Not really. The females are generally bigger than the boys.

But you've got two fairly old tortoises next to each other there

and look at the size difference.

So size isn't an issue, really.

So it will grow with its shell.

It won't shed the shell like a hermit crab or something like that.

It won't move in or grow another shell.

When they're in the egg, when we hatch them out, they're folded in half.

They hatch out, that shell straightens, goes tough and hard,

and grows throughout their life.

There's a lot to learn. Luckily for Kate, there's plenty of time for swotting.

But which one of us will be top of the class?

Join us later to find out.

Over in Lion Country, the keepers are about to face

one of the most challenging tasks of the year.

It's time for the annual cat flu injections.

Not the lions' favourite experience.

But something that has to be done

for their protection against a potentially fatal virus.

Obviously knows something's going on.

Brian Kent and Bob Trollope are darting Kabir first,

so he can hopefully set a good example to his rapidly-expanding family.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

There are six cubs in Kabir's pride.

The youngest four are due for their first jabs today.

They've had their normal inoculations at eight and 12 weeks

and this is the first time they've had a booster, the four little ones.

All the others have had them before.

It's a case of the others knowing what's going to happen

and the four little ones haven't got a clue.

There's going to be a little bit of stress.

It don't take them long to wise up.

They feed off each other's stress.

They see one get done and the others will realise that something

not very nice is going to happen to them.

Which is unfortunate, but they've got to have it.

It's been two years since Kabir arrived to start a new pride.

No-one could have predicted what a stud he'd prove to be.

His two ladies,

sisters Yendi and Luna, gave birth soon after,

and within weeks of each other, to one girl each, Jasira and Malaika.

But then, only seven months later, came another big surprise.

Yendi produced four more cubs.

Two boys and two girls.

And Kate was lucky enough to help with their first health check.

You're four weeks old

and you are the most beautiful thing on telly today.

That is for sure.

Watching the pride grow up has been a joy.

They've been going from strength to strength. They're into everything.

They climb everything.

They try to climb the fence. They climb any tree that is climbable.

They're on the go all the time normally. They have a little siesta

when the sun comes up, then play, play and more play.

Kabir has been very, very patient

with all the cubs.

Malaika, Jasira and the four new ones.

He's not the most playful of fathers,

but he does tolerate a lot of tail pulling and a lot of mane pulling.

But there's no time for fun and games today.

The youngsters are now 18 months old

and, in the last six months, have tripled in size.

They still look quite cuddly,

but given half a chance would love to bite the hand that feeds them.

They could take your hands off easily.

Rip you down to the bone without even thinking about it.

You might get away with them not being able to kill you,

but I wouldn't like to put it to the test.

There are nine injections to do in total.

One at a time, the lions are encouraged into the pen at the end,

so that Bob can get a clear shot using a blowpipe.

It's the quietest, least stressful means to inject a lion.

18-month-old Malaika goes first.

Good girl, stay there.

I know. Come and say hello. Not gonna hurt you now.

That was obviously an expert shot there. Text book.

Before they can go out, the dart has to be retrieved.

Usually it just falls out in the run at the back.

Malaika is followed by her mum, five-year-old Yendi.

As the dart goes into the skin, the pressure is released,

forcing the cat flu vaccine into the muscle.

It's best to get them in the rump,

because there's a bit more muscle there.

Yendi's sister Luna is next.

I know.

Despite the noise, so far,

the four youngsters hardly seem to have noticed what's going on.

Last of the older ones is Luna's daughter, 18-month-old Jasira.

This is one of the few occasions when the four youngsters

have been on their own and they seem to be wondering why.

Well, what's left, the wisest ones have gone

and it's the four little ones.

This might be a bit more difficult, as all the big ones have gone out.

When you separate them, they're gonna panic a little bit.

We'll be back in the lion's den later to see just how much trouble

the cubs can be.

It's not gonna hurt. Good girl.

There's nearly 40 tortoises in Pets Corner

and to care for them properly,

the keepers need to be able to tell them apart.

Today, we've been challenged to do the same.

Ben thinks he's got it all under control.

Kate, this is how you learn tortoise recognition.

Sarah, teach me everything you know.

Who have we got here, first of all?

Right. Here, we've got Ronay.

Winky, the one with the wheel.

Big Ted.

This is Amos and that's Lady.

Where you doing that just by the numbers

or are there specific characteristics you're looking for?

I was doing that by the numbers.

Were you?! I know I'm not gonna be allowed to do that.

What sort of things should I look out for?

I think we know him, because he's got the wheel.

I know he lost a leg.

OK. Who was this again?

This is Ronay. This is quite a good one for you to learn the difference.

If you look closely at the centre of her shell,

each of these sections are called scutes and they don't actually line-up.

-If you look at Winky...

-They've got little bits that go up the sides.

It's an odd-shaped shell she's got,

so that's a good one for you to pick out.

These two shells a very different.

Does that mean they're different types of tortoises?

Yeah. These three here are Hermann's tortoises.

Basically, the shell tends to be more gold in colour.

They've got more of a distinctive difference between the black and gold colours.

Their shell tends to be a little bit wider and shorter to the ground.

Whereas these two are spur-thighed tortoises.

Basically, they've got more of a domed shell

and tend to be a bit darker in colour.

While we're talking about the shells, can they feel that?

They can, they do have feeling in their shell.

They have a blood supply through it,

they feel temperature, pressure and pain in their shell.

This might sound daft, but you do spend a lot of time with them.

Do they have unique characteristics?

Are there any that stand out in your mind?

Some are quite feisty and charge around the garden when the sun's out.

There are a few characteristics that are different between them.

-Let's just go through one more time. We've got...

-Amos.

Winky.

-Charlie?

-Ronay.

-Ronay.

She's the one with the irregular pattern down the middle.

-That's Lady, number three.

-Lady.

-And Big Ted.

-Big Ted.

-That's the biggest one of the group, so that's quite an easy one.

-Big Ted.

We're gonna win this competition.

Kate, you don't stand a chance.

Back up in Monkey jungle, keeper Ross Ellis

and deputy head warden Ian Turner have come up with a plan

to enrich feeding time for their troop of rhesus macaque monkeys.

The hope is the more time they spend eating, the less time they'll have

to vandalise the visitors' cars.

They've found a couple of tree trunks in the forestry yard

and the idea is to turn them into a kind of climbing frame cafe.

But first, they have to be moved.

So Ian's called in the professionals.

Here's Mike Wooley and his heavy mover.

-Ian.

-A little job for you, look.

Yeah. Little(!)

According to Tommy, they're not very heavy.

It won't be that big a job as long as we can lift them up.

They shouldn't be that heavy, cos they're softwood. Simple.

Mike's machine clears the small logs out of the way like matchwood.

After all, this baby can shift up to 1.5 tonnes no problem.

Now for the main mission.

To pick up Ian's tree trunks, carry them up to the yard

and then put them into the back of a flatbed lorry.

I'm hoping it weighs about 1.5 tonnes, which is what he can lift.

If it's more, we'll have to use a different machine.

It's tricky to get a grip, but when he does, there's a problem.

-Too heavy?

-Too heavy, yeah.

There's about three tonnes there.

It's amazing. And that's a hollow one!

We're gonna have to go to Plan B now. It was too big for the JCB,

so we'll get a telehandler in now.

Hopefully, we don't have to go to Plan C.

This is the telehandler.

When it comes to heavy loads, it's a real monster,

capable of lifting up to three tonnes.

But even the telehandler can't handle it.

So now the two machines are going to have a go together.

Come to keep an eye on his heavy metal

is plant hire supremo John Miles.

And even the grounds and garden manager is here: Tommy Parker.

But despite their combined efforts, and the fact that half the estate

now seems to be involved, the logs still aren't shifting.

Meanwhile, back in Monkey Jungle, the little delinquents

are getting restless.

Bored with the cars, they've started on the buffalo.

Never easy. Plan C.

When we get to 26 in the alphabet, we're in trouble.

If the trunk's just too heavy,

the only thing to do is to chop a chunk off.

It's funny, you think, "I'll just get a tree, pick it up,

"shove it in the Monkey Jungle, monkeys will be happy."

It turns out to weigh 3.5 or 4 tonnes.

Or it did. Now it's a bit lighter.

So, much to Ian's relief, the truncated trunk can

finally be lifted on to the lorry.

The hardest part, we thought, was gonna be drilling the holes,

so I'm hoping that's gonna be the easy part.

Right, we're 50 per cent done.

That's one on the lorry.

They're gonna finish this one, I'll unload this one, then we'll come back for that one.

If Ian reckons his troubles are over, he could be in for a surprise.

We'll be back later to see if the monkeys ever do get their fantastic new climbing frame cafe.

It's feeding time up at the Rhino House

and I'm here with deputy head of section Kevin Nibbs and Winston,

-who's got his hay, but he's also getting some nuts.

-That's right.

This is just a high-fibre pellet really. It's made of grass.

That's what he eats.

-You're holding a tin of rather dodgy looking stuff. What's that?

-This is cod-liver oil.

It's just like what we would take for our joints.

-Winston needs that as well.

-Does he? Is it because he's a bit old?

All the rhinos get it.

In our weather, the climate isn't very good,

it's quite cold and damp most of the time, so this helps their joints.

-What a brilliant idea.

-We just get a small glug in there, like that.

-Right. Does it...

Ooh, it does smell horrible.

OK. Disguise this a little bit.

Do they seem to react to the taste?

Sometimes. If you put too much in, they don't eat it.

Like a small kid, they won't eat it. If we put too much in, they just won't take it.

-Shall I just tip it on top of the hay?

-Just on top of his hay.

Here we are, Winston.

It's medicine time, mate. Sorry.

Get the horn out of the way. There you go. There we are.

That will keep him skipping happily around the fields, will it?

-That's right, hopefully.

-Fantastic.

Kevin, thank you. Enjoy that, Winston.

Here's what's coming up on the rest of today's programme.

Deputy head warden Ian Turner can't see the wood for the trees

as there are even more problems for his Monkey Cafe.

And helping out in the snake house, Kate gets three pythons to cuddle.

Rather her than me.

But first, with Winston treated, I've got to rush back to Pets Corner

for the final of the tortoise showdown.

But will Ben and I really be able to tell these animals apart?

Well, we're here at Pets Corner.

It's very tense.

We're here with head of section Darren Beasley and keeper Sarah.

We've been swotting up furiously

to see if we can identify one tortoise from another.

-It's the moment of truth, Darren.

-Okey-dokey.

-Do you want to start?

-We will start.

One's coming straight across here.

Remember, we had the numbers, so I'm hiding the numbers.

OK, so this is a big one.

It's got quite a domey shell, so I would say it's a spur-thigh.

-That's good.

-Quite high ridges on the shell with a dent here.

So I would say this is Tom.

Not gonna give you the answer yet.

-OK...

-OK, Sarah, my turn.

You're gonna pick one out for me.

Right.

OK. Let's have a look.

Bit smaller than the rest.

-Um...

-Come on, Fogle!

I remember, this is where the shell doesn't meet up and it's got

the little bit of shell that goes in between, which means this is Romey!

Are you allowed to tell me now?

-I don't know. Am I?

-No.

You keep tabs. OK. It's your turn.

OK, right. They're both pretty much the same size.

But Sandra was the one with the brighter shell

and Dawn was the one with the very pronounced rings on the shell.

So I think that's Sandra and that's Dawn.

-Beat that, Fogle!

-OK, Sarah, give me another one.

I can't believe you got that one!

It's the one with the wheel.

I know that. I don't have to be a scientific as you, Kate.

With a wheel.

Wonky?

Winky?

Wheely?

-Don't look at me! I'm not gonna win your competition for you.

-Wheely.

Another big one. But with a very different shell shape.

Slightly tips up at the back here.

It's also a very different colour, so this isn't a spur-thighed tortoise.

It's a Hermann's tortoise.

And this is...

Topsy.

I wonder who was Teacher's Pet at school(!) OK, Sarah, next one.

OK.

Now this shell is not as dark as the other one and it looks like a lady.

Lady. I'm gonna go for Lady.

-OK.

-OK.

-Well, I've only got one left, Darren.

-Last one.

This one has got to be George and the reason that I say that is that

George was the one with this classic starburst or paint drop on the top of the shell,

but it's much smoother than Tom's shell.

-So I think this one is George.

-Oo-oh!

OK, Sarah, two more to go, I think.

-Right.

-Quite similar, these.

Can I just do a quick comparison? I think this is Amos and this here

is Big Ted.

Please, please.

Doesn't he look like a Big Ted to you?

He does, definitely. He's probably called Winky though. Or Wheely or Wonky.

OK. So, Sarah, how did Ben do?

Very well.

A couple nearly got right.

But more or less five out of five.

More or less five out of five?

-What does that mean?!

-He got there in the end.

-I got there in the end. Beat that, Humble.

-Well, five tortoises, tricky job.

Outstanding. Top of the class.

Gold star. Names exactly right, pronounced right.

The winner and the champion of the tortoise identification test

is our Kate!

Favouritism. Favouritism.

Thank you both very much indeed. We will never, ever

fail to identify these tortoises ever again, will we?

-Especially you.

-Which one's this one again?

# What's new, Pussycat, woh-oo-woh

# What's new, Pussycat, woh-oo-woh woh-oo-woh... #

Back up in the lion's den,

the four youngest cubs are about to have a new experience.

Bob and Brian are going to give them their very first cat flu jabs.

Come here, come here.

Wasn't me.

Good girl. Good girl.

Got her unaware of what was happening and the dart went off perfectly.

It didn't come out straight away,

but Brian's trying to get the dart out now.

Go on.

The most awkward part of the operation is not shooting the darts,

it's getting them back.

If she moves up and down, hopefully it will just fall out.

She's gonna panic because she's not out the rest.

Go on, up and down.

I don't think it's the dart that's bothering her now.

It's being split up from her brothers and sisters

and also her mum.

She just wants to get out.

But I do need the dart back. You've got to be careful as well.

If she knocks it too much, she might break it off.

You could end up with the needle itself still stuck in her.

It's the first time Brian has had to do anything that hurts

to the young lioness.

Her trust in him has been bruised.

Obviously, after this, they don't want to come near you.

Ooh! Come here.

There you are. Missed that, didn't you?

She just stood enough by the cage there I managed to grab it.

That was all right.

# Pussycat, Pussycat, I love you, yes I do... #

This is my little favourite, this one.

Not gonna be her favourite for long, are you?

Hey, what are you doing that to me for?

Didn't even realise, did you?

Good boy.

-Freedom.

-Go away.

The last two are getting nervous.

So often, this is when things start to go wrong.

Come here.

All right, all right.

-Has it not gone off?

-Not gone off.

Unfortunately, the dart's gone in, but the plunger hasn't gone off.

I don't want to dart her again while that one's in there

in case it does go off and she gets a double dose.

That needle's bent now.

See, that's what I was worried about.

Don't know if you can see, it's all bent.

And if that been a bit longer, it would have broken off there.

She'd have ended up with a needle stuck inside of her.

No, that's gone off.

And she didn't flinch on that one!

Thank you. And I got the dart back as well. I'm getting good at this!

Finally, Kabir's family is reunited

and it was worth all the effort

as the cat flu vaccine will keep the lions healthy for another year.

I'm down by Half Mile Lake with Kim Tucker from Pets Corner who has put me to work.

This is not easy actually, Kim. I can see why you gave me the fork!

It's quite stony. So I'm digging up these plants here.

-What for?

-For the royal python tank back in Pets Corner.

-Really? But pythons don't eat grass, do they?

-No, they don't eat it.

No, they use it for lots of different reasons.

Things like hiding. And it can help with the shedding of their skin,

give them different things to rub through.

So they would literally coil their way through it

and any dead skin they had hanging off would be pulled off from there.

This and the rocks and everything else we put in there for them.

I gather that pythons are the thing that you love the most?

Yes. They're therapeutic. It's nice to sit there with a python, let it move through your hands.

They're not quick. They're very slow and very patient.

Just lovely, lovely creatures.

I do quite enjoy being around them, I must say.

These are the bigger ones you want here.

-Yeah, perfect.

-So what, dig up a whole plant like that?

Yeah, if we can get some quite big clumps

because there's a lot of space in the tank.

All right, well, I'm going to carry on

doing this with Kim, if I don't break the fork,

which I might have done, and we will join you up at Pets Corner

in just a little bit to see how much the pythons appreciate their grass.

It's not just the pythons in for a treat.

The monkeys are expecting a new climbing frame,

but there's been some unexpected problems -

lifting three tonnes of wood.

The good news is deputy head warden Ian Turner

and keeper Ross Ellis

have finally managed to get their tree trunks moved.

But, they've still got a lot to do

before the monkeys can get their paws on them.

-Right, trees here.

-Finally!

Don't know whether it is going to be hard to drill or not hard to drill.

But after the morning we've had,

it can't get any worse, I wouldn't have thought.

In the wild, rhesus macaque monkeys

spend most of their days foraging for fruit or hunting for bugs.

In order to make feeding more interesting here at Longleat,

the plan is to drill holes all over the trunks

and stuff their food inside.

Fishing it out should keep the monkeys busy for ages.

Ross, what do you reckon? Is that deep enough, do you reckon?

Yeah, she seems deep enough. It's not the adults so much,

it's the young ones.

We don't want it so deep that they can't get all the way in.

It is the young ones really, yeah.

The adults, it wouldn't matter so much.

-That's about right then.

-That does look...

Well, I can't feel the bottom. Cool. One down.

20-odd to go!

With so many holes to drill, Ross and Ian will be here for a while.

The next morning, everything's ready for the trunks to be put in place.

Ian's picked the spot.

The main reason we're doing the holes here is we've done a lot of work on the other side,

so we thought, for a change, we'd do something over this side.

We've done it in this position so it's in the sun,

so they've got sunshine to go in.

We're doing it in two different places,

so it's not all in one place.

You've got a bit of interaction between the two logs

and we may even put a log on top of the two to do a bit in between.

It's going good after yesterday's disaster.

Driving the digger is heavy metal king John Miles.

He and Ian both have a good idea of how deep the hole should be.

Unfortunately, it's not the same idea.

How deep is that? Four foot?

It's twice as deep as halfway.

Yeah.

Trust me, I'm a digger driver.

MUSIC: "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II

That way, then that way.

So, the trunk is finally upright.

But Ian's still not happy.

-What do you reckon?

-Well, in an ideal world,

I'd like it a little bit

-round that way, if possible.

-Tweak it round that way?

Yeah, so all the visitors, they've got the view from this bit

whereas there's quite a few of them dotted round there.

If you just hold that side, Mike, you push it that way

and I'll pull it that way, yeah?

MUSIC: "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II

That's straight. I'm really pleased at how it's looking.

This has worked out well. Really pleased with it.

Ian may be delighted,

but it's up to the monkeys to pass the final verdict.

We'll be back in Monkey Jungle at feeding time to see if they also

think their new trunks are "tree-mendous."

Earlier, I helped Kim Tucker collect a load of grass

which we have here for the pythons.

Now, I suppose it's a question of giving this to them.

Yeah. What we'll do first is take

the old stuff out because it looks grotty.

-So, they're not all going to make a dash for it?

-No, they shouldn't do.

They're not particularly quick.

We've got a few up here, so we'll get them out the way first.

-We've got...

-OK, who's this one?

That one is Khan.

Now, Khan's the male, isn't he? One of the males?

Yep. These are the males in here. So, that one's Khalif.

Do they mind being held in a great big kind of bundle like this?

Not particularly. As long as they're lovely and warm, they don't mind.

OK, so I'll keep them close to me.

-Hello, guys.

-This is Sir Hiss. This is our newest one.

-Sir Hiss!

Yes. I don't know if you want to just have a look just down here.

In the grass here...

Oh, look at that. Amazing.

So they've used this one.

This just goes to prove

that they use it to shed, help shed their skin.

That's incredible.

And it's basically because the skin doesn't grow

at the same rate as them?

Kind of, yeah. It also rejuvenates.

In the way our skin comes off all the time, theirs comes off all at once. When they get injured,

it takes an awful long time for reptile skin to heal.

Any reptiles, their skin's not really rejuvenative, if you like.

I'll stick that down. So these all need to go in the muck bucket.

-Yep.

-There's two quite large ones down here.

There we go.

Look, boys, at all this work we're doing for you.

How do you think their new greenery is looking?

-Shall we...

-I will pop a few little bits down here.

Shall I put these guys back and see if they approve? Look at you lot.

You've got yourself tangled up. I don't know which one's which!

They're absolutely beautiful.

I'll give you this one. And we'll make sure that they enjoy

their nice new enclosure.

Kim, thank you very much for letting me help you today.

Right, you gorgeous boys,

I shall put you back to enjoy your new grass. There you go.

There you are. See what you make of that.

After 36 hours of hard work,

Ian and Ross's new tree trunk climbing frame cafe is finally ready

for the hungry monkeys.

It's all finished. All ready to trial.

It's going to take a little bit of a while to feed this morning,

but the longer we take,

the more time the monkeys have got to take to get it all out.

Normally, we just scatter this all over the floor...

..and a lot of it goes to birds,

which hopefully will cut that out a bit.

But they're very inquisitive. They're already looking.

As soon as we walk away...

They'll be here before we've finished.

Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

We've put a lot of effort into this.

More than we thought we should have.

But it should keep them occupied for a little while.

Right, well, I'll step back and see what happens.

I don't think they'll be very long.

No, they'll be here straightaway.

Normally, it takes about five minutes to eat this, doesn't it?

Yeah. Hopefully, with this new apparatus, it will take longer.

Normally, that one would be finished.

Look, he's sat there, perched on there and taking it a bit at a time.

Normally, when we do a scatter feed,

the buffalo would come in and pinch a bit of the food.

This way, the buffalo won't get so much.

The monkeys are just literally using them as springboards.

Once the food's gone, the young ones might use this as a plaything.

You might find this turns into the juvenile kids' corner.

They'll hang around this side more.

So, was all the effort worth it?

Considering how much effort

it did take to get it all in and get it all working, I'm pleased.

Yeah, I'm more than pleased. Definitely.

Only time will tell if this will keep the monkeys

off the cars and curb their vandalistic tendencies.

But, certainly, monkey meal times will never be the same again.

Kate and I have come out to the new area

with deputy head of section Kevin Nibbs

to see how the Bactrian camels are doing.

Judging by this, not too disturbed

-by this particularly cold weather we've got now.

-No, not at all.

This is the male. Usually he has a big, shaggy jacket on.

Yeah, I mean, this is the summer coat, presumably.

Exactly. They've lost all their hair, for the summer...

Well, I was just going to say, this is not a summer coat.

No, exactly. We know they're tough animals.

In the wild, they live in really difficult conditions, don't they?

Yes. You could find them in the Gobi desert,

where it gets really cold at night, minus 40 sometimes. They can withstand cold temperatures.

But, presumably, that's with their coats.

How are they coping now with summer coats

in really quite cold and very wet weather?

Exactly. It's not nice for them.

If it's really wet, we'll put them indoors for the evening.

But it's the wet they don't like. They just don't like getting wet

because they don't dry out well. It's like a big, soggy towel on them. So they're heavy, wet and miserable.

But the kind of cold winds like this

are not a problem because they deal with much chillier...

No, they're not a problem. They've got the third eyelid

just to block anything blowing into their eyes.

We need third eyelids! We're being sprayed by straw here.

Well, Kev, I hope that they manage to survive

this inclement summer we're having. Thank you very much indeed.

I don't know that we're going to!

Or we're going to get eaten by camels!

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

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

The tigers try to make friends.

Oh my gosh!

Meet Vlad, Attila and Genghis.

They're hard as nails,

but how will they react when Kate heads into their enclosure?

And Ben makes an alarming move in the great house.

ALARM WAILS

Oh, I feel really naughty!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]