Episode 5 Animal Park

Lions are one of the most magnificent

and powerful animals here at Longleat.

Today, in a unique experiment,

we're going to be putting that power to the test.

Join us for that later in the show.

Coming up on today's Animal Park...

they call them the king of beasts, but just how strong

Of all the animals at Longleat,

the most famous have got to be the lions.

Thousands of people come to the park

every year to see these iconic, not to mention powerful, beasts.

Head of section Brian Kent and deputy head Bob Trollope

have over 55 years experience between them

of working with big cats

and in that time,

have been constantly reminded of their strength and power.

The lions are incredible animals.

They are immensely strong.

But they're incredibly strong.

In the wild, it's easy to see how lions have built up their reputation

as the king of the beasts.

They're formidable animals and being at the top of the food chain,

nowhere is their power more evident than when they're hunting.

But here at Longleat, the lions don't get the chance

to harness their strength and hunt prey in quite the same way.

So it's important the keepers think of ways to enrich their lives

and challenge them as they would be in their natural habitat.

In the past, we've always tried to put indestructible things in there

for them but, you know, there's all sorts of toys that we've tried.

They eventually find a way round it and break it, or lose it.

So this time, they're giving them something serious to play with.

on everything from aircraft tyres to military vehicles.

The hi-tech equipment he uses

shows just how much power these vehicles have.

So he's adapted it to use on the lions.

Theoretically,

we can attach something on the end of this load cell

which an animal would like to try and pull against.

If the lions take the bait, Dr Brighton will be able

to monitor just how powerful these creatures really are.

But that relies on them co-operating.

We've never worked with wild animals in this context ever before,

but if you play with your cat in your living room,

it enjoys playing with a piece of string.

Presumably, the lion will be the same,

although I'm no expert on lions.

I'm looking forward to it cos you often wonder how powerful they are.

So have they been well fed...

or well starved?

All depends. This'll be fresh meat for them.

How old are they?

You've got four small ones. They're coming up to about a year old.

And then the two slightly bigger ones.

They're about 18 months. OK. And then you've got Dad.

So roughly how much would the various ages weigh, then?

Well, I can imagine you're looking

at about 100 pounds for these little ones in weight.

Then with Dad, he could be anything up to

500 pounds in weight. Is he? OK.

So you're expecting him to develop a lot more pull than the others?

I should imagine the little ones are going to be the inquisitive ones.

OK. The more that they see us doing outside setting up,

the more inquisitive they'll be.

The more they'll want to come over and have a play. OK. Hopefully.

If it works all right in this pride,

And it's up to you guys which one you think

is most appropriate, really, for the lions.

If you break down, we can always tow you out.

What do you reckon, Bri?

I reckon the longer one, to be honest, don't you?

The idea is that the lions will pull on the ropes

so Dr Brighton can monitor their strength.

If Kabir comes up, you know, the big male in there,

then he would grab that,

no problems. OK. So we'll go for the long rope

that's the large diameter and then their jaws can get

a good purchase on it, so that they can create a lot of force.

While he sets up, Bob and Brian give the pullometer a trial run.

We won't break it, will we? OK. Go for it, guys.

So as they pull on the rope, you can see the indicator coming up here

and you can also see the display here.

Now we're just relying on the lions biting it.

Do you think they'll go for it? I think so.

People have been handling this rope so they've got a scent on there.

I see and they'll go for that?

Yeah. I should imagine so. Oh, splendid.

With everything ready to do, Brian and Dr Brighton

move the pullometer into position and Bob releases the lions.

But will they be willing participants

and will the technology survive against full-on lion power?

The nine Bactrian camels at Longleat are a particularly special herd,

because in the wild, they're critically endangered.

Originally from Mongolia,

northern China and Kazakhstan, these tough animals are used to

who has a rather hairy task for me.

What are we up to today?

Well, we're collecting camel fur which you'll find lying about

on the ground here in the new area.

It comes off of them in great big clumps

and not only looks untidy, it can get caught up in the hooves

of the smaller stock that we have up here.

Loads of it. It's unbelievable.

Can I get out in the absence of the camels?

We're fine at the moment.

So, basically, this here

is what we're collecting and they shed all of this

in the summer? Yes. Late spring, early summer,

actually starts coming off. It takes about six or eight weeks

and they look very untidy, very moth eaten.

It comes off in great big clumps from the neck

and sometimes we can actually help

and assist for those that have got the attitude to let us help.

I have this image that all your camels are totally bald.

They are at the moment.

There's just a little bit left on top of the humps now. Right.

How long will it take for all their hair to start growing back again?

Well, it starts growing back more or less immediately.

It is a very slow process, but by the winter,

they're going to have a full, thick coat again.

And what sort of uses does this have?

Actually, in the Gobi desert,

where these camels would originally populate,

the shepherds would use them as coats..

Camelhair coats. Camelhair coats.

Do you think anyone ever uses it locally?

We have had a local person who we used to sell it to,

we used to collect it and sell it to.

They used to turn it into yarn and make jumpers.

Something tells me it would be a very smelly jumper.

It's going to need to be washed.

Adrian, thank you very much.

Join us later in the programme when we'll find out

his hands full trying to give health checks to his Egyptian fruit bats.

The bats are free to fly around their cave

and are only ever handled during these health checks.

It's for this reason that Darren's keen to use

this opportunity for a second purpose.

We've had an issue with identifying individual animals.

There's so many bats over there and they all look the same.

But with 24 bats in the colony, Darren wants to know which is which

in case any of them have any special requirements.

Today, he's conducting an experiment

to find out the best way to tell them apart.

The recognised way of marking bats, actually,

is a bit like an ear tag.

You put a band on their wing or through their wing.

We don't really want to do that

so we've tried various things like coloured markers on their feet

which they just lick off and clean, so that's a complete failure.

to use an aluminium split ring.

There is a risk that the way the bats are designed,

their feet and their toes go very straight.

So these might, with a bit of help from the bats,

just slide straight off.

So we're hoping that's not going to happen,

and if it does work, it's going to help us and the keepers

say, "Red ring bat number one is the one that does such and such."

As part of our data recording, it would be very helpful.

Catching the bats to put the rings on is not an easy task.

Egyptian fruit bats use both their eyesight and echo location

to navigate, making them very tricky to catch.

But keeper John Ovens believes he has just the tool.

This is designed by, as you can probably tell, by us keepers.

It's not the most technical piece of kit.

It was just an old pole with, I think it was a pillowcase

or something like that, but it does the job.

It's a little bit of luck. You've got to be very quick.

It is normally a bit of fun as well. Ready, John? When you're ready.

No pressure. There's a whole gang up here.

Have you got one? He's there. He's there.

Well done.

He used his bat abilities and he got away from it.

Now he's got one. Fantastic.

OK. So, here we are.

Egyptian fruit bat. Beautiful animal.

And what we're looking for is we're looking for any eye injuries.

We're looking at teeth.

They're very long, very strong teeth.

And this is for puncturing the thick skin of the fruit that they eat.

The other two things we're looking for -

if John just gently holds the wings apart - we're looking for any tears.

Having checked the bat is in good health,

it's time to put on the tag.

For the first one in the test, Darren is using a plastic ring.

We've got to try and get a ring on that tiny little piece of foot.

And what I do

is I wrap it round the leg like that.

And that's not pinching the skin. It's just turning round and round.

This little fella is just about ready to go.

And the best way to do it, just let him hold on to our fingers

and away he goes.

Up with his friends. So we'll record that. Red 36.

Let's just catch another one.

Now that's the easy way cos, obviously,

they tire out a little bit. Hello, you.

This says that this one

has been wearing those teeth down for many years.

Egyptian fruit bats can live for up to 20 years,

but as most of these bats were not born here at Longleat, the only way

of telling how old they are is by this method of observation.

On this chap, we're going to put a split aluminium ring.

So this is purple split aluminium 49. OK. You're in good nick, mate.

I reckon that's the king bat we caught there.

We'll just gently hold its feet. We'll release him.

And away he goes. There we go.

He's tired out cos he's puffed back and forward, but again,

what we're trying to do is trying to get this done as quickly

One metal and one plastic.

That's orange on the right leg and that's

a split aluminium ring on the left.

Well done. Thank you very much.

That actually went really successful. The guys were brilliant.

We caught them as quickly as we possibly could

and you can hear they've all settled down.

They're just waiting for the bananas and start eating,

so 48 hours, they'll be monitoring and if the rings are still on,

then we've got the task of catching

everybody up and giving them all different-coloured rings

and then we've got every single bat in here identified.

But will Darren's trial really work?

We'll be back later to find out.

The East Africa reserve is a great place to see

If you were looking for herd animals in Africa, a good place to start

is around a water hole like this one.

It was while on a trip to Kenya that head of section Andy Hayton

had the idea of bringing an extra slice of Africa to the West Country

by building a water hole of his very own.

Facing typical British weather, construction commenced.

And it wasn't entirely straightforward.

But the water hole did finally get completed.

And now, with the sun shining, Kate has gone up to meet Andy

and hopefully get a look at his animals.

We've turned all their water drinkers off now and they actually use this

as their watering hole, as we envisaged it would be.

And this is about as natural

an environment as you could give them, presumably. It's fantastic.

Some lucky visitors, they don't spend all their time here,

but some visitors are going to get a good show when the giraffe come up.

The giraffe come up around midday. And you get giraffe here drinking.

You get zebra in the background.

It's just working exactly how

we wanted it to work and it's such a good show when they're all here.

Absolutely. And, I mean,

that is the great draw of water holes in the wild.

It is one of the great places to see wild animals. Absolutely.

I mean, all the real classic lodges in Africa are by a water hole

because that's where all the animals must come cos they've got to drink.

That is just a fantastic sight.

Absolutely wonderful. They've now abandoned the water hole.

I wonder whether there is that instinct, cos of course,

watering holes are great for predators.

Everybody gravitates to them because the predators know

that the other animals are going to come there.

They were quite nervous when we first started using it.

They were, "Is there a lion hiding behind that tree?" Yeah. Absolutely.

It was good and it just looks so nice when you have giraffe here.

Yes. Thanks, guys. It really makes it feel like

a little slice of East Africa, doesn't it?

It's nice. It really is good.

Like I say, some lucky visitors are going to get

a really really good photo of...

It could be East Africa.

Yeah. If they're really lucky.

Absolutely. Well, congratulations, cos I know it's been a hard slog

Ever wondered how powerful a lion is?

Well, keepers Bob and Brian always have. And today,

for the first time ever on Animal Park,

they and you are about to find out.

Top engineer Dr James Brighton has brought the latest technology to

measure just how strong Longleat's famous lions truly are.

Attached to a sensor at the back of this vehicle, is a length of rope

Every time the rope is tugged, the strength of the pull will

be recorded on a computer, rigged inside the vehicle.

Bob watches the action from a second vehicle.

OK, Adam, if you go and let them out and then drive straight out the way.

The only question, is whether the lions are in a playful mood.

They're going to try and tie us up with it.

It looks that way.

Ah, now we've got some competition happening.

They're actually pulling against each other.

You've got two youngsters right on the end.

And you've got Malika halfway along...

pulling it sideways and all she's doing is tugging them along.

That shows you the power.

There's three of them on there now.

It's a tug of war, as such. If that was a carcass,

then the stronger one would get the bigger bit

and then the little ones would have to be happy with what was left over.

But this little one is showing more strength than

Bob and Brian imagined.

Go on, then. Go on. Heave.

That's Malika, again.

She's really digging in.

She's giving it her all. You know, she's not the biggest of lions,

even in this pride...

Almost like taking your lions for a walk, isn't it?

Malika's been the most determined out of all of them.

You know, she's hardly been away from it.

That would show us that she's a potential leader.

They're enjoying it, especially the youngsters.

It's a learning curve for them, so it's

nice to actually see them trying to work something out.

They're squabbling over it.

See, there's competition.

It's healthy within the pride.

Neither one of them is going to give up, straightaway.

There's the highest reading so far,

with the two really intent on not letting that rope go.

We've just got up to nearly two there.

Who knows one thing, though,

Kabir doesn't take the blindest bit of notice of it.

So whether he will participate, it will be nice to see.

But moving into Charlie's pride is easier said than done,

as the cubs just won't let go of the rope.

They really don't want to let that go, do they?

The more I go forward the more I'm going to drag them along.

She still wants that rope.

Go on.

The cubs did well, but Brian's keen to move the test to the next level.

I think if we move into the next section,

This is a fantastic new addition to Pets Corner.

I'm here with keeper Jo Hawthorne

and this beautiful, beautiful snake.

What is it, Jo?

It's a corn snake.

I'm amazed. I thought corn snakes

are usually smaller than this.

They're really colourful

and they start off like little coloured pencils,

but he's nine now and although they stay very long and thin,

they can go up to five or six foot long. He's incredible.

He's beautiful. And the colours are stunning, aren't they? They are.

Absolutely stunning. Yep.

He's a he, as you say. He is.

Has he got a name? Yeah. MC.

Which is short for something.

OK. Come on. What is it? Mischievous corn snake.

He's always trying to escape.

Really? So, you know, we'll lock him away.

Get out of everything. Yeah.

I mean, he's incredibly strong, just holding him.

He's a constrictor like the pythons that you've got. Right.

He is, so he's really strong.

He's mostly muscle. Yeah.

You can feel round your arm now. Yeah.

Although you're the tree, they really do catch on. Yeah.

He's absolutely gorgeous but to humans,

presumably, no danger at all?

They're not normally out in daytime.

They come out at night, anyway. If you were walking along

where these hung out, they'll get out of your way.

They're a very secretive kind of snake.

They're not harmful in any way to us.

He's absolutely gorgeous, even if you are mischievous.

Well, Jo, thank you very much for introducing me.

Will you stick around long enough to tell us

what's on the rest of the programme?

We've seen how tough the young lions are,

but what happens when the hardest lion of them all goes on the pull?

It's been a little while now since three of them were tagged

with plastic and metal ankle rings in an attempt to tell them apart.

And it hasn't taken them long to find out the answer.

We found the plastic rings a couple of hours after.

We came up to close up in the evening and they were down

on the floor exactly next to each other,

so they'd been roosting up throughout the day.

They must have come off quickly.

Head of Pets Corner, Darren, has come to get the news.

What happens, I think...

John, can I just use your finger?

There's John's back leg. This has gone round the finger.

They play with them in their mouth and draw them off that way,

so they've come off over the toes.

Thanks, John. So, in fact, the aluminium rings that we haven't found

on the floor, that we're now trying to see that are still on the bat,

obviously are not pliable enough.

We can have 30 different colours.

Then we'll have a ringing campaign

and we'll grab every single bat.

We'll ring every one with a different colour.

It's going to make life so much easier knowing that

red, green left leg bat is eating all the banana,

whereas blue ring right leg bat

is actually a bit of a kiwi fruit fan and that sort of thing.

And also, activities are a dominant bat and stuff,

so having these markings, having these rings on them,

will help us with our study and our information

and the more information we have,

the better we can make it for them.

So, with one bat successfully tagged, there's just the small

matter of catching the other 23.

While Darren and his team get to work,

Ben has arrived on the other side of Pets Corner.

Earlier on, I collected a whole bag of this fur

from the camels up in the new area.

One is, hopefully,

they might make little trinket mounds out of the camel hair.

What is a trinket mound?

It's what degus do to show their dominance in the group

and it's a pile of twigs, leaves, wood chippings.

They put in a big pile and they sit on top chirping

to show that they're the most dominant male in the group.

So is it almost a kind of, "look at my mound"?

And a trinket mound cos of the things they put in it. Yeah.

Any object they can find.

So, why don't we put some down. OK.

You never know, they might use it.

So, literally, are we just going to sprinkle this

down on the ground?

Would a degu ever come across camel hair in the wild? No, probably not.

Maybe different kinds of hair, but any object they

would find in the wild, they would use as part of their trinket mound.

They're from South America?

South America, up in the mountains.

That's why we've got the rocks.

They're very vocal animals.

Judging by this one they love it up there.

They do. Usually, you'll see them climbing around on the logs.

They do like it, to be up high.

They've got large ears.

They've got good sense of hearing.

They sort of wag their tale when they know danger's coming.

Will they go to the top of this mound when they build it?

like they summated Mount Everest and go "I'm the best degu".

Usually, when they do their mounds in there,

they sit on top of their mounds and they make it

very vocal about it, to say "this is my mound, look at my mound".

But there's no females to attract? No.

But in the wild, this is something they would do to show that

"I'm the best male for breeding."

And then another male might knock their mound down,

so it's interesting to see them do it.

And important for their hierarchy.

It is very important, so they do it quite often.

You never know when they're going to do it.

Back in lion country Bob, Brian and Doctor Brighton

are heading into Charlie's pride, dragging the pullometer behind them.

Earlier, in Kabir's pride, it was the young female Malika

who emerged as the strongest,

while the big male Kabir took little interest.

But how will the older, bigger

and more streetwise lions in Charlie's pride, react?

Come on.

Brian, if you drove in there and head towards the scratching post.

All right.

These are bigger lions, a bit wiser than the cubs, obviously.

You've got the same principle.

You've got the one on the end killing it.

And these others are playing with it.

So we're up to over two already, which basically just

There he is. It's Charlie on it, now.

He's pulling. Watch the Land Rover rocking.

You can see all the muscle tone.

The muscle's actually working, how much effort he's putting into it.

That is a fit and healthy lion.

I imagine we'd be getting a good reading from that.

So now we're up to about two and a half, nearly three.

You can feel the whole truck moving. Yes.

You can see now that he's got

his claws dug into the rope and he's biting it at the same time.

You imagine if that was an animal's hide...

how they would use their claws to cling on to it

and hold the animal while they were biting it,

to try and kill it.

So, clearly, Charlie here has achieved a much higher

pull than any of the other lions.

Primarily, because of his added mass. Yeah.

And when he tries to accelerate that mass backwards and tug on

the rope, then we're seeing much much larger pulls and I'm afraid

himself to a piece of the vehicle.

Get off.

Oh, dear.

Look what you've done, Bob. Oh, dear.

It looks he was as interested in yours as well as our rope.

Shall we go and have a look at the rope

and see what the results were like?

So the maximum pull that he achieved when he really gave it some

was about three kilonewtons.

Now that's approximately equivalent

to about 305 kilograms, which is over 600 pounds.

So, it's a huge pull...

on the end of that rope.

Three kilonewtons sounds a lot and it is. It's equivalent

to the strength you'd need to lift two massive fridge freezers.

And to top it all, he's also had a bit of tyre, as well.

You don't always see him using his full strength, do we?

He's in there with girls. He ain't got to do anything...

so this'll give him something to do.

You can get a good feel of how fit he is, effectively. Yeah.

Fascinating. It's been a fascinating day, looking at how the

different animals have reacted and the results we've got

have been interesting also for the keepers,

so it's been a glorious day.

I'm out in monkey jungle

So you've come up with a great plan for the Rhesus macaques, here.

Tell us about it. This is just enrichment for them.

OK. So I've frozen some fruit and water and put them on some popsicles.

OK. And do you think that they will react like excited children?

I expect they will, cos there's quite sweet fruit in them.

And anything new, they're very interested in stuff.

We've got a lovely sort of group here.

Males, females, what are we looking at?

There's a mixture of all of them there.

You've got some mums with babies, as well as a few males.

You do a fruit one and I'll do peanut butter

and banana and see which ones they go for.

Ready. One two three. Go.

Oh, now, let's see how they react.

This one's grabbed both of them.

They're very greedy. Here you are, guys.

This is really interesting, the whole group coming in.

It's bringing different textures into them, so it brings in

different behaviours for them.

Stimulates their brain.

And obviously, these are on little sticks.

This won't hurt the monkeys. They'll leave these on the grass?

Yeah, and we'll pick them up.

OK. Here we are. I think your experiment is working well.

They're looking very happy. Here we are.

There you go. Try that one.

It's lovely to see. Monkeys are pretty closely related to us.

Yeah. Do you see, is there anything particular in their behaviour that

makes you think that's a pretty close cousin?

The facial expressions. They've got so many.

You can tell what mood they're in.

They're that expressive? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I think they are loving

this experiment and I'm not sure they're that discerning, though.

Bob's vehicle took a bit of a bashing earlier,

when Charlie took a chunk out of it.

Get off.

But it's not just the lions who've been chewing the cars.

Earlier in the series, we met these

three new wild young tigers, who came to live at Longleat.

Svetli, Shouri and Soundari.

Oh, my God.

Soundari's a bit of a troublemaker

and has not only been going for cars, but buses, as well.

So, slightly nervously, Kate and I have joined Bob

for a drive in tiger territory.

Bob, they're looking fantastic out in the sunlight. Yes.

They look brilliant here. And, Bob, you're still learning

about their traits when they're out like this,

cos you've had some problems with them attacking cars.

It would be advisable to shut yours. OK.

Cos I'm quite slow with this window.

So what does she make of cars?

I think they are prey to her.

You know, this is something moving and it's quite often

the moving that gets a reaction.

She does actually chase parked cars.

She's magnificent.

It's wonderful to watch her kind of gait.

Isn't it? Yeah. She has enormous paws, enormous paws.

You just see there's such strength there.

It's like there's this pent up energy.

She looks like quite a relaxed cat and you know that in one moment

she could completely change.

And she's still got growing to do.

She's not fully grown?

She's not fully grown yet. She's only two years old.

Here she comes, running alongside.

Well, they've had to rethink, the local squirrels pheasants.

Oh, really?

I'm sure they just got so used to...

Ambling past and now Soundari,

she chases after them, lightening speed. Really?

She doesn't stop at the base of the tree,

she goes up the tree with them. There's no escape.

So the squirrels and pheasants are all packing their bags?

They are. Yes.

It's great to see that they're doing well out here.

I hope that they don't attack too many more cars.

We will be keeping you updated with the new tiger's progress.

That's the end of today's programme, but here's what's

coming up on the next Animal Park.

There's pillage and mayhem when otters get a garden makeover.

Lord Bath sets a course for disaster.

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