Episode 7 Animal Park

Every animal at Longleat is precious and every birth is nerve wracking for the keepers.

We're at the giraffery, but it's not the endangered giraffes that are expecting,

it's an animal completely on the other end of the scale.

Yes, the pygmy goats are due to give birth at any moment.

The keepers are standing by and we'll be following their story on today's Animal Park.

Coming up on today's Animal Park...

The old tigers used to love a splash in their pool

but will the new arrivals pluck up the courage to dive in?

A demonstration of what not to wear?

No! It's an exclusive show of Lord Bath's favourite fashions.

And how will 25-stone heavyweight, Nico the Gorilla, react to these home grown treats?

-What do you think he'll make of those?

-He'll be pretty unimpressed with that!

Last winter, and for the second year in a row,

Jonjo the champion pygmy goat, had a busy fortnight

up in the East African Reserve.

The Longleat herd is predominantly female

and they don't have their own Billy,

and that's why Jonjo came hot-foot from his home in the Welsh Valleys.

He's a jobbing stud, and he soon got down to business.

But that was five months ago, and now Senior Warden, Bev Evans,

has some predictable, though still exciting, news.

Well, currently our five female goats are heavily pregnant, due this week,

and it's their second time.

We had births last year,

and hopefully our five girls will be very successful this year

and they should have quite a few kids, hopefully.

This is Sour, and Sour is one of our friendliest goats

and probably noisiest, actually. She did incredibly well last year.

She had our twins, so hopefully she'll do just as well this year.

Our girls are looking incredibly big.

I would say, but obviously I can't say for certain,

that a lot of them are carrying twins cos they're that big,

very round, and also their udders are beginning to drop which shows they are very imminent,

so we're just keeping an special eye on them at the moment.

And well they might, because Bev and the team remember only too well

what happened last year.

For most of the herd it was the first time they'd ever been pregnant

and, when they began to give birth, things started to go wrong.

Sour did all right, but most of the other nannies' kids were stillborn.

Lilly had the worst time of all.

She was in such distress that the vet,

Duncan Williams, had to be called to carry out an emergency Caesarean.

Bev was there, along with Head of Section, Andy Hayton.

For the sake of the babies, the operation was done

just under a local anaesthetic.

OK, just feeling in there for the uterus.

Grab the outside of the uterus.

It took just moments to get the first kid out.

There were no signs of life.

Swinging the baby is to clear fluid from the lungs.

Massaging is to try to get their system going.

In fact, there were two - Lilly was carrying twins.

But there was never any hope.

By the time he started to do the stitches,

Duncan had discovered what happened.

Unfortunately the placenta was detached already

so the kids had died in the uterus,

probably sometime during the night.

At least Lilly did make a full recovery

but, when birthing time was over,

the final count for the whole herd was pretty grim.

Out of nine kids carried to term, there were just three still alive.

So of course this year, right now, tensions are running high.

As Bev settles them into the barn for the night, it's anyone's guess

what she'll find later on, and who will be the first.

If I had to put my money on it, I'd either go for Sour or for Prawn.

They're looking like their stomachs are starting to change shape,

their back ends are very puffy, their udders are down.

Also they sometimes start bleating,

not to me but to themselves and that's a sign that,

you know, it's possible movement and the kids are about to come,

so yes, we'll just have to wait and see.

We'll be back later when the very first babies arrive

and let's just hope that this year goes a little better than last.

Many of the park's residents are fond of a refreshing swim,

from the hippos basking in Half Mile Lake

to the sea lions making a splash,

but there's some animals you might not expect to see

taking a little dip - the tigers.

These shots are of the old gang - Shandy, Sonar and Kadoo.

Sadly Shandy and Sonar have now died,

and much loved Kadoo is an old lady

and prefers to spend her time indoors.

But there are three new tigers at the park

and the keepers are keen to see whether they'll enjoy a swim.

Before they can be released from the tiger house,

I've been asked to drive up some rather large machinery

to help prepare the pool.

I'm out in the Tiger Enclosure, obviously without tigers...

well, I hope so, but with keeper, Bob Trollope,

and it's a big day here because the pond is going to be filled up...

-It is.

-..for the tigers.

-You've already made a start?

-Yep.

-So we've got to get this next tank load in?

-Yes.

-How do we go about doing that?

-Just take the pipe off of here and just chuck it in there.

Mind you don't get wet, though!

-This is the comedy bit!

-It's gravity fed.

-OK, so just...

-Just chuck it in there.

-Ooh, look at that! OK.

-And that's it.

-Brilliant. Now, obviously fairly new tigers?

-Yep.

Never seen this pond filled before?

-No.

-Why is it important for them to have water in the enclosure?

Well, tigers will actively seek out water to cool down

-on a lovely hot summer's day like we've got.

-Like this one, yeah!

And they will go there and lay in it, just to keep cool.

Oh, really! Because you think cats,

domestic cats, seem to actively avoid being anywhere near water?

-Yes, they do.

-Tigers are completely different?

-Completely, and lions.

We've had ponds in the lions section. They don't go near them apart from a drink.

-Oh, really?

-But the tigers will use this for all sorts of things.

In the past we've had them laying there for hours on end.

-They drink from it.

-Can they swim?

Is it something they can physically do?

Tigers are extremely good swimmers.

If they need to get across a river or a lake or such,

they can swim very well.

Presumably like all the new things you introduce into the enclosure,

this is very good enrichment for these new tigers?

Yeah, because as we've done in the past with Kadoo and so on,

we chuck toys in there like that yellow ball,

we can scatter feed round here as well

and hopefully that encourages them to use it more.

You shouldn't have to encourage them because they seek it out naturally

but we like to put something different in there, just to keep them occupied.

Do you think Sandari will be the first over here to check it out and see what she thinks?

Primarily I think Sandari will be the one!

We're making gurgly noises behind us. We're almost at the end,

so what we're going to do is take the tractor out of the way, let the tigers out

and join us later to see what they make of their new swimming pool.

There's been some breaking news back up in the goat House.

Sour, the nanny, just given birth to three little kids,

but there's a problem.

pygmy goats only have two teats, which makes it hard for them

to care for three babies, so the mother will often

reject and abandon one of them.

Already it looks like Sour has decided to ignore the smallest kid.

It may seem hard, but it's the natural way.

Bev Evans, who looks after the goats,

is giving Sour one last chance to recognise her most needy baby.

Sadly, she just doesn't want to know,

so now it's up to Bev to try to save its life.

She's brought the kid into the staff room where it's warmer.

Of course nobody ever wants to take a baby from its mother,

but this is a matter of life and death.

The kid is a little girl, and her body temperature is dangerously low.

We're just taking over Sour's job and stimulating her

and getting her cleaned up, get her dry

and we're just trying to see how she's gonna do, really.

It's been a little bit touch and go.

It's hard to say if she's gonna survive or not.

She won't survive long without milk,

and the best place to get that is from Mum.

So Head of Section, Andy Hayton, is trying to get some from Sour.

This will give the baby the best head start

you can possibly wish for.

Lovely!

Let's try a little bit here.

This special first milk is called colostrum.

It's full of antibodies to help protect newborn babies from disease

and infection in the first few days of their precarious lives.

But, if she's to survive, she'll need a lot more milk than this.

-She's swallowed that.

-Swallowed, did she?

-Yep.

She's too weak to take any more milk right now.

In fact, she doesn't look too good.

Sour's only ever had twins before, she's never had triplets,

so she's probably quite occupied with giving birth to the second one

and then the third, and by that time

this little one had got a bit cold

and wasn't really bleating as much and wasn't really standing as much,

so, you know, once the other two were up and about,

Sour's attention kind of turned to them.

Maybe she knows something we don't.

Maybe she thinks this little one is a lost cause,

but we can only tell that later on, really.

Is that better?

She's perked up a little bit and then she's gone a little bit sleepy again,

so, you know, we'll just keep carrying on with this,

just trying to give her just a bit more energy, really.

As I said, she's still very weak.

Clearly, she's fading fast.

-Maybe we'll give her a bit more of that kick start in a minute.

-She's trying.

Is she taking it?

As a last resort, Andy tries an emergency treatment -

a kind of pick-me-up medicine that's used by farmers on struggling newborn lambs.

It's like a vitamin, mineral, supplement type thing

and it just gives them a real boost.

It's kind of kill or cure, almost.

But it's not looking good.

She's not as perky as she was.

It's almost sometimes like they just quit.

It's what happens.

-She's not gone yet.

-She's not gone yet, no.

But, Andy and Bev know there's really not much hope,

and it may only be a matter of time.

Later on, we'll find out what happens to the poor little kid.

Sadly, the pygmy kid is not an isolated case,

and the keepers are no stranger to tragedy.

Just a few months ago, there was devastating news

as Samba the gorilla passed away, leaving Nico the, Silverback male,

all alone on Gorilla Island.

He is now 47 years old, and for a gorilla, that is very elderly.

The keepers are constantly trying to find new ways to keep him healthy

and to give him special treats,

some of which are actually home grown here in the park.

So Ben and Head of Section, Mark Tye,

are about to raid the orangery to see what they can find.

Mark, it's pretty amazing that they have all these exotic fruits

-growing here down in Longleat?

-Yeah, quite a surprise!

It's called the orangery, but I didn't know they grew fruit in here!

So your idea is to collect this fruit for...?

-Nico the gorilla.

-Fantastic!

And he likes his fruits, does he?

Loves fruits, it's the majority of his diet, fruit and vegetables.

It would be nice to try some home grown and see how he gets on with it!

OK. Well, this is where we should begin, which is obviously lemons.

-Lemons, yes.

-Has he tried lemons before?

-He has tried them. Yeah?

He wasn't that much of a fan, but you never know, these might be nicer.

And I have to say, I am staggered

that we can grow citrus, exotic fruits like this in the UK!

Incredible! So what do you think, a couple of these?

-A few of those.

-So do you think that's the lemons sorted?

-Yes, I reckon that will be fine.

-OK. I'm not sure, these look like

slightly unripe oranges. What do you think he'd make of those?

-We'd better leave those and find some a little more orange!

-He probably wants little orange oranges,

which looks like we've got some here. Should we collect a couple of these?

-Whoops, dropping them!

-That one's ready to go.

When he eats them, does he tend to just put the whole thing in his mouth

or will he be quite picky and actually take the skin off it?

No. He would normally peel them, you know.

-Sometimes we cut them in half.

-Smell that.

-Smells fantastic!

-Nice, isn't it!

-Smells really fresh.

-Gosh!

-I'm sure he'll like those!

-OK. Let's grab one from higher up here.

Are we gonna hide them around the island like we often do with...?

Yes, he's used to having his food hidden about for him,

but perhaps we'll make it a bit obvious today for our purposes

so we can see what he makes of them.

OK, so we've got oranges and lemons.

Any bananas?

My travelling leads me to believe this is bananas, and in fact,

there's some up there, so if you wait here, I will go up and see.

I'm not sure what he's going to make of these.

I think he might find these quite interesting.

Let me take a little couple of these down.

Right. So, Mark...

these will be Nico's bananas! What do you think he'll make of those?

I think he'll be pretty unimpressed with that!

Knowing what a pig he can be,

I think he's gonna think that's not worth the effort!

-They smell quite citrusy.

-They do.

But I'm not sure that he's gonna get very much actually out of those.

I think they need more ripening, but we can give it a go!

-Well, it's not a bad fruit cocktail there.

-See what he makes of that.

All that's left is to take these up and find out

what Nico the gorilla makes of home-grown bananas! Join us later.

The Safari Park is home to around

90 different species of animals that come in all shapes and sizes,

shades and textures but, for sheer vibrancy and display,

none of them can quite match Longleat's most colourful resident.

Lord Bath is famous for his flamboyant costumes.

His family have lived here for over four centuries

and this year he turns 75.

To make the occasion, Lord Bath has invited us for an exclusive look

at some of his favourite fashion gems from down the decades.

It all began back in the late 1940s.

Well, up until my last year at Eton,

I didn't have the slightest interest in fashion.

It was only when suddenly there was this possibility of

being colourful in what one wore when I was in Pop at Eton,

that's the equivalent of being a prefect, and you were allowed then

to wear anything colourful, that it suddenly came to the fore.

I was permitted to display my authority

by preening myself like a peacock,

so that was the first time that I was consciously

trying to out-colour my contemporaries.

I like to be the most colourful one.

The headmaster once told me off

for wearing a peacock feather instead of a buttonhole

and so I avoided it in his presence after that!

After leaving school, Lord Bath put his penchant for preening on hold

while he did his national service and studied at Oxford.

Then, as the 1950s came to a close,

the time was right for a whole new look.

# ..Eagerly pursuing all the latest fads and trends

# Cos he's a dedicated follower of fashion... #

Then it was after that, with the '60s beginning,

reading everywhere that London had become the fashion capital of the world

and as the swinging '60s began to roll,

yes, I felt I could play my part constructively,

and so gradually there was a certain development of an image

that was mine and not somebody else's.

Lord Bath has kept many items

from all those decades ago, so it's quite a treat

to get a peek into his wardrobe and at these priceless pictures.

To start with I had colourful sweaters

and then I went to specially made clothes.

This came in a batch where I had some evening wear made.

It's, um...pony skin

and fun fur.

Instead of black tie, I'd be wearing that.

As the '60s turned into the '70s,

Lord Bath's image took a new direction.

And here I'm wearing kaftans for the first time

which are a style that became much more frequent

when I was down in France.

I've got a house down near St Tropez.

I wear thin clothes, or no clothes, whichever I feel like,

but it's nice to be able to just make the decision on the spur of the moment.

From kaftans it was a short step to other kinds of long robes.

I met somebody who knew a Ugandan tailor who was happy to make

a garment to cover everything and I could quickly slip it on

and I can be dressed within ten minutes, within five minutes.

This is a cape that caught my eye in a second-hand shop,

just up on a peg in a shop

and again, I thought that's my sort of style.

It would be evening wear, but it wouldn't have to be, I could go out at midday in that.

It's open to all possibilities!

In a wardrobe crammed with every imaginable colour,

could there be anything even vaguely subdued?

Well, this is black and relatively plain here in the front,

yet if I'm fearing I'm going to be taken as...plain

then I can turn round and it becomes a bit more colourful on the back.

Could be able to go to black fashion sometimes, if I'm in mourning.

But it's not too often you'll catch Lord Bath in anything so inconspicuous as black!

Then more recently it's combinations of, say,

a shirt like that within a jacket like that.

I know that I've been painted in that one.

I think I chose it for the garment to be painted in

because it puts the painter to quite a test

to see if he can get the colours in the accurate order!

Lord Bath's wardrobe still has more surprises yet to be revealed!

We'll be delving deeper into the decades later on.

I'm here in the degu enclosure with keeper, Bev Allen.

Bev, they're extraordinary looking creatures.

-Where are they from originally?

-From South America,

high up in the mountains, and we've got eight degus in here altogether.

So, out in the wild, what would they live off?

They would eat things like roots of plants,

grass, and they live on the dew from the grass for water.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-And do you try to mimic that here, then, the feed and things?

-We do.

We give them a strict diet,

because you've got to be careful of diabetes in degus

so we give them a strict diet of rabbit and chinchilla pellets

and now and again we give them a bit of carrot because a healthy degu usually has orange teeth.

If they've got white teeth, they're not very well.

Really? Very different to us!

-It is, yes.

-Bev, thank you very much.

Here's what's still to come on today's programme.

The tigers are released to try out their new pool,

but will they be brave enough to dip their paws in?

And will Nico the Gorilla be at all impressed

by Ben's home-grown fruit salad?

But first, back up in the staff room,

it's been an hour since the newborn kid was brought inside.

She had to be rescued after being rejected by her mother,

the nanny goat called Sour.

Bev Evans is trying to keep the baby alive with body massage

and tiny feeds of mother's milk,

but clearly the kid's life is hanging in the balance.

Right now, Bev's desperately trying to keep the baby warm.

I've brought in a hot water bottle

to warm it up from all angles, really,

and it's starting to perk up a little bit,

starting to lift its head,

but only in fits and starts, it's not really jumping for joy yet.

This kid was rejected because Sour must have felt

she just couldn't look after three babies at once,

but now Head of Section, Andy Hayton, has spotted a problem with one of the other kids,

so he's called in vet, Paul Higgs, to take a look.

Five hours after being born, one of them still can't stand up properly.

No, there was no strength in it, whatsoever.

Whenever he's putting weight on it, his back legs were both just splaying.

Yeah, he's quite weak, isn't he?

I think his main problem is that his toes aren't...

if you put his toes flat,

he can't actually stand on the bottoms of his feet

because his tendons are all contracted down.

The problem was caused by having three babies in the womb.

They were squashed together with no room to stretch,

so the tendons in his back legs haven't developed properly.

Generally they come right within 24 hours, otherwise we could...

If he's still not right tomorrow afternoon or whatever,

then we can stick a splint on them,

but as it's both of them, we don't really want to splint both his legs

and usually they just come right all by themselves.

In terms of her, she looks fantastic for having just given birth to three,

so I think they'll be fine.

While the vet's been in the barn, Bev's been waiting in the staff room

with the poor little kid.

She was fading away, but now there's been a minor miracle!

About an hour ago she was still wrapped up in a towel,

hardly lifting her head, and then I just took the towel off her,

she just stood up, had a wee and she's been like this ever since, won't even sit down.

Yeah, with little young ones like lambs and kids,

they've got very little energy when they come out, very little reserves,

so if they get cold, they rapidly use those up,

and once they've warmed up, they tend to come back to life quite quickly.

She's quite good. If you stick your finger in her mouth,

she sucks really nice and strong now,

so she should be quite happy to go onto the bottle now rather than just squirting it into her mouth.

-That's good.

-And she's got loads of energy.

-Good.

-She looks as good as the other two now, doesn't she?

-Yeah, bless her!

It's turned out pretty well, as you can see.

A bit of a shock, actually, taking off the towel and she just stood straight up,

so from nearly at death's door to up and about and quite lively, yeah.

Really good. Long day, but yeah, very good, in the end.

So far, so good, but now Bev and Andy will have to raise her by hand,

bottle feeding her day and night.

With four other pregnant nannies

due to give birth any day now, they could be in for a busy time!

I'm out in the Tiger Enclosure with Keeper, Bob Trollope,

and just over my shoulder is Sandari.

The tigers have been let out.

We were here earlier, filling their pond.

She is supposed to be taking an interest in the pond,

but she seems to be taking more interest in us in this Land Rover.

She does. She's a mischievous little thing, as you know, Kate.

I'll just keep an eye on her for a minute,

because she's a bit of a so and so.

So we might need to make a little dash for it,

if she starts biting our tyres.

What we did was put some meat around the edge of the pond

once it was filled up with water.

There's a nice big very hard plastic ball in there for them to play with,

so really, she should be finding that irresistible.

As the tigers are so new to the park, the keepers are still learning

what they do and don't like.

They do like to stalk the cars,

but there's a chance they may not like the water,

but it's not long before Sandari's curiosity means that she just has to try it out.

-She's spotted the ball in the pond.

-Let's see.

-Hopefully...

Oh, there she goes! Quite quick.

She just suddenly realised there was something else different in the park.

Straight into the water, not fazed by the water at all.

Oh, that's great!

-Look, that's lovely! Paw shaking!

-No fear of the water at all.

Look at her!

She suddenly looks very kittenish!

Oh, this is lovely, to see this!

I bet Kadoo would be very, very proud of her,

because Kadoo was always really the first one in the water, wasn't she?

Yes, she was, and she's...

-This is a mini Kadoo, without a doubt.

-Yeah.

When she was younger, she was exactly like this -

mischievous, always investigating new things, enjoying it.

-It's fantastic!

-The other two are intrigued

because they're sat up watching,

but they're not quite brave enough to come across.

I think she might be in here for most of the day, Bob!

She looks like a very, very happy cat!

That's such a success!

-That's great, isn't it?

-It's brilliant!

-It's really nice to see all that sort of behaviour.

-It really is.

She looks incredibly happy.

-She is.

-Very content. Bob, thank you very much indeed.

We are going to leave this extremely happy tiger playing in her paddling pool

and we'll leave you with a happy sight of her.

His family have lived at Longleat for 13 generations

but the present Lord Bath must be the most colourful one ever!

To mark his 75th birthday, he's invited us

in for an exclusive peep at his kaleidoscopic collection of clothes.

The garment he's most famous for is the waistcoat.

The reason I really like waistcoats is that

you can choose something complex in texture and colour

and if I'm wearing some straight colour, like that colour beneath,

this can go over the top of it

and bring the mind to much detailed things.

Very often designers approach me,

including little snippets of material,

and say they'd like to make a waistcoat

and very often, if it's the sort of material I do like,

I will say yes, but I get too many of them, my wardrobe is full!

And now, Lord Bath has inspired a new fashion craze

down in one of the Longleat gift shops.

This one is called Jungle Blues.

Manager, Barbara Savage, has a line of Lord Bath waistcoats

that have turned out very popular,

particularly with the American visitors.

-Do they make them this big?

-Yes.

If you'd like to try one on, you certainly can.

-Sure.

-This one is called Quadrophenia.

-Can you wear a sports jacket over this?

-Absolutely, absolutely!

-It makes you look much slimmer, actually!

-It does, doesn't it!

I'll put my sunglasses on!

There are you, you see, you look really quite smart in that one.

Whereabouts in America are you from?

-Houston, Texas.

-Houston? Would you like to take one back to Houston with you?

If you wrap it up! I would stand out!

I don't think Longleat would be anything like what it is if we had Lord Bath dress in his suit.

We're used to Lord Bath in his bright, vibrant clothing

which reflects on his life and passion for Longleat.

It's not just in the shop where Lord Bath's sense of style has been a big hit.

When he goes around the estate, he always turns heads.

It's not clothes I would wear myself,

but I don't think it looks at all out of place.

When we see Lord Bath he stands out, and that's the way it should be.

I love the way he wears really funky shirts underneath

that have no pattern whatsoever to do with the waistcoat,

and I think that works really good.

With his waistcoats now all the rage in Houston, Texas,

has Lord Bath ever been tempted to break into the world of haute couture?

After all, the contents of his wardrobe

could be worth a small fortune.

All of the items I'm liable to suddenly reach in

and think, I haven't worn that for a while, and bring it out.

I don't tend to say goodbye to a garment.

I know people have said, would I put up a garment for charity?

No! I wear them, still!

And one can be highly sober in one's clothing,

but I've never thought of myself as highly sober,

but once you start on the colourful campaign,

it's quite difficult to stop

and you've always got to be one better than the others!

Earlier, Head of Section, Mark Tye, and I went down to the orangery

to pick some fruit as a treat for Nico the gorilla.

The lemons and oranges are looking good,

but the bananas may be a touch on the small side.

Still, it's all very eco-friendly,

what with the food miles being so low - only about 300 metres in fact.

-So we've brought it up to his island.

-Yep.

And made a nice pile of it there.

So just remind me, we had lemons, oranges?

And some rather tiny bananas!

Very tiny! What do you think he'll make of it when he comes out?

I don't know. He might go round the corner and go nowhere near it,

but normally I put it in front of the door so he sees it,

so we'll see what... You don't know what he's gonna do.

OK, shall we let him out?

-I know we've got someone inside?

-Yep, OK, Luke.

-Do you think he'll go straight past it?

-I don't know.

-There he goes. He trampled it!

-He trampled it!

Is this often how he comes out, because he knows we're here, so he's posturing a bit?

Yes, there's a big crowd of people watching him, and he doesn't like that too much,

-so this is a big show, "I'm the boss, my island, keep off!"

-Yeah.

-So he's looking at it now.

-Yep.

-Any idea what...?

-Well...

He's very pensive. I love it when he sits like that. It's almost like,

"Which one shall I take first?"

Yeah, but the look on his face is like, "I know this isn't normal.

"My food isn't normally placed in a heap for me."

-There's one of the...

-Small oranges.

How... Is he peeling it?

Yeah, he loves peeling oranges.

He doesn't eat the skin,

so yeah, they're going down well.

-He's probably thinking a little small, but very tasty.

-Very tasty.

Are you surprised he's going for it? I suppose it's fruit and fruit is his...

He does like his oranges, he loves his bananas.

Quite what he'll make of the size of those bananas, I don't know!

He's eating his second orange there.

Yes. That's obviously the favourite.

I don't think the lemons and bananas are a big hit.

Why do you hide fruit around the island?

Well, gorillas are obviously very intelligent animals

and it wouldn't be very fair on them if we just placed their food in a big heap like that

because he'd do exactly that - sit there, fill his face for ten minutes,

then have nothing left to do. We leave a lot of the island uncut

and that's what we use for hiding all his food in,

then he's got to act like a wild gorilla and find his food,

it's not just presented to him on a plate, he's got to look for it.

He's got to forage, it's all part of the enrichment.

Yes, a gorilla, particularly a male that thinks of food all the time,

it's a very good way of getting him off his backside, making him active,

keeping him going around the island and keeping him stimulated.

Does he have a big appetite?

He has an enormous appetite! He just doesn't stop eating.

He would eat and eat and eat.

It looks like he's peeling one of the lemons!

He is actually using his fingers. He's quite dextrous.

He's extremely dextrous, you know.

Although they're big, fat fingers, he can peel little peanuts

and he's very good with his fingers.

So we've had oranges, lemons,

but still hasn't gone near those bananas.

Well, he's polished most of those oranges, most of the lemons.

I think it's fair to say

that the bananas weren't high on his priorities!

-I think they need more growing!

-I think so! Mark, thank you very much.

What a success!

When Sour, the nanny goat, gave birth to three kids,

no-one really thought that the tiny weak one was going to survive,

but that didn't stop Bev Evans and Andy Hayton

doing all they could, and now, here we are, one week later.

And here she is - the comeback kid!

Pretty amazing comeback of all comebacks, I think, this one, isn't it?

There were points when we actually thought it was dead.

It's nice when things like this happen.

She came home with me on the first night

and she stayed at my house for probably a good five or six days,

because she was just so incredibly weak.

She's special in lots of ways.

She's called Bubble, because she...

sits after she's had her milk and blows bubbles out of her mouth,

so a special character!

You may have noticed that Bubble isn't the only new kid on the block!

In fact, since Sour gave birth,

four of the other nanny goats also had theirs.

There are baby goats everywhere!

Male, male,

male...

..five, yeah. Five males, four females.

Bubble still needs to be bottle fed,

and now she's not the only one Bev's got to take special care of.

I couldn't believe it - two sets of triplets, oh, God! That was just a shock.

We've got two which we're hand rearing on the bottle, as you can see.

Very healthy and hungry, all together,

and all playing around in the sunshine, doing really well.

When I was growing up, I just wanted to be working with animals.

I grew up on a farm and I've always wanted,

you know, a job that was outside and involves a lot of animals -

cuddly, non cuddly, whatever shape, big or small,

so hanging around with goats which are just coming out of your ears,

yeah, it's brilliant, very nice.

At the moment, they're not staying in this paddock

so we move them up to the top goat barn at night,

just because it's warmer and cosier

and that in itself is a feat.

Organising four mums and many babies is certainly a feat to be seen!

The pygmy goats may be smaller than most of the other residents of the East African Reserve,

but at round up time they can be a lot more trouble.

Come on, goats!

We'll be checking back on the pygmy goats and all their kids

later in the series.

We're leaving the newest kids on the block

to check up on some of the oldest.

The pelicans have lived at the park for decades and are one of

the world's largest flying birds.

Their enormous wingspan can reach over 2½ metres, allowing them

to swoop down gracefully to catch their prey,

and being such large animals,

they can certainly build up quite an appetite,

as Ben and I are about to find out.

We're with keeper, Michelle Stevens, to feed the pink back pelicans.

So, Michelle, we've got a big bucket of mackerel here.

-What do we need to do?

-Just feed them.

-Just throw it?

-Yeah.

-Make sure everyone gets a piece.

-There you are! Oh, my goodness!

-They can be quite...

-Look at the beaks, though!

-They're absolutely enormous!

-A bit ravenous at the moment!

Just being this close to them, looking at this one at the back, here, Michelle, that's eating,

looks a bit different from the others.

-Is it a juvenile?

-It's a different species altogether.

-Oh, really?

-It's a spot billed pelican.

I thought you only had pink backed pelicans here?

We have 12 pink backs, and one individual... Ooh! ..spot billed.

Taking your hand with it!

So how come you ended up with one of an entirely different species?

We're not sure. We just acquired four in the 1960s

and he is just the remaining one

-that we have left.

-So he could be what 40, 50 years old?

-Yes.

-And that's common for pelicans to live that long, is it?

They could live to about 40 or 50.

We don't know much about the spot billed pelican.

There aren't many in captivity, they're quite rare in the wild.

Where would you see them in the wild?

These are native to the Philippines sort of area.

Right, so mixing with African pelicans,

but seems to be very happy with them?

Yeah, pretty much, yeah.

We've tried to get a female for him, but no success, unfortunately.

He's quite fond of the other females, we don't let him breed though!

In 50 years at this park, he must have seen some things, some changes!

-He could probably tell a few tales!

-Well, Michelle, thank you very much.

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

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

Could the latest technology save the life of Longleat's largest resident?

An iguana loses its tail in an emergency operation,

but can Paul the vet keep his nerve?

And shipwreck and catastrophe are only a whisker away

when Ben takes control of one of the big boats!

Try and keep it straight! Don't panic!

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