Episode 14 Animal Park

The keepers have spent the last few years gaining the confidence of these terrifying tigers.

But all their hard work could be undone because today they need to administer a big injection.

Do tigers forgive and forget? We'll find out on today's programme.

Coming up on today's show: there's unease in the rhino house as Mirashi is taken ill.

She's very poorly.

The bats get in a flap as Kate serves up some tropical delights.

And there's a surprise delivery in the camel house that gets the keepers all shook up.

It's going to be a pretty hair-raising event I think!

But first we head straight over to Tiger Territory.

Of all the animals in the park some of the fiercest have to be the three young tigers -

Svetli, Showri and Sindari. They could kill with one bite of their awesomely powerful jaws.

So you don't really want to upset them.

But today big cat keepers Bob and Brian have a job to do

that certainly won't make them any friends.

We're going to inject all the tigers today for a cat flu injection.

So a one mil dart each.

it's pretty well easy to do, but tigers do tend to get a bit lively,

so we are prepared for trouble.

I think we'll get a lot of tigers jumping up at the cages at us.

You need them to sit back a way so you can get a decent shot in the muscle of the back leg.

It's very hard to do with a tiger jumping at you, coming forward.

But with the expertise of Bob...

we may be able to distract them somehow.

They've got quite a job on their hands.

These three girls arrived two years ago and from the off two of them, Svetli and Showri, were very lively.

Sindari, the third tiger, is calmer than her sisters, but you've still got to watch her.

Over the past two years, Bob and Brian have tried to build up a relationship with the tigers.

Today's vaccinations might undo all that hard work.

The fact that we're going to do something that isn't going to be pleasant to them,

I'm sure they'll hate us for a few moments,

but hopefully only briefly.

But the vaccinations have to be done as cat flu can be fatal.

Four years ago, these three tigers' predecessors fell victim to this virus.

They don't want to make much effort to move.

She's got a lot of discolouration on her tongue.

As all the tigers were fairly old, it hit them especially hard.

She's very stiff and just by looking at her you see she doesn't want to move much.

There's no cure for cat flu, so they were given antibiotics in their meat

just to make sure they didn't get any other infections. It took over a week before all three perked up.

Oh, good girl.

Good girl.

A lot better than yesterday.

The keepers never want to go through this again.

Even though the vaccination doesn't guarantee the cats won't fall ill, they give them their annual jabs.

Once the drug has been successfully administered, the keeper's job is not done.

Bob and Brian still have to get the dart back. This can be the most difficult part.

Obviously, they can't just go in and pull it out.

Hopefully let them brush against a bit of the cage and it draws it out.

The one thing we will have to be careful about is if the needles bend and stay in.

We'd obviously have to knock them out and not leave them like that.

Will we do you first, lady?

Bob and Brian start with the calmest tiger first, Sindari.

They have to get the dart into her hind quarters, but she's not making it easy to get a clean shot.

Oh, you so-and-so.

-Surround you now.

-Oh, look at this.

Yeah, what's this?

Hey, come here.

Good girl, good girl.

Oh, you felt that, didn't you, darling? Hey!

Bob's distraction technique seems to have worked.

But Sindari's not too happy with Brian.

-It's out. It's on the floor.

-In you go.

-Good girl.

She was quite quiet.

As you can hear, those other two might be a little more trouble.

ANGRY GROWLS

Next up is Showri - the noisy one.

Come here, come here.

VERY ANGRY GROWLS

Hey, hey, hey.

-Good girl.

-Good girl.

Hey, hey, hey.

Calm down, calm down.

The dart's in there somewhere.

It was here.

Hey, hey, hey.

They thought the hardest part was going to be getting the dart out of the tiger,

but it seems to be finding it. There's an obvious joke here and someone's got to say it.

Trying to find a needle in a haystack, aren't we?

-It can't be that hard to find!

-Come back in an hour's time. Have a cup of tea while you watch.

We have to find it. We have to dart Svetli and we may need to put her in here.

We don't want her standing on it. That adds to your problems.

Maybe we should leave them to it, but we'll be back later to see if they find the dart.

If they do, they'll have to face Svetli, the rowdiest tiger of them all.

Two years ago, three brothers arrived to begin a reign of terror in the East Africa Reserve.

Their names - Vlad the Impaler, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan.

They're warthogs, the first they've ever had here.

At first, they charged around like monsters.

# What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monster? #

But they've calmed down a bit since then and enjoy nothing more than a good wallow in the mud.

However, they haven't been able to indulge recently

as, after a spell of warm, dry weather, their hole has dried up.

So Ben and I are off to make some mud.

We're out in the warthog field with Andy Heyton.

-It's churned up. Is this their work?

-Well, we kind of built this whole paddock on sand.

-Right.

We brought in some clay to line it out, with a nice depression here, but the boys have ruined our hard work.

-This is meant to be their wallow.

-Right.

-But we've had unseasonal summer weather and it's been warm!

-So it's dried out, basically.

-Baked hard. So we'll chuck water in.

And here they are behind us. Presumably, like pigs, they love to wallow and cover themselves in mud.

It's fantastic for them. It keeps direct sunlight off their skin. They have quite delicate skin.

It acts as a moisturiser and exfoliant.

-You could jump in afterwards.

-Thank you!

-We've got a trailer of water here.

-Yes, so if we fill up these holes here and dampen it down a bit.

-OK.

-How do we do that? I don't want to get too wet.

-I'll try not to get our cameraman's feet too wet.

-OK.

So this is going to be a perfect, good, muddy...and presumably they do the churning up themselves.

-All you need to do is put the water in.

-They'll have a good dig about, hopefully.

-They're all lined up behind us.

-Spying!

-Ready to go, are they?

Mud, mud, glorious mud!

And do you think this will actually stay for a while?

-I suppose it depends on the weather, how dry it is.

-Once they get in here, they displace the water

-and it all comes flowing out.

-Excellent.

-Brilliant.

You've got the system here very well planned, haven't you?

We're extremely technologically advanced.

-Are we done with the water?

-Yeah.

-Good. We can move that away.

Now we've got some warthog favourites - apples and bananas. Is it worth scattering those?

We can drop a couple round the edge so they can...

-They would root in the ground to feed anyway.

-Yeah, they'll dig up tubers and roots and things.

-These are omnivorous.

-Right.

-They will eat a small amount of meat, too.

They won't go out catching meat or animals to eat,

but if there's a lion kill they may start chewing on the bones, taking small mammals, birds possibly.

-They'll eat pretty much anything.

-Are we putting all the food out?

Yeah, you can chuck it all out, Ben. It might encourage them.

This is like what a child creates in their garden.

It's what I did as a boy! It's brilliant!

-There we go. One more banana.

-Shall we move away a little bit?

Yeah, back to where the tractor is. We may have to wait half an hour.

Just sit down in the grass.

'We're going to leave them to it. Join us later to see if there's been any wallowing action.'

Throughout a year at the park, there are lots of births.

Most of them go without a hitch and are a cause for celebration.

However, there are times when they just can't let nature take its course

and keepers have to step in.

One species that historically have had more trouble than most is the Bactrian camel,

a critically endangered animal.

So when birthing season arrives, head of section Tim Yeo is always a bit nervous

and two years ago was no exception when he discovered one of his females was unexpectedly pregnant.

What we've noticed this morning is that Bali, one of our Bactrian camels, has gone away from the group

and shown an enormous amount of restlessness this morning.

She appears to be looking for somewhere to give birth.

That, coupled with the size of her udder, is really suggesting to me that she's very close to calving.

Tim and his deputy Kevin Nibbs had to hurry and prepare the barn for an imminent arrival.

We have to make sure we get the pens prepared for her

and then we have to keep watching it so that when she gives birth

she actually looks after it properly and, if she doesn't, we can step in and help.

We're talking hours rather than anything else. It's imminent.

Now the fate of Bali and her unborn baby was in the hands of nature.

All Tim and Kevin could do was wait.

COCK CROWS

Next morning, Tim had the good news he'd been hoping for.

I looked in and there was the little one and Mum standing over him.

-I think he was actually sucking the wool at the time.

-The new calf appeared healthy enough

but something was wrong. He didn't seem able to stand up on his own,

which meant he couldn't suckle from his mother. Tim was immediately concerned.

That animal has to drink the vital colostrum, the first milk,

that comes through from the mother.

And that milk holds the antibodies which help to build up an immunity to different ailments

a camel may be subjected to.

So it's vitally important that they do, probably within the first three hours,

that they need that colostrum.

To give the young camel a helping hand, he decided to bandage up his weak leg

to give it more support in the hope of giving it the strength it needed to stand and suckle.

But it seemed if this plan was going to work, the new born was going to need more time,

but he needed the nutrients now.

So Tim decided to milk the mother.

He hoped feeding him this small amount of goodness would give the baby the strength to stand.

Now we just go away and leave alone,

but I would like to see very much a situation where we look in and we see

the little on feeding from Mum.

We'll know then that everything we've done this morning has been OK

and we haven't mucked anything up and it's helped

and that's it. We'll be happy then.

Find out later if the new-born camel survived.

Now straight back to Tiger Territory where Bob and Brian are giving the tigers their cat flu vaccinations.

They successfully darted Showri, but they couldn't find the needle.

She's safely back in her cage,

but it's been 10 minutes since Bob and Brian started looking for a needle in a haystack.

-There it is!

-At last.

-At long last.

-I told you it was over there(!)

They can finally get on with the job in hand and they've saved the best, and liveliest, for last.

So that Bob can get a clean shot at Svetli, Brian stands in the next pen to get her to stand side on.

He's a brave man as this means he's standing between two very angry tigers.

Good one, good one.

Can't see if it's gone off or not. ..Yeah, it has.

I'll open the back door a bit, shall I?

She really isn't happy with Bob,

but both he and Brian are pleased with how it has gone.

-A success.

-Yep.

That was actually quite good. On each of them the dart's gone off.

Obviously, it's a little bit stressful for them, but I think they all went

how we thought they would do. Sindari is the quiet one, anyway.

Showri and Svetli were... how they normally are!

But, yeah, they've got their booster for another year. They don't need to worry about it for 12 months.

-Go on, then.

-With their ordeal over, the three tigers are allowed out for the day, safe from cat flu.

Let's hope they don't hold a grudge against Bob and Brian for too long.

They shouldn't, as their keepers have a treat in store for them.

Now it's time to catch up once again with the warthogs and their muddy treat.

Well, they were feeling a little bit shy about wallowing while we were in there, Andy, so we've now come out

and they have come down the hill and you can see...

Who's that in the middle? He's really using his tusks.

I can't see quite from here. It's possibly Genghis again.

-He's using his nose as opposed to tusks.

-Yeah.

-Oh, look at that!

-Look at that!

-Can we edge a little bit closer?

-Hopefully he'll be in such raptures doing what he's doing.

-If we keep as quiet as possible...

-He's rolling like a dog would do.

They just have a real good time when they do this kind of thing.

-In the wild they would find these naturally.

-Yeah, they'd probably go down on a river bank

or after it rains or whatever. That's normally why water holes in Africa look such a mess.

Warthogs roll on the edge and the rhinos and elephants.

And presumably they will take advantage of having other heavier animals around,

-like rhinos, like elephants, like giraffes, churning up the ground for them.

-Absolutely.

They say elephants are the architects of Africa. They create water holes for other animals, knock down trees,

they give everything - right down to these guys and insects, it all works in conjunction.

And for your visitors this is great. Everyone is getting a really good view of them.

These animals are just a fantastic show when they're doing stuff.

I like them even when they're sunbathing in a big heap. Even when they're not moving, they're animated.

They've just got wonderful faces. Incredible expressions.

If you get up close enough, the little eyebrows go up and down.

-I really do rave about these. They are fantastic.

-And made very popular after The Lion King

-and we had the warthog in there.

-Whoever drew Pumbaa got it absolutely spot on.

-That is a warthog.

-I love the manes they've got, like an ill-fitting toupee!

The comb over! That's great, Andy, that they now feel comfortable enough

to come down and completely just enjoy a good muddy wallow in the sun.

Yeah. It's just abandon.

When you do things for the animals and make life better for them,

-it's enjoyable to see what you do...

-Look at that!

-That is the epitome of a happy warthog.

-He's coming to say, "Cheers, Andy!

-"Same time tomorrow?"

-"Thanks very much."

We're looking back to when one of the rare Bactrian camels gave birth to a new male calf.

A week on and the new-born was looking much steadier.

However, his jelly legs inspired his keepers when choosing a name -

Elvis.

So as the King was looking stronger, safari park vet Duncan Williams gave him his first health check.

-Why did you put the bandage on? Just for support?

-For support.

-She was flicking over on the fetlock?

-Right over.

-He, sorry.

-Yes, right over.

-Shall we take it off, then?

-Lovely, yeah.

HE WHIMPERS

Right, I'll hold you.

'What Tim is describing is a weakness in the ligaments.

'I think this joint was just collapsing forward as the baby put weight on it.

'That tends to strengthen. The ligaments and tendons firm up as the calf gets stronger.'

With the thumbs up from Duncan, Elvis was ready for his next big step -

being allowed out into the enclosure for the first time.

Once the baby goes out, he's going to be be extremely inquisitive of other animals

and will approach them and some of those may not want approached.

So it's going to be a pretty hair-raising event!

Tim had to keep a close eye on Elvis to check he didn't get into any dangerous situations

with the other animals.

The Bactrian camels have been living happily side by side with the cattle and rhino for years,

but the new-born camels don't know the rules. If Elvis got too close,

it could have been fatal.

It really is a serious matter, particularly as he just takes off into the middle of those cattle.

All that one's got to do is give a sharp hook with a horn.

We've had it happen before. The baby took them into trouble, the mother tried to protect it

and one of the bull Ankole just, as the mother went by,

flicked his horn and disembowelled her, literally. She did survive,

I have to say, miraculously, but it was nasty.

Things seem to have gone well for Elvis, though, but then having come so far,

Elvis took his life in his own hands by heading straight for the Ankole,

forcing his mother and Tim into action.

It's a nightmare.

You don't know where he's going to go next. To manoeuvre a vehicle, you often don't get it right.

You're praying that nothing happens.

But thanks to the efforts of Mum and Tim, Elvis will never walk alone

and was steered well away from the dangerous herd of cattle.

Having survived his first day in the enclosure,

Tim could now relax and look forward to Elvis enjoying a long and happy life.

That was two years ago and since then Elvis has grown - a lot.

And he's starting to get a bit frisky,

but with Khan, the dominant male, already in the herd, there's no place for Elvis here.

Sadly, he's having to leave the park and his new home is a camel centre in Suffolk.

He's getting to the age now

where he's been attempting to sneak on and mate some of the females

when Khan's not watching.

If Khan doesn't stop him from attempting to mate one of the others,

that is something we do not want. He could end up breeding with his mother, or something like that.

The other...

The other reason being that, he's not quite there now,

but as he gets larger, he will at some point become a threat to Khan

and they'll start fighting and bull camels, when they do fight, it's nasty.

Because Elvis has had quite a lot of contact with his keepers,

this has made him an extremely confident and fearless camel around humans,

so Tim has some words of warning for his new owners.

People will have to be cautious when dealing with him when he's breeding, certainly.

Because he hasn't any real fear of us and we had to do quite a bit in the early days

to get him started.

How is amorous Elvis going to react to leaving the park?

Most cats don't like water. However, over the years,

all the park's tigers have loved their pool.

But Deputy Head Warden Ian Turner now thinks it's a bit too small for the three girls who live here.

The old pond's been here for years. None of the other tigers used it a lot,

but these three young ones play in it and they play together.

So it needs to be a bit bigger.

So Ian had a vision.

Hopefully, I should be stood in the middle of the pond when it's finished.

The plan of action is to go into the old pond over there, and this area here is the new pond.

I'd like it to be as deep as possible.

Work was meant to start in the winter when the park was closed.

However, there were problems before they even started.

Because it's concrete, you've got to wait for the frost to go and then wait for dry weather,

otherwise this area will turn into a complete bog with JCBs and diggers.

It may be a case that we're open to the public and have to do it first thing in the morning,

which gives us two hours each morning. Could be a long job.

Anyway, a year later and a lot of hard work, the tiger pool is ready.

That is a very impressive construction. Big question - where's the water?

We haven't got that. Just waiting for the rain!

It'll be turned on in a minute.

-There's a switch to turn on down at the bottom.

-OK.

-Rob?

-'Come in.'

-Can you turn it on, please?

'OK.'

So it should come out there. Presumably the water has to come all the way up the pipe.

-It takes a little time.

-That's one of the good things.

It will be full all the time, not up and down.

It'll be full all the time. > It's not happening.

Has he turned the right switch on?

Can't hear a thing!

I reckon you've got a hole in your pipe, John!

GURGLING

I can hear something in the pipe.

CHEERING

Very good!

-Thank God for that!

-That's a relief, I imagine!

-Any idea how long it will take to fill up?

-I would have thought 10-12 hours to fill right up

and get it going.

Then we'll let the tigers out. Fantastic.

Join us later to find out what the tigers make of their new pool.

In the meantime, here's what's coming up.

Elvis stages a comeback special.

Just mind he doesn't come out.

'And I help get the guinea pigs looking their best.'

You're looking gorgeous!

But now to a very dark corner of the park.

They can be found almost anywhere in the world.

Many people fear them and they come out at night.

They're bats.

Or, more specifically, the Egyptian fruit bats.

This animal may only come out at night, but when it does they're extremely helpful to us.

Many plants rely on bats for pollinating flowers or spreading their seeds.

Kate's gone into the bat cave to find out more whilst giving them their dinner.

This glamorous little spot is behind the scenes at the bat cave and I'm here with John.

You've got all sorts of extraordinary things laid out here.

-We're preparing a fruit cocktail for our fruit bats.

-OK.

On a normal bog standard day, we prepare fruity kebabs.

-That's skewers with big chunks...

-Yeah, whole bananas, whole apples.

But today we're trying something a bit different. Fruit bats are responsible for a lot of pollination.

-Right.

-They would go to the fruit, take a mouthful, drop it, drop seeds.

They also eat pollen and nectar - go to one flower, stick their tongue in, then go to another flower...

-Exactly like bees.

-Just like a bee.

So what we're doing here is basically taking away all the waste that a bat wouldn't eat

like the seeds and skin and bringing it down to its natural core.

Put a dollop of each in each one? All right.

You can do some work. I know you're a boy, but it is allowed!

Are bats crucial to fruit pollination?

It's some ridiculous number like 70% of the world's fruit, or exotic fruit, is pollinated by bats.

That is a huge amount. Any of the more exotic fruits, say, avocados.

-Our guys adore avocado.

-Really?

-They're one of the biggest pollinators of avocados.

All the nice fruits you get in your fruit salad, if it wasn't for bats, you wouldn't be having them.

I think we should go in and encourage them to do a bit of pollinating.

Let's see.

So we'll push our way through... the bat curtain.

I always do feel like I'm in some superhero film.

Right. Oh, that's clever. You've set up a little holder.

A little feeder which I prepared earlier.

Stick the banana in the middle.

OK, I'll put that sort of apple pulp there, banana in the middle.

Sharp-eyed viewers, you will notice that there is also a camera just here

looking down at this clever contraption that John has built.

So we should be able to get a really good close-up view.

-What should we do?

-Step out the way. You can see that they're already starting to buzz about.

Brilliant.

I can't see his face, but it looks like he's lapping that up.

-I think he definitely went for the banana. The banana was the first one of choice.

-Not surprising.

Here we go.

To find their food, these bats not only use their good sense of smell,

but echo location.

This is a type of sonar the bat makes as it flies.

These sounds then bounce off things around them so that they can tell how close or far away they are.

They can even tell what the object is - like something that might taste good.

Echo location is so sophisticated that these animals can detect an object the width of a human hair.

It is interesting, isn't it? We've come in and that's a disturbance,

but I do notice that there does seem to be more clicking, more echo location going on

when something new comes in.

Do they really communicate as a group? Do they talk to each other?

They're very vocal animals. They've really become much more active.

Those couple that scouted it out have communicated with the others to let them know there's food.

-Must be quite a perilous position for them to lie flat, to not be ready to go.

-Yeah.

Think of the amount of energy it takes to lift up and take off. They can't just drop and fly away.

Particularly with what he's getting!

Here's another one in.

-They're all going for the banana.

-Straight to it.

-Straight in.

He's eating like he hasn't eaten for a month!

I'd say from that bat's face that it's been a huge success. Would you do it again?

-Yes, it's another good way of presenting their food.

-Thank you. Enjoy it, bats!

One hanging there, waiting his moment.

Kate's now raced up from the bat cave to the rhino house.

The last time we saw Mirashi, the vet was giving her a health check

as well as taking some blood to see if she was pregnant.

No news yet on that, but everyone's become really worried about her as she's been acting very strangely.

Deputy Head Warden Ian Turner has now urgently called Duncan out

and Kate's gone along, too, in the hope of finding out what's wrong.

She looks quite depressed, doesn't she?

-You can look at the face and tell something's not right.

-Yeah.

-She's off her food this morning.

-Any other symptoms?

-They've always got runny noses, when you see them in the wild,

but hers is running more than normal. Everything's an effort. She took a while to get there.

And she's not moving. I've tried to call her over.

-This one's fine.

-She's looking great.

Well, Duncan, you're over having a look at her.

-A rhino with a chill doesn't sound like a good thing.

-No.

We're trying to get her a bit closer, to encourage these others in and she might come over.

It's hard to see. She's got her eyes half shut, looks very, very depressed.

When we arrived she was just lying down and didn't want to get up. It was very cold last weekend.

-That's probably how she's picked something up.

-Right. Oh, come on over here, girl.

-We're worried about you.

-She's much slower than normal.

When rhinos get sick, they can go downhill very quickly.

So in order for Duncan to get a closer look, the keepers try to get Mirashi into the rhino house.

Are we all right to come in here?

Hey, girl. Here you go. Come on.

That's quite a thick mucus coming out of her nose, isn't it?

Yeah, but it's not pus. It's clear. That's a good sign, really.

I suppose, Ian, what this shows

is just how important it is that you and the keepers who are looking after these rhinos,

-day to day, how important it is to know your animal.

-That's right.

-It's little signs, isn't it?

-Tell-tale signs. If they're not eating, that's obvious,

-but when they're not walking properly... You can tell by her face.

-It's her whole demeanour.

-She doesn't look happy.

-She looks like everything's an effort.

-That's right.

She has flu-like symptoms and Duncan needs to monitor her to know what's making her poorly.

In the meantime, he's prescribed her some medicine that's being mixed up in her food.

Come on, girl.

-Oh, a bit slow, isn't she?

-Yeah.

Good girl, come on.

She's looking kind of interested.

It's down here, sweetheart.

Come on, girl.

Look at this. Come on, lovely.

-Down there.

-Good girl.

Yummy. Yummy.

Go on.

-That's a good sign, Ian.

-Mm.

Good girl.

Come on.

Maybe she doesn't want to eat with an audience.

-Should we leave her in peace?

-Leave her.

-We've got a pen for her. We don't want her to be hassled by anything.

-OK.

Mirashi's going to be kept safely tucked up in her pen,

so everyone can keep a close eye on her for the next few days.

We'll let you know how she's getting on.

We're now hot-footing it back to the camel house where Elvis is about to leave the park.

Head of Section Tim Yeo is having to let him go as there is already a dominant male in the group

and he wants to avoid inbreeding.

His new owners, Ray and Larissa Smith, have arrived with a horse box to transport him to his new home -

a camel centre in Suffolk.

But as Tim's already warned them, taking on Elvis doesn't make for an easy life.

We are quite experienced with camels,

but he did very kindly point out one or two characteristics about Elvis.

The way he was brought up from being a baby and they had to help him along with mother.

And sometimes that does make camels and some animals quite confident and bolshy.

But I think he'll be all right with us.

-I'm quite confident, in fact.

-It should be relatively simple.

They just have to line the horse box up with the gate...

Push this over that way.

-Push the front a little bit.

-..build a corridor for Elvis to walk down,

then tempt him in with some food. Nothing to get all shook up about, but with Elvis nothing is simple.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Can you turn it up on... on this bit?

That's it. Yeah.

Take that one.

We've got a door that opens at the front. You could walk him through with some food

and just see what he does.

OK, Julie?

He's coming out.

It's now or never.

Will Elvis, known for his bolshiness, go into the horse box without any fuss?

Good boy.

Good boy!

He's in there.

What a good lad.

-That went surprisingly smoothly.

-Can you keep feeding him, Julie?

But suspicious minds might say that it's been a little too easy.

Don't let him come out the front!

It's always nice when they load easily like that

and you haven't got to try different things which can upset the animal.

It seems the keepers just couldn't help falling in love with Elvis, but as they say a quiet goodbye,

there's a definite look of mischief in his eyes.

Just mind he doesn't come out. Can we just get...?

Back up.

No, no...

Ah, that well-known camel-handling technique - mass arm waving.

I think it might take a bit more than that, though.

Good boy.

Ah, he just wants to give Tim a goodbye kiss.

Can you get those boards? Go and get a board, quickly.

Get a board and bring it round here and put it in front of him.

Just bring it round quickly.

Bring it right in front of him. Close him up, that's it.

-Just keep that...

-Go back.

Keep his head down. Bring the board in, that's it.

-Take the board away.

-Board away. Keep that door shut!

That's enough of that!

Yeah.

Right.

With Elvis safely back in the horse box, surely it IS now or never.

But life with Elvis isn't that easy and he seems determined to take one last look around.

Will Elvis ever make it to his new home?

We're out in Pets Corner, it's a beautiful sunny day and at my feet is a box of straw

and they are, of course, guinea pigs. Look at these, Ben.

They're great. You get the box full of very sweet, cuddly guinea pigs

and Bev and I have a rather ominous black bag, dustpan and brushes and cleaning liquids.

-We get the fun part of it(!)

-We're off cleaning.

-We are.

Go and clean up. They deserve a nice, clean house.

We'll go and do our best.

About time he did some housework!

Now, Alexa, tell me about these little creatures. Guinea pigs are a classic first pet, aren't they?

-Oh, yeah.

-Often given to children. Does that mean they are very easy to look after?

-Can you bung them in a box with food and hay and leave them?

-Oh, no. They need cleaning out regularly.

Today we're doing a health check and grooming session. All long-haired guinea pigs need that.

-Their teeth continually grow.

-Right.

Just gently fold up their top lip

and you might be able to see their lovely little teeth.

-So they're a rodent, presumably.

-That's right.

-I've got a very fine pair of teeth.

So these are a good length. What if they look too long?

-They come into that lower lip?

-They can do. If you're ever concerned, advise your vet.

-Right.

-They know and they can help.

-OK, so these two are OK on the teeth front.

That's it. Look at their lovely eyes as well. Make sure they're clear.

-Have a look in the ears as well.

-OK.

-Very nice and clear.

-Yeah. They're well hidden with all this hair in here!

-You're looking to make sure there's nothing in there.

-No gunk. Have a look at their feet as well.

Nails are continuously growing, so they may need clipping.

Presumably, again having a lot of bark and bits of wood around

-helps keep those nails down.

-Bark chippings, a little bit of concrete in the enclosure - not too much.

And they quite like grass.

-Am I taking all of this out?

-All of it, Ben.

-Am I sweeping it all into here?

-Yeah.

-All the straw and everything else?

-Yes, please.

-Potentially, how many guinea pigs live in here?

We've got 25 guinea pigs altogether. We've got 24 females and one neutered male.

-And can you tell them apart?

-I can and Alexa can as well.

We work with them all the time and we can tell them apart.

Other keepers can't. You get different colourations.

You get long-haired guinea pigs, short-haired breeds as well.

Some have the fur that is rough to the touch.

-Abyssinian ones as well.

-I never knew there were so many different types!

Do you ever have to bath a guinea pig? Do they need de-fleaing?

-They can sometimes pick up parasites.

-Yeah.

-Again, consult your vet if you're in any doubt.

Look at your tummy, madam. Gorgeous.

How's that? I'm not very good with my housework, I'll warn you.

I like to sweep the dust under the carpet. Do I need to clean more?

-A little bit more!

-Shall I get in?

Obviously, they don't go out like your dog does. They'll go to the loo in here.

That's a sight for sore eyes! I've never ever seen you do so much work!

-How do you manage it?

-I know!

-This is going to be cleaner than my own home!

Well, hurry up. We've got two beautifully-groomed girls

-waiting for their nice, clean house.

-How's that? Does that get...?

-That's OK.

-And this bedding?

-Shavings in.

-OK, here we go.

It would be good if you made the bed like this at home! Bed's all made.

-Spread it around.

-OK. Where do they get their dinner served?

-If we do it in front of the house...

-Come on, girls.

-Now you're all ready and brushed up for dinner.

-Lots of visitors.

-Just...

-Spread it out. And they should come over.

-They definitely know that tea's up.

-Fantastic. A nice clean home and plenty of dinner.

-That's brilliant.

-Impressed, Kate?

-I'm very impressed. I need a cleaner.

-Are you free tomorrow afternoon?

-What have I done?!

-Bev, Alexa, thank you very much.

-There you are, happy guineas.

Back over to the camel house now where the saga is still unfolding.

Elvis is meant to be heading off to a new home, but he clearly isn't in any rush.

-Well done...

-Obviously, his new owners can't drive down the motorway

with a camel hanging out of the back, but Tim has a plan.

-If we try to cut it right, we could know a hole in it and tie it onto here.

-Yeah.

This should be easy enough. All they have to do is measure the gap and cut a board to fit.

-Hang on.

-Whoa, whoa.

-Leave the boards there.

-Put it in.

-Can you push it in?

-Get in.

-Push it in.

-Take the boards back, take the boards back.

-In!

-That's it, OK.

-Yeah, I've got that.

-Well done.

Now that is good. Come on - that is good.

I could give up this job and become a carpenter.

Now with just a little bit of very careful drilling, Elvis should be good to go.

For now, though, he's sensibly moved to the front of the horse box, safely out of harm's way.

The keepers are keen to get him on the road as then he will sit down,

which is safer for him than standing and shake, rattle or rolling around.

-It's silly of me not thinking of that. I have a board that fits the back of this.

-Right.

But we've not had such a problem for such a long time.

So, finally, it's taken two hours, but Elvis has left the building.

After all that, let's just hope his new owners don't decide they want to return to sender!

We're now just moments away from seeing how the tigers react to their brand-new paddling pool.

It's now full of water and, dressed in some rather fetching fishing gear, Kate's been adding goodies.

Have you tried them with fish before or this a new thing for these three?

We have tried them and they do love it.

The shine on their coats is ideal.

And now with Bob and Kate safely positioned in the vehicle, the tigers have been released.

Is this Sindari? Of course. Of course.

The braver one. Now she is going straight in. Look at that.

They're very strong swimmers and they will regularly swim four miles.

-Really?

-Anything up to about 20.

-20 miles is an extraordinary distance for anything to swim!

And it doesn't really matter about how strong the flow of water is. They are very powerful swimmers.

-They're very powerful animals.

-Yeah.

She didn't seem to mind getting the bottom half of her head wet. Would they submerge their whole heads?

-Well, they don't like it getting into their eyes.

-No.

But she's classically going in forwards. A lot of tigers will reverse into water.

Really? Sindari's right up... We've got a camera tucked round the side of that waterfall.

Hopefully, we'll be getting some nice close-up shots of her.

-She's sort of fishing for it, using her claws.

-Or she puts it to the side and picks it up with her mouth.

-Was she going for the camera, do you think, Bob?

-She noticed it.

It's something different than the enclosure. We've hid it under a big rock.

-She's sniffing that.

-Sindari, that isn't in the plan! Don't play with the camera!

-Go and play with the water!

-Who is that on the top there, Bob, looking on enviously?

-This is Svetli.

-And Showri walking along the back of the fence line.

So it really does look like Sindari might finish everything before the other two brave the water.

It's not a main feed, obviously. This is just titbits we've chucked out for this purpose

-to see them in the water.

-Oi! Not the camera!

She knows she's being naughty. No...she's got it.

If she doesn't kill the camera, we'll get some unique footage!

Oh, no! It's in the water.

-She's dismissed it now. Now she's...

-She's such a great tiger.

-She's a real character, this one.

-She's a little darling.

She is like a giant oversized kitten, isn't she?

-Yeah, she is. She just stuck her nose under.

-She looks very happy in there.

Oh, now, look. It looks like Svetli could be...

feeling brave enough... Oh, the other one.

Bob!

That is such a lovely sight.

-I think this is the most animated I've seen all three of them out in the park.

-Yeah.

You can see how well they get on together. They are playful.

They don't mind each other's company. As a solitary animal, you'd expect them to have their own area.

But you can see they enjoy their own company as well as the others'.

Oh, it's an absolutely fantastic sight.

Look, head straight in! She didn't like getting her eyes wet.

She's sort of blinking there.

-She's been in there ages now.

-Yeah.

-She's enjoying it.

Obviously thoroughly enjoying it. Bob, thank you very much.

What a lovely day, watching a tiger looking blissful in a paddling pool.

Enjoy it, Sindari.

Well, we are here in the goat enclosure, as you can tell, with senior warden Bev Evans.

Almost the end of the day. Always lovely to cuddle the goats.

-There's been a bit of a sadness this year.

-Yeah.

We haven't bred our goats this year, so we haven't had any babies.

-Is there a reason for that?

-Yeah, we couldn't bring our Billy down from Mid-Glamorgan

-so we weren't able to breed.

-Why couldn't you bring him down?

At the moment, there's a disease around called Blue Tongue. We're classed as an infected area.

Mid-Glamorgan isn't. We could bring him down to us, but not send him back.

-What are the effects of Blue Tongue?

-A lot of animals, if they get bit by midges, flying insects,

they can get a swollen tongue, nasal discharge, and it wouldn't necessarily be fatal,

-but it wouldn't do them very good.

-Not a pleasant-sounding disease.

-No.

This was one of the success stories of last year. This is Bubble.

Really, it's thanks to you and all the staff here that Bubble is alive at all today.

Yeah, she didn't do particularly well. Her mum concentrated on the other two babies she had

and left Bubble for dead, really. So Andy and I had to come in

and give her colostrum and just really warm her up. She got cold.

Once an animal gets cold that's just been born, it takes a long time to warm them up again.

Hot water bottles, towels, everything, just to get her up on her feet.

-She's looking a bit plump!

-She's quite round, yeah!

-She's just come from the winter diet to a grass paddock, so she's actually a bit gassy.

-Thank you(!)

I'm glad Kate is holding Bubble.

Bev, thank you very much for letting us catch up.

Sadly, we've run out of time. Here's what's coming up next time.

-Two spiders got on.

-He's doing it, he's doing it!

But is she pregnant?

Our attempts to get close to the hippos doesn't go to plan.

There is a pile of logs that has broken down.

And we look back to the terrible day when almost every animal faced being destroyed

thanks to a relentless disease closing in on the estate.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2009

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