Episode 5 Animal Park

With 900 animals, 60 different species and over 30,000 metres of fencing here at the safari park,

the keepers of the most dangerous animals have one massive fear, and that's of escape.

We're going to find out how the keepers have managed to keep the animals inside over 40 years,

but also what happened when one of the biggest and most ferocious got out.

'Coming up on today's Animal Park...

'I try to play goat herder, but the kids run me ragged.'

-Go on, Ben.

-Thrapper really doesn't want to be caught, does he?

'I try to reunite a one-day-old ankole with her mum.'

Oh. "Can I find my mum?"

'And find out what happened when Africa's most dangerous animal

'escaped into the Wiltshire countryside.

'But first, it's straight over to Pets Corner,

'where Kate already has her hands full.'

Now, these wriggly things

are not the latest residents of Pets Corner,

but they are a favourite

of one of the favourite residents of Pets Corner, the meerkats.

What are we going to do with them, Darren?

Hopefully, Kate, we're going to try and present them in a different way.

If you can't have a picnic, if you always eat in front of the telly,

life can be a bit boring.

Meerkats are active creatures. They like to look and hunt for their food.

They spend the best part of their life digging for grubs and bugs.

They've got very long extended claws,

a great sense of smell and good eyesight,

so rather than just scatter-feed them like we normally would do...

Actually, this is brilliant.

This is one that Darren set up for us

and our camera team came up and put a camera right in by it

and you can see that exact behaviour that you were talking about, Darren.

Putting his paws right in. And he obviously can't see the mealworms.

-They're right down at the bottom of that tube.

-It's all sense of smell,

and you've got to think that if they're looking for termites...

-He just got one.

-Yeah. Absolutely brilliant.

He's almost like using those claws like an extended fork

and impaling the mealworms on it, isn't he?

-Well, shall I take some and fill up others...

-Please.

..because, if you come with me, we've got a camera over here.

Sorry, guys, I know, I know you're in the middle of your feast,

but we've also set up, as well as this camera,

if you look down this tube,

there's a little camera down there, so if I turn it to me...

Hello, you should be able to see me on this camera,

and if I drop in a couple of these mealworms,

which really are very wriggly indeed,

and I'm going to try and get a sort of worm's-eye view of the meerkats.

I might try it. They're being so tame, Darren, these days.

They're really chilled out.

Even the ones that aren't full they want to have a go at.

The thing to remember is they're naturally very cautious creatures.

I mean, they've got to look out for predators

because we're in here and the food's on the go...

Oh, can you see this, Kate?

-Look at the babies! Oh!

-This is why they're still being...

They're OK with us but if there was a bird to fly over, or a plane,

they'll all disappear, they'll dive back into the tunnel.

See this one, not eating, keeping guard, watching out for danger.

So doing that classic meerkat thing of standing on their back legs,

being the kind of guardsman of the whole lot.

And you have Mum over there, in front of you right now.

-This is mum right here.

-Yeah.

She's got to take this opportunity, she's got to fill her tummy,

she's got to produce the milk for the babies still and... Oh, well done...

She'll go back and she'll keep one eye on the babies at all times...

Oh, have some more. And again, the thing is that we can...

It's such a mobile feeding technique.

We've got bamboo sticks all over the place now.

We can move these around, so they'll never know

which tube's going to have bugs in and where the tubes are going to be.

You are being very cheeky indeed. Let's put some more down here.

This camera, Darren, is working really well.

I mean, it is this sort of absolute natural curiosity

that they want to be in everything, finding out about everything.

Kate, we've got a baby here, just coming over, just helping out, look.

I was just looking at them all.

-Brilliant.

-Look at them.

They're all intently watching.

Presumably, they're going to learn a huge amount...from adult behaviour.

Without a doubt, it's how they learn.

Most animals learn from, you know...

These animals that are reared in this social group,

it's crucial they learn from their parents and brothers and sisters.

It's all about feeding and what's safe and what's not safe

and I suppose it's... every day's an adventure for them.

Well, it's an adventure for me, too.

I've never seen them so tame and so happy and they all look so healthy.

You must be completely delighted about their progress.

I'm really pleased. The keepers do a great job and the results are there

and if we keep their minds active as well... Look... Wait!

I was going to say, you say...not dinner on a plate,

-but look, dinner on a hand. Does that count, Darren?

-Superb.

Ah.

Longleat is home to some of the world's deadliest

and most ferocious beasts,

free to roam around in their secure enclosures,

but what would happen if one of these creatures

broke through the barriers?

An animal escaping from its enclosure

is the absolute worst case scenario for any zoo or safari park.

Today, the huge perimeter fences are checked daily by patrols

and a head count is done over all animals

at the beginning and end of each day.

However, in 1966, when Longleat opened as the first safari park

in the country, the fences weren't quite what they are today.

So, greeted with famously ferocious lions,

the first thought in everyone's head was, what if they escape?

No-one had ever built a safari park before, so everything

had to be worked out on the job, including the fencing.

The man in charge at the time was ex-serviceman Mike Lockyer

and he had to strengthen these defences

to make sure the wild beasts couldn't get out.

This fence is higher than the first ones we put up.

We had fences that were about two metres and honestly, it wasn't enough

and they did occasionally go over.

We weren't that worried because they were still within the main reserve.

To this day, none of the famous lions

have ever made it out of the reserve, but unfortunately

the same cannot be said about the animals kept at Half Mile Lake.

You would think that an island in the middle of the lake is

a nice safe place to keep animals.

It certainly works with Nico the gorilla, who is resident today.

But, back in Mike's time, deciding which species to keep on the island

involved a little trial and error.

At one stage we tried baboons on the island

and they all swam away, they all swam off.

We knew they could swim

but we didn't think they would probably go that distance.

But, anyway, that didn't work.

Then we had chimps, of course,

because chimps really do not like water, at all.

And they don't go into it unless there's

a very, very good reason.

They were put on on a daily basis and taken off

and we would put them in a boat,

row over, put the chimps on the island for the day.

They only funny instant I remember about that

is one day when the chap was servicing the island

and they looked out and the boat had gone

and the chimp was rowing back to the mainland

and the fellow was stuck on the island!

It was quite amusing. The idea that the chimp had worked out...

"This is what you do - get in, unhook that bit of rope and off you go,"

and what's what it was doing.

The chimps were relocated

but they weren't the last to make a glorious bid for freedom.

I'm out on the rounds with vet Paul Higgs and keeper Andy Hayton

and today helping out with the pygmy goats.

So, what's going on here, Paul?

Today we're going to be giving all the goats

a dose of two separate wormers.

We're going to do injections for all of them

and also try and get some down their throats, as well.

And I'm assuming, Andy,

that's why they're corralled into this small area here.

It's a lot easier to chase them around in here than out there.

I can imagine. I can see three extra keepers,

so this is why we need lots of people.

It's easier for us and the goats. The more people, the faster we can do it.

It's less stress on the animals.

-I will volunteer an extra pair of hands.

-Fantastic.

We'll stand back and watch you do it, Ben. Brilliant.

So, Paul, what's the process then? What's the plan?

The plan is, we just need to get some goats caught really, Ben,

-and then we'll get stuck in.

-OK.

You try sticking this down their throats and I'll do the injections.

Great. Lucky me. OK. So let's get going, then.

The biggest brown one there. Good luck, Ben.

Nearly. Come on. There we go.

This is Marcia. Do you want to draw the injection up for me, Ben?

OK. Do I just pop this in here?

Pop it in there, yeah. That's it.

-I want to make sure there's no air. Is that right?

-Pretty much. Yeah.

-There we go.

-Pull that.

-We need to be at 0.3.

Oh, 03! I was going to give her slightly too much, there.

I don't think I'm quite qualified to do this, yet.

Nearly.

Shall I do this for the first one?

-Have a go at the first one, and I'll do the injection.

-Yeah.

So, pop your fingers in the side there and then syringe down there.

-Tilt their head back and off you go.

-So this is an anti-wormer?

-Yeah.

-Is that what you'd give your dog or cat at home?

-Yeah. Absolutely.

-There we go. That's it.

-That wasn't so bad, was it?

-Lovely job.

-Who's this?

-That's Quaver.

He was called Quaver cos he had a big curly ear when he was born,

but unfortunately it's straightened out!

-Cracker's a little bit nervous, I think.

-Open wide.

There we go. Good Cracker.

Get Quaver, there. He won't run off. That's made you look good now, Ben.

There we go. A bit of goat wrangling.

-Shall we swap goats?

-You can. Yeah.

-You feel better if you're holding onto a big one, don't you?

-Yeah.

-I'll let you have Quaver.

-There we go.

-That one can go.

Is someone keeping tabs on who we've done?

Hopefully someone is, cos I've already lost track.

-We haven't done you yet.

-OK!

Take your job over.

Always wanted to be a vet.

-Just one more.

-One more. Who's that?

-That grey and white one down there.

-Grey and white one.

-What's this one called?

-He's called Thrapper.

-OK, Thrapper.

-Go on, Ben.

-Thrapper really doesn't want to be caught, does he?

-That's why we left that one for you, Ben.

-Thank you, Andy(!)

-That's OK, mate.

-Well done!

I couldn't bear to see you running around any longer.

That was my exercise for the day!

-We could always let him go again.

-So you left the hardest till last.

There you go.

-Very good.

-Well done.

-Wow.

That was actually surprisingly efficient.

-How many sheep have we just vaccinated?

-Goats.

-We haven't done any sheep, Ben.

-There you go. That's how tired I am.

-How many goats have we just vaccinated?

-That was 14.

-Not a bad job.

-You can imagine how it'd be with a herd of 300.

-Thanks for your help.

-If you need an assistant in future, I'm your man.

-Absolutely.

-Thanks, guys.

-OK, Ben.

The worst case scenario for any keeper of dangerous animals

is one escaping

and today we're looking back at some occasions

when exactly that happened.

But, of all the animals,

there is one that you really don't want to make it out of the park.

The hippopotamus is the most dangerous creature of the lot.

They're extremely grumpy, have teeth like pickaxes,

weigh in excess of two tonnes, and they're fast, running at 20mph.

So, all in all, not the friendliest of animals.

And, if one escaped, it would be an understatement to say it would be bad.

In fact, it would be a nightmare.

But, as former head warden Mike Lockyer recalls,

some years ago, this nightmare did become reality.

The lake wasn't as well shone up as it is now and it was relatively,

I suppose, easy for them to get out and go walkabout.

And when one's missing, an animal, it's quite used to people shouting

and saying come on, give them a loaf of bread and that sort of thing.

If suddenly one's missing, you think, where's that one?

And we start looking further

and as the time goes on and you think, "It's gone,"

and wonder where it will turn up next.

About a mile from the safari park is the village of Horningsham,

where farmer Steve Crossman made a peculiar discovery.

I came out one morning to check my cows...

about 7.30...

and I was walking down where I'm walking now

and I came to the gateway

and I noticed that there were some very odd-looking footprints on the ground.

And they obviously weren't anything to do with my cattle.

So...I went and got Father,

and we had a look and we couldn't quite work out what was going on.

Anyway, we followed the tracks and they went up to the pond,

up at the top there by the bridge...

Something quite large had obviously got into the lake

and then came back down and the footprints went back down there.

Worryingly, the footsteps led straight back to Steve's own farmyard.

We had a phone call, I think it was someone called Crossman down at the farm here,

who said I've got your hippo down here, I've shut it in the yard.

Well, of course, he'd shut it in the yard in the same way that he would shut cows in a yard,

by simply closing a wooden five-bar gate.

So we went rushing down there

and there was the sort of hinges on one side and the gate latch on the other

and a more or less hippo shape in the middle where he'd walked straight through it.

And eventually ended up in this wood here and then came back down into the lake again, cos he was only really

interested in getting back to the water or coming out for grazing.

He broke a couple of fences. Coming through a barbed wire fence is nothing to a hippo.

But he didn't cause any lasting damage.

Caused a bit of a laugh, bit of a stir around the village.

With the hippo safely back in the lake,

the keepers could breathe a sigh of relief.

But that wasn't the end of the escapes from Half Mile Lake,

as another resident would soon answer the call of the sea.

Well, I'm out in the new area with deputy head of section Kevin Nibbs,

who is a very, very excited man

because on this beautiful spring day, Kevin, I gather that there is a new arrival.

There is. We've had a baby ankole, as you can see, just over here.

Oh, my goodness. That's fantastic, but it's all by itself.

-Where's the parent?

-Mum is actually with the herd, just up here.

She's probably taking a rest. It's similar to the antelope,

they'll go and visit a couple of times a day.

And then within a few days it will stay with the herd by itself.

But, surely, if it's left by itself for most of the day,

it's then in real danger

because there are a lot of other animals in here.

I mean, there's the rhino, the oryx, there's all the deer in here.

I mean, doesn't it stand a risk of being attacked by something else?

There is a small risk, yes.

During the day we've got the rhino patrol on,

making sure that the rhinos stay away from ANY baby, really,

but this one as well.

But also the oryx seem to have taken

a real dislike to anything smaller than them,

so any baby, even the Pere David baby, the ankole baby,

and even when we had the baby camels

they kind of went round and just bullied them.

You'd think of the oryx, of all the animals in here,

they look so sort of delicate and lovely

and they're real playground bullies, are they?

They have quite horrible characters sometimes, but we don't know why.

At night, we'll put the oryx away,

so that the baby is safe out here during the night, as well.

And presumably, even if the herd are a bit of a distance away,

they'll still be keeping an eye on it, will they?

Yeah. If baby just makes one little squeak out here, they'll come running

and they'll be there very quickly, which is why we're in the truck.

If we were on foot and it made a little squeak...

-Then we'd be trampled by a furious protective herd of ankole.

-Exactly.

I'm quite pleased to be in here, I have to say. Oh, it's so sweet.

He's just walking up towards us now,

right next to the bull, who's huge,

the big kind of slightly paler chestnut fellow

with the straighter horns.

Is she going to Mum? No. Doesn't look like it.

Come on, little one.

-Is that the right one?

-No.

No. "Oh, can I find my mum?"

Oh, she's so sweet. Have you named her yet?

I know you're slightly suspicious, and how old is she, in fact?

This is her second full day, really.

-Wow, so she's really new.

-She's 48 hours old.

But we haven't got a name yet.

We'll wait maybe a week to make sure everything is OK.

So this is Mum here, turning round.

I think she's going to try and find her herself.

Actually, she's going away from her.

Come on, tiny. Go and find your mum. Is she going round to see it? Yes.

There's a little call there just to call baby to her.

Oh, look at her.

What a lovely, lovely sight,

on a spring day, in Wiltshire, to see a young ankole.

That's very, very special.

-That is what spring's all about.

-No, you've got to go the other end.

It always amazes me that,

you know, young animals are sort of like babies.

I mean, they are amazingly helpless

and you'd think that something like an ankole would immediately know

who its mum was and where the others are,

but this one is proving perhaps not the brightest cookie in the jar.

Absolutely adorable, though.

Let's hope that she flourishes and does well and Mum looks after her

and she finds the right end to feed from, eventually.

-Keep us posted, Kev.

-We will.

But now we're heading straight up to Wolf Wood,

where big changes are afoot.

The young wolves from the last two years' litters have grown up fast

and are now reaching maturity.

But, whilst they are a success story,

they're threatening to destabilise the pack.

Wolf packs have a very clear hierarchy, from the top alpha dogs

to the lowest ranking omega dog.

And as the youngsters become adults they'll want to establish themselves

in this pecking order and this could mean fighting for position.

For deputy head of section Bob Trollope, there's only one way to avoid this.

Remove the young wolves from the pack and send them to a new home.

It may sound like a drastic solution,

but it's the only way to maintain harmony.

It takes away a lot of tension because sooner or later

these youngsters are going to have to find their way in

and that will cause friction,

because older wolves won't want them to step up into their place,

younger wolves will want to go up into their place,

so the middle-ranking animals tend to fight more.

So, hopefully, that will avoid all that.

There's also one other cause for immediate concern.

It's breeding season, and if there's fighting in the pack

it could seriously affect the chances of a successful litter,

so Bob has had to act quickly and remove the wolves.

It may encourage Freda to actually give birth to more youngsters.

They tend to sort of curtail their own numbers

in the way that they breed.

If we have a big pack, you generally find we have fewer pups born.

Hopefully, we'll get another nice size litter this time.

So, what we've done now is

we've separated the youngsters from the main pack,

which wasn't an easy task, I must admit.

The hardest bit was getting them into the house,

because they don't like going in there.

The wolves are the wildest animals at the park and have almost

no direct contact with the keepers.

So, rounding them up was a risky operation

for head of section Brian Kent and his team.

We weren't allowed to film it

because our presence may have added to their distress.

Obviously, they'll be upset,

cos you've got a whole pack and then suddenly you've taken six away.

They can't work out why they're suddenly split up from the others,

so there's going to be a few problems.

The young wolves will remain in house

until they've moved to their new home at Dublin Zoo in a few days.

But Bob is concerned about their welfare, so he's checking on them regularly.

Steady up. Steady. Steady.

But, whenever he's around, they're displaying clear signs of agitation.

They don't know how long they're going to be here for.

Taken away from the rest of the pack. They don't know what's happening.

Obviously, they can hear the rest of the pack outside.

They know they're still out there.

The rest of the pack outside

know they're in here, so there's a little bit of uncertainty

in their behaviour. You know, they're a little bit stressed

and they're bouncing off the walls.

We don't know whether it's just because whenever the keepers come in

here they react like that, or whether they're doing it all the time.

You know, for our peace of mind as much as anything, we want to know whether it is like that all the time.

But hopefully it's not.

Bob is also worried that without the protection and order of the pack, they may fight amongst themselves,

so he's setting up surveillance cameras,

which will monitor them undisturbed around the clock.

These wolves are totally wild, so it's a unique opportunity for Bob.

This is his chance to observe their behaviour without disturbing them by his presence.

To set the cameras up, he needs to get all the wolves into the den at the far end of the house.

But they're visibly nervous, and one of them doesn't want to go in.

Go on.

That's it.

Good girl. Stay there.

With the last wolf finally secure in the den, Bob can set up the cameras.

With infrared lenses and a running time of nine hours, they'll be able to record the wolves all night.

What I'll do is I'll set it running now to record and check it tomorrow morning.

All that remains now is for Bob to let the wolves back out of the den.

We'll be back with Bob later in the programme when he returns to analyse the footage

and discovers how they behave through the night.

It was about 200 years ago that our native wolves died out in Britain,

so they've been greatly outlived by another native species -

the fallow deer.

Fallow deer have been encouraged on the Longleat estate for nearly

half a century and today, there's a herd of over 100 animals.

Ben is down in the deer park meeting some of today's young bucks.

I'm out with this magnificent herd of fallow deer.

-Now, Ross, they really are looking spectacular at this time of year.

-They look fantastic.

The most striking thing is their horns or lack of them.

They look like just little furry stumps right now.

Yeah. Each year, they shed their antlers for the rut season

when they're fighting each other,

to get higher up in the hierarchy and get the females, obviously.

And then after a certain period of months, they'll shed their antlers

where they'll fall off and then they'll grow back up with this velvet...

-Which you can see is on the top.

-That holds in the nutrients that helps the antlers grow.

And then when they're fully grown, the velvet will fall off.

So this is all the males over here, is it?

-These are all the bucks. Yeah.

-Where are the girls, then?

The does...just over in the distance all down there.

-They're all on their own.

-Fallow does, there.

-It's like segregation.

-Yeah, it is.

-Men and women are definitely separate.

-Yeah. They do separate.

It's only during the mating season that they get together, they mingle.

And do their coats tend to change much?

They've got these fantastic spots. Do they moult like a dog?

They do moult, not as much as say the camels would.

-They moult slightly for the seasons - in the winter they have a thicker coat.

-Brilliant.

Well, thank you very much. Don't go away cos here's what's still to come on today's programme.

Jo in Pets Corner has to blow the whistle as one of her monkeys makes a bid for freedom.

-New head guide of the house Ruth Charles goes potty for her favourite things.

-Ta-da!

And with the hippos safely back home, find out what happened when

a sea lion not only made it out of the park but out of the county.

A few years ago, Mike and Michelle came to live in Pets Corner.

They're Geoffroy's tufted-ear marmosets,

an endangered species from Brazil.

This pair were part of the international captive breeding programme,

but at first, they weren't too successful in raising a baby.

That was until 2004 when Mandu was born.

So, a happy ending for the marmoset family?

That was until Mandu did something totally out of character.

There are no bars on the marmoset enclosure as they're naturally very territorial

and so won't venture out of the area they think of as their home.

Or that's the theory, anyway.

But last year, their keeper Jo Hawthorne got some news she hoped she'd never have to hear.

Mandu had escaped.

Oh, you're joking! Where is she now?

It was early one afternoon last year.

I'd been talking in the mine, in the bats, and I got this phone call

from Bev in Pets Corner to say that Mandu, my youngest marmoset,

had panicked and suddenly ran around in Pets Corner, ran over the parrot seating and escaped.

She made a run for it, past the barn owls, towards the otters.

She actually went into the otter enclosure, briefly, which was a bit scary.

At this time there was a parrot show going on, which didn't help, so there was a lot of people around.

And she went up behind the parrot seating and over the wall.

For her to actually leave the enclosure that she loves

and knows, with Mum and Dad, it had to be something really scary that scared her.

At that moment in time, I thought, "God, she's only little,

"she's two and a half years old, really scared without Mum and Dad, never before been away from them

"and out of this little enclosure here, you know, and she must be so scared."

And it was getting towards the end of the day, so that bothered me as well.

Luckily, however, last year Jo had trained the marmosets to come to her when she blew a whistle,

so that she could get them back into their house straightaway if there was an emergency.

Now it seemed like this was the emergency she'd been preparing for.

And Jo was hoping the whistle was the key to getting Mandu back.

I thought I'd be able to find her by the end of that day, but...I was mistaken.

Poor little Mandu was going to have to stay out overnight on her own -

a big worry to head of section Darren Beasley.

I was ever so concerned at that point, because to have the decision

to leave an animal out overnight is a heck of a worry.

I mean, there are foxes and buzzards and all sorts of things round here.

The next morning, came in very early, went up again to the top of the parrot seating

with my whistle, called her name,

whistled and, at that point in time, I wasn't hearing anything still, so of course I was even more worried,

cos I thought, "She really has panicked - she's gone away further than I think she's gone."

I went with Jo and we walked down the railway track into the woods -

there's a large wooded area - and the best thing we thought, really, was to listen.

You use your ears, really, because this is thick woods

down there and to see a very small monkey, small marmoset...

almost impossible.

Couldn't really pick anything up at all,

so I sort of resigned to the fact that unless it makes a sound or makes a movement,

who knows? I mean, at that point, it could have gone three miles from Pets Corner, let alone 300 yards.

As another day passed with no sign of Mandu, Jo and Darren had to

resign themselves to the fact that the young marmoset would have to spend another night out on her own,

whilst Mum and Dad continued to pine for their precious baby.

But then, next day, there came a small ray of hope.

So in the early afternoon of the third day, when Darren had said to me, "Go and find her,"

I came back down here and I stood out on the front here by the lake

and I could hear her calling, very distantly,

and it seemed like she was way down here,

almost kind of at the end of the lake.

And it was such a very faint sound but I could hear it.

So I thought, "OK, this is no good, cos if I walk up and down whistling, she's just going to get so confused.

"Best thing to do is just stay in one place."

So, this is the very tree that I sat on for hours and hours, whistling.

The time relapse between me whistling and her calling me

got less and less, but louder.

And then, I probably heard the most amazing sound I've ever heard in my whole life,

and it was the cry of a marmoset above my head. And I looked up and I heard this "rustle rustle rustle"

and I saw through the branches when I looked up, her little face looking down at me.

She came down this branch.

Really hungry,

I could tell, you know, and kind of looking at me as if to say, "Oh, it's you, got food?"

I held my hand out with some food in, and she was only too pleased to see...

I'd like to think she wanted to see me but it was probably the food.

I was over the moon, really over the moon. Probably crying a little bit.

I didn't think she was going to get it. I phoned the head warden

and as I'm on the phone, I looked on our CCTV monitor...

"Oh, my goodness, hang on!"

Jo's walking across with a big grin on her face, carrying this cage and she'd got it.

You know, amazing to get a very tiny, tiny, smallest, one of the smallest monkeys in the world, you know,

from hundreds of acre of forest, Longleat estate...

getting her back in that carrier was, for me, the best thing that

I could ever have done, really.

There are millions of trees on the estate and they're home and lunch to countless native species.

But there's a rather exotic animal,

who enjoys a good munch on some home-grown vegetation, as Kate is about to find out.

Now, why are we destroying this perfectly nice tree, which I have

to say, given that you are Mr British Conservation now, is a very, very good species?

It's a hawthorn. It's a very good species for British wildlife, so why are we cutting it down?

-Well, one, the giraffe like eating it.

-Right.

Two, the giraffe lean over this fence here...

You can see the top of the fence is crushed. ..and eat them,

so what we do is we cut them every couple of years, trim them down.

They'll shoot back up. In fact, hawthorn, the more you batter them, the better they

come back and it'll thicken the bottoms out, so it won't damage the tree.

So we're basically doing two things here. Pruning.

-And feeding giraffes.

-And food for the giraffes. Yes.

-Can I just...? This bit that we've just chopped down...

-Yep.

Let's just have a look at it, cos we're wearing quite thick gloves.

-Yep.

-I mean, this is spiky old stuff, hawthorn, isn't it?

-And you can see the thorns...

-Yeah.

-..just in there.

I mean, they're not enormous, but they're very, very sharp.

-They're pretty savage when you get one jammed in your arm or leg.

-Yeah.

So what are you doing feeding this to a giraffe? That seems...

Compared to acacia, this is baby food, to be honest.

Acacia thorns that they would eat in the wild...

-are kind of this long, they're really savage.

-Really?

Yeah. And a giraffe would get in there and strip the leaves off.

So the hawthorn's good cos it takes them a long time to eat it,

because they're obviously quite respectful of the thorn.

So it kind of replicates what they'd eat in the wild.

-So they don't actually eat the thorn at all?

-No.

They'll work their way in here and they'll pick through and strip the leaves off it.

They will take some thorns, but a giraffe is actually

designed to deal with food like this - really, really sharp stuff.

So the plan now is to go and take this into the enclosure, is it?

Yep. We'll bundle it up into a great big bundle, tie it all up,

-because we have to tie this to hang it from the hangers.

-OK.

Plus we don't want it falling on the floor because of the camels.

-They've got quite soft feet.

-Right.

So we don't want the camels jumping around in the middle of a load of hawthorn and getting spikes in them.

Well, join us later on to see if the giraffes really do appreciate all our hard work.

Earlier in the show, Bob set up infrared cameras to watch

a young pack of wolves at night, but this was no reality TV stunt.

There was an important reason behind it.

You see, these young wolves have been separated from the main pack in Wolf Wood,

prior to being moved to Dublin Zoo.

Bob has been checking on them, but they were showing classic signs of stress as soon as he went near them,

so he wanted to find out if they calmed down when they're alone.

If they didn't, the move may have to be reconsidered.

It's the next day and it's time to review the footage, but what will he find?

Well, what I'm noticing at the moment is

it seems to be there's a couple more stressed than the others.

They're pacing up and down.

It doesn't seem frantic pacing, but, you know, they ARE pacing.

They've worn a bit of a pathway in the straw, that's for sure.

They don't seem too fussed.

It's very rare for Bob to get such an insight into the nocturnal activities of these wild wolves.

But his secret filming may have been rumbled.

Brilliant! He obviously can tell where the camera is and wants to stick his nose in there.

So this one isn't pacing as much as they were earlier.

It seems to me that they are much more relaxed when there's no-one around, obviously.

But, you know, I'm quite pleased. They're not...

too bad. Not as bad as I thought they would be at this stage.

There's definitely a noticeable difference in behaviour between the wolves.

This may be due to the fact that they all have different personalities,

but Bob has his own theory.

What you can actually see is not too dissimilar to what would happen in the park, anyway.

They form their own little pack.

And they have like a pecking order within that pack.

Maybe the ones that are left in the box are quite relaxed.

Maybe they're higher ranking than the ones out here pacing up and down in the pens.

It's nothing...

to worry about, I wouldn't have thought. Just nature.

The journey to Dublin Zoo by road and ferry

will take around 24 hours, so it's crucial that the wolves remain calm.

It's therefore a great relief to Bob to see them finally looking more

settled in time for their collection by the team from Dublin.

We've done all the stressful side of things.

Getting them in and separating them from the others. All that's out the way,

so, hopefully, everything will go right and get them on their way.

It's hard to move your animals on, but we know full well that we have to,

to stop in-breeding and things like that.

It'd be nice to get them in the boxes and on their way. Yeah.

The plan is to load the wolves into the transportation crate one at a time.

That's it. OK. That's good.

The crates are positioned at the end of the run, while Bob and Brian encourage the wolves in.

But coming into contact with humans again, how they'll react is unpredictable.

The only problems that we can foresee is the fact

that they won't go in the boxes, but hopefully that won't happen.

Come on. Come on, mate.

Clear.

Clear. Thank you.

Once all the wolves are loaded, they'll begin their journey.

Gerry Craten from Dublin Zoo is in charge of the move.

It's a long journey by road, so we plan to drive as far as Chester.

Tonight, we'll stay in Chester Zoo, just overnight and then head for the ferry early

in the morning which is only an hour and a half drive from Chester Zoo.

When we get to Dublin, we're literally only 15, 20 minutes from the zoo.

Come on, then. Come on. That's it. Good on you.

I don't think the journey at all will be stressful. They'll be in boxes.

They'll be in a dark environment, which they like.

'They feel secure in an enclosed space.

'Be glad to get out the other end, but I don't think they'll be stressed.'

'We'll have regular checks on them over the night-time'

and make sure everything is OK and we'll check them yet again before we set off in the morning.

We've done a lot of animal moves and we're confident that once they're in the boxes, they settle down.

With most of the wolves loaded, the operation is nearly over.

But the trickiest bit is always getting the last wolf into the crate.

Alone in the house, it's feeling nervous and threatened.

Go and join your mates. Go on.

It's up to Bob to encourage him through the chute into the crate as quickly as possible.

Come on.

Come on.

Good boy. Good boy.

That's it.

-All clear.

-Clear clear clear. Excellent.

That went really, really well.

Walked straight in... how we wanted it to happen, really.

Yeah. Brilliant. Really, really good.

-Thanks very much.

-Have a good trip.

Thank you.

You can hear it's dead quiet in the back in the lorry,

so that's a good indication that they just sit down, they rest, they'll be very calm,

very relaxed and the next time that they'll see out the box is when they're in Dublin,

so something to look forward to.

As the young pack of wolves leave the park and head to their new home,

the keepers hope that the remaining pack will start to breed.

We'll be returning to Wolf Wood later in the series.

With packs of wolves, prides of lions and troops of monkeys,

it would be very easy to forget what's at the heart of the estate -

the great house itself.

Now over 400 years old, it's not only home to Lord Bath himself,

but also thousands of priceless treasures stuffed into no less than 128 different rooms.

As a guide, the first job is to stop getting lost.

The second is to learn as much as you can about the treasures inside,

which is exactly what new head guide Ruth Charles has had to do.

-So this is the Prince of Wales' bedroom.

-That's right.

The bed in here is huge.

-So high!

-So high.

-Look at that.

You'd need a good sort of hoick up.

Or a pair of steps. A set of steps to get in.

-But the magic of these steps is they hide a secret.

-Right.

-And I'll show you the secret.

-OK.

Because in here, there's something special that you might need at night-time.

-Right.

-Remember, no toilets in the house until about 1875.

This has a potty inside.

-Oh, wow, look at that!

-Ta-da!

Isn't that incredible? What a clever idea.

What a very clever idea, as long as you remember to put the lid back on before you get back into bed again.

-You'd really mess up your feet doing that.

-You would.

So, do we think any nobility would have actually used this, then?

The bedroom's named after Prince of Wales, but it's named after

the portrait, not after the fact that the Prince of Wales came here.

So we can't say that the Prince of Wales sat on this potty.

I don't think we can. No.

So there's no proof that nobility used Lord Bath's secret latrine, but Ruth's next stop is a treasure

that only the most eagle-eyed of top nobs would have spotted.

What are you showing me in here, then? Where are we?

-We're in the breakfast room, but what's very special in here are these door knobs.

-OK.

What's so special about these, then?

Look closely. Can you see the face in the door knob?

-Isn't that amazing?

-Very, very special damascene lock plates.

An ancient Islamic technique of creating a water effect on precious metals.

And the only way I discovered them was because a little boy

was looking at them one day, he was about eight years old, and asked me what they were.

-I've been here five years and never noticed.

-And are there similar door knobs like this across the house?

There are a few downstairs, but the great comparison is to the wooden door knobs

the servants had to use, which are over in the corner there, on the gold wall.

-Right.

-A wooden door knob leading into a servants' corridor.

Completely different class.

At one time, there would have been 50 servants working in the house and before modern plumbing was invented,

a lot of their time would have been filling baths by hand in the bathroom, which is the next stop.

So this is the bath bedroom suite.

Yes, that's right. My favourite piece in the whole house has got to be this wash stand.

-Wash stand.

-Yes.

-Very simple.

Very simple, but look down the legs to the very bottom and look at the detail on the end of the shoes.

Isn't that amazing? Like a three-legged person!

-Yes. It's great.

-In britches, I think.

-Britches.

Buttons on his britches and a garter.

And we used to think it was a wig stand.

I'm not sure how true that is, but wouldn't it be great

if it had a wooden head in the middle and a big curly wig and then feet as if it were going to run away?

And if you could have hung your jacket on this, on the outside, you've have had a mini person.

-Yes.

-With three legs.

I look forward to catching up with you in another few months to find out what else you've come across.

-It's a deal.

-We'll shake on that.

Earlier on, Andy and I risked life and limb to cut down large bits of hawthorn.

A good pruning for the tree, but even better, as far as the giraffes are concerned, to eat,

which seems extraordinary to me, but this is what they like.

They can barely wait. We've got a camel coming in as well!

I suppose camels would eat quite thorny deserty stuff, wouldn't they, in the wild?

They say it's only sharks that have a feeding frenzy! I'll go for this one as well, Kate.

So this is now winched right up onto this kind of, well, old tree trunk,

but this obviously mimics a live tree, rather cleverly.

Yeah. It's a lot easier, or better, for them to eat up high.

That's what giraffe are meant to do.

Well, as this is being winched up, there's actually a little camera hidden in here.

And hopefully, what that will mean, if it doesn't get eaten itself,

is that it will give us a great view of a giraffe's tongue.

So where are we going to sit to be able to watch this?

-We'll drive a little way away and then the giraffe will come in and we can watch them eat.

-Brilliant.

Well, as you say, it didn't take them long to gather up around that, did it?

No. As soon as it comes... They hear it coming now cos the trailer rattles.

..they'll all start pounding down, so we've got three hangers. We try and confuse them,

but they normally get there before we're ready to start hoisting it up.

It's just nice to see the giraffe gathered round and eating as they should do. It's pretty depressing -

-the time we've taken to cut all that and they'll make really short work of it.

-They'll strip it.

You can see there's the one that... Poor old Henry!

He's sort of left with the one that has been stripped,

but it is extraordinary because they really are doing that, aren't they?

They're stripping the leaves off, but leaving all the wood there.

That's right. They'll work their way around the thorns, and you can see, a lot of the time,

they'll work away with their tongue and just grab it and pull it.

Well, you can see the one on the left, there - tongue coming out and it is sort of pulling the leaves

away from the bark. It is amazing, even from a distance, watching that tongue.

As you said, prehensile tongue, it really is.

They really do use it like another limb, don't they?

Yeah. And it's also blue.

-They've got a blue tongue.

-I always thought it was black.

Bluey-black kind of colour.

Let's not split hairs!

One of the theories is a giraffe's tongue is black, or bluey-black, so it doesn't actually get sunburnt.

-A sunburnt tongue must be a nightmare.

-Very painful.

Maybe that's why lions have always got their tongues stuck out cos they're actually sunburnt!

-There's another theory.

-And they have a special saliva as well.

Very thick saliva, so the saliva acts as a slight barrier inside their

mouth when they're chewing big mouthfuls of thorny food.

And grooves on the roof of their mouth as well.

That helps when they're chomping away.

But their diet in summer - we feed them nettles as well.

We go out and pick nettles and put those in boxes for them.

It's good enrichment. That's full of iron.

It's free. It doesn't cost us anything, and it's the best for them. This grass is absolutely fantastic.

In fact, we need a lot more animals out here to knock this

-grass off.

-And they do obviously work very, very well as a herd.

I mean, they are, obviously, naturally herd animals,

but again, most of these animals have been born in captivity.

-All of them?

-All of them.

They are all English giraffe.

But that natural sort of herding instinct, that looking out for each

other, is clearly very much part of that DNA that they're born with.

Absolutely. We deal with them in as wild a way as possible. We want them to be giraffe.

We want our visitors to come here and see giraffe and zebra acting as natural as we can...

And watching this, I mean, you know, you could almost be in the Masai Mara, couldn't you?

Almost. Just need a gin and tonic to sit watching them!

I don't know what sort of safaris you've been doing - not like mine!

Well, I'm very, very glad that all our hard prickly work has been

-as appreciated as it is obviously being. Thank you very much, Andy.

-OK. No problem.

I'll stand up.

The Californian sea lions that live in Half Mile Lake have always had a reputation for causing trouble.

But one of the creatures that lurks in the lake has gone down in history

as being the worst-behaved sea lion ever.

As head warden Keith Harris's staff were doing their daily rounds, it was just going to be like any other

day, but there's one July morning in 1988 that he will never forget.

Every morning, all the staff in all the different sections go off and do a head count.

So, the people that are looking after the lake at the time came down,

counted the sea lions, noticed one was missing.

For a sea lion, there was only one possible escape route.

Normally, the water comes over and cascades all down this concrete.

We think that she came down into the stream, and this stream goes into the

River Frome, so we thought, "Oh, dear, we've got a chase on our hands."

The missing sea lion was a female called Laddie.

And as sightings came in from the public, deputy head warden Ian Turner was despatched.

We got a call that a sea lion had been spotted in Frome,

which obviously was a bit of a weird thing,

so we rushed down here to see if we could see it and there was nothing.

I spoke to a member of public that was here and he said the sea lion was last seen swimming that way.

We couldn't quite believe what was going on, but we had a really good look round here.

The chase was on to try and find out exactly where she is now.

We had to try and follow her as best we could, which was not too easy because she can

-move a darn sight quicker than we can getting round the roads.

-We were just looking at every stream we could.

We called at people's houses, knocking on people's doors.

"Have you seen a sea lion?" Which obviously, some people thought we were, you know,

from a funny farm. And we went to this house and we said, "Have you seen a sea lion?"

He said. "Well, there's a bloke down fishing at the bottom of our trout farm and he said he saw the sea lion

"there and he grabbed this massive big trout and just played with it."

And literally, we went and saw the bloke and he said,

"Yeah, he just came swimming along. I've been here fishing for hours and caught nothing -

"the sea lion comes up and grabs this massive great fish, plays with it,

"throws it to one side and just carries on." This bloke was starting to get worried,

because she could end up following this river all the way and this goes to the sea,

and once she gets that far, we'd never ever catch her.

So, this was starting to get quite a bit of tension and a bit nervous.

A sea lion's natural home is the sea, but just like the other ones

in the park, Laddie lives in fresh water, so is given a daily salt tablet to compensate.

If the keepers could not get Laddie back soon, she would start to become very sick.

But suddenly, another tip-off came in.

We had a phone call that she was in an ornamental pond in Trowbridge.

How she got there, that bit we don't know, but she obviously followed the stream somewhere along the line.

By this stage, Laddie had caused quite a stir and even cropped up on the local news.

After swimming more than 17 miles, helping herself to fish on a trout farm and commanding the attention

of the crowd of spectators, Laddie the sea lion wasn't about to give herself up easily.

Are you optimistic that she's going to come back?

We'll get her sooner or later.

First, they tried to appeal to her maternal instincts.

Her pup Lindy was brought in, but that didn't work.

Eventually, it was fish that tempted her close,

and then they soon had her cornered in a side channel.

At the time, we were so relieved that we got her back without any injury or damage to her,

but I think in some ways she was relieved to be back.

As soon as we put her back out with the other sea lions, she was fine.

So, with Laddie safely back in Half Mile Lake, Keith had to come up

with a new way of keeping her there, and his idea was electric.

Well, the sea lions have got extremely sensitive whiskers,

probably one of the most sensitive whiskers of the animal world.

And when we put an electric fence there, to this day I don't think one's actually touched it.

Their whiskers are actually telling them that that is electric and they don't go near it.

This might have worked for the sea lions,

but it just goes to show that the keepers always have to be on their guard.

As the park closes its gates for the day,

Kate and I are out on one of the lake boats to help deputy head warden Ian Turner

-with one of the most important jobs of the day - ensuring the animals are tucked up safely.

-Correct.

And of course, this is one of the most notorious areas for escape artists.

Sea lions, yes!

I can't believe she got to Frome!

And further. Went towards Bath, then came back towards Trowbridge.

We didn't spot it until the next day, so that was a major escape.

-So this has become a ritual really, since then. Coming in, counting all the lake animals.

-Yeah.

And making sure everything's fine. Check you've got six sea lions. Check the hippos are in the lake.

I can see both of them, actually, just tucked under a tree.

Two sets of ears, so that's good news.

Once the last boat's gone past, we'll give 13 a shout and they can put Nico to bed and make sure...

This is of course the island where he lives, so presumably, Mark Tye is somewhere around there.

-Waiting for the call.

-Let me give him a shout.

-Mark Tye, Mark Tye, this is Kate on the boat. Do you read me?

-Yeah. Come in, Kate.

Mark, we've had the clear for Ian that Nico can go to bed.

-OK. Thanks very much.

-OK. We're going to just sneak round the corner.

He's usually just hiding under there, isn't he? That's where he'll go in.

I have to say, Ian, just looking at the electric fence around here and the size of Nico, there he is...

-that doesn't look like that would keep Nico on the island, though.

-They can't swim.

I mean, literally, it's a deterrent to stop sea lions jumping onto the island and upsetting him.

-And just a warning for him when he's running about...

-There he goes!

-There he goes.

-That's him into bed.

We can see him. He's gone in from this side, Mark.

Have you tucked him up nicely with his favourite television programme? That's what we want to know.

That's our secret. You're not going to find out.

Thanks, Mark. Good night.

So, Ian, everything now is accounted for, present and safe.

-Yeah.

-Good. Good. Any little final escape stories you want to tell us?

One of the ones that springs to mind down at the lake here,

is we had some Cape buffalo, which we put in the hippo field.

Now, Cape buffalo are big animals,

-with those huge horns, like that, very dangerous, and you put them in this field here.

-Yeah.

-Then what happened?

-They walked straight into the lake and swam off.

-All the way down the lake.

-Straight to the end to Lord Bath's lawn.

-No!

-Straight got out.

Is that why you don't have Cape buffalo any more?

We had to take them back into the lake, back into the hippo field and take them back to the jungle.

-Send them back.

-It's amazing! Just seems such a lovely tranquil place, doesn't it, and it has been

the scene, as you say, of many, many great escapes.

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