Episode 8 Animal Park

Raaarrgh!

-SHE LAUGHS

-Wild animals can be dangerous and unpredictable,

but we've always tried to get you as close to them as possible

by using cutting-edge technology.

On today's programme, we look back at some of the unique footage we've got over the years,

and we'll be putting the cameras in places we've never put them before.

Coming up on today's Animal Park...

The lions pounce and we get the best seat in the house.

We get caught up in a tangled web of love in the spider house,

as keeper, Kim Tucker, plays match-maker.

Oh, he's doing it, he's doing it!

And the otters have to brush up their feeding skills.

A lion's sense of smell is extremely well developed.

They have a special smelling device hidden in the roof of their mouth, called the Jacobsen's Organ.

We don't have one of these, so that could be one of the reasons

why a lion's sense of smell is 30 times

better than ours and is essential for their hunting and reproduction.

You can tell when a lion, or more likely your cat, is using it.

They grimace when they're smelling.

In the wild, lions would be simulated

by a huge cocktail of smells that would get these senses zinging.

So we're going to see how they react to the stink

that Bob Trollope is making.

This is one of your brilliant ideas. I love your ideas. And this is a particular favourite.

What is the plan today?

Well, what we're going to do is just lay a scent trail for them.

We just wander about aimlessly for 10 minutes or so.

-We could probably do that!

-Yes, we're very good at that.

And hopefully they'll come out and follow it around and

-do something.

-This would basically mimic a wild environment for them,

which would be full of lots of different smells

from lots of different animals?

Yeah, obviously, we can't put our other livestock in here to leave

scent trails, so we have to do it for them.

And the easiest way is to bag up poo.

OK. What sort of poo have we got in here?

We have rhino poo because it's really good stuff.

-You don't have to get much to fill up a bag, obviously.

-No, absolutely not.

And presumably rhinos are not predatory to lions,

so it's not going to scare the lions,

it's just going to interest them?

It should interest them.

They would prey on small rhinos if they could get a chance.

If there was one sickly, they would have a go at it.

But they would come across this in the wild

and obviously do whatever comes naturally.

If we're going to start laying a trail,

-is it literally a case of dragging it around?

-Yes, drag it around.

Now, if you look behind us they're all going absolutely mad.

Presumably what we're imitating here, Bob,

it's not just the smell, but if you were playing with a domestic cat and

pulling a bit of wool around the carpet they'd want to chase it.

I'm quite glad there's a big fence between them.

Obviously we are just dragging this through the ground,

but it's not gonna be a huge amount of smell, is there?

It should be, because this has been in there a few days now,

marinating into the Hessian.

And the rhino keepers have also dipped it in wee

to make it nice and wet and soggy.

We probably wouldn't notice any difference, but their sense of smell

is really great, so hopefully they will.

OK, well, Bob and I are going to carry on

pulling Hessian sacks of poo around the field for a little bit longer.

Join us in a bit to see what the lions think

of this mildly ridiculous morning's work!

Whilst most of the animals around the park are not exactly

what you would call hands-on, down in Pets' Corner visitors have

the chance to meet the creatures first-hand,

whether they be furry, slithery, or creepy crawly.

With an expansion to Pets' Corner planned, keeper, Kim Tucker,

is keen to increase the number of animals in their collection.

So, over the past couple of months, she's been researching

the mating habits of Chilean rose tarantulas

and has selected two that she will play matchmaker to

in the hope that they'll produce the park's first-ever

clutch of baby tarantula eggs.

These are two of our Chilean Rose Tarantulas.

We've got Rosie in this box. She's a female.

We've got Red in here - our only male tarantula.

We've picked these two, because Red is our only male.

When he first arrived we originally thought he was a female.

So it's a bonus that he turned out to be a little boy.

And Rosie because she's in very good condition.

She's also one of our prettiest spiders.

She's very red, so hopefully, with her colouring,

we should get some pretty nice-looking baby spiderlings.

So we're going to set up a new tank. This is going to be the love nest.

We'll pop Rosie in so she can stamp her claim on her enclosure.

In a couple of days we'll put Red in,

and then, hopefully, fingers crossed,

we'll have some baby spiders in a few months' time.

Sounds easy enough.

Take one female and one male,

set up a cosy environment and let nature take its course.

But, as is so often the case with breeding animals,

it's not quite as straightforward as that.

Firstly, she's got to be sure they're both ready.

Good conditioning is one thing and making sure they're eating properly.

And we keep records on the spiders, so we know that she's been eating.

As long as they're handled with care these tarantulas will not attack.

If they did, their bite would be similar to a bee sting.

But Kim's hoping that they'll be on their best behaviour for the date.

Her job, as chaperone, is to create the perfect romantic environment.

Right, I'll just pop Rosie back in here for a moment

and then what we're going to do is make a start on the love nest.

So, what I'm going to do is put in...

This is just peat and vermiculite.

The vermiculite helps to keep the water content,

because it needs to be quite humid in there as well.

And we'll spray it with some water.

Like I say, for the humidity.

And just make sure that it's nice and comfortable for Rosie.

And then what we're going to give her

is a hide. It just means that she has somewhere nice and private,

away from everybody else's eyes, if you like, to lay her eggs.

And she can make sure they're safe and protected.

No-one else can see them. Right, there we go, then, darling.

It's important that Kim allows Rosie a couple of days

to settle into her new home before she introduces Red.

She'll need this time to make herself at home because

if she doesn't feel relaxed, she won't be in the mood.

While she's getting settled in there, we can have a quick look at Red.

He's our little boy spider.

He's a little bit smaller than her, but very, very pretty.

Males generally have a lot more hair on their body.

They look a lot more furry than the females.

He may be pretty, but being smaller than her leaves him vulnerable.

Female Chilean rose spiders have a tendency

of becoming aggressive during mating.

Obviously we want to avoid any complications of any kind.

But there is one that most people would associate with spider breeding

and that is the probability that she might attack him. Quite fatally.

So hence the reason I do have to watch the whole process,

get him out before she attacks him

or eats him or anything horrid like that.

So I've got my little plastic sheet that I can stick in between them

and get him out as quickly as possible.

But hopefully she's ready, he's ready,

and we should hear the pitter patter

of lots of tiny little feet in a couple of months' time.

We'll see later in the show if the love nest Kim created

gets Rosie ready to greet or eat.

Down in Pets' Corner, keeper, Rob Savin,

is about to feed the most popular family.

In the wild, these Asian short-clawed otters

live in a variety of habitats

and they spend most of their time searching for their food.

Here at Longleat it's a constant battle to enrich their lives and keep their minds active.

Rob has come up with an idea and it involves a broom.

What is all this about then?

Right. What we're doing with these two big broom heads,

we're trying to replicate a bit of a reed bed.

So we're going to lower this into the water in a moment,

stuffed full of this lovely seafood.

We're going to wedge a few on, tuck a few in

and see just how agile the otters are. We've learnt

they're very agile, with their feet and all sorts of things.

So shall we start? Literally just...

I want them wedged in tight and some skewered in.

Obviously you're always trying to come up with ways to enrich their

habitat here, and how did you come up with this idea?

It's something we've used before with a few of the other animals,

with the marmosets, for example, just for ways of hiding food.

And we've got various ways already in the enclosure of hiding food,

putting it into bamboo and coconuts, that sort of thing.

Hiding food is very, very important.

But also these otters are very partial to shallow water and

they would be within the grasses and the reeds,

and they find all sorts of crustaceans, crabs,

that sort of thing, in here, and they're very adept

at getting little bits of food out of very, very small spaces.

Some of these prawns have their shells and everything on.

Will that whole thing be eaten?

-They'll eat the lot.

-They're not picky?

-They'll eat every last bit.

It's getting quite full already.

-It is.

-I'm just trying to skewer, without breaking bits. That'll do.

-This is definitely a first!

-We have a camera waiting there as well.

So we should hopefully get some fantastic images from the water.

So we want to lower this down carefully.

Nice and gentle, and hopefully they'll come straight to it.

Let's get that in there.

Yeah, most of it's staying on.

-That's good.

-Here they come. What's this, down here?

Here she comes. This is Rosie, straight to it.

Three out of the four are straight in there.

She's gone straight to our camera. There are the others,

-touching it with their noses.

-Touching it, sniffing it.

They've got a very, very keen sense of smell.

Their eyesight in the water is brilliant, though,

because throughout the water they can focus on things

in the water, and while they're in the water,

they can focus on things outside too.

And these thick tails, presumably, help them with swimming?

Yeah, brilliant for balance. It acts a bit like a rudder.

On the land, balance again. They do spend a lot more time on the land

than most otters, but, as you can see, they're such agile swimmers.

They can turn very quickly.

-Are you pleased with how this is going?

-Very pleased.

It's great that they're taking their time over it, I imagine?

Anything that takes more time for any animal is always good.

Anything you've hidden, any different smells,

it keeps them busier for longer, keeps them working harder.

I'm assuming it replicates more realistically

-what happens in the wild.

-Absolutely.

-And the grass is the reeds, the bamboo.

-And will they take them away?

There's a couple up on the bank there. Do they get them

-out of the water to eat?

-Yeah, because they're still a bit wary,

they're going to go outside on the ledge to eat.

Sometimes they just bring it on these low ledges, here.

Depending on how soft the food is, how much they've got to do with it,

they can sometimes munch it in the water.

These otters spend a lot more time on the land,

and if there's anything they have to crunch away or peel away

with their paws they're going to do it on the land.

So they'll take little bits and come back for more.

And that is always adding to their enrichment.

How long can they stay underwater?

It's around a minute, so not as long as you may think.

Look at them. They're really going for it now, digging around.

Rosie's up here. She's normally the first one to do this sort of thing.

-What's she saying to you?

-She's saying, "Come on, chuck it to me, I can't be bothered!"

But, no, she's gonna work for it. I'm not gonna make it too easy for her.

-Which is exactly what this is about.

-That's the whole point.

-Will you leave that in until it's empty?

-Yes,

and we may use it continuously and keep stuffing it full.

It's important we keep chopping and changing with this. It's fantastic.

A very successful experiment there, Rob. Thanks very much.

You're welcome.

WOLVES HOWL

Earlier in the programme, Kate and deputy head of section,

Bob Trollope, brought a whiff of the wild to the lions' enclosure

by leaving a scent trail of rhino poo.

It's now time to see how the lions are going to react.

And you've got a front-row seat,

as we've placed a camera right by the pile of poo.

The moment has come to let the lions out and see how they react to this.

-Yes.

-OK. I'll let you give the signal.

OK, Sarah, if you could let them out, please.

Do you think there'll be an instant reaction, as soon as they come out?

-I think so.

-Oh, look at this!

-THEY LAUGH

-That answered the question for you!

I don't think they're taking a lot of notice of the scent trail we laid.

Not at all! But coming straight up.

What we did, you can see, just out here, we emptied the sacks...

-THEY LAUGH

-And they have knocked straight over the little camera, which won't be

getting any pictures of them now, but lovely pictures of the grass.

That's extraordinary, Bob,

that they've come straight in to that pile of dung.

Is that what you expected to happen?

Yeah. They actually love getting themselves smelly.

-Right.

-Lovely, fresh rhino dung is ideal because it

holds its moisture, and also, as I said earlier,

it's been dipped in the rhino wee, so it's nice and strong,

and they'll roll about in that and make themselves a right mess.

Look at her.

One of the females here, she's not doing it now, but she had hold of

a bit of dung and her mouth was completely screwed up, like that.

Do you think it was just because it was a very horrible, strong smell?

She... THEY LAUGH

She's just run off with the camera.

-That's a close-up!

-Is that going to be a problem for him?

The camera is one thing, but are you worried

that he might chew that, or is it fairly bomb proof?

It's pretty bomb proof. That's a metal case.

A bit of plastic.

-They crack bones.

-That's true.

There's going to be some very interesting close-ups there

of Mr Dudley's tongue over the lens.

Kate and Bob haven't seen this footage yet,

but before they do they've got to retrieve the camera.

So, what I want to know, though, Bob,

is who is going to go and get the camera?

The cameraman, obviously! THEY LAUGH

It's his camera!

Go on, Adam, off you go!

-There we go.

-Let's have a look, Bob and see what...

..Mr Dudley managed to film.

This is obviously the shot

before the lions were let out.

Oh, my goodness!

Here they come. Wow! Pile in!

OK, there's the shot of the grass.

That's interesting.

I'm not sure our cameraman, Adam is...

I'm not sure his job's in jeopardy quite yet.

-No, not yet.

-Oh, there's a bit of lion there.

A bit of nose.

Having a good old sniff!

You don't want to get much closer than that, do you?

You wouldn't really, would you?

SLURPING AND GROWLING

Actually, the sound is great.

You can really hear how much they're

communicating with each other.

A nice great big bit of lion slobber right there.

Oh, that's tongue. Look at that!

Yes, if you ever wanted to see what it would be like,

your final view as you got eaten by a lion, this is it!

Look at that tongue, that's brilliant!

These amazing shots give us a great idea of how they feed.

Look at that tongue. It's covered with rough spines, called papillae.

This helps the lions scrape meat off the bone

and acts like a comb for grooming their coat.

Their jaws are short and strong,

and at the back of the mouth are the carnassial teeth,

which work like a pair of scissors for cutting up the chunks of meat.

Brilliant. Well, what a fantastic experiment.

And clearly a very good way for them all to start the day.

Although they've now completely abandoned the poo

-and gone to lie in the sun.

-Yeah, good idea.

It's very lion-like behaviour. Thank you again, Bob.

In ten years we've never filmed down a lion's throat.

But we've always strived to bring you the most interesting images from

around the safari park, such as when the giraffes wrapped their

18-inch tongues around their dinner and we had a peak into a wolf's den

to discover new-born pups.

It's been a challenge trying to capture animal behaviour

that you would never normally get to see,

either with the naked eye or with an ordinary camera.

So, from time to time, we brought in specialist camera people,

like Jonathan Watts, who came to reveal

a strange and mysterious world down in Pets' Corner.

These are leaf-cutter ants.

What I'm doing is using a miniature camera,

which is actually just stuck on the end of this

focusing slide with a piece of Blu-Tack.

It's a little bit crude, but, as you can see,

you can get right in close and

get some really nice images of the ants.

But to get even closer, Jonathan brought an endoscope lens,

the sort of thing that is often used for key-hole surgery.

It givens us a wide-angle view from really close up,

and it gives you some idea of how big the ants are.

It gives you a really nice feel.

If you look at these guys

chewing away at the leaves and carting them all off...

And if you can really get in close,

you'll notice that they're really like prehistoric animals.

They're so crude,

but absolutely fascinating.

Once the ants have chosen a suitable leaf,

which they hold on to with tiny hooks on their legs,

the leaf cutters use their powerful mandible jaws,

which vibrate at a thousand times a second, like a chainsaw.

They then follow a scent trail back to the nest.

There, the leaves are left to rot until fungus starts to grow on them,

which is what the colony actually feeds on.

As well as delving into the world of the very small,

we've also tried to see things from the animal's point of view.

Our aim was to get cameras on the big

and rather less approachable creatures.

We decided to start with something slightly more manageable.

So, sheep farmer Simon Baggs set us a canine challenge.

We're going to try and get a sheepdog's view

of rounding up sheep.

Now, this little camera that you can see there has been fitted

by a specialist wildlife cameraman, who is just over here.

Now, Steve, tell me, how does it actually work?

How are we going to pick up the images from that camera to here?

Megan has a small camera mounted on her head

which is connected to a microwave transmitter on her back,

which sends a safe signal back to my receiver

which is connected to the camera.

And if I look in there...

You'll see Megan's eye view.

Hey, look at that, I can see hands!

That looks brilliant. Are we all ready over here from your end?

-Up and running.

-Ready over here!

We're ready. Simon, the sheep are scattered.

-Shall we let her do her work?

-Right.

Farmers and dogs have been working together like this for centuries,

but this was the very first time we'd seen the business

from the dog's point of view.

Modern technology has changed almost every other aspect of farming,

but when it comes to rounding up sheep,

there's no better way than one man and his dog.

In Pets' Corner, the big day has arrived for Kim and the Chilean Rose

tarantulas, who she's hoping will produce a clutch of spiderlings.

Rosie's been settling into her new love nest for the past two days,

and now the time has come for her to meet Red.

This is the really, really interesting bit now.

To see if we have everything right for them.

Hopefully, if things go to plan,

we should see a little bit of action this afternoon.

It's vital that Rosie has been given the time to feel

fully at home in the new love nest

so that she feels comfortable enough to welcome Red on to her patch.

We're going to pop him in, in a minute, and I've got my little

plastic sheet here, which is

my stopper in case she decides to charge for him and eat him.

Obviously we don't want that to happen,

so this is my spider saver today.

Aggression by the larger female towards the smaller male

is common during tarantula mating,

so no wonder he's instinctively looking for a place to hide.

This is all very, very hopeful.

Obviously I've researched this lots and lots.

I've never personally done it before, so we'll just have to

keep our fingers crossed that it'll go in textbook fashion.

What we're going to do first is pop Rosie inside the hide.

The idea of this is that Red can lure her out.

That's what's supposed to happen.

With Rosie in place,

it's time for Red to do his duty and step into the love nest.

I've got butterflies in my tummy now.

Hopefully she's not going to charge for him.

Hopefully they'll do what they should.

The theory is that he'll lure her out of the hide

by tapping his legs on the floor and vibrating.

Just to let her know that he's a potential male

and not a meal, if you like.

Then what'll happen is he'll approach her very carefully

and then lift her up,

and what he'll do is hook her fangs out of the way

so hopefully she can't bite him.

He'll use his palpal bulbs, and...if that's the way to describe it!

Then hopefully insert his semen into her and then we'll have some babies.

It's a nervous moment as Red feels his way around the tank,

but neither seem that interested in mating.

In fact, as he goes around the back, she nips out the front.

All Kim can do is wait.

There doesn't seem to be an awful lot of action going on. As they're

sat quite far away from each other, what I might have to do is

nip in and give nature a helping hand.

What I'm going to do is...

I'm going to move the hide.

With the obstacle out of the way,

almost immediately Rosie makes a move for Red.

Right, go on. Oh, no, she's over there.

-That's it.

-Eventually, with a little gentle persuasion, they edge closer.

Oh, oh! Oh, he's doing it.

He's doing it! Oh, brilliant!

Oh, fantastic! Oh, I'm so pleased.

Let's just hope she doesn't eat him afterwards.

Fantastic. Look at that!

I'm just anticipating now that, because they've split up now, so...

I don't want her to...

Then attack him. It looks like he's trying to lift her up again.

But she has her fangs out now so I'm going to intervene.

There we go, that means she's not happy, so...

I'll get her out of the way.

And keep her away from him so she doesn't eat him.

And then I've got to get him out.

Fantastic. Absolutely brilliant.

I'm so chuffed we've got it right.

It may have taken him a while to pluck up the courage,

but it was definitely worth the wait.

# If you hold me in your arms

# I won't feel better

# If you hold me in your arms

# We can brave this storm together... #

Success! Wonderful!

So hopefully, apparently, this is the easy bit, getting this bit done.

The difficult bit is getting her comfortable enough

to lay the egg sac. So I'm really, really pleased

it's all gone according to plan and we've had spider mating. Yippee!

It's a special moment and let's hope, for Red's sake,

that he savours every second.

Unfortunately, what they do say is that after three months

there is a possibility that he may die.

So, regardless of the fact that she didn't eat him,

he still isn't going to last very long.

She'll be fine. There'll be no problems with her at all

whether she lays an egg sac or not.

He's basically served his purpose.

He was put on this earth to mate with a female and to procreate.

So he's done that now, and now we can leave Red in peace.

Go and pop him back

into the stable, where it's nice and warm.

And then concentrate on Rosie, making her as comfortable as possible

and then we'll just have to keep an eye on her.

So, Red's future might not look too bright, but for Kim,

her months of research have paid off.

I'm really pleased for myself, if I'm honest.

It means I've done everything that I can do properly

and I'm really relieved that we haven't had to keep trying

and keep trying, because there was a possibility of that happening, too.

But obviously the first time and it's worked so that's fantastic.

Let's just hope she doesn't eat him afterwards.

# Hold me in your arms... #

I've joined keeper Sarah in the hot house to meet Dave,

the yellow-footed tortoise with a very different diet.

Look what he's tucking into.

-Meat!

-Yes. He's loving it.

-Is this right, Sarah?

Yes, for this particular type of tortoise

it is what he would eat naturally in the wild.

He would come across dead rodents and things like that,

that they like to eat, so yes.

So very different to the other tortoises here

that eat green grass... Greens, basically?

Yes, very different.

He will have some green foods similar to our other tortoises.

Some dandelion leaves and mainly fruit as well and insects,

but every now and again we offer him a bit of protein,

because that's what they'd need naturally in the wild.

It's sort of some people's idea of a horror film, really?

It does look really wrong!

And for us it goes against the grain a little bit because we're so used

to feeding our Mediterranean tortoises the leafy, green food

and to give them meat is something that's really strange for us,

but it is what he would eat, so...

So, apart from eating meat does he actually have yellow feet?

-They have lots of yellow scales on their front legs.

-Oh, yes, I see.

And a lot of yellow on the face as well.

And there is a similar one called the red-footed tortoise which is

practically the same, but has red markings.

And why is he in here with the iguanas?

Dave, as a yellow-footed tortoise,

would be found naturally around the same areas as the green iguanas,

so South America, the same kind of parts and he'd live on the forest floor,

so for him to be in here with him, it's fine.

They tend to ignore each other, to be honest.

-He's not going to try and eat him?

-Hopefully not!

Not as long as we provide that, he should be all right.

Sarah, thank you very much.

-That's OK.

-We'll leave Dave to his meat and here's what's still to come on today's programme.

There's trouble bubbling in Half-Mile Lake

as Sonia the hippo has something stuck in her teeth.

But how do you treat the most dangerous animal in the park?

New keeper, Jack Alderson, has his toughest test yet

as a baby Eland appears to be rejected by her mum.

If the situation doesn't change, the baby could die.

And there's chaos down in Pets' Corner.

We've lost a ferret.

But before all that, we're looking back over the years

to the moments we really immersed ourselves amongst the wildlife here at Longleat.

Special high-tech cameras have given us fantastic viewpoints from the animals

and even help solved mysteries that have had the staff baffled for years.

Over in Pets' Corner,

Michelle Stevens looked after the giant African black millipedes for five years,

and she wanted to know which were boys or girls.

There was only one way to tell and that was thanks to the minicam.

The important thing is that we look at, on the males,

on the seventh segment the males tend to have a missing pair of legs.

They do have these legs, but they're special clasping legs for mating and they're hidden in little pouches.

To tell the sexes apart you have to find the missing legs,

and that's tricky because they are very small and they do keep moving, all the time.

-Two millipedes in here.

-Wonderful.

African black millipedes.

What Jonathan captured on camera was then played back in slow motion

so Michelle could see in detail the millipede.

We can probably pause it and count the legs back.

One, two, three, four, five, six, and the seventh one still appears to be there so...

-So, it looks like a female to me.

-Right.

-So, we've found something out, haven't we?

-Yeah.

The next challenge took Jonathan from one of the smallest creatures in the park

to just about the biggest.

What we're going to do is try and put this tiny camera

onto a rhino and get a rhino's point of view in the park.

So, Ian, do you think this is going to work?

Have you ever tried anything like this before?

No, we haven't. It's going to be interesting to see what they see when they're walking about.

And the horn, here, you can see it.

-Yes.

-It's just like your fingernail, so it's not going to affect her.

It's not going to hurt her in any way.

-Who's this, Becky?

-This is Babs.

OK, well, given that she's in such a good position,

shall we try and put this on? OK, Babs.

We have Velcro on there and Velcro on the camera.

I just need to push that little bit in...

Oh, hold on, wait a second!

There we go. That's on.

Now, while you two are keeping her nice and calm,

I'm going to pop over here to see Jonathan Watts who is our little camera expert.

Well, you're not little, but the camera is. Oh, look, we've got a picture already.

Oh, this is brilliant. Have you ever attached a camera to a rhino before?

Not to a rhino, no.

This is a definite first for the morning.

With the camera in place, the rhinos were turned out

into the yard from where they could move down to their paddock.

The microwave link to the camera had a limited range

so we followed in a car.

We've got a picture.

Oh, look, we are beginning to get a picture.

It's an amazing view, isn't it?

It looks really weird.

I've seen the rhinos loads of times before,

but to actually see what the rhino is looking at, it seems so weird.

-Look at that, right up close.

-Lots of behind shots, I'm afraid.

You've never seen a rhino's bum this close before!

Her horn is much longer than any of the younger rhinos,

do they continue to grow as they get older?

All the time. Literally, like your fingernails.

And obviously some rhinos' horns grow bigger than others, not everybody is the same size.

But you can literally tell from young rhinos what age they are by the horn.

And we're not going to stop here.

Keep an eye on the rest of the series for more weird and wonderful images of Longleat's natural world.

Along with the rhinos, this area is home to all of the horned animals.

Oryx, ancholi and also to a herd of eland,

a type of antelope from the Savannah plains of Africa.

The breeding herd of eland has been really successful, but over the winter,

sadly, they lost several females to natural causes.

So the keepers were thrilled when Cindy had a new-born baby a few weeks ago.

Brandy the calf appears to be doing well but, having observed mother and baby over a couple of weeks,

new keeper Jack Alderson, has started to become concerned

over Brandy's feeding, or lack of it.

I was out one day, just sort of came across baby and mum together

and mum was sort of pushing her away.

Not giving her the milk she wants.

Which is not really normal.

So I was a bit concerned, really.

Head of section, Tim Yeo, has nearly 30 years' experience

working with animals and knows that this one needs close attention.

When you look at the calf, it looks healthy. It looks strong.

So, I think it's getting milk

but there's maybe a question as to how much it's getting,

and it may be that it demands just a bit more and it's not getting that.

It could go downhill quite quickly and become a bit of a problem

because obviously she's young, she needs every bit of energy,

every bit of life her mum can give her from the milk.

So, it's very important she gets as much as possible.

If she's not being fed at all we could intervene and hand rear her.

I don't know how much success we'd have,

because there's not been very many successful cases of hand-rearing eland.

The chances are she could become very tame and that could be a problem.

She's a wild animal, she's got to be wild.

Taken away from the herd, that's never a good thing, I don't think.

Although it looks fairly healthy,

Jack has noticed that the calf is struggling to feed

and if the baby doesn't feed it may die.

Jack urgently needs to know,

if Brandy's not getting any milk during the day,

what's happening during the night?

So, in the spirit of this programme,

Jack has put up one of our infra-red night cameras.

This will help him discover if Brandy's managing to suckle.

He'll then make an important decision of whether or not to intervene and bottle feed the baby.

These are tricky times for Jack.

What will the footage reveal?

Earlier in the series,

the keepers at Half-Mile Lake hid a camera amongst the hippo feed.

It was a great success and gave us a chance to see these wild animals up close.

And they really are wild.

The keepers are totally hands off.

But, for the first time since the hippos arrived 30 years ago,

Mark Tighe urgently needs to get close to Sonia, who looks in trouble.

I'm out in the hippo field with head of section, Mark Tighe,

because something rather dramatic has happened to one of the hippos. What is it?

Well, unfortunately, Kate,

Sonia here has unfortunately found a section of cargo mat.

It's like a thick, rubber matting.

We do use it around the park.

But it's a perfectly rectangular piece

that she has found on the bottom of the lake somewhere,

and has got it jammed over one of her tusks.

Oh, my goodness.

The piece of plastic probably just floated into the lake from the river

and it was her pickaxe-like tusks that hooked it into her mouth.

That's a bit of a problem.

How on earth are you going to do anything about that?

-We're not, unfortunately.

-Right.

Annoyingly, this has happened when we're not feeding them.

Of course, because you only feed in the winter.

Yes, if we were feeding them, we'd be able to feed them into the house up there, hopefully.

And then we'd be able to sedate her and remove it relatively safely.

But she's within, perhaps not blow dart distance,

but could you not sedate her here?

Not in the water, no. And even if she was out in the field,

if we darted her, the first thing she would do is run to the water.

And I suppose if she's sedated,

she's too floppy and she's not gonna breathe.

Yes, it'd be a big problem.

What a problem.

I suppose it must be affecting the way she eats, is it?

My initial concern was, can she eat?

When I first saw it in the water,

it was right across her mouth and covering her tongue.

But she has since swung it round so it's stuck out the side.

Do you think it will eventually fall off by itself?

It's difficult to tell. It is very strong stuff

because it has cords of fibre through it which holds it together.

What I'm hoping is that, in the short-term,

she may well break the major part of it off

and just be left with a small piece stuck around the tusk,

which perhaps then, we can work with later on in the winter when we're feeding.

Because you're trying to keep them as wild as possible, I suppose.

Has anything like this ever happened before with either of them?

No, we've had nothing go wrong with them.

They've been completely bulletproof. 30 years and never seen a vet.

And this is unfortunate. And it's annoying,

because I don't know where this piece of rubber's come from.

I've put a giant tree stump out in the field

in the hope that she might use that and pull it off.

But it's a bit hit and miss, really.

Gosh, what a problem, and a big one at that.

And she just happens to be one of the most dangerous animals you've got at Longleat as well,

so there's no kind of going up with a few pony nuts and hoping to whip it off?

No, definitely not.

Well, Mark, keep us posted with how it gets on.

And fingers crossed that she does manage to remove it herself

-and stays here for another 30 years keeping you busy.

-Let's hope so.

Thanks very much indeed.

We'll find out later in the series

if the keepers managed to get anywhere near Sonia to help her.

Back with the eland, new keeper Jack is worried about Brandy the calf,

as mum, Cindy, has been refusing to let her suckle.

If Brandy doesn't get milk on a regular basis, she could die.

And, having lost five of the herd over the winter,

due to natural causes, Jack is desperate to make sure this doesn't happen.

So he set up a camera to see if she was letting the calf feed overnight

when there was no-one around.

Much of a keeper's knowledge is learnt on the job

and experience counts for everything.

So, as a new keeper, Jack has asked Tim Yeo,

his head of section who's worked in the park for 30 years,

to review the footage with him to get his opinion.

Oh, look. See, that's what we saw in the yard.

And she just blatantly refused her there.

-Stay away.

-Exactly.

That's what we're concerned about, really.

But other times it's been a bit more severe, more of a knock away.

The calf is clearly very hungry

as, an hour later, she tries to suckle again.

But mum's still refusing.

See here, she just doesn't look that interested.

Do you know, Jack, my impression of that just then

was that the calf almost seems a little bit concerned

not to commit herself to go and suckle.

-Because she is worried of getting a...

-Because she's possibly worried.

If mum has just kicked her, it seems a little bit nervous.

She's waiting for mum to say, "yeah".

Then Cindy lies down

which means the calf definitely can't reach the teat to suckle.

The calf is not giving up easily, though.

Maybe a little tender, loving care towards mum may help.

This is a bit later on in the evening, well, night.

Yes, happily ruminating there,

and little one grooming her, bless it.

It's a wonderful opportunity just to see them...

To see them at night doing what they do.

Yes, things we don't normally see them. It's wonderful.

Four hours later,

Cindy decides to stand up, but will she let her hungry calf feed?

This looks promising.

Oh, yes, and now things are rather different,

in a sense, Jack, because she's sniffing the calf more there.

-She's paying more attention to the calf, isn't she?

-Definitely.

A bit vigorous, but yeah.

Oh, that's good.

Excellent. Excellent.

You can see it is inducing the milk to come

by this thrusting motion to the udder.

-Just inducing the milk to come.

-A bit painful that, for the mum?

Yes, it must be uncomfortable, that, surely.

She's cleaning the calf there.

So that's perfectly natural behaviour. Absolutely nothing to worry about there.

I know it's easy to be concerned,

but I think we can see that the calf looks healthy

enough and I think it looks...

It doesn't look dehydrated in any way. It looks OK.

It was a bit scary because, obviously, new-born, they need the milk from the go.

-Exactly.

-Thank you very much, Tim, that's a big relief.

I'm out in the park with Jack, looking at Brandy,

and it looks like, Jack,

all your hard work paid off and she's doing really well?

Yes, as you can see, she's doing really well.

She's out with the herd and grazing away and, yes, she's looking good.

So, Mum eventually worked out what she was supposed to do to look after her daughter?

Yeah, she's had calves before so it shouldn't really be a problem, really,

-but she got there in the end.

-So this camera surveillance,

that was a stroke of genius and you obviously learnt a lot from it as well?

Yeah, it's not often you get to be in that sort of situation

and see what goes on with Mum and baby at night.

It was beneficial for everybody.

But the whole herd look very healthy, look like they are doing well.

Is Tim pleased with them and with the work you've been doing with them?

Tim is pleased, yes.

We've obviously got Brandy and she's looking well now.

We've had another calf born since so, yes, he's very happy.

And we're all really chuffed with them.

I have to say, you've obviously started off well with Brandy.

Great to see she's settled so well into the herd.

Look at that, you'd never ever have known there had been a problem, would you?

That's a happy group of elands scampering about in the Wiltshire sun.

-Congratulations, Jack, and thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Bactrian camels have roamed the Longleat pastures for nearly 40 years

and they're a particularly special herd as they're critically endangered.

Originally from Mongolia and north-west China,

these tough animals are used to extreme desert conditions.

They have two humps, in contrast to the one-humped Dromedary camel,

and despite common belief, the hump is not full of water but fat.

This fat then gets turned into water if the camel becomes dehydrated.

Lack of water is not a concern at Longleat,

but the keepers are always trying to conjure up new and interesting ways of nourishing their animals,

as Ben is about to find out.

Now, I don't know about you,

but I personally think it can NEVER be too cold or too wet for an ice lolly.

But is the same true for camels? We're about to find out.

Kev, we basically have camel ice lollies here.

-Pretty much, yes.

-What are these about?

What we've done today is frozen some carrots and a few bananas in a little bit of ice.

We've done that and what it's going to simulate is, in the wild,

obviously they come from a desert region,

but it gets very, very cold with snow on the ground a lot of the time.

We're hoping to is throw these out.

And in the wild, the camels would come across this food

and they'd have to dig for it. And they eat frozen food as well.

So we're hoping they'll have a play with these or nibble the tops, see what they do with them.

So, basically, this isn't to cool them down or anything,

-this is trying to recreate what would happen in their homeland?

-That's right, yes.

Normally they would have a big, thick, shaggy coat to keep warm

and they lose it to get cool.

-That's what they're doing now.

-Yes, they're looking particularly,

-shall we say, scraggy, I think, is the best term?

-They do.

This is their molting time of year.

They'll lose all this fur over the next couple of weeks.

-Shall we get them out? How many have we got?

-Three altogether.

-OK, two in there, presumably?

-Yes.

And why are the ends of the carrots sticking out?

That's for them to get a grip hold of with their teeth.

They can throw them around if they want to, or just chew the ends.

Who's going to come over first?

-These two, for a start.

-Khan normally comes over.

-Khan's on the right. He's the boy.

He normally comes over first, cos he's the bull.

Just throw it out like that and see what they do with it.

-And who's the girl?

-This is Rayisha.

She also comes over first most of the time.

She's very interested in what happens.

But not today.

But after five minutes standing around in the rain,

drastic action is needed and Ben takes things into his own hands.

There we go, see if they can get into that a little bit more.

You must have a very big freezer.

Yes, we've got a giant freezer.

It's not every day you get to make camel ice lollies.

They're definitely interested in the smaller pieces now.

Yes, they can see the carrots now, so maybe they'll start chewing them.

Presumably in Mongolia they would eat frozen vegetables, frozen leaves?

Yes, it's mostly dry scrubland, things like that.

And salt bushes, all frozen under the snow and they'll dig their way through to it.

That looked like it put a bit in its mouth and thought, "Oh, it's too cold!"

It could well be.

There we go, that's chewing on a crunchy piece of frozen carrot there. Who is that?

That's Khan again.

They are greedy by nature.

-They can't resist.

-No, once one finds something, they'll all be there trying to fight over it.

I wonder whether they suffer the same ice cream headaches we get

if you eat an ice cream too fast?

We could find out soon if one drops over.

It seems more successful in smaller pieces.

This is the answer, you need to make small, bite-sized chunks in the future.

Individual, frozen carrots.

-Yes, or carry a hammer at all times.

-Exactly.

Well, I think we can say that was a success after we broke it up.

-In the end.

-Thanks, Kev.

Kate loves her ferrets. These are definitely her favourite friends in Pets' Corner.

So she's taking me along to find out what is all the fuss about?

Kate and I have come down to Pets' Corner

to catch up with some of the furry and rather smelly residents here, the ferrets.

-They're not smelly.

-It's true.

-It's not true. They're fabulous.

-Alexis and Bev here look after them you're some of the keepers.

-Yes.

We have a whole gaggle on leads?

Yes, we're going to take some of them for a nice walk.

Bagsy that, if that's OK. Can I do that job?

-OK.

-Why don't I do that?

OK, and Bev and I will stay here and look at the other ones.

-We will. We've got four others.

-Is this an actual ferret harness?

It is, especially made for them.

And it sits on the neck area here.

It's a little bit like...I was going to say it's a bit like taking a dog for a walk,

but I'm not going to be doing this with my Labrador, holding her up with one hand.

-No.

-See you later, Kate.

-Bye, have fun.

We will. Come on, guys.

This is brilliant. Come on.

Just while Ben is walking his four around and we've our four here...

We're going to let them have a bit of exercise just here.

-No leads or anything?

-No leads.

We have to make sure they don't go too far.

I'll come out with you.

Literally put them down?

-Yes.

-You're very brave.

They always go where you don't want them to go.

-It is instantly noses down, having a good old sniff.

-Yes.

I think we've lost one, actually.

I think we have. We've got one in that corner. This is going to be chaos.

It's amazing. Where are you off to, chum?

-It's amazing how agile and active they are.

-Yes. You wouldn't think.

Where they're so low to the ground you don't imagine they'll get up

onto that wall and into the flower beds.

We'll never get him out of there now.

These furry little creatures have been pets for thousands of years.

Cleopatra could have had one

as there are drawings of ferret-like creatures on leashes in Egyptian tombs.

Just remind me who we've got here?

OK, on the green lead, the dark green lead, you have Fred.

-This one is Fred.

-On the light green lead you've Reggie.

-OK, Reggie.

On the red lead I have Bill,

and on the blue lead we've Riki.

I'm amazed you can tell them all apart. Do they have their own characteristics and personalities?

Definitely. Some will sleep more than others.

Some won't wake up for their dinner.

-Who's the naughtiest?

-Oh, Fred definitely.

-Fred being...?

-The one in the dark green.

-What makes Fred so naughty?

He just is. He's quite a character.

He doesn't like some of our older ones as much as he likes his brothers here.

-Ah, they must be really popular with all the visitors?

-Definitely they are.

Particularly when we take them out on leads like this, so they can interact with everybody.

They get interaction from all the different smells from all the different people.

And how long does a ferret walk last for? How long to you need to keep going for?

We generally keep ours out for about half an hour.

Ferrets can get really thirsty really quickly,

so we like to take them back in, particularly on a hot day, so they can have a nice drink.

And ferrets really suffer with the heat because, unlike us, they can't sweat.

Shall we continue going this way and continue our tour of Pets' Corner?

Are there any animals here that you can't take them near

or that would be a natural predator of them, or that they're a predator of?

Anything too small and fluffy.

So, we won't go too close to the chipmunk enclosure or the rabbit enclosure, really.

OK, we don't want to scare any of the other residents here, do we. Are we missing one?

We're missing one now.

One, two, three. Who are we missing?

Fred.

-We've lost a ferret.

-He'll come out.

-I can hear him over here, I think.

There he is. You pickle!

Come on out, you.

That's the trouble when we try and take more than one.

We're just taking our ferrets for a walk, you know.

It's OK, they like pushchairs.

It's one of the most extraordinary animal walks I've been on.

Let's see if these guys will walk us back and we can catch up with Kate.

They do look like they're absolutely loving it.

They're clearly very intelligent animals.

If you do have an intelligent animal, like a ferret,

you really almost need to treat it like a child?

You do because you need to keep them active.

We've brought more mischief back to you.

I think it's fair that we were taken for a walk,

rather than we took the ferrets for a walk.

They're great animals, don't you think?

They're wonderful. You just missed one there.

Alexis... You take that one.

Grab that one! It's ferret chaos here.

-Nearly went up the drain there.

-Alexis, Bev, thank you very much.

Do you feel thoroughly stimulated and enriched, guys?

You should do by now.

I tell you what, we can put them in your hair and they'll really have an enriching experience.

Yeah, get out of that alive!

After all the excitement at the beginning of the day with deputy head of section, Bob and the lions,

we thought this would be a good opportunity

to find out what happens at the end of Bob's day.

He's putting the tigers in for the night and it's not quite as easy as calling in your cat.

It's taken Bob and the other keepers months of training

to teach all the tigers when it's time for bed.

Well, that's it. The tigers are in for the night.

All tucked up and we're here with keeper Bob Trollope, to say goodnight to them.

When you first started bringing them in and out,

when they came out of their quarantine period, what did you do?

How did you make it work that they knew this was the time to come in?

We were generally feeding them.

We used to let them out into the compound to start with, and they would get fed in.

So they knew they associated the hay with food.

And then when they were outside

it was just a case of sort of shepherding them with the Land Rover.

Of course, they'd run right down to the gate

and then run off in a different direction altogether.

But then they got to it and as soon as they were into the compound

you could ease off a little bit and then they would just come in, but it takes time.

And I assume there are a number of reasons you bring them in each evening,

for their own safety and other people's safety?

Primarily, it's a health and safety thing.

Obviously tigers, being solitary animals, they're a little bit more active.

The lions want to sleep all the time,

so they go into the house willy-nilly.

With these, we do want to get them in.

Obviously, we wouldn't want a tree to come down overnight

and then they'd be off into the Wiltshire countryside.

So, the end of the day now. What sort of time will you wake them up for their breakfast?

We come and see them again about 8.30am tomorrow morning.

Well, they have a nice lie in.

Lucky things!

Thank you very much, Bob, for letting us come and say goodnight to them.

They're all looking extremely well.

-Tucked up for bed.

-Although I think this lot may be saying, "Clear off, it's our bed time."

Good night, girls.

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

There's an emergency in the deer park

as the vet battles to save the life of an unborn calf.

I get a good look at the meerkat babies,

but they just show me their teeth.

You're gorgeous, even though you want to kill me.

And down at Half-Mile Lake, keeper Mark Tighe's preparing for two precious new arrivals.

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