Episode 1 Animal Park

Summer is here and Ben and I are back.

SEAL BARKS

And our team have been working round the clock

to bring you closer than ever

to the thousand or so exotic species that live here.

We've captured every exhilarating moment in high definition,

bringing you within a hair's breadth of the action.

For this series,

we'll be filming animals like we've never filmed them before.

And feeding them in ways we've never fed them before.

We've tried to understand them more than ever.

And been wowed by them more than ever.

We've been here for every heart-wrenching moment.

That's it, that's it.

Seeing the extraordinary lengths keepers go

for the animals in their care.

-I don't know about you, but I'm getting really excited.

-Me too.

So, join us for a very special brand-new series of...

-TOGETHER:

-Animal Park.

We've got five fun-packed summer specials coming your way this week,

bringing you the very best action as the park begins its busiest period.

And on today's show, the park's 14 giraffe make their first steps

towards their summer pasture...

Bit nervous about this interaction.

..only for baby Evan to cause a stampede.

-Our old friend Ian Turner...

-All we need is the wolves to perform.

..heads deep into Wolf Wood to capture a killer shot.

WOLVES HOWL

And Jean comes face-to-face with one of Africa's fastest feeders.

With the arrival of long, hot days and an abundance of fresh food,

new life is bursting across the park.

As a result, today's episode has been overrun with babies

and I, for one, couldn't be happier.

This adorable little thing is a black-tailed marmoset

and the tiny one is only about six weeks old.

You want a mealworm as well, don't you?

It's one of about 100 animals that's born at Longleat every year.

Now, whether endangered or not,

every animal born here is very special,

but when it is a first for the park, everyone gets really excited.

Meet the park's four reindeer - females Willow and Gretel,

and males Chester and Wilbur.

They came to the park three years ago,

as part of an international breeding programme.

But, much like buses, after waiting ages for a birth,

suddenly two pregnancies came along at once.

Today, keeper Tim has been given the news he's been waiting for.

I've just found that we've got a calf down there,

a newborn calf, and I want to put some water in for the mother

and watch to see if everything's OK.

In the 30 years that he's worked here,

Tim has never helped rear a reindeer before,

but he knows what a critical time this can be.

The first few days, particularly the first few hours,

very much watching, from a distance,

and try and establish whether the calf starts to feed from mum,

starts to suckle.

Tim doesn't want to spook Willow and her new calf,

so is keeping his distance for now.

There's no reason why mum doesn't rear the calf,

but you just have to be a bit careful

and you have to make sure that that is happening.

While making sure mum has plenty of fresh drinking water,

he also wants to know if the calf has fed.

The mother's first milk contains a protein-rich substance,

known as colostrum,

essential for protecting the calf against life-threatening infections.

It needs colostrum.

It gives the antibodies for the immune system to work

and that's very important.

If it doesn't have the colostrum,

it can be extremely dangerous to a calf.

But mum's very attentive.

It looks a very good picture to me, at the moment.

In actual fact, the little one is trying to find milk at the moment.

This first mother's milk is so important

that no mammal in the wild could survive without it.

The first few feeds are, quite literally, a gateway to life.

A day later, the calf is already up on its feet.

Reindeer are highly social animals,

often living in herds of up to 1,000 individuals.

In the wild, a healthy calf would be expected to rejoin the herd

within a day of being born.

But this can be an extremely dangerous time,

as the herd have an aggressively enforced hierarchy.

-I fear, very much, that if we just put them together...

-Mm-hmm.

..that little one could be endangered at that stage,

-because of the fact of whacking each other with their front feet.

-Yeah.

Tim and his colleague, Tara, are concerned

that if Willow and Gretel clash,

Tilly might get caught in the crossfire.

I just don't want there to be any problem with aggression,

particularly with Gretel, who's the other female.

She's also heavily pregnant and expecting any day now

and she may well be aggressive towards Tilly.

I think I probably will just let Tilly come out a minute

and just see what happens, I think, really.

As Tilly takes her first steps out of the pen, all eyes are on Gretel.

You're being very good, Gretel, aren't you?

Not worrying about her, are you?

This is when something can happen, when they approach like this.

And she's not going to, so that's very good.

Very encouraging to see that.

When Tilly approached... Ooh, did he have a go? I didn't see that.

That was Chester, Tilly's dad.

Just had a little go at Tilly, maybe just saying,

"Keep your distance a little bit."

It's clear Reindeer Wood is an unpredictable place.

With another birth due any day,

the keepers must be prepared for anything.

After humans, the rhesus macaque is

the second most common primate on the planet.

And, here at the park,

they've recently experienced a sharp increase in numbers.

-There are babies everywhere, Ian.

-We had a massive baby boom.

Three years ago, we had one baby

and this year, we've probably had 15 to 20 babies

-in a period of about five days.

-No way!

They self-regulate themselves in this monkey zoo.

We don't do anything for them and they seem to regulate

between 90 to 120, and we reckon we've got about 122 at the minute.

-Isn't that incredible?

-Yeah, it is.

So, they know the optimum population for this kind of area.

Everywhere you look, you can see little babies,

on the fronts there, the mothers picking them up.

-A tiny, tiny one, look, there.

-How sweet.

-Do they all get on?

-They all squabble over food.

If I put a bit more food out, that'll keep them quiet.

There you go, monkeys.

MONKEYS SQUAWK

Oh, yes. This give us a good opportunity to see them.

Have all the mothers been getting on? Is it all peace and quiet?

-We lost one mother through old age.

-Right.

And one of the mothers has adopted the baby,

so you may see one with twins.

-No way!

-It's an older one who's looking after both of them.

-She just chose to do that herself?

-She just picked it up and took over.

There's a larger one on there. Is that two?

That one is really amazing cos that is Phil, the dominant male,

-and he's started mothering little ones.

-He's a proper modern father.

-Yeah.

-So, he's actually stay-at-home dad.

-Yeah.

What do you think happened this year

to lead to such a population explosion?

I just think they thought it was time to build up the numbers

and luckily, it's come in the nice weather,

so in the last few days, we've had 20-odd babies, which is amazing.

Just to be clear, he is the father to all these youngsters.

Yeah, that's what he's telling us all.

He's in charge and he dominates the whole of this place, yeah.

Ian, thank you very much.

With such a population explosion, if you visit next year,

you'd better watch out. There's a few more vandals about.

Back now to Reindeer Wood,

where a second calf, a boy, has just been born.

Tara is on lookout.

She's asked to use our cameras to try and see

if the calf has taken its first vital feed.

We've put the camera up, just to try and see if she's letting it suckle

cos, obviously, she doesn't do it when people are around.

We just want to make sure

she is actually letting the baby feed from her.

It's really important, within the first couple of hours,

that it has a good suckle.

Right away, Tara notices a problem.

It's not looking amazing. It's a lot smaller and weaker than Tilly was.

She's reluctant to intervene.

If she does, the mother is likely to reject the baby.

At the moment, it's quite stressful.

You just want it to... You don't want to intervene too quickly

because that will ruin the bond between mum and baby

but, at the same time, you don't want to leave it too late

because then you might not get enough chance to actually get it

to a strong level to be able to survive.

I actually don't think it's going to survive.

She's so worried that she decides to call her colleague, Tim.

Hi, Tim. Just an update. Little new reindeer doesn't look too good.

If you can pop down, if you can.

I think we're going to have to intervene.

Tim heads straight in to examine the calf.

-You all right, Gretel? Good girl.

-Hello, hello.

-She's stressed.

It was completely flat and it wouldn't move.

GRETEL BLEATS

This intervention could make the difference between life or death.

We've got to get milk in, haven't we?

-I think we need milk.

-Absolutely. That's where we are.

-Have we watched footage yet?

-No.

-We do need to watch some footage.

Tara and Tim review the footage from our cameras.

They need to know if the calf is feeding.

The calf is down a tremendous amount of the time.

In fact, I think all the footage so far, he's been down.

-The whole footage.

-That tells the whole story, doesn't it?

The footage makes for grim viewing. It's Tim's worst nightmare.

The little calf hasn't fed at all.

I think we can safely say that the calf hasn't fed from mum.

The situation is now critical. What the calf needs is colostrum.

If Tim can catch Gretel, he might be able to force the calf to feed.

Let it go under her by her chest,

as she runs through, hopefully, yeah.

That's it, that's it. Join them up.

Way-up, steady, steady.

-Whoa, whoa, steady. Whoa, whoa.

-Stop.

But restraining a stressed 100-kilo reindeer is a challenge.

Steady, steady, steady.

Whoa, steady, steady. Steady, steady, steady.

Gretel, steady.

This action is the absolute last resort.

All right, all right.

It's not nice to have to do this at all,

but it may well make the difference.

If we don't get this little thing feeding...

..then it's end of the game for the poor little fellow.

We're some way away, at the moment, from getting things on track,

I think, really. It could go either way at this time.

We'll be back later to find out

if Tim can manage to save the life of this poor little calf.

This series, Jean Johansson will be joining the keepers

to encourage their animals' natural instincts...

..while also helping to answer some of the burning questions

we all have about their incredible abilities.

Today, she's in Animal Adventure, catching up with an old friend.

Last Easter, I met the magnificent secretary bird.

With its long powerful legs and hooked beak,

it's perfectly adapted for killing snakes.

So, it's feeding time

and Graeme and I are going to put some of these skills to the test.

Yeah, so we've got a few different things to trial him on today.

Because he's quite new to us, we're not 100% sure

what he likes and what he doesn't like.

In the wild, they would naturally eat small insects.

He's already seen them. He's coming towards us now.

-He's on his way over.

-I have a bit of a surprise, in a rubber snake.

Ah, yes, I remember you said they like to stamp on snakes.

That's how they kill them. So, we'll see some of those skills later?

Yeah, I hope so. We'll see.

He's never done it before, so I'll present him with the snake

and if he does get it, we'll give him a bit of a reward for it

and tell him, "Well done".

He's a really young bird. He's never been taught to hunt,

he's never even been to Africa to see it, so it will be interesting

to see what he does with the rubber snake or with the insects.

-OK, let's start with the insects.

-OK.

Here's the locust.

We'll just throw it away from us, cos we don't want kicked.

Our super slow-motion camera allows us to see things

which are almost invisible to the naked eye.

Just exactly as you said, he spotted that really quickly

-with his eyesight and gave it three really quick stamps.

-Yeah.

These guys can fly as well, so he's watching it in the sky

as it lands and the minute it lands, very precise,

down with the legs and kicking until it's good enough to eat.

I know you have a bit of a prop in your pocket.

Why are you keeping it so well hidden?

He doesn't really know the difference between a rubber snake

-and a live snake.

-Let's get our snake in place.

OK, we'll just throw it out for him and see what he does.

Right on the head!

-It's almost like martial arts, watching him.

-Yeah, that's it.

Really powerful, into the head.

Tries to get rid of the dangerous end,

so if you think, if that's a really venomous snake in Africa,

he's killed it straightaway,

he's making sure that the venomous part of it can't bite him.

He's got really long legs, covered in scales,

like armour plating, almost, just in case he misses.

His body is so high up as well, that if the snake was to strike out

and protect itself, it's away from his vital organs.

And if he needs to, as well,

the big plume of feathers around his head acts as a distraction,

so the snake doesn't know exactly where his head is

and just sort of sees a bundle of feathers coming towards him.

He's just perfectly designed for this type of predator,

-and he really took care of that snake really quickly.

-He did, yeah.

I wouldn't have liked to be a real snake in that situation.

-He definitely killed the rubber snake.

-Thank you.

It was nice to see those adaptations at work.

He really is an incredible bird.

It's breakfast time and, as the keepers begin their rounds,

I've joined the mob of meerkats as they're let out for the day.

And here they come. Good morning, everybody.

Straight out, upright, looking to see if there's any danger

and then immediately, they're off out, looking for food.

But not every animal at the park leaves its enclosure

with such confidence.

The park's 14-strong giraffe herd spent the winter

in the giraffe house and paddock.

Today, they'll be heading down to the main African reserve

for the first time this year.

And, for the youngest, Evan,

it'll be his first ever encounter with other species.

In the wild, giraffe live alongside

some of Africa's most dangerous animals.

Here at the park, they'll be living

with two young male wildebeest or gnu,

which have only just moved to this enclosure.

As the giraffe have never come across gnu before,

Head of Safari, Jon Merrington, is in pole position

to oversee their introduction.

It's a little bit tense, but they'll be coming down shortly,

so we'll see how they get on.

If threatened, the gnu are likely to kick out,

delivering powerful blows with their hooves,

as well as using their horns to attack.

Obviously, we're a bit more concerned with the gnu.

This is the first time they'll be mixed in the exhibit,

and they do have horns

and that's what they will use to protect themselves,

so we are a little bit concerned, more so for the smaller giraffes.

We don't want them to get into a fight,

so we're going to monitor their interaction very carefully.

But, before they meet their new park mates,

it'll be keeper Tina's job to usher the notoriously nervous giraffes

down this fenced-off passage called "the race".

The giraffe, they're really quite nervous.

They are looking a little tense. You can kind of feel it in the air.

The one thing about giraffe is they're incredibly scatty animals.

If there's anything new, they're like, "Oh, my God, what is that?

"It's the end of the world!"

Coming down the race, if there's a rogue bit of litter,

caught by the wind and blows up,

that can completely turn things on its head,

so hopefully, we'll have no events like that,

and the giraffe will calmly stroll down,

but with giraffe, anything can happen.

Behind me, one of the keepers has lured the zebras and the gnu

to the furthest point away from the raceway.

That's so it doesn't spook the giraffe as they're coming down,

and also, we don't want the zebras or the gnu charging up there

when we've got the giraffe trying to come the other way,

so it just sets us up to succeed, hopefully, a little bit more.

It's time to go.

With a little persuasion, the herd start to head towards the reserve.

It's been seven months since they were last here.

We can just see some of the first giraffe coming down now,

so we're getting there.

All the giraffes are on the move.

Pregnant six-year-old Kate is leading the way,

and four-month-old Evan bringing up the rear.

Maybe he's letting all the others go first. He's a bit unsure.

I think he's letting his bigger cousins come out

and check it's safe before he's venturing further away.

Everything's calm so far.

The giraffe are just making their way out.

The other animals haven't noticed yet,

and I don't think the giraffe have noticed the others yet.

Oh, they're starting to charge.

Hopefully, that's just excitement.

That is all of them.

Giraffes and zebra would naturally encounter each other in the wild,

but the keepers here have noticed the zebra also become quite playful.

Some of our zebras are stallions.

They like chasing young giraffe,

which Evan obviously hasn't experienced yet

so, hopefully, he takes to that quite well.

It looks like the zebras have just clocked where the giraffe are.

They're just about coming up to our giraffe.

It'll be interesting to see how they interact.

They're not charging over,

so I think it's more curiosity than aggression.

Oh, bless, yeah, they've all spotted Evan.

He's just sort of having a look.

Oh, they're chasing a bit.

Some of the giraffe have just made a bit of a run for it,

away from the zebras, and some of the zebras are making chase.

They're having a bit of a charge around.

After spending the winter months away from here,

the giraffe are certainly making the most of it now.

To see that sense of enjoyment for them is incredible.

Giraffe are huge animals.

It's incredibly impressive when you see them

going at full pace as a group.

As a keeper, it always puts you on tenterhooks,

cos if a giraffe does slip, they're such tall animals

that, if they go crashing down to the ground,

there's always a risk of injury.

The zebras have now met the giraffe

and Evan seems to be doing really well,

but our next challenge looks like it's coming.

We've just got the gnu heading over now.

The zebra and the giraffe are all in one big group now.

It will be interesting to see what the giraffe make,

cos they've never seen the gnu before.

There's always an apprehension with horned animals cos, of course,

they've got those tools to create some damage, if they choose to.

We have got one giraffe and the gnu

just fronting each other off a little bit.

It looks, from here, it's Percy, one of our young bulls.

He's taking an interest and he's going to say...

Wait, oh...

No, he's backed off, bless him.

He wanted to have a look but his confidence wasn't quite there

and he's backed off and moved away from the gnu.

But then, the youngest member of the herd, Evan,

decides to investigate these new creatures for himself.

Bit nervous about this interaction cos Evan is quite small.

Unlike his cousin, Evan shows no sign of standing down.

He's quite a brave little soul,

taking on two gnu the first time he's been down in the reserve.

Bit tense, but very amusing.

When animals meet each other for the first time,

it's important you let THEM sort it out, not get in the way.

Then they know who's in charge and who gives way to who.

I'm very happy with how it's gone so far.

We've got all the animals together in one big group

and they all seem relatively relaxed,

especially with our young giraffe there,

which we were always on tenterhooks about. He's doing very well.

It's looking like these animals can live in harmony

in this little slice of Africa in the heart of Wiltshire.

But with the ever-playful Evan around, who knows what'll happen.

It's been three months since the giraffe were first let out

and Kate has gone to catch up with keeper Ryan

to see how young Evan has been getting on.

It is such a fantastic moment, isn't it, that first day of summer

when the giraffe come out into the big enclosure for the first time?

It's always a big intake for us.

Every time, particularly a calf comes down and meets everything else

for the first time, we're always nervous cos they're all individuals.

Generally, they kind of stick to a plan where they stick with mum,

but we've had ones in the past that come out, just amble off

and do their own thing or say, "Wow, this is a huge space.

"I'm going to go for a huge run-around."

-And they can get isolated sometimes.

-Right. And Evan...

The last time I was here, back in the spring,

-he was, literally, just a few weeks old.

-Yeah.

And now, he looks really confident.

He looks like he's really very much part of the group.

-Would that be true?

-You've hit the nail on the head.

He's a confident character.

We tend to find the males generally are a little more confident

than the females, but that's not necessarily so.

But certainly with Evan, he's a very bold character. Knows his own mind.

He's, literally, out of the traps straightaway, saying,

"I like that, I don't like that, I don't want any mucking around."

And do you think his confidence is down to his mum a bit,

-and to her brilliant parenting skills?

-Definitely, I think so.

Gertie's a fantastic mum.

She's always been one of the bolder characters in the group

and I think she's passed that onto him really well.

It is going to be fascinating how things unfold

over the next couple of years.

-I don't envy you having to be the referee, though.

-Thank you!

Thanks, Ryan. It's always lovely to be here.

Back now to Tara and Tim,

who are battling to save the life of a newly-born reindeer calf.

He hasn't suckled and if they can't get him to feed,

there's little chance he'll survive much longer.

If you can get a bit on your hand or on his muzzle, that's what we want.

With mum held firmly, Tara lifts the calf up to Gretel's teat.

It's a race against time to save a life.

If we can just get him to take her milk,

potentially, we could start to climb the ladder

and go in the right direction, really.

-Are you getting him to it?

-He's on. No, he's dropped it.

Are you on? No, don't lay down.

Up.

He's now incredibly weak and doesn't even have enough energy to stand.

-He's deciding to lay down all the time.

-He's isn't holding himself up.

-No.

-And he just can't latch on to her teat.

-No.

But he's had the smallest amount. It's not really enough.

-He just doesn't seem to get the gist of it.

-Yeah.

Without milk, he will almost certainly die.

As the calf can't latch on,

Tim decides to express milk from Gretel,

in an attempt to handfeed him.

We've just been milking mum, into the bottle.

Just squeeze a little bit in.

Obviously, the more milk we can get in, the better.

Even with a syringe, he's too weak now to even swallow.

-He's just not suckling.

-It really could go either way.

-I do hope it goes the right way for us.

-He just has no energy.

Tara's odds of saving the calf's life

seem impossibly stacked against her,

but she isn't calling it a day.

Definitely won't be giving up on this little man.

We'll keep going with milking mum as long as she lets us

and trying to syringe it into him cos he's just so tired.

Where he's had no milk,

he hasn't got the energy reserves to get up and suckle properly, so...

We'll never give up.

But Mother Nature can be cruel.

Every fibre of this little reindeer is telling him

to close his eyes and fade away.

Over the next few hours,

Tara tries to give the calf as much of its mother's milk as possible.

However, it simply isn't taking enough in.

And to make matters worse, night-time is fast approaching.

If it gets to the point of darkness, and we're not happy with him,

we'll have to make a decision.

Sometimes you do have to take them home and feed them,

but that is our last, last resort.

We don't want to do that cos it's unnatural for him

and it's a long time for mum to be without him.

Despite her best efforts, the calf still isn't strong enough

to face the night alone with its mother,

leaving Tara with no option but to take him home.

It's going to be a long night,

as the calf will need feeding every two hours.

OK, it's 9.25pm and I've got to do the next feed for this little man.

As you see, he's asleep, so I'm going to wake him up

and try and get some milk into him.

The calf's energy levels are still so low,

he's barely conscious as Tara begins the first feed.

-SHE WHISPERS:

-So, it's half past 11 and I'm going to try the next feed.

Two hours later and the calf still isn't suckling on its own.

Feed after feed, Tara isn't giving up.

Reindeers are associated with the magic of Christmas

and what this calf needs is a miracle.

Dawn breaks and with it, the calf has finally got to its feet.

Tara's dedication is rewarded.

Good boy. He's improved a lot.

Still very wobbly and very sleepy,

but he's drinking a lot better.

He just had his 7 o'clock feed.

Finished it and now he's wandering around.

We're going to head back to work and try and introduce him

back to his mum so, hopefully, it'll work.

It's wonderful to see the calf up on its feet.

But this success may have come at a terrible price.

Separated from his mother for so long,

when they're reunited, there's a strong chance she'll reject him.

We'll find out what happens later on.

This incredible building dates back to 1580.

It's packed full of treasures,

collected by the Thynn family over several generations.

In fact, this building replaced another

that burnt down in a great fire.

Staff here still hold regular drills to ensure it never happens again.

The man responsible for ensuring

these drill are carried out correctly

is Assistant House Steward Jeff Goodby.

Today is test day for the fire alarms.

It's really important we protect the house,

so every Friday, bang-on half past nine,

we test a different call point,

and we're making sure the roof siren and the bells in the house work

and it's really important we do it on time,

so everyone knows that is the test

and it's not actually a real fire alarm.

-Matt, stand by for fire test.

-Understood.

FIRE ALARM WAILS

When tested, the alarm can be heard right across the park.

The sound is made by Second World War air raid sirens

and they're meant to be loud.

The air raid siren on the roof would literally fill the valley

and you can hear it, on a good day, three or four miles away.

That was actually put in to warn all the villagers

that there was a fire at the house. Obviously, in the old days,

most of the village would have actually worked

or been associated with the estate, so when the fire alarm went off,

they were all expected to come out of the village

and come and support the house if there was actually a fire.

But of course, these days,

Longleat has a pretty exotic set of neighbours,

and recently, something extraordinary has started happening.

When the siren sounds, sometimes the wolves start howling.

SIREN WAILS AND WOLVES HOWL

Once the alarm starts, they can be heard joining in.

SIREN WAILS AND WOLVES HOWL

This phenomenon is exactly the reason

why senior warden Ian has come into work early today.

A fanatical photographer,

even though he's worked here for over 40 years,

there are a few shots that still elude him.

One is the iconic howling wolf.

He's hoping that, with help from the alarm,

today's the day he'll get that shot.

But even if the wolves do actually howl today,

it's all about being in the right place at the right time.

The first signs are promising.

Where they are now is a good area to howl.

So, if they stay there, that looks good.

But Ian's many years of nature photography have taught him

that he can't rely on his subjects to stay put.

This is the hiccough.

Just before it's time for the alarm to go off,

they'll move and go somewhere stupid.

Ian sits tight and so do the wolves.

All we need is the wolves to perform

cos one of the hiccoughs is they don't do it every single day

so, fingers crossed that today is a good day for howling.

We'll be back later to see

if Ian can get the shot he's waited over 40 years to capture.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the park,

a very tired Tara has arrived for work.

It's time to return the tiny calf back to his mother, Gretel.

Fingers crossed,

he'll go back to her and she will accept him,

without, obviously, thinking he's anyone else's calf.

After being separated from his mother for so long,

when Tara reunites them,

there's a strong chance Gretel could reject him.

It wasn't too long ago we witnessed

how dad Chester kicked out at HIS calf whilst being territorial.

Tara is rubbing straw that smells of Gretel on the calf

in the hope that she will accept him.

Be gentle.

So far, so good.

She's cleaning him, exactly what I've been doing over the night.

So, she's been smelling him, licking him,

and I hope he'll go under and have a drink.

It would be lovely to see but, obviously, cos we're around,

she might not let him do it straightaway anyway.

Amazingly, the calf starts to suckle.

We have got there in the end.

Because I took him away for the night,

she could have totally just said no to him.

She might not have accepted him back.

To be able to get him back and suckling to her,

this is exactly what we wanted in the first place.

On busy days, as many as 9,000 people pass though the park,

getting to see some of the rarest animals on the planet.

But over in the Long Hall, a new species has just arrived

and, so far, only keeper James has been able to spot it.

We do get quite a lot of visitors that come over in here and go,

"That's just a bunch of flowers." It's not.

They're here, they're watching you, they know exactly where YOU are.

It's only when James gives them a bath that they truly break cover.

It's an orchid mantis

and it's one of Malaysia's most fearsome predators.

All species of mantis use blistering speed

and powerful, spike-filled forearms to catch their prey

before devouring it alive.

But what makes these new orchid mantis so special

is their beautiful disguise.

It's called aggressive mimicry, so they're mimicking a generic flower.

Perfectly adapted to look like a tasty flower,

the orchid mantis uses its body to attract its prey right towards it.

They are just insane.

But you can't really get the level of detail and intricacy

that they have on their anatomy

and I, for one, would love to be able to see

everything that's going on.

Well, help is on hand

because joining us again this summer, is Jean.

And with the help of some of our nifty cameras,

she's going to help keeper James get closer than ever before.

And they're so camouflaged

our cameraman's having a bit of a problem finding one.

-If we point it out there.

-There you go. Wow, look at that!

You can really see the spines on their legs already.

Lots of detail, really intricate in design, actually.

She's just cleaning herself at the moment.

It's amazing just watching her mouth move. That's just incredible.

This is what mantises do for a large portion of their day.

They'll clean their entire bodies.

They want every part of them pristine,

-so nothing affects them when a prey item gets too close.

-Ah, OK.

So, at that moment when they need it,

they can grab it and they're ready.

And from here, look how sharp they look.

She's quite dainty and feminine and white and innocent looking

-but close up, like this...

-Those forelimbs are just...

-Yeah, fearsome.

-Yes.

-And moving down to the tail there, that's gorgeous.

Yes. So, eventually, once she's fully grown,

she'll have wings that cover all this,

and she'll be, instead of having it upright, like that,

it'll be flat, so you wouldn't really see it too much.

Tell me more about the eyes,

cos we're getting such a good close-up on them.

Those eyes are just amazing. They're compound eyes.

She's seeing multiple things at once. It's absolutely incredible.

But she also has these three smaller eyes on top of her head there.

-Three eyes, yeah.

-So, she can tell

if a predator is flying above her or anything like that.

See her little head turn there.

Yeah, and to us, that doesn't seem too impressive,

but the mantis is the only insect

that can actually turn their head side to side...

-I didn't know that.

-..which is really cool.

If you think about it, it's a great little adaptation.

Great to see it close-up like this as well. She is very beautiful.

-Yeah, definitely.

-Happy with that, James?

-For sure.

-Good.

-That's awesome.

On the other side of the park,

House Steward Jeff is beginning his rounds.

He'll start the fire alarm test in ten minutes.

This is often the wolves' cue to howl.

Ian's in position.

But then the wolves start to move away.

They've moved off from over here.

They're heading to just kind of the far side.

They're right by the fence.

Ian starts to reposition to find a decent angle,

avoiding the fence in the background.

Then the wolves move off again.

Ian's in pursuit.

In the wild, Canadian timber wolves have territories

of hundreds of square miles

and can cover over 50 miles a day, usually at a fast trot.

Even in here, Ian has his work cut out to keep up with them.

The siren's due to go off in seven minutes.

Jeff's making his final checks before sounding the alarm.

Ian needs to park up before then.

Finally, they come to a stop.

Where they are now, they're on a little hill

and it looks like a great big hill from where we are

cos we're just down a little bit lower.

It's just five minutes until the siren.

WOLVES HOWL

But suddenly, the wolves start howling.

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

The wolves are howling and it's not even half past nine yet,

so they started without the alarm.

It's thought wolves howl for a number of reasons -

to mark their territory, assemble their pack,

communicate their position, attract a mate,

or even scare off their enemies.

They're literally stretching their necks right to the sky,

to the moon, and howling away.

It's a fantastic sound.

Ian's got some shots but the wolves were in a shady spot.

For the perfect shot, they'd be in full sunlight.

Jeff is less than three minutes away from hitting that button.

Ian's hoping they'll change position in time.

Hello, Dave. Where you going?

The wolf pack are moving away, but time is running out.

It's...one minute to half past.

Ian has to reverse to keep up with them.

There are seconds to go.

Wolves are in a great sunny spot, Ian gets ready to shoot...

..but will they howl again?

Matt, stand by for fire test.

FIRE ALARM WAILS

House alarm's going off. Just getting together, look.

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

WOLVES HOWL

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

Listen to that! Absolutely fantastic.

They do that little "woo-woo-woo", and then stretch.

WOLVES HOWL

With a double whammy of howling wolves,

it seems Ian could not have picked a better day for the photoshoot.

That was absolutely brilliant, really great sound.

And it's nice and still today, so it's a perfect day to get it.

Sun was nice, wolves were good. It's really great.

MUSIC: Closer by The Chainsmokers

It's almost the end of the programme, but we couldn't go

without coming to check up on the miracle reindeer calf

-and say a huge congratulations to you, Tara.

-Thank you.

That was an extraordinary turnaround.

When you took this little calf home,

-were you optimistic that you could save it?

-Not really, no.

From the minute that we had to intervene with mum and calf,

he was very weak and as soon as I took him home,

I didn't think he had much chance either.

So, he's done extremely well to pull it around, bless him.

-Well, and so did YOU!

-Absolutely.

Tim, you've worked with all kinds of hoofstock over the years.

-Did you think he was going to survive?

-No, I didn't, Ben.

I really thought it was going to be a horrible outcome.

-You must be thrilled then.

-Very much so.

-And, Tara, is there a name?

Yeah, the team have been thinking

and I made the final decision yesterday

-that he's going to be called Reuben.

-Reuben!

-Lovely, to go with his sort of lovely red coat.

-Yes, definitely.

Absolutely beautiful.

-He is looking majestic, even in the middle of summer.

-Yes.

I'm feeling slightly Christmassy already, just looking at them.

-Listen, guys, Tara, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Well done, Tim.

Sadly, that's all we've got time for on today's programme,

but here's what's coming up on the next Animal Park.

It's double trouble, as the park's cheetah cubs are introduced

to traffic for the first time.

That was close.

Kate has a close encounter with one of the world's deadliest arachnids.

They have potent venom.

People have described it as having

broken glass running through your veins.

And Jean attempts to settle a feud within a pride of feisty lionesses.

Ooh, that was a leap.

Hopefully, they've realised what some teamwork can do.